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ALLSTATE SUGAR BOWL: ALABAMA v OKLAHOMADecember 30, 2013Josh HeupelJay NorvellNEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA THE MODERATOR: Coach Heupel and Coach Norvell, an opening statement. COACH HEUPEL: Appreciate the opportunity to be here. Obviously our staff and players are excited to be in this game, excited about the opportunity to play a great opponent, and have really had a good start to the trip so far. COACH NORVELL: Just echoing Josh: It's been a great experience for our players so far. It's a fabulous opportunity to be here in the Sugar Bowl and obviously play Alabama. And I think everybody on our side is excited and looking forward to it. THE MODERATOR: Questions? Q. Jay, can you talk about Saunders and the run he's on with his punt returns; three straight games, he's had huge returns for you that picked you up, and how important would it be to get a similar return against Alabama? COACH NORVELL: Jalen is a very talented guy. Early in the season I remember bringing him aside and just really saying: Hey, man, it's about time for you to really step up. He's got so much talent and ability and he's capable of getting on a roll like that. We kind of felt like he owed us some big plays, and he really delivered the last month of the season. But it's like any game, it's like any opponent: He's an offensive weapon whether he's in the kicking game or on offense. And he's capable of breaking big plays. And so that's an important part of this game, how we play on special teams, and our returns that gotta give us an opportunity offensively to put us in great field position for points. And so his role is really critical that way. Anytime he gets the ball, he's a threat. And especially on punt returns, the last three games, the plays he's made have been very big for us. Q. Both of you, can you talk about how the dual coordinator thing works, who does what, who's in the press box, who calls the plays and who decides when you disagree? COACH HEUPEL: More times we agree than disagree, to start off. But I'm up in the press box, I'm calling it. We work together throughout the course of the week. Through a normal down game plan situations, our entire offensive staff is there working through the kinks and the defensive looks and trying to give our kids the best opportunity to be successful. And then obviously we're trying to put the best schemes in to work against the personnel that we're seeing as well. COACH NORVELL: I mean, we've worked very good together before we were named these positions, and it's continued on. We think alike in a lot of different ways. And I think it's my job just to remind Josh of things we talked about, ways that we want to attack people. Throughout the course of preparation, you talk about a lot of different things, and it's hard to keep it on track sometimes. But I'm like a reminder, I'm just poking at him saying: Man, remember when we talked about this. And it works well. I've had a chance to work on a lot of different staffs with a lot of different people, and this is by far the best working situation that I've ever been a part of. And so I really appreciate working with Josh and Coach Stoops and all of our coaches. Q. I'm curious, you guys lose two key pieces in Adam Shead and Tyrus Thompson late in the season, but you do get the Oklahoma State game to kind of look at what you've got there. I'm curious how much it's helped having this time when you have such a major plan that you have to put together to piece together a competent offensive line here late for a big game? COACH HEUPEL: We've battled through some injuries and adversity throughout the entire year. We lose Trey Millard in the middle portion of the year, too. That's obviously a huge component of who we were up until we lost him. That dramatically changed us. The preparation time that we have going into the Bowl game certainly is going to help us with the two guys that we lose up front. Their ability to communicate, ‑‑ and I'm talking about the entire offensive line as a unit‑‑ their ability to communicate, be on the same page, and work cohesively, especially in your pass protection schemes, being able to bump off twists, is going to be critical in this football game. So a couple extra weeks, the extra practices are certainly going to help us with a couple of those guys being gone. Q. Josh, could you talk about, you had 10 or 12 days you could work with your quarterbacks and continue the development. Many times throughout history you've been at Oklahoma you've talked about those two weeks are really important, even when you had really good quarterbacks, well‑established. So what did you see out of your quarterbacks during those 10 to 12 days? COACH HEUPEL: First couple of practices, get an opportunity to work a couple of your young guys you really haven't had a chance to see, been on the scout team. But after that, you know, the three guys that you saw playing in the last ballgame have continued to grow, continued to get better, fundamentally, understanding our schemes. You get into game plan preparation. They get a little bit of extra time with your time at home in preparation for Alabama to see some of the schemes we'll probably see here in a couple of days, and so hopefully they've got a great understanding of where they're going with the football, where their hots are, our protection scheme, how to change them and get us in the right place. Q. In deciding not to name a starter at quarterback, is that more to keep Alabama guessing or is that more internal to keep the competition among the quarterbacks crisp? COACH HEUPEL: We've been this way throughout the entire year. It's to keep‑‑ our kids continue to push and find out who is going to practice the best, that typically tells you who is going to play the best. So when we get towards the end of the week that's when we'll know who our guy's going to be. Q. Josh, wanted to know from you how influential Bill Bedenbaugh has been to the run game success this year. He seems to have a reputation for getting those running games going, especially with the stone read that you guys have gone to this season? COACH HEUPEL: I think he's been instrumental in not just a run scheme but our ability with our front five guys and our tight ends included, just how far we've come fundamentally, our ability to execute. Their communication is a lot better than it was a year ago. And schematically obviously he's brought a lot to what we're doing. I think what we're doing schematically is a little bit different than any of us in the offensive staff room have really been in the last four or five, six, seven years. We've been growing with it together as a unit, and as a staff and really like the direction that we're heading in with it. Q. Josh, like you said, leading up to this you keep Alabama guessing a little bit. How much fun is this as a coordinator to be able to do something you might not do during the regular season where you don't have quite as much time to prepare? COACH HEUPEL: When you refer to that, you mean‑‑ Q. The different quarterbacks? COACH HEUPEL: Working three different quarterbacks. We ended up working three quarterbacks in the Oklahoma State game. So we've played them all. They have all prepared well. Can they all play better at times? Yeah, certainly. But we're excited about the group we've got, the way they've competed, the way they've pushed each other, and then ultimately whoever is the guy needs to go out and perform well here in a couple days to give ourselves a chance to win. Q. Just wanted to get both of your opinion on when you turn the film on, C.J. Mosley, what kind of impact does he have on Alabama's defense and what kind of challenge does he present? COACH NORVELL: He's a fabulous, fabulous player. I had a chance to coach in the NFL and played against Ray Lewis, and he's similar in his ability to communicate, his sense, his football senses, the way he sees the field, gets everybody lined up. He's a really good football player and as good a linebacker as we've seen this year, and we've gotta do a great job of understanding where he's at and making sure we block him. It's important that we cover him up and we don't let him be a factor more than he's going to be. And obviously as Josh mentioned, we want to run the football. That's where our success has been. So being able to handle him and the people up front will be critical for our success. But I just‑‑ he's a complete football player and that's one thing, when we played Ray Lewis when I was in National Football League, I was just amazed where he always seemed to be in the right position all the time. That's the way Mosley is. He has played that way consistently. And it's a real credit to him and that defense and leading the defense the way he handles himself. COACH HEUPEL: The guy has the ability to dominate a football game. And you better make sure you have a hat on him in the run game and know where he's at. Q. Josh, it's been a question all season, but just the importance of a quick start against Alabama on Thursday night? COACH HEUPEL: Critical in this football game that we come out, we execute early, we move the football. We gotta have the ability to gain field position in this football game. We need to score points when we're down in the red zone. Can't kick field goals as well. They're extremely tough to get touchdowns on in the red zone, great red zone defense. But for us to start fast, we need to execute. When we've done that early in the ballgame, we've played well early. When we haven't, we've struggled. So in this football game it obviously would help us to get off to a great start. Q. Guys, Alabama's been the preeminent program in college football the last five years. Do you feel like this game could show, serve as a benchmark to how close this program is to winning a National Championship or being a National Championship type team? COACH NORVELL: You know, I think we get measured every week. I mean, at Oklahoma, every game that we play is a measurement. And we have to go out and play at a certain standard. Obviously when you're playing a two‑time national champion, you've got to play your best football. And we understand that. We're excited about the opportunity. Is it any more of a benchmark than any other game? Probably, because they are the two‑time defending national champion. So we're excited. They're obviously the program the last five years that has set the bar in college football. And I think it's exciting to get a chance to do that. We're very proud of our history at Oklahoma, and we take that into this game. I don't think there's any question about that. So we're looking forward to the challenge and they are a great challenge and a tremendously well‑coached football team and very talented. I think our guys have had a very level set mindset the last month of the season and it's a football game, that's how we're approaching it. We're just going to go play it. Q. Jay, could you talk about, their secondary's really good with an All‑American and looks like three other guys are going to play in the league. Some day your wide receiver corps has really made a lot of plays as of late. Can you talk about the matchup within the matchup in the game? COACH NORVELL: I think they're very talented, well coached. I think they've been well schooled not to give up big plays, and they don't get out of position very often. And so we're going to have to do a great job of attacking them technique‑wise and taking advantage of opportunities when they come. That's the one thing that you see when you watch a season's worth of film on a team is that they just don't get out of position very often. So you are going to have to go out and earn plays, can't expect them to be out of position and give you anything. So that's the mindset our guys have to take. We have to be very focused, very exact in what we're doing and we have to go after the ball in this game. Q. Early in the season you seemed pretty set that you wanted to have a quarterback and move forward with him, everybody asked if you could play two, didn't really seem to enjoy looking at that possibility. But I'm curious, after going through what you went through, do you feel like you're more flexible than you thought you could be as a coordinator, and did maybe you grow more as a coordinator going through what you went through this year? COACH HEUPEL: I think at the beginning of the year you have a competition. You feel like one of those guys is going to step ahead and become the guy. We thought we had the guy in Trevor. Trevor gets dinged, injured. Blake comes in, plays well. He gets dinged up. Trevor goes in and continues to compete and plays well. For four years we had Landry that didn't get hurt in a single ballgame. And really we hadn't had a quarterback injured until you go back early in Coach Stoops' era in 2002, 2003, I guess Sam as well in 2009. Forgot about that one. But are they different? Yeah, they're different a little bit. And when I'm saying "they" I'm talking about Trevor and Blake. But at the same time both those guys have competed hard. Our players believe in both of those guys, whoever the guy is at quarterback, they really believe and have a lot of confidence in those guys that they're going to go out play at a high level. For me personally, I've enjoyed it because there's been great competition inside the room. I truly enjoy getting an opportunity to work with these guys every single day because of the way they come in, they're focused in the meeting room, the way they prepare during the course of the week, and at the end of the day they really do pull for one another. So it's been a lot of fun, and I think for us as a staff, you know, it's been fun in the way that we've been able to change throughout the course of the season, with all the injuries that we've had and all the different personnel changes that we've had, just scratching and clawing and finding a way to continue to win ball games. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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