BATON ROUGE–Head coach Gerry DiNardo held his usual Tuesday press luncheon where he discussed this Saturday’s opponent. The following are his quotes from the luncheon.
Opening Comments
“I believe this is Houston’s best team in seven years, since Kim Helton has been there. He got there in 1993 and built in 1993, 94, and 95. In 1996, when we played them that was his fourth year. They won Conference-USA and the Liberty Bowl that year. They rebuilt in 1997 and 1998 going 3-8 both years. Now in 1999, they are one game away from being bowl eligible. They’re an older team, mostly seniors starting. Eighteen out of their 22 positions, the same guy has started for them all year.”
“Defensively, they’ve changed their scheme somewhat. They run a scheme similar to what we do and what Arkansas does. They run two alley players, four down lineman, two linebackers, and a secondary. They have a new coordinator in Dick Bumpas, he is a 1971 grad from Arkansas. He came over form Navy, it’s his first year as a coordinator for the Cougars. They play real hard and physical. Much like a team that has been built over time.”
“Their offense is built with a veteran offensive line. Across the front of the line they go junior, senior, senior, senior, and one sophomore. Ken was an offensive line coach in the NFL. They know what their doing. Their explosive names on offense are Orlando Iglesias, who could play anywhere in the country. He has 50 receptions and out-leaps a lot of people for the ball. He will be one of the best receivers that we will play against all year. Tailback Ketric Sanford has broken some of Chuckie Witherspoon’s records at Houston. He had 212 yards against Tulane last week. He has been Conference-USA player of the week twice. Mike Green is the other running back and he has 612-yards. He averages 5.9 yards per carry and weighs 250 pounds, but you wouldn’t know it watching him on tape. Both of those guys will play in the NFL. They’re going to make a living running the ball and being physical and complementing it with the play-action pass. They’re as athletic in the kick game as anybody we play in the SEC. The team has been carefully built. I give Coach Helton a lot of credit, he has his program right where he wants to be. For us this is no different than a conference football game.”
Coach DiNardo opened the forum to questions from the media-
Question : Has Josh Booty progressed like you thought he would after six starts this season?
Answer: “I never had any pre-conceived notions as to how he would progress. He has done some better things recently. His play is very typical of a freshman quarterback starting in our league. Other people look at him differently because he is a little older, he arrived at LSU as a legend and a myth. People expect a lot from him. I wasn’t here during that time so I don’t have that bias. All I know is this guy is a first year starter in the most competitive league in the country. He has made some mistakes and he has to correct those mistakes. He is a freshman quarterback who hasn’t had a redshirt year.”
Question: Do you anticipate quarterback Rohan Davey to play on Saturday?
Answer: “I always make decisions other than injuries on game day. When I get on the field if I feel like a change needs to be made at any position then I go ahead and make it.”
Question: At his age, how much can Josh Booty improve?
Answer: “I don’t think his age will prevent him from improving because he’s not that old. His life experiences, meaning being out away from high school for a certain amount of time, can be an advantage the way you coach him and the way he addresses the game. It has been an advantage for him. It doesn’t matter that he is a little older.”
Question: Where do you think the LSU program is today?
Answer: “I think our program is still developing and growing. I think there is going to be a change in college football in the next 10 years. I believe the Universities are going to get more involved in the off the field things and who the universities will allow the coaches to play and participate. We have a situation on our campus where the Dean of Students has a role in who can and cannot play. Florida State’s President stood up and said I’m going to handle this situation. Then he agreed with the coach. He did voice an opinion. I think this is the wave of the future. From a football standpoint, we’re a young team and 90% of our team will be back next year. The off the field issues are good news and bad news. I think the bad news is, we are dealing with the same problems that everyone else in the country is dealing with. We always deal with the same problems that the society that we recruit from has. The good news is we deal with them. If we didn’t deal with them people would be critical of us (LSU). The biggest difference between this year and last year is we had a lot more veterans playing last year.”
Question: Do you think that turning things around is not that far off and all the close games will start going the other way?
Answer: “Yes, the reason is because it’s going to be the same people in the same situation. It has been my experience that experience is the best teacher. If you look at the last play of the game on Saturday, I believe the next time we are in that situation with the same people we will deal with it much differently. If you look at Norman LeJeune he is a true freshman, he was playing at Brusly High School last year at this time. He played 105 snaps. You need 100 snaps to letter. He played well. He will play better next year.”
Question: Do you think one of the reasons you can keep morale up is because everyone that can walk is playing?
Answer: “Not necessarily. I think their attitude has been good. I guess I give them more credit than that. I think they can see this thing is going to get better. They know this experience this year will help them in the future. I don’t think their excited because they’re the only ones left. I give Charles Smith a lot of credit. He is becoming a leader on this team like (Allen) Stansberry and (Ben) Bordelon were leaders. Those guys are probably the three best leaders I’ve had since coaching here. That makes an impact when a guy on the team takes a leadership role.”
Question: Will flanker Abram Booty play on Saturday?
Answer: “No, not likely. Unless something happens where he can practice today or tomorrow. He is doubtful physically right now.”
Question: When a high school coach in the state says what he says, how do you battle that when recruiting?
Answer: “There are 307 high school football coaches in the state that play football. There are probably 306 coaches that disagree. I don’t see him any more prominently than the other 306. I see the guy that coaches at Catholic High, Saint Thomas More, I see them all the same. I haven’t set anyone up on a pedestal. I have 307 high schools that I try to service the best I can. What I would say to you is if you called all 307 schools my report card would be outstanding. I do think what he has done is he has allowed his players to come out and criticize. As an educator you should lead by example and so what is a little bothersome is some of his players have been critical. What we are teaching our children is you can be openly critical even though you really don’t know all the facts.”
Question: When you talked about the Evangel High School football players speaking out, were you talking about former or current players?
Answer: “Current players.”
Question: How about personnel moves, where you could have mortgaged the future to help out this season?
Answer: “Kenderick Allen, he redshirted this year. He played last year. This may be a place were I would consider depending on the numbers playing a kid as a freshman and redshirting him as a sophomore. That would give him three years to play three. That may be the way to go.”
Question: Did you see any of this coming before the season started?
Answer: “I went into the fall and camp and I said I believe we are a team with some talent. We’re not bursting at the seams with talent. We can have a good year. Our first goal is to have a winning season our final goal is to win the National Championship. If we did all the things that take absolutely no talent we can have a good year. We have not done those things. The 57 guys that played on Saturday, you would be hard pressed to say they didn’t do everything in their power to to the things that took no talent. The effort was phenomenal. There are 57 of them. Some day when that’s 100 then we’ll be onto something. You better do the things that take no talent.”
Question: To paraphrase an SEC official, do you think LSU deserved another play against Alabama?
Answer: “If proper clock management was enforced then that in effect should of allowed us to make another play, yes, we deserve every play within 60 seconds. If the official is saying that because we didn’t score on the last play we didn’t deserve another play, I don’t think that could be his intent because that doesn’t sound like an SEC official would make that comment. I think his comment was that proper clock management let that clock run out and they didn’t make a mistake. I don’t think he was trying to be sarcastic to the effect of if we would have scored on the play before we wouldn’t of had to worry about it.”