BATON ROUGE — Coming off a record-setting night in Tiger Stadium on Saturday, LSU head coach Les Miles addressed the media at his weekly press conference on Monday as Troy comes to town for Homecoming this weekend. Watch the press conference on-demand in the Geaux Zone.
Les Miles Press Conference Transcript
Opening statement…
“I can tell you that you look back quickly on this game, and I have to first thank that crowd. When they made the announcement that the sun had gone down in the western sky and it was now officially Saturday night in Tiger Stadium, he (Dan Borne) was right. That was a live crowd. That was a great home-field environment. I loved where I was at. I just want to say thanks to those people who support this program and thanks to those people who came out and cheered the Tigers on. I don’t know that I’ll forget that memory.
“I think there were a lot of positives from the game. We asked the team to improve. They did. I asked my team to work hard, play with intensity and fight, and they did. Certainly overall, I’m proud of their performance. I like my team. They gave great effort, played with passion, showed the emotion of a big game and played it. It’s how it’s supposed to be. The score didn’t work out the way we would have liked, but how the game was played, the competitive feel, that’s how it was supposed to be. I can tell you that our offensive line was dominant. I don’t know that I’ve ever been in a game where we’ve rushed for 200 yards and finished behind the opponent. (Charles) Scott was a big time back. We had other good carries from our running backs, and our defensive line for that matter played physical football and really took it to our opponent. Again, there were a lot of real positives there.
“Obviously, we would have liked to have some throws back that our quarterback (Jarrett Lee) made, and certainly he’d like to have some of those throws back. We think very sincerely about these calls. We ask him to perform and maybe continue to ask him to do too much. We are still going to throw it. We are still at our best when he is throwing the ball to our playmakers, the LaFells and Byrds, etc. Maybe he’s young and maybe we need to get him off the field a little bit. Maybe we’ll spell him with (Jordan) Jefferson. We’ll see how Jordan Jefferson is doing and how he performs. I think that like Lee performed probably best when it was (Andrew) Hatch and him, and he was spelled for a pretty routine basis. It gave him a chance to clear his head and go back on the field and play. That might be the recipe we are looking for, and we are going to try that. We are going to coach him, believe in him, and he is truly at this point in the season one of two guys and the guy who has had the most work. Certainly he has a very talented arm and has made a lot of big plays for us. Again, we are going to eliminate some calls, but we have to develop him and believe in him, and we are going to.
“If you look at that game and you say how we played and really what might be the mark of the game, I think you can go back and say that if we took this throw back but then kick a field goal, and they’re kicking their field goal to tie as opposed to win and we block that field goal, certainly we take that score. But, if I had to take two plays, both the positive and the negative, I would take these two. I would say the block and the field goal really represented who we were, and that in fact, we fought like heck to stay in that game right on through regulation. I thought the effort on that block was very strong. You go into the overtime and the mistake that was made on the last play where we had the ball was a young guy (Lee) who has two difficult decisions. One is a semi-covered boundary throw that could have gone out-of-bounds and incomplete or to us or an over-the-top where Brandon LaFell would have had to make the catch, and we find a way to win the game. Certainly, he gets it, and we’re going to teach him, but that certainly was what he was doing. I understand, and we have to get better and understand where we are at. I can tell you that you can’t pin it on one phase either. I think if our defense played a little better and may well have been even more dominant. I think our special teams, obviously they kick a field goal or get a return, they can make a difference. On offense, there are a number of ways where if you catch a couple of balls ? we had a couple of dropped balls ? you have great opportunities for big plays and suddenly the quarterback doesn’t have to make one more play. Suddenly, the offensive line doesn’t jump offsides, so there isn’t the pressure on the quarterback to make one more play.
“There are certainly places to improve, not just one spot or style of play or player, but really across the board. That’s what is going on in our building. This morning at 6:45, we talked about improvement. We talked about it across the board. We talked about hard work. Again, there is a lot of good football in front of us. I can tell you that Troy is a quality football team. They have good players. They have guys who can go up and down the field on offense and guys with good speed and ability on defense. On offense, they’re averaging 160 yards rushing and about 270 yards passing. They operate in the spread, and they move the ball extremely well. Defensively, they have all the pressures and the ability to play zone coverage. They’re used to playing quality opponents. They lost to Ohio State. They lost to Oklahoma State in this season. We understand that we have to be able to play this Saturday, and the 48-hour rule is in effect. Monday night, we’re done talking about this last one. We let a big fish off the hook. Certainly, we couldn’t quite get a handle on it, but there is a lot to play for. I look forward to improving and playing well against Troy and continuing that effort as we move forward.”
On his birthday…
“I’m celebrating my birthday by spending a lot of time with people that I am very close to and that I care very much for, my football team and my coaches. This morning my five-year-old did not know it was my birthday, but she kissed me anyway. I suspected that I would hear from my mom, and I have. I suspect that I’ll hear from my family, and I’m certain that I will. That’s all you need. I suspect there might be a couple of people in the room that have reached wonderful age of 55 or above, and I suspect that they understand what birthdays at this point in time really mean. It’s good news. Hopefully next year there will be some more good news.”
On what parts of the offense QB Jordan Jefferson understands…
“I think there will be things that Jordan (Jefferson) is really good at. I think it’ll be a cross section of the offense. I don’t know if it’s as clean as Andrew Hatch‘s and Jarrett’s definition would be, but he really took a lot of snaps last week, and he’s really improving. We really think he’s readier now than he’s been. We are going to take a cross section our offense and the things that he does best and do it and see how he plays.”
On comparing this team to other teams…
“The key in our building is just what I said earlier and that’s that you don’t look to fix things in other people’s business. You look to improve and fix the things that you can control. Certainly our football team has to improve and play better this week and so on. I don’t know about other teams and the buoyancy of other teams. I can tell you that our team has quality people, character guys and guys that want to improve and guys that are searching to help and do everything that they can. That’s the attitude that I’ve got to have, and if they have that, I don’t worry much about comparisons with other teams that have less success.”
On not being able to go up 21-7 in the game…
“We were playing a good opponent, and you have to give that opponent some credit. They played well. We would have liked to have taken the opportunity there and taken advantage of it certainly. Again, give Alabama some credit. They played awfully well during that stretch.”
On what he feels Lee does well and what he needs to improve on…
“I’ve got to be honest with you. He’s taking all the reps. He’s improving a great cross section of the offense. I don’t think that there is really anything completely off his plate. I think there are those things he’s better at within formations and play series, and I think we’ll ask him to do those things, but I think you’ll find that he’ll be in spread passing situations where we throw it to him. He’ll be in on play action where he’ll throw it or hand it off and run it. I don’t know that the definition is really clean. I think our complete offense may be the stuff he does best.”
On if the snap on Colt David‘s field goal attempt was bad…
“I think it was a little bit right to left. (Brady) Dalfrey has just been an excellent holder, and Alex Russian is really a first-year snapper who hasn’t really made any bad snaps. Some have been better than others, but I felt like the hold got down. I don’t know if the snap was perfect, but like you, I think Colt just missed it left.”
On the second down call in overtime to go with RB Richard Murphy in the wildcat formation…
“The first carry that Murphy had was down in the red zone or between the 30- and 15-yard lines and he gained about seven yards on a similar play. By strategy of call, it was an excellent call. By productivity, it was a bad call. It really was. What we did was by going to the shift and using Murphy, we moved our quarterback out, and they covered him. They had a safety back, and we had an extra blocker, and it was really as good as of a call as we could have come up with. I thought the call was excellent. The production was bad, and I personally having reviewed it like you and other hosts have, I would have liked to have called Scott again and see him get five more yards. I don’t know that’s exactly what would have been the outcome of that call. The change of pace and the shift put the defense in an, ?OK, now what.’ We did not run the same play that we ran the last time we put Murphy in the game, so the call was a comfortable call to us. It was something we do all the time, and we didn’t execute it as well as we would’ve liked, and Murphy would have liked to have that one back.”
On not going back to the no-huddle later in the game…
“The option we ran twice. Once was for big yards versus a stunt, which was checked to, and once on a short-yardage call that netted us zero (yards). We operated out of the no huddle anytime we could to help the tempo of the game and to give us some advantages. Some of the things we were doing we really didn’t need the no huddle.”
On Jefferson not getting as many reps when he was the No. 3 QB…
“Until Andrew Hatch exited, he (Jefferson) was getting a very small percentage of the plays. Some of the handoffs to the run and some checks and he’d throw some one-on-one, but seldom would he get into even our seven-on-seven. He would get a couple of reps in our seven-on-seven as we prepared for game week. Now, as the second quarterback he’s getting at minimum half the reps, half the reps in the seven-on-seven and a lot of the team reps. He’s much more prepared, and again, he’s in every meeting and as time goes on for a young guy, it allows him to gain experience, and that’s the piece we’re at now. I think he’s plenty talented enough to play. That’s not the issue. It’s making sure he’s comfortable to do things we’re going to ask him to do.”
On if the coaching staff considered playing Jefferson Saturday…
“Absolutely. Yes, there was.”
On if he regrets not getting Jefferson more playing time earlier in the season…
“Every minute that Hatch was there, we felt like Hatch was a little bit further along than Jordan, and we really kind of looked at an opportunity where he might have been redshirted. Now, with Hatch’s injury, it became obviously very apparent that he’s going to have to play some snaps, and now, at this position, it might be best on a pretty regular basis to get him some snaps.”
On passing as much as they did when the run was successful…
“When you’re third and 17 or third and 12 and third and nine, dialing up a run that gets you that kind of yardage is difficult. The truth of the matter is that we dialed up some passes that didn’t get us what we wanted as well, so maybe you’re right. Maybe we hand the ball off, but it’s not so much the number of throws. It’s the situation that you’re in. We’ve got to protect him in those situations probably and not ask him to do some things that he’s not ready to do at this point.”
On if Hatch has any chance of playing again this season…
“I know he’s getting better. I think there is a chance we can get him back next week, not against Troy but the following week. That really is very optimistic thinking. I think it is most likely that he’ll be back for the last regular season game.”
On how much better the offense can be with a more mobile Jefferson and why his offensive players are having so much trouble tackling after interceptions…
“I think Jordan will give us a lot with his feet. I think he’s the kind of guy who will stand back there and throw it in there and if he does not have the opportunity to make the throw, when he pulls it down, you’ll notice a great speed and athleticism which you’ll enjoy. I think there will be some option and very probably some quarterback carry when we put him in the game. I still want to see him throw it. The tackle after interception is certainly not any fun to look at. As much as I hate to admit it, the guys who catch the ball seem to have a great lane to the end zone. I see effort and guys busting their tails to get there, but I see a safety make a great cut that gets him to a position where nobody is going to defend him on the field. As much as I would like to tell you that there is a magic line to getting tackles specific to those throws.”
On if Jarrett Lee second guesses himself in the games…
“You only know that there was (some second-guessing) because he cares so much about his team and he cares so much about his school. He’s a great young man and he’s sick about those plays that cost his team. He wants in and he wants to do his best. The key for us is that he’s got to do the things he can do and we have to take some things out of his hands. The next thing is that the guys that are on the field with him have to play big. They have to play responsible to the team. They have to play better. If our defense is more dominant, he can throw another pick and we still win. If our special teams plays better and we kick a field goal — that makes a difference. There’s a bunch of places where this team can win that are not directly pointed at the quarterback.”
On if he worries that throwing interceptions can become a self-fulfilling prophecy…
“I don’t know that anyone on my team knows what a self fulfilling prophecy is. If they do, I hope that they take it in later in their years. I don’t want to define that too well for anybody at this point.”
On how close Jarrett Lee is to improving drastically…
“What you hope is that there’s a light that comes on and, instead of on and off, it stays on. I’m just telling you, he grabbed the ball on the last play on offense and was trying to win the game. I want him to have that, but I want the light that comes in and gives review of the field and takes away the enthusiasm of that feeling and gives him a more methodical, mechanical and intellectual way to look at that situation. If he can keep that on all the time, he’ll be pretty good.”
On if the team employs a sports psychologist and if they ever use him…
“We have a sports psychologist. With Cable’s recommendation, I’ve entered into that myself. I don’t think that a clinical issue is at hand. I think it’s just common sense that has to take place. I like (Lee’s) fight. He gets to Monday, he puts it behind him and wants to improve. If he keeps that attitude, he’ll get better.”
On if he talked to Jarrett Lee about third-down mistake on an incomplete pass to Keiland Williams…
“If he makes the decision earlier on that play that he’s just going to run up there and slide in between two defenders and get the first down, then it’s a first down. Early in the year, he had a play on the left boundary where it looked like he might break contain and run a little bit and the guy came off Keiland Williams and (Lee) hit Keiland Williams down the sideline for a score. That was, I’m sure, what was running through his mind at the time. What he needed to do there was just put his head down and go.”