Below
is the transcript from Jon Embree's weekly press conference on Oct. 23, 2012.
General
"Getting ready for Oregon, obviously we know the challenges they
present, especially offensively. They
fast break on grass, so to speak, they do a great job of spreading you out and
then they hit the seam and they're gone.
They have tremendous speed, so again this is as all spread offenses, assignment
football is imperative, that we are in the right gaps and then just trust our teammates will be in the gap that they are suppose to be
in. But I think the thing that is the most
impressive about Oregon, after watching all of their games is their
defense. I think their defense is
outstanding, they have a tremendous personnel, their linebackers have great
size and range, they all can run, they are violent when they tackle you. I told our guys, they tackle through you,
their secondary ball hawks, so if you are not accurate, it is going to be an
interception. We have to do well as far
as protecting the ball, and then special teams, a lot of their guys are
starters, and again, they have a lot of speed on special teams. So it is without a doubt going to be a great
challenge, but one we are looking forward to."
On Oregon's Spread Offense
"Theirs is just a whole other level, one is the
speed that they have at their skill positions, it is unlike other programs that
we have seen that run it. The speed at
which they go, they run plays. To
practice and prepare for them will be in two huddles, so as soon as the next
play is done the next team is going out there and getting ready to run the
play. We don't normally do that when we
play other spread offenses, even though they are no huddle and are caught at
the line of scrimmage, they just play at a different tempo."
On If Oregon Is A Passing Or Running Team
"I think of them as running. Their quarterback, very calm, very cool under
pressure, he plays real relaxed. If
something doesn't go his way, he doesn't really blink, he just gets to the next
play. I think it starts with him and
then I think it spreads through the rest of the team."
On Oregon's Defense
"I don't know what their numbers were a year a go,
but I think their linebackers seem to be playing even better than they were
last year. 96 (Jordon Dion), he is a guy
that hopefully this is the last time we see him. He is just a guy you have to count for in
every play. They seem to be playing
better, from the standpoint of better, just feeding off of each other,
tackling, getting the ball out. They are
opportunistic. I don't know what their
numbers were last year, but it just seems like they are playing faster this
year."
On If Oregon Coach Chip Kelly's Style Would Work In The NFL
"I don't know if you want to say Chip Kelly's
style, but yes, Chip Kelly. Yes, I think
he would be a successful coach in the NFL.
I am sure he would adapt things to fit with his talent at that
level. I doubt they would be running the
exact same offense as they run here, I am sure there are components of it that
they would do. I know Washington is
doing some of that stuff with RG (Robert Griffin III), so yes, Chip would be
great in that level."
On The Recipe for Success Against Oregon
"Everybody has the same plan, you want to go in
there, you want to control the ball and eat the clock. You say all of that, but it doesn't work out
that way. Some of it I think has to be
them shooting themselves in the foot, getting some turnovers where you give
yourself some chance to score. You are probably
going to win the time of possession, but that doesn't matter, but what you have
to do is you have to play error free on your side and then you have to force
them into some mistakes and hopefully that is enough to be able to win. They go for it on fourth down, they go for
two after touchdowns, their mindset that their team plays with is just
different than, I don't want to say conventional football, but its just
different than the teams that you are playing against. You have to be able to focus on what you need
to do and not get caught up in what they are doing or you are done."
On QB Jordan Webb's Problems
"Sometimes it is the receivers, sometimes it is the
back. It just depends on what problem we
are talking about, so sometimes it is other people. It is part of the deal of being the
quarterback, you get all of the credit and all the blame, and all of the time
it is a team game. It is that side of
the ball, it is that unit that is responsible for your success and you need
that side that also can contribute to your failures too, so it is something
that we have to keep improving on."
On Having Former Teammate Ed Reinhardt At This Weekend's Game
"It means a lot. Ed, obviously we have an interesting relationship
with us going all the way back to high school.
Ed's a huge reason huge part of what I am today. He was the guy that always drove me, he was
always the guy that I competed against, I knew that if I wanted to be
all-league or all-state, that was the guy I was going to have to beat out. So every time, no matter what I did, running
in the summer, lifting or whatever, he was the guy I was thinking about. If I did 10, in my mind, Ed probably did 11,
so I had to find a way to get 12. So it
was that kind of relationship and then obviously getting up here and playing
together, it was special. It wasn't a
long time, it was really just a year and two games, and so I think we could
have done a lot of great things if he wouldn't have been injured. I think at the time, we were both in the top
five in the country in receptions, we really fed off of each other and
complimented each other so for him to be able to go back to Oregon, that
program has always held a unique place in my heart, just because of what they
did for him and his family, and it will be good for him to be back there and be
around those people. I think they have
tremendous fans and that is why I think it is a hard place to play, they are classy,
they are respectful, it is just a unique environment, but they have always been
like that. It is not just something that
happened, that is how their fans have always been. It will be good having him and his father up
there."
On What Was Going Through His Head When Reinhardt Collapsed During The
Game
"I didn't know the issues until we came off of the
field, because we were in the process of driving down and trying to win the
game. When we turned it over on downs, i
went over and that is when he collapsed and that is when I knew something was
bad. I went through a lot of different
thoughts, over the next really month, so it was obviously a difficult time."
On Colorado's Offense
"Some of it is youth, and some of it is the guy was
better than him on that play. We played
a very good team, we played against a lot of future NFL players, so it was
great competition. I thought our
offensive line had their best game of the year.
They set a standard of how they need to play consistently, if they can
play like that consistently, we will continue to move the ball and have the
opportunity to have success on that side of the football. Sometimes the issues were the other guy was
just, better than them on that play."
On USC Disrupting Colorado's Offense
"Different things affecting their route depth, affecting
them getting out of their break, forcing the quarterback to hold it
longer. There are a lot of things that
go into passing the football when it is not a quick passing game, and sometimes
when it is a quick pass that can also affect it too."
On What He Tells His Secondary This Week
"Tackle. We
have to do a great job of tackling, and so we will continue to do that. We have done, really since the UCLA game, we
do a lot of tackling in practice. We
didn't have Yuri Wright because he got a concussion tackling in practice, so we
didn't have him in the last game. He is
back this game. We have had some guys
maybe not make it to the game because of the tackling in practice, but as you
can see, we still have to keep doing it.
You keep your fingers crossed a little bit but at the end of the day, we
will be better for it. So that is the
first thing, and then the safeties have to do a great job with their eyes,
everybody does have to when you are on defense.
When you are playing assignment football, your eyes need to be in the
right spot; if you are looking over there and you are suppose to be looking the
other way, because of their speed, by the time it isn't on the left but is on
the right, by the time you get back over there, he has probably run by you, you
can probably feel the breeze as they run by you at that point. So you have to be great with your eyes, that
is probably the number one thing especially in the back end, because you are in
a position where you have vision. The
defensive line it is a lot harder because you have a lot of guys in front of
you, but when you are in the secondary you always have to make sure you always
have great vision, and you have to see where the ball is, you have to be able
to understand what the formations is, all of those different things, motions. That will help you know what play is possibly
coming."
On Turnovers
"Interceptions, there is generally not a theme with
those. Sometimes it is the guy trying to
make a play and he forces it, sometimes with quarterback interceptions, like
when you have a three-point shooter; you don't want him shooting it, but if he
makes it you are happy. Sometimes as a
quarterback you have to play with a little reckless abandoned, but it can come
back and get you at times. Because of
the way we are right now, the offense right now is not having that dynamic
playmaker, sometimes the quarterback tries to help the offense make the play
and it doesn't work out that way. The
fumbles, the fumble center-to-quarterback exchange, there is no excuse for
that, we do that everyday before practice for five minutes everyday so that
there is no excuse for that. Christian [Powell]
has to hold onto the football, so we have those two fumbles, and the
interceptions; one was taken away from a receiver, the other two he was trying
to make a play and he should have thrown one away. But to say you can work on it is to try and
keep harping on him (Jordan Webb) about his decisions."
On QB Connor Wood In Practice
"Connor has to keep coming, keep improving. He has to keep getting consistency, I am not
going to be specific, but there are some things he needs to get better at and
improve to keep getting more playing time."
On Team's Morale
"After the team meeting I feel like that, I don't
know what the comments were because I never have done that since probably my
second year in the league; reading the papers.
So I don't know what the comments were, but I feel good about where they
are considering the circumstances, how we practiced yesterday and what we will
do today, we will see what the energy and the tempo is. I know the team understands that if you are
not all in, then I will go with the guys that are as we keep building it. If you are not all in, if you have had enough
for the season we will just put the next guy in."
On QB Jordan Webb's Mental Toughness
"No, he is pretty good. I think a lot of guys who play quarterback at
this level, that is part of that reason you are that guy, is because of your
mental toughness, your ability to try and forget mistakes. What, he threw three interceptions, and so
part of that is just mental toughness, and if it really bothered him he really
would have gone in the tank and so the fact that he kept firing bullets, he
kept being aggressive and that says something about it. Obviously, you don't want a guy out there
that consistently does it, but I know he was trying to fit one into [Nick] Kasa
on the one over a back, and it was a tough throw and he is trying to make plays
and I understand that to a certain extent.
We did a lot in that game to make plays, we did double passes, we did
throwbacks, we did other trick plays, trust me we are trying offensively to
create it because we don't have a Paul Richardson. We don't have anyone like that on that side
of the ball, that can be as explosive, and I'm not slamming the guys or
anything like that, we just don't and that is okay. That is why we need to keep doing those
things to help create plays for those guys."
On WR Gerald Thomas Being A Playmaker
"Yeah, I think he will be eventually. I thought that was a nice catch he had in the
end zone, and how he runs around at his speed, it does lend itself for the
future of him being a playmaker."
On If Playing Man Coverage Would Help Against Oregon
"You can't play too much man because then they get
you out of whack; you have to account for the quarterback. If you're in man, then who has the
quarterback? You have to mix that
in. You have to do your thing in
zone. Also in man, it takes your eyes
away; you have to look at your man when you are in man. It doesn't allow you to help in the run game
like you need to because you are covering your man or looking at your man. You can't just sit there and say, 'Okay,
let's play them in man.' That is one of the unique things about that offense. You have to pick your spots or you have to
mix man-zone kind of principles, just so that you have the vision of how to
stop the run."
On The Percentage Of Man And Zone Coverage Used In The USC Game
"I don't know what the percentage was. The first touchdown was zone, the second
touchdown I think was zone. I think the
first three were zone. Then we were in
man the two going west way, because they are an east-west field, going to the
closed end of the Coliseum, the go-route. If Kenneth [Crawley] finds the ball,
I think he makes the play, the next step, he was running stride-for-stride with
the guy. He got his hand on the ball,
but if he looks sooner, he can make a better play on the ball. The other one, they ran a little double-move
post on him."
On Continuing To Run Man-to-Man Coverage With The Young Corners
"I'll keep doing it. Same with Yuri [Wright] when he comes back
healthy too. I pulled Kenneth aside afterwards
in the parking lot, I had a great conversation with him. I told him that, 'If you want to play in the
NFL, you just got a dose served to you. You are going against a top-10 pick at
receiver and maybe the top pick in the draft at quarterback.' That is what it looks like. So you have two choices, you can mope and
feel sorry for yourself, which no one else will, or that can be the emphasis
that makes you come out and work that much harder, continue to work on your
technique, continue to improve and understand eventually that you are going to
be that guy. And I mean by 'that guy,' eventually
you are going to be that guy where they won't throw your way because every time
they come over there, you are intercepting it, you are knocking it down, you
got the guy blanketed, your making the quarterback hold it so we sack him. And Yuri Wright has that capability
also. I knew; you put them out there, a
little baptism by fire. That is Okay. I look at the strides that Greg Henderson
made. Last year, he had some moments
that affected us and some outcomes in games.
I look at him now this year and when he has been in there, the guy has
played really well. He is a lot better
tackler. His tackling skills were
similar to what 2 (Kenneth Crawley) and 5 (Yuri Wright) were this year. I look at his aggression as far as trying to
break up passes, aggression in his bump coverage, and it is night and day. But he had 845 snaps to get to it. I'm sure that Crawley is on that pace and now
that Yuri is back, he'll be on that pace.
That is part of the deal. They
are going to make some plays, and they are going to have days like that. It is what it is, and they'll be better for
it and we'll be better for it."
On Knowing Before The Season That The Freshmen Would Make Mistakes
"Yeah, to a certain extent. I don't know how many we are playing. I don't know what the deal i, as far as
numbers. It would have been nice to have
had [Ray] Polk the whole time. A few
others guys that have been dinged, it would have been nice to have them, but I
just look at it from the standpoint of these younger guys, like a Marques
Mosley, getting to play - I think he is going to be a fantastic player. He's learning. Jeff Hall does some good things for us back
there too. On the offensive side,
getting Gerald [Thomas] going; and Christian Powell, finding what he is all
about; Vincent Hobbs, he is a guy that is making plays for us. I'm proud of him. He fumbled, whatever game that was, got an
earful, and he was in traffic in three of his four catches and it wasn't an
issue. And they were going after the
ball with him. I see a lot of
improvement in a lot of places and in a lot of our players. That is my mindset and focus, is to continue
that improvement so when you ask about disappointment and discouragement, I'm
focused on the guys that are continuing to improve, that want to improve, and
keep working hard, keep showing up, and keep doing it. That by far outnumbers anyone who that maybe
is discouraged. The guys that are
traveling, that are playing, they've been awesome. I thought our practice yesterday was really
good, and it is translating over to a certain extent to games in bits and
pieces. It is getting to now where it's
who we are all the time. That is that
consistency that we just don't have.
Part of it is that you got to have a guy, like a Paul Richardson, that
when you hit a lull, can make a play and get you back on track. Part of it is growing up. When you are older as a player, when you are
not a freshman; you know, games are long, so sometimes it is hard for guys to
focus every play or understand the importance of that particular play. We had a chance for a touchdown, we showed
the tape, we had a chance maybe for a touchdown on the screen, and two guys on
the back side of the screen, 45 yards away from the play don't give it their
all. And low and behold, that guy made
the tackle. If just one of them had
given great effort, that's the difference.
That is also to, 'I'm tired, it's the 58th play of the game,
this play doesn't really matter because it is over there,' and that is all part
of the maturation process. It is all
part of understanding what your role is and controlling your effort and doing
those things. It kind of goes
hand-in-hand and when you play a team like a USC, like an Oregon, those issues
magnify themselves if you don't play like that."
