Marshall University Athletics
Transcript From Tuesday's Bob Pruett Press Conference
9/14/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
Transcript From Tuesday's Bob Pruett Press Conference
9/14/2004
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - Marshall head football coach Bob Pruett addressed the media Tuesday in preparations for the Thundering Herd's matchup with the University of Georgia this Saturday in Athens, Ga.
Bob Pruett Press Conference (Georgia, 9/18)
Opening Statements
I?m anxious to see how our kids practice, they looked good last night. When you lose close ball games, it becomes tough to come back, to fight through it. Everyone starts looking for ways you could have won. The way we handle this diversity is how we?ll handle our next nine ball games. This game will be a challenge for us, and we?re going to address the challenge like we?ve addressed them since we?ve been here. We?ll go down there, we?ll play, and we?ll see what happens.
On Impending Hurricane Ivan
The latest thing we?ve heard is that it will hit there on Thursday night. It could present us problems getting in there on Friday. It?s a major concern, and we?ve looked at a number of different ways to get down there, but we just don?t know. They don?t even know where it?s going to go. We?ll just have to see.
On Georgia QB David Greene
He?s a great player, and he?s won a lot of big games and played a lot of big games. He throws the deep ball very well, so we?ll probably see some of those since we got beat deep in our first two games. They?re also a good screening team, both to the wide receiver and to their running backs. Plus they are a good running team. They are a very well-balanced offensive team, and their defense is just awesome.
On Georgia DE David Pollack
He?s a great player. He might be the best college defensive player I?ve seen since Bruce Smith.
Were you satisfied with your offensive line?
You aren?t ever satisfied when you get beat. But, they did a much better job. If we can take our effort and build on it, hopefully we can become a pretty good football team by the time we get in league play.
It looked like Stan Hill was more comfortable against Ohio State. What did you think?
Well, he had more time. I think our line doing a better job allowed Stan to do a better job of handling the crowd noise and running our offense.
Things seem to be more on the upswing than they were seven days ago. Can you talk about that?
I think things became more on the upswing when Troy beat Missouri last Thursday night, when people realized Troy was a good football team. In some ways, Troy may have been a better defensive team than Ohio State was.
Talk about the fake field goal.
What happened was that there was a certain look that we were looking for, and we saw it. We told them that it was there, to go ahead and run it. If it?s there, the kicker is supposed to tell the linemen which side it was going to. There was a miscommunication in there?one side didn?t hear which side the fake was supposed to go to.
You wanted that touchdown on that drive, didn?t you?
Yeah, I did. I didn?t know how many more times we were going to be down there. I felt like it was there. We could have kicked it, but there?s no guarantee on the kick.
Is it a feather in your cap to beat an SEC school?
Well, I think it?s a feather in your cap to beat any school. Wins are tough to come by, no matter who you beat. All those wins are precious.
If you had to put them in a ranking, where would you put them?
I think they were picked to win the SEC, and I can see why. If you can win the SEC, you are one of the best teams in the nation.
How well will Ian O?Connor shake off the two bad kicks? Did you say anything to him?
He had a tremendous game kicking off and punting, but that?s the life of a kicker. You make the kick at the end of the game, you?re the hero, you miss it, you?re the goat.
