BATON ROUGE — LSU head coach Nick Saban addressed the media prior to this weekend’s 7 p.m. match-up against Kentucky in Tiger Stadium. The Tigers will not practice on Monday and will return to the practice field on Tuesday afternoon.
QUOTES FROM NICK SABAN’S WEEKLY PRESS CONFERENCE
“We don’t feel a whole lot different after watching the film relative to the last game in terms of our disappointment and how we performed in the game. How we executed in the game and the intensity that we played with.”
“I think that the biggest thing was the execution, and I’m not sure that if we would have played a lot lesser team that we would have had a tremendous amount of success relative to how we performed in this game.”
“We were unable to maintain our intensity and build on last week’s success. I think that this is a hurdle that we have to overcome. It’s something that a lot of people probably can’t understand. If you have people who don’t relate to success, then they have a hard time dealing with success, and a hard time being motivated by success.”
“Let me give you this example: If you are really a motivated student and you make an A, you say, ‘I made an A, now I’m going to make an A in this class.’ If you’re not a very motivated student and you make an A you say, ‘I’m not going to the next test, I can fail it and still get a C.’ Well, that sounds funny, but there are a lot of people in this world who are motivated by negative things.”
“They get more motivated by adversity, not doing well, having their backs against the wall, and having to perform. This is certainly not the psychological disposition that you want a football team to have. You want them to have a high standard of expectation, and when they are successful, you want them to build on that success, so that you take the next step, and the next step, and the next step.”
“That is why when you play Nebraska, it doesn’t really matter what they did the day before. They have a disposition of, ‘We expect to dominate, we expect to win by a lot.’ After 24 hours, we have the same expectation for whoever we play next week. That’s certainly a process that we need to build and develop.”
“We can’t be relieved to win a game. We can’t be criticized so we’re relieved. That syndrome takes away our motivation to want to continue to improve, get ready for the next game, work hard, and have the intensity that we need to play in the next game and the next week. When you look at the execution of it all, it’s not very good.”
“We had a lot of mental errors, a lot of missed execution. Was it what we did or how we did it’ There is no question that it is how controlling the ball, running the ball for most of the game, shrinking the field a little bit, mixing them up with some play-action passes, and do what we need to do on offense to score points and to keep the ball away from the other team.”
“We made mental error after mental error on blocking assignments, we couldn’t run the ball with any kind of consistency, get in the passing game, we get behind, and we can’t protect the quarterback relative to the ability of their pass rushers.”
“It was really the same kind of thing on defense. We played man-to-man, didn’t play with good fundamental principles, can’t get them covered, and they are good receivers. We play a zone, didn’t have good fundamental principles, and they complete third down and ten or second and 20.”
“They made too many big plays in the game, and they made the 99-yard drive in four or five plays. They had an 80-yard drive in four or five plays, and you’re not a good defensive football team or you’re not playing good defense when you let that happen.”
“Those are all things that we need to get corrected for this game this week. To me this is a critical game, it’s a pivotal game, and it is a game where we need to circle the wagons, rally the troops, get all the fans and all the supporters excited about, because we are going to need to have that kind of electricity in this game.”
“Kentucky has a football team that can score some points. They throw the football. They do multiple things on offense, and those are some of the things that we need to improve upon in our defense. We’re not going to be able to play offensively, put some balance in our offense, eliminate the penalties and the turnovers, and stop the things that we do that makes us constantly shoot ourselves in the foot relative to our production on offense.”
“The one positive thing that happened in the game, that has been good except for one play in the Auburn game, has been the special teams. I thought the special teams’ performance was pretty good against Florida. It gave us pretty good field position. We didn’t take advantage of it. We down the ball on the one-yard line, and they go 99 yards in four or five plays. We return a punt 30 yards to the 32-yard line, and we throw an interception on the first play.”
“Special teams are doing what they need to do in terms of getting good vertical field position. We need to take advantage of it so that we have a better opportunity to be successful and put points up on the board.”
“(Backup quarterback) Craig Nall broke his thumb in the pre-game warmup. He is probably going to be out for four to six weeks. It is on his throwing hand, and I don’t think that he could throw the ball relative to his situation.”
“(Offensive tackle) Brandon Winey checked out to where he had no serious problems. He basically had a rib contusion, and he should be ready for the game.”
Player Quotes
Tommy Banks, FB
“What we wanted to do against Florida was go out and prove to everyone that we were a good football team. It just didn’t happen. We didn’t meet or goals by any means as for as showing we have a good football team.”
“Being an early game, it was a little bit of a different atmosphere that we haven’t seen before. It still shouldn’t have anything to do with the way we play. You could tell in pre-game warm-ups we didn’t have the emotion we had against Tennessee and it showed in the game.”
“It will be very important to establish a running game against Kentucky. We’ve worked very hard on the running game. If we can establish a running game it will help our passing game with play action pass and it will reduce
the pass rush because they won’t be able to bring everyone on every down.”
Rodney Reed, G
“We had too many missed assignments and we gave up too many hits on the quarterbacks. We have to focus each week in practice and trust in the coaches. We need to improve.”
“We have trust in whoever plays offensive line. We have confidence in anyone who goes into the game. We are a really tight-knit group and even though there may be different players in the lineup we still feel we can
get the job done.”
“I don’t think we are ‘snake bitten’ with injuries. That’s just part of the game and that’s how it is in the SEC.”
“I’ve been lucky to play next to two seniors in Louis Williams and Brandon Winey and they’ve helped me make a comfortable transition into the starting lineup.”
Ryan Clark, FS
‘It’s always a challenge when you face Hall Mumme and Kentucky. He’s the kind of guy that you just never can tell what he’s going to do. It also gives us a chance to make big plays when playing a team like Kentucky.’
“There’s no doubt in my mind that guys are going to practice hard this week and we are going to focus on trying to beat Kentucky.”
“Staying focused on a weekly basis is like anything else, it comes with practice and doing it a lot. Once you start doing well and winning big games on a regular basis you begin to understand how to handle that situation. I can’t flip a light switch and make us consistent every week. But will continue to progress and work as a team to fulfill that goal.”
Jarvis Green, DE
“All we can do is go out every week and play hard and focus on the mental game.”
“It’s the biggest game and we have to go out there and perform. We have to go out there and win our last five games. Our goals haven’t changed we still need to concentrate on having a winning season.”
“I think I just think too much when rushing the passer. I need to just go out and be more aggressive.”