BATON ROUGE — Coming off his team’s 20-17 overtime victory over No. 16 Auburn, LSU head coach Les Miles addressed the media prior to the Tigers’ match-up against North Texas on Saturday at 7 p.m. in Tiger Stadium.
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COMMENTS FROM LSU COACH LES MILES AT HIS WEEKLY PRESS LUNCHEON
Opening statement…
“Our football team is in a good position, in our opinion, for the remainder of the season. We’re certainly very happy with the victory over Auburn. It was as complete of a contribution by all three phases as we’ve had. We certainly have not played our best football, but we needed all three phases to win that game. We give credit to Auburn. They may well be the best team we’ve played to date. If you look at Skyler Green’s opening punt return, certainly it changed the complexion of the game, not only with our score but how they punted to him. They went with a complete change of plan, and the advantage was good field position for us. The defense played well to a point and certainly handled what Auburn gave us. We were in a position several times to make some nice stops. But their very talented running back (Kenny) Irons picked up yards after contact that we would all like to see eliminated. But I still think that our defense played well and got us the ball in key situations, and obviously in overtime forced a field goal that (Auburn) wasn’t able to make. So as a team, I look at this game as a characteristic of how to win, where all three phases contribute and all three phases enjoy this victory.
“I really think that the evening we had last Saturday night provided other advantages for our football team. I think that crowd was phenomenal. It was my first Saturday night here, and it was the first time I’d seen anything like that. I can tell you that it means a lot to our players. If you look at your weekend as we play North Texas, I encourage you to come out. It means a lot of the coaches and the players, and it’s specific to our team and it’s specific to LSU. That environment is very special. If you talk to our coaches and players, it’s what we want, it’s what we need, and it’s an advantage to our team. I trust that we’ll see a very similar crowd as we saw last Saturday when we play North Texas.
“North Texas has two running backs who are as talented as any backs we’ll face. They’re very gifted players. They’re a very formidable team in the fact that they’ve had success in that they’ve been to four straight bowls and that they come in here with the idea that they can swing for the long ball and take every cut and opportunity to beat us, any unusual play or anything that will work for them. A team that’s used to being at a bowl wants to mark their season, and certainly a great showing at our stadium will give them a tremendous highlight. One, they’re talented, but two, they haven’t pull it all together to this point. But they’re capable, and we expect that our team has to play with great intensity for a number of reasons: one, to improve, and two, to beat our opponent. So we’re approaching this very fundamentally. They’re a good football team that’s had success, and we don’t want to take anybody lightly. We have to go in there and turn up our intensity and play well to improve and to win. And that will be the push. Your football team is in a great position. Now we have to play North Texas to improve and to win, and do so in all three phases. We have to improve in all three phases.”
On what JaMarcus Russell did that showed maturity on his part…
“JaMarcus made several decisions with the ball that I thought were very productive. He had a couple of throwaways and scrambles, and really, all of his scrambles and ad libs were productive. He showed that he had good ball security, and when he held the ball he pulled it down. I think there is reason to believe that he’s not only progressing, but understand the position more clearly.”
On Chris Jackson’s punting this season…
“I think he’s giving special teams a lot of time, and that’s benefited not only Chris but the other kickers and our team’s performance overall. I think he understands how important it is, and he’s a team guy tremendously so. I think he looks at any way he can contribute. He has really improved in his punting technique. He’s hitting the ball squarely, he can kick directionally, and he’s a tremendous advantage for us. Our gunners go down there with the real anticipation that they pooch punt or the short punt is going to be in a position where they can field it. And that’s because he’s demonstrated that he’s capable of doing that regularly. I can’t stress more how important that is for us. When you have that, it really adds to your defense’s ability to score. We’ve had a safety and score already this season that were set up because of those short punts that we were able to down inside the 10-yard line. That’s a great weapon for us.”
On the North Texas team the Tigers face this weekend…
“To me, they have an athletic line and are working at being able to run the football. They obviously have two talented running backs, and as you saw, a run can be just as big of a weapon as a throw if somebody breaks tackles. They have not had the ability to throw the football as comfortably as they would like, but guys are progressing there. You get to a point in the season where they’re playing better and not necessarily as ineffective as their statistics would predict. So I can only tell you that we’re preparing for what easily could be their best outing.”
Offensive Player Quotes
WR Skyler Green
On his punt return for a touchdown…
“It felt great getting back in the end zone. I wasn’t expecting the ball to come to me actually, but when it did my eyes got real big. When I caught it, I just got my eyes in position to see where I could go next. I saw a big gaping hole, kind of took it that way, and made one cut. I said to myself, ‘I’m letting the kicker get me this time.’ I kind of just took it the opposite way that he was going and tried to outrun those guys. I think our guys did a pretty good job of holding up at the point of attack. I think our punt return team did a great job and they’re the reason that I sprung that one.”
On LSU’s special teams play…
“We do a lot of stuff on special teams. Before practice we do a walk through of special teams. We do so much on special teams before we even go out and do it full speed. We walk through for about 30 minutes on special teams and then we go back out in the middle of practice and do another 30 minutes of full out special teams. Coach Peveto has done an outstanding job with our special teams. He told me when he first got here that we were going to lead the country in special teams and he is doing a good job of leading us.”
On LSU’s ability to overcome adversity…
“The team has tremendous character. I think when we’re down we never hang our heads. When we get down we play harder. When we get behind we tell the opponent just bring what you got because we’re going to come harder and harder each play.”
WR Craig Davis
On preparing for the next two games…
“I think the most important thing is not to underestimate these two teams. We really have to play these two games strong and get better for Alabama.”
On returning from his injury…
“It felt good. It was my first full game back this year. I felt good and wasn’t even thinking about the injury.”
On Early Doucet’s drop in overtime…
“Actually JaMarcus (Russell) was throwing me the ball, but I saw Early (Doucet) out of the corner of my eye. I didn’t want to go for it and have me and him run into each other. I let him take it and unfortunately he didn’t catch it. We still won the game.”
OL Rudy Niswanger
On the importance of winning in clutch situations…
“It’s good because it puts you in that situation. When it arrives again, you can say, ‘Guys we’ve been here before. Let’s go out there and do it again.’ After the Tennessee game it was kind of tough. Going into that same situation and overcoming it really helps you breed that confidence.”
On LSU’s preparations for North Texas in August…
“The only thing I really remember is people talking about their running game and their great running backs. We prepared for a full week for them, but with everything that’s happened I really don’t remember much about them. We’ll have a full week to prepare for them this time. We have plenty of time to relearn and pick everything up again.”
On the affect of injuries to the offensive line…
“I wouldn’t say it affected our continuity any. I think it has just caused different guys to step up and they’ve done a good job. We’re a team that really supports one another. We’re happy to see who ever is in there playing and we just want them to do well. That’s what the guys who have been on the field have done.”