MEDIA MONDAY: SOUTH CAROLINA 

Head Coach Butch Jones

(Opening Statement)
“Good afternoon, just a brief recap on Alabama and moving onto South Carolina. Obviously not the start we wanted, started very slow. I think our competitive character showed though, resiliency, being down 27-0, a lot of teams would have folded, our kids kept believing. We never panicked, we didn’t waiver, and we kept playing. So I am proud of them in regards to that. We will talk about the slow start in a minute. Bill Walsh once said it, and I believe it in, the most challenging aspect of probably of being a football coach is seeing progress while you are losing. I don’t take to losing as you all know, the fan base doesn’t as well. I don’t want our players or anyone within our organization ever accept that. But I do see progress, I do think our program is starting to work in terms of mentality, passion, a toughness, I see those strides being developed each and everyday. I think you know there isn’t anyone who internalizes more than myself and it bothers me, obviously, when we don’t perform the standard that we have created here in certain areas. But we are a work in progress, we are who we are. I have said that from day one, this comes at no surprise. All you can do it work to keep getting better and better and live in the moment and continue to work to be a better football team and recruit and develop.

“Defensively, I thought we did some things that were very uncharacteristic of us, particularly starting the game. We made some mental errors in terms of setting the front which are standard elementary things by our linebackers. Our overall eye discipline, for some reason, we lost our eye discipline, gave up some big plays. I thought we were very anxious to start the game. When you play with anxiety or you play with, I don’t want to say, lack of confidence, but when you are thinking, that puts your emergency brake on. We played fast a little bit and we had some players standing around watching plays as they started to happen and we haven’t done that all year. That is something that we need to talk about and get corrected and just playing with confidence and just go play like we have played. Third down, we hang our hat, defensively getting off the field on third down. I don’t think it is any secret, the storyline was controlling third down.

“Then I continue to say it, we have to continue to overachieve, especially on defense, we didn’t overachieve Saturday night. Those things really hurt us, particularly early but when we settled down, we held them to 216 yards in the second half and 14 points and two turnovers. When we settled down I thought we performed better up to our standard.”

“Offensively, we started slow in terms of third down, 0-for-4 and then 11-for-15, tremendous progress, especially against one of the upper-tier defenses. I thought we left some plays out there, especially in the passing game. Everyone wants to look at statistics and running the football but was not pleased in the way we threw the football. We had some easy completions that we didn’t complete. It is making the routine plays that are very, very critical. So we have to continue to improve in our throw game in moving forward. I know the topic is `or, or, or’ so I will hit it off so we don’t spend the 30 minutes talking about our quarterback situation. We are going to try to really up it with Justin [Worley] in practice, Monday and Tuesday, see where he is at. Everything is about competition. Obviously, Josh [Dobbs] did some really good things running the football-wise, managing the offense, he will continue to improve. But I want competition. Playing quarterback at Tennessee is earned. Those three individuals with Nate [Peterman], with Justin if he is able to go and Joshua, we will name a starter when we need to. We are in no rush, depth charts are a thing of the past, they had gone out about 10 years ago. The only reason why I even put together a depth chart is because Jimmy is on me every five minutes, that is Jimmy Stanton. So that is why I am taking you off the hook this week. See I have you back. The best players who have the best week of performance, they will play on Saturday.

“So I will answer any questions that you may have.”

(On the offensive tackles’ performance against Alabama)
“They did some good things in moving forward but for us do go where we need to go, again they are a work in progress. We were able to do some things different schematically to take some pressure off of them so the defensive front just couldn’t rush the passer or run of the field. That still needs to continue to develop and we need to continue to have better play there. But again it is work in progress.”

(On Kyler Kerbyson at guard)
“We have to put the best five on the field. In Kyler’s defense, he has probably played out of position all year. I think that is no secret. But that is where we are at. The big thing is getting Marcus Jackson back this week which we fully anticipate getting him back. That gives us a little flexibility with Kyler. Coleman Thomas is ahead of schedule. There is a possibility that he may be ready for the game. So if we can get both of those individuals back that would help immensely. But for us, it is just putting the best five on the field and an opportunity to win the game.”

(On the offensive line’s performance)
“I think first of all, you have to give our offensive staff credit, Mike Bajakian, they put together a very, very good game plan and a challenging game plan because they had three different game plans for three different quarterbacks and playing to the skill sets of each quarterback. Obviously, some of the things that we did with Josh alleviated some of the stress and pressure of the offensive line just because of the dual threat and some different gap schemes. But those have always been in our offense so I think it is a combination of the scheme, being about to run the quarterback a little bit, and Nate can do the same thing when he is in the game. So I think it is a combination of a lot of little things.”

(On the starting five at offensive line)
“I think you know the answer, whoever is the best five and who has the best week of preparation in practice, then the overall health. Even though Coleman Thomas is back we are going to be playing a very strong and physical defensive front in South Carolina. So again, is he 75 percent back, is he 100 percent back? A lot of that is all relative to where they are at health wise. Same thing with Marcus. If we go out to practice today we will know a little more. But it does help that we have had some individuals gain some live game opportunities in moving forward but again, no where where we need to be, a complete work in progress.”

(On the offensive line listed on the depth chart)
“No. Just names on a list and the best five with play. It gives you something to talk about though.”

(On Jacob Gilliam’s knee holding up against Alabama)
“Obviously, very sore, which you would expect that to be. No worse for the wear. Did an admirable job. Just can’t say enough about him, his competitive grit, he did some very good things, he played tough, he play physical but the knee held up very well. That was a very challenging defensive front too, very strong, very physical.”

(On what they are looking for from Justin Worley in practice)
“Velocity, velocity in his passes. Is he able to execute all the throws that we asked them to and we will see and we will make a decision in moving forward. If he is back, that doesn’t assure him that he is going to start as well. It is what individuals give us the best opportunity to win. We will know a little more in how in progresses and then we have the bye week coming up after the game as well.”

(On balancing quarterback reps)
“Josh will continue to get first team reps. But I also have to guard against crowning individuals. I know everyone is excited, and they’re looking for positive things and there are a lot of positive things. But that’s one game. When you watch the video tape, Josh will be the first to say there are a number of plays we left out there, a number of opportunities we left out there. So now, how can he transition from game one to game two of him playing in the fundamentals, the fine details, the command presences, which we expect. So again, he’s going to need to continue to develop and show growth. He’s not by any means a finished product. But I did like some of the things he’s done. I thought Nate Peterman had a very good week of preparation too. We’ll see where the situation with Justin takes us and lead us.”

(On if Joshua Dobbs plays better than he practices)
“You don’t like to say that as a coach, but he performed. He did some very good things in the game. That’s not to say that he hasn’t performed at times well in practice. What we’re looking for Josh is just a very high level of consistency. Consistency and performance. Make the routine throws. When we have the slant down there, that has to be a touchdown. We can’t kick a field goal. That’s all part of the maturation of a quarterback, playing winning football. But he did some very good things. He defeated high coverage at times. I thought he was poised. He’s going in there playing the University of Alabama, top four football team in the country. I think he gained some confidence from last year’s opportunities but he needs to continue to take the next step in practice this week.”

(On if players that play better than they practice is rare)
“It’s rare. I don’t believe in that. I don’t believe in gamers. I call those floaters, just float along because eventually it catches up to you. I just had this talk with a perspective student-athlete. By far the best practice player I have ever, ever been a part of is Antonio Brown. There’s a reason why if he continues to do what he’s doing he will be in the pro football hall of fame. Right down to wear he taped a ladder on the second story of his apartment where he had rooms. He taped a ladder so every time he had to go upstairs to go to bed, go the bathroom, he’d have to do ladder drills no matter what time of night it was. Those are things that we preach to our players all the time about the inner drive. J.J. Watt is another individual. Great players are motivated internally. They do everything they can to make themselves great players.”

(On how the defense will address the third down difficulty)
“It’s going to be a great challenge. They have a very, very good quarterback, very, very good wide outs, one of the best offensive lines in the SEC, and a very, very dynamic running back. Big, physical, can get the tough yards but also has the breakaway capabilities to score anywhere on the field. It starts with them first. When I talked about making progress, Curt [Maggitt] was the individual who gathered up our defense after the game, after I got done speaking with them, and talked about the standard and expectation getting off the field defensively on third down. We’ll go back. We’ll look at the video. We’ll get our corrections made. Again, I didn’t think we disrupted the quarterback much. A lot of people want to point towards the secondary, but there were a number of times we let the quarterback outside of the pocket and everything is about when you rush the quarterback, it’s point of pressure. It’s rush lanes, rush points on the quarterback. We allowed him to get outside of the framework of our defense. We lost contain. When that happens you’re in scramble drill mode, and we can’t allow that to happen. We need our three techniques to win one-on-one matchups. You look at all the great defenses. They have three techniques that win one-on-ones. We need some more edge presence to our defense.”

(On the status of Trevarris Saulsberry)
“He’ll be out this week. We’ll continue to progress him to see where he will be at but right now he won’t be available for South Carolina.”

(On the difference between Brett Kendrick against Alabama compared to against Arkansas State)
“I think first of all, was just the anxiety level, not being as anxious. Having those live game opportunities, being in those situations, kind of knowing what to expect, so I would say just the overall experience factor.”

(On Kendrick’s play against Alabama)
“He did some positive things to move forward and build upon. Again, like I stated earlier, work in progress. He has to continue to work on the fundamentals, fine details, hat placement, just the small details. But some very positive things as we continue to move forward.

(On the reasoning going to the beast package)
“Just trying to find every opportunity to win the football game. A.J. [Johnson] runs with a physical presence. Tried to get a couple critical yards there but weren’t able to. That’s the thing. You look at the inordinate amount of plays that just came up short by inches. It’s a game of inches. It really is so fighting for every inch, yard. We’ll continue to discuss in our football program but just looking for creative ways to win a football game.”

(On the conversation with Joshua Dobbs about redshirting)
“Everything with Josh Dobbs is how can I help the team win. He’s selfless, unselfish. Everything is about the team. He understands that. We’ve been up front like we do with every player and tell them our thoughts and leave it as their final decision. Obviously have great dialogue with their parents as well. Josh is one of those individuals who will do anything and everything for the team. Whatever benefits the team, he wants to do.”

(On the focus on consistency towards the end of the season)
“Absolutely. Josh’s biggest thing is consistency and performance each and every day. Make the routine throws. Not the `oh my God’ plays, but the routine plays. That’s what we need. Why do shortstops in major league baseball make millions in salaries? Because they make the routine throw to first base over and over again. You look at the great quarterbacks. Why are they the great ones? It’s because the consistency, the ball placement, the accuracy, the velocity, the movement in the pocket, the ability to keep plays alive with your legs. Just the overall level of consistency. Josh is still a very young football player. He’s still learning as we go. He’s still developing his mechanics. But I know this. The great thing about him is you only have to tell him once and he gets it.”

(On the increased running with the package with Joshua Dobbs at quarterback)
“Maybe a little bit more than usual. I thought the game dictated that. You’ll see that offensive package continue to build upon the more volume we can handle. But really it starts with how can we alleviate stress from the offensive line. How can we create one-on-one matchups out on the perimeter. How are we going to get the ball in the hands of our playmaker. It’s more than just the quarterback, but it is a quarterback friendly system. You’ll see it continue to evolve but that’s probably more running than we would like.”

(On if he is opposed to running a two quarterback system)
“I haven’t in the past just because I like to have a quarterback get into the rhythm of the game and get a feel for it. Right now we’re scratching and clawing for every victory we can. Whatever it takes to win football games right now, that’s what we’re looking to do.”

(On how to weight between who can lessen pressure on offensive line to who performs better in practice)
“I still think you need to throw the football in order to win football games. You have to have great balance on offense. You can’t be one dimensional. It’s easy for defenses to take one dimensional football teams away. We’ve prided ourselves over the years of being diversified in everything we do. You look at one season we had the number one, number two and number three leading receiver in our conference. There are only two quarterbacks in the history of the game to throw for 3,000 yards and rush for 1,000. One was our quarterback Dan Levefer and the other one was the quarterback at Texas, Vince Young. Those are the two, so we’ve prided ourselves on being a balanced offense. That’s what we need to be. We can’t be heavy run oriented or heavy pass oriented. We need to be able to perform best. The teams that really win consistently, they really do have great balance over time.”

(On if they had offensive balance during the second quarter stretch)
“Yes, we had offensive balance and probably more important than that, we had a rhythm. We still would have liked to play faster. For some reason our tempo was slowed down, which I have no idea why. We followed the rules of the game. I thought we were able to get into a rhythm. We were generating first downs on first and second down. To me, that’s the whole key to having great rhythm on offense. The great teams, 65 to 75 percent of the first downs that are gained in a game are gained on first and second down. If you’re relying on third down, you’re going to be in trouble. It was a little different storyline because we did well on third down this pastSaturday. Really you need to generate first downs on first and second down.”

(On South Carolina’s Dylan Thompson)
“Poised, can do a number of things, very accurate, has great experience, makes all the throws and very very consistent. He’s a leader of that offense and that football team.”

(On the rushing yards South Carolina allowed to Auburn)
“Well, I think when you watch the video, first of all Auburn has some dynamic players. They do some different things that challenge you defensively. So, I think they’ve played, you look at some of the opponents they’ve played, they’ve been rushing offenses. They hang their hat on running the football. I think that’s why you see some of the stats that way. When I watch them defensively, they’re really big up front. They do a good job of getting off blocks. They’ll probably the biggest line we’ve faced to date overall. They have very very active linebackers. They’re able to play man coverage in the back end and they run exceptionally well.”

(On if SEC offenses and defenses have evened out as season progresses)
“As the season progresses, you put your identity on video. So, the more video you have out there, the more games you play, the more things you have to game plan. I think injuries are a big part of this. You look at the teams that win consistently in November, late October, that go on championship stretch runs, they have great depth. They’re able to limit the repetitions which we spoke about last week. They have great depth. So, you lose a guy, next man in and the expectation doesn’t change. So, I think it’s the health. I think it’s the depth, but also I think the other thing is just having more video and able to game plan more as well. I think it’s a combination of all those and even more than that.”

(On why they have not been able to take advantage of field position)
“Critical plays, not making enough plays, being stopped third and short. So, there isn’t one glaring thing that has come up. We continue to speak about the field position game and taking advantage of the field position game. If there was any theme at all that you would say well what was the one thing if you could pinpoint. It’s negative yardage plays, particularly on first down. There’s an interesting stat, if you have no negative yardage plays, that means penalties and everything, you have a great great opportunity to win a football game. We talk to our players all the time about no negative yardage plays offensively. Where we’ve really struggled is recovering from a negative plays. When we’ve been given or created good field position, we’ve been set back by a negative yardage play. The margin of error is very very small as I’ll continue to say as we’re a work in progress. So, we have to earn ever yard we get. Hey, we throw the ball and it’s an incomplete pass. Second and ten is much better than second and fifteen, second and sixteen. Sometimes a throw away is a great play and that’s our entire team, our quarterbacks, all those individuals understanding that.”

(On if the OL being in natural positions allowed Coach Bajakian to get in a rhythm)
“Yeah, I think our players did a great job though of making plays. I thought Jalen Hurd performed well, he ran hard which we expect him to. We had some players, Marquez North step up. Von Pearson made some plays; Alton (Pig Howard) made some plays. I think it’s just really a byproduct of moving the chains, getting positive yardage so you’re able to get into a rhythm. It’s hard to play call when it’s second and ten, second and fifteen, third and eleven, third and sixteen. The advantage goes to the defense. Second and four, third and three… advantage offense. So, I think it’s our players stepping up. Our first down efficiency, we were 68% of four yards or more when we ran the football, which is very very good. So, we were moving the sticks. We were getting positive yardage. I think that has more to do with it than anything. Our players did a good job of having some discipline to execute their assignments.”

(On status of Josh Smith and Owen Williams)
“Owen Williams will be available. He played most of the game, so he’ll be fine. Josh Smith again will not be available. It’s just, when you have a high ankle sprain, every person’s body’s different. His body’s not healing right now. He’s making progress, but he’s nowhere where he can play right now. We’ll have this week at South Carolina, we’ll have the bye week and then we’ll again look at him, address his situation and see in moving forward what our plans are for him.”

(On possibility of medical redshirt)
“It could be if he’s not 100% by the stretch run. I wouldn’t ever want to take somebody’s year away if he’s not healthy because we’re going to need him for the future of our program. He means so much to our program. It’ll be, again, a daily process of where he’s at health wise. That isn’t out of the question right now. That’s something, that’s an option we have.”

(On if by stretch run he means beginning with the Kentucky game)
“Correct, yep.”

Defensive Back Cameron Sutton

(On the difference from the first to second half against Alabama)
“We just settled in a played our game, played our style of defense. Just locking in, not letting the things that we couldn’t control get to us and things like that. Like I said, we just played our game.”

(On what he expects to see from South Carolina)
“We expect, just with any game with it being a home game and the crowd with their atmosphere in their backyard, they’re definitely going to come out with a lot of intensity. As far as confidence, it’s a new team so they bring new guys, new things that they do differently from throughout the years. We can’t rely on last year. Like I said, we’re going into somebody else’s backyard where a lot of guys on our team haven’t been before. Like I said, we just have to play through the things we can’t control, with the crowd and things like that, and just play our game with our style of football.”

(On whether Alabama made it difficult to line up properly)
“They ran a couple of guys here and there off different plays. We’re a formation-based defense so it’s kind of hard to set off fronts and things like that, get lined up when they’re running guys in and out.”

(On how often he lined up against Amari Cooper)
“I lined up with him a couple of times throughout the course of the game. You know, like I said, their offense does a good job of moving him around throughout the slot with different formations, outside and inside. They work their offense around him and try to get him the ball and they’re really good at it.”

Linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin

(On what he saw from Alabama in the second half compared to the first)
“I think we kind of got settled in a little more. Early on, they started going kind of fast and I don’t think we were prepared for it as much as we should have been. After that, I feel like we got settled in a little bit more, got more calm.”

(On whether the team had some anxiety before the Alabama game)
“I wouldn’t say that we were too jacked up but they came out and hit us kind of fast. I guess we just weren’t prepared for it. We weren’t ready to jump on them the way they jumped on us but I don’t think there was any anxiety.”

(On last week’s defensive production and getting back to work this week)
“We definitely didn’t like that at all. We pride ourselves on third down and getting off the field. Overall, as a defense, we didn’t do a good job as secondary, linebackers, D-linemen. As everybody, we didn’t do a good job of containing the quarterback. We let him out get a little bit and make plays so we just have to stay on that a little bit more.”

(On the magnitude of the South Carolina game considering bowl eligibility)
“It’s definitely a big one. We’ve got four games to get to a bowl and every week is a new season so, all we can focus on is this one game right now to help us take steps to that bowl game.”

Punter Matt Darr

(On what has been different about his punt game recently)
“I’m just hitting the ball with confidence right now. I’m striking through it and making good contact and things are going pretty well.”

(On what has led to his consistency)
“Technically, after the Oklahoma game, I really tried to dive into what were my problems, technically and mechanically. I kind of simplified things with my drop and I’m able to strike the ball and hit it with confidence right now. Since the Georgia game, that’s just kind of been my focus, to put it out there and try to hit it.”

(On how he’s been simplifying his drops)
“Basically I just do repetitions all through practice of making sure that when I release it out of my hand, it’s staying still and falling flat. If I give myself a good drop, it sets myself up to where I can come through the ball and hit it clean.”

(On his confidence level right now)
“Yeah. With each game, we’re getting into different situations and I’m doing my best to put the defense in good field position and give them every opportunity they can to have success.”