Nov. 9, 2009

Watch Coach Wannstedt's Press Conference

Coach Wannstedt Press Conference

November 9, 2009

Notre Dame Week

 

Opening Statement:

"Just moving on from the Syracuse game I think after we had a chance to really go through it, we were obviously very pleased with the win against a (conference) opponent. It really gave us an opportunity, particularly coming off the bye, to get with our players and show them the tape and make the points to the players of what we need to improve on. We weren't as clean against Syracuse, in all three phases, as what we need to be, or what we were against South Florida. We did do enough to win the game and we're happy about that. But, the focus this week with Notre Dame will be to clean up some of the details from last week's game, and then get ready to play a very, very, talented Notre Dame football team. Looking at them on tape, offensively to start off with, they are a veteran group with size and experience on the offensive line. I think that Jimmy Clausen is playing as good as any quarterback around. He's much improved. I've had a chance from playing him to follow his career. From when he first came in, he's much improved in all aspects of the game. They have a talented group of skill players. (Halfback) Armando Allen, I remember visiting with him when he came out of high school down in Miami. We know what kind of talent they have at running back. Theo Riddick, a freshman, we talked to him last year about potentially coming to Pitt. Now with (wide receiver) Michael Floyd back, and with Golden Tate, they've got as dynamic a one-two punch and as explosive as anybody in the country. As you watch the tape of all of our opponents I would say without a doubt Golden (Tate) is the best player that we have faced. He does it all. This guy is exceptional at catching the ball, exceptional at making guys miss, he's a tough guy. Wherever they line him up, whatever responsibility they give him, this guy is special. He is very impressive. Defensively, they do a lot. They're a pressure team. They will force us to make sure that we cover all of our bases, from an offensive standpoint, run and pass-wise. They try to create bad plays, negative plays. They force turnovers. Again, with the skill that they have on defense, particularly in their secondary with some of the speed and experience they have back there, they can latch on to receivers and give you a lot of bad plays. So this will be a big, big challenge for us without a doubt. We need to jump from conference play to non-conference, and that will be the biggest challenge for us tomorrow."

 

On Notre Dame's running game:

"They've got as talented of running backs as anyone. They've got as good of an offensive line as anyone, it's experienced. I think their running game is scary. It really is. They've got players that can take it the distance at any time. Their run game is very similar to ours. They're going to run the power, the toss. They aren't going to be one of those teams that run the quarterback a lot. They did a little bit of quarterback read, spread stuff, early in the year. They haven't done much of that, like a South Florida or what we saw last week. They're a little bit more of a conventional run team. So it's a little bit different than what we've seen the last couple of weeks, similar to what our offense does."

 

On quarterback Jimmy Clausen's improvement:

"He's making better decisions. You can tell that his maturity level as a person and as a player has really gone to another level. Most of the time we play I'll watch tape on quarterbacks and we try determine what throws can this guy make, what throws does he have difficulty with. We try to create a game plan around that. He can make all of the throws. There are no holes in this guy. He'll be playing on Sundays. There's no doubt about that."

 

On what Navy did defensively to slow down Notre Dame:

"I think Navy played their game. They ran the ball, controlled the clock. That's what Navy did. Notre Dame really hurt themselves. They moved the ball. They didn't punt at all in the game. How do you come out of a game where you don't punt and you don't win the football game? Well, it's pretty easy, turnovers. They were down in the red zone twice. When you go for it on fourth down and you don't make it, that's turning the football over. They got stopped on a fourth down situation. They missed two field goals. They turned it over in the red zone. That's how you lose a game when you dominate the stats. For whatever reason, Notre Dame didn't run the ball much. They ran it 20 times, threw it 52 (times). They traditionally have been running it a lot more. We're expecting them to be balanced against us. But, Navy gave a great effort. When they had to make some plays, they did. They stopped them on fourth down. They sacked them in the end zone. They created turnovers."

 

On if a team is more dangerous after they lose:

"I think when you're dealing with good coaches, and you're dealing with good players, and high character people, and you have a setback, you better be expecting their best effort. Those type of individuals are going to come out and try to make things right. So I'm expecting that we are going to be getting an angry, tough, hungry, football team in here on Saturday night, and a talented team. We better be ready for them."

 

On any concerns of the team losing focus with the atmosphere on Saturday:

"I don't think so with our guys. Our kids are excited about playing in front of a good crowd and on TV. But, we've done that this year. I'm going to go back to the leadership of our team. We've got a very mature team. We had a good talk yesterday with the team. We're going to keep our feet on the ground. It's not going to be the people in the stands. It's not going to be the TV people. It's going to come down to blocking and tackling. We've got to be ready to keep our focus on what will win this game for us."

 

On where the program has come since playing Notre Dame in 2005:

"We've got more depth right now. We had to play some freshmen in that game. I remember Gus Mustakas played. Rashaad Duncan played. We've got better depth now, that's the first thing. We thought we were a heck of a lot better than we really were. We found out very quickly that we had work to do. I think we had good leadership then, but we were probably just a little bit ahead of ourselves. I was trying to figure out who could do what. I was with the kids for (just) a month."

 

On if trying to discover what kind of team you have is the biggest challenge for a new head coach:

"It's one of the challenges. I don't know if it's the greatest one. People can tell you who can do what. I think as a coach, until a kid is put into a live, pressure situation, you can't see how a kid is going to respond. I approached it a little bit differently, looking back on it then. You see coaches taking over programs and nothing is good, and everything is wrong. Because of me being a Pitt guy, and feeling like I do about these kids, I went the other way.

 

"It was a situation where we came in and everybody was welcome. I wanted every kid and I respected every kid's decision that was here and I wanted every kid to finish at Pitt, because of how I feel about this school. So, we took it a little bit slower than the majority of head coaches that take over a program, that come in, and turns it over and 20 kids leave at the end of spring practice. That really wasn't the case here. We gradually made the changes that we felt we needed to make. I think the worst thing that you can do is make bad decisions. We have a lot of kids right now that four years ago it would have been really easy to give up on, or not give an opportunity to change, and we did. Those kids became great successful players for us, and great young men, and graduated."

 

On what a win over a program like Notre Dame means:

"Nationally, Notre Dame is a team like Pitt. We haven't won a national championship since 1976, but we've got our share. Notre Dame is one of those schools that has great, great, tradition, and great national tradition. Maybe the most nationally recognized team in the country. They probably are, anywhere. I know firsthand recruiting against them, here and when I was at USC that they can go into any state, any high school, anywhere, and they are going to be one of two or three schools recruiting a kid...whether it's California, New Jersey, or Texas. There's no other place in the country that can really do that. They have had great tradition. Our kids are looking at this game like it's a game against a quality football team with great tradition, but no more. We know we need to line up and play well."

 

On if last year's four-overtime win over Notre Dame has any significance to the game:

"I think every year is a new year. That's something that these kids will always have with them. I'm sure they have players on their team that were here four years ago. Every year is a new year. Our guys respect these players. They know that they have a lot of great players. I know that Charlie Weis is an outstanding coach. They have good coaches. We have to be the best team on Saturday night."

 

On if the secondary is improved from earlier games this season:

"We'll find out. I would like to think so. I know we've gotten better. We've settled in a bit more as the year has gone on, defensively. I think our players have a little bit more confidence. This will be a real test, from a schematic attack, to also the personnel. These guys are good. You better be able to wrap them up and get them on the ground."

 

On Notre Dame's schemes:

"They do a lot of things. Charlie Weis has a lot of experience. Defensively, they're going to put a lot of pressure on you. As much as any team that we have played all year. (Defensive coordinator) Jon Tenuta is a big pressure guy, a big blitz guy. They've done more of that now than they've done in the past. Offensively, they've got good schemes. We'll line up. We'll have some new things defensively for them. They've got a system that they use and they execute it awfully well. They make adjustments within their system to what you are doing on defense. When you match that with really talented players, as talented of players as there are in the country, it makes them a very dangerous football team."

 

On Notre Dame's offensive line having five senior starters:

"The last offensive line where I saw all senior starters and guys that were as big as this was...Notre Dame five years ago. It was the most experienced line that they'd ever had in the history of the school. That's what they said at that time. These guys are right along that same mold. Our defense, and our defensive line, we have our work cut out for us. Usually every offensive line has a freshman or a sophomore that's stuck in there somewhere who hasn't played much. That is not the case with these guys."

 

On Notre Dame's defense:

"Defensively, they've got a few younger players. They're athletic. They do more pressure stuff. The linebackers make a lot of plays. Their corners can cover. I think with what they're doing on defense, the personnel matches up well."

 

On the offense and continuing to emphasize the run game:

"Every week we go in wanting to be balanced. I think every team does. It's interesting because I think you have to get back to it at some point in the game, but it might not be until the fourth quarter. You might go into a game saying we're going to run the ball. If we're struggling, now we have to go to that control passing game, which is a little bit what we did last week. We were hitting the flats and hitting the high percentage throws. Then as the game went on, we got into the running game a little bit more. I think being balanced doesn't necessarily mean having 35 runs and 35 passes in a game. I think being balanced almost means being able to run the ball and throw the ball. We feel good about being able to do that right now. If you take away one phase of it, we feel very confident that we can attack you in another way."

 

On punt returns:

"We don't have a whole lot of opportunities for returns and when there is a return it's a very short one. Last week we mishandled the ball. We bobbled it a couple of times, we put it on the ground. That's the first time that that was really an issue. That eliminated any chances last week. Over the course of the year, leading up to that point, I don't think we've had a lot of opportunities. You look at Golden Tate, I said he's the best player that I have seen on tape all year, and he's returning punts for them. I think he averages six and a half or seven yards a return, and he's a great player, a great athlete. I think it's the new scheme of punt, this West Virginia rugby punt that has really minimized or cut back on the number of punt returns."

 

On who will be returning punts:

"Aaron Berry can do it. Jarred Holley can do it. We'll continue with Aaron Smith and Cameron Saddler. Both of those guys are capable of it. They've been good all year."

 

On the reaction to cracking the Top 10 in the polls:

"I'm excited. It's a neat thing for our program. It's not going to help us win this Saturday against Notre Dame, I know that. But, it's good for recruiting and hopefully good for alumni support. Those are the two things really. Our players, it's a nice reward for them, but we've got three games left. It doesn't have any bearing on anything that we have to do Saturday. It's good for the program, good notoriety."

 

On four Big East teams being ranked this week:

"I'd have to pull out my quote from August. That's why I said what I said. Let's wait until December to see. We have good football teams here, we know that...as good as anybody around. Sometimes things just have to take their course."