On the game, going in three days now and big thanks to the Gasparilla Bowl and Scott they’ve allowed us to experience a good bowl game and I want to thank these people or the job they’ve done to welcome us and the entire organization and the players. My daughter has had the best time, running up and down the hallways and going to the zoo right now. Those kids and the bonds they are creating and making friends with other coaches kids and people on the staff’s kids. This is the first bowl game I’ve been to with a small child to see it through her eyes is really cool. It makes you see there is so much more to this than just the game, it is more than that for the players and staff, it is like a vacation with all of their friends. I’ll remember it for all my life and I’m sure Harper will too. I want to thank them.
Now is the time to focus in and we came down here to play in a football game. We will have our end-of-the-year team banquet tonight and that is where our heads are at. Tomorrow will be a walk-through and winning the game tomorrow night is our goal. There are two types of teams that play in the bowl game, there is a team playing hard because they don’t want their season to end and the other that want their season to end, we want to play as long as we can and we want to have one last experience playing as a team. We will continue to prepare for the next 48 hours.
Anytime you go to a bowl game, there is a reason why teams want to go every year and go every year, we are in the beginning stages of building a long-term program when you have an extra opportunity to play and you add an extra session of practice and it allows you to honor your seniors.
On playing hostile crowd, it is another game, we’ve played in front of big crowds and loud crowds in front of 100,000 people we will be ready.
The role of momentum you’ve been on ends and has to restart for the bowl and you want that to drive your team.
On the UCF game means for him, it is the next football game, there are no emotions in this, I’m trying to eliminate emotional elements. I have a history there and I spent 11-12 great years there and I met my wife there, it was a big part of my life. It was a long time ago and where I coached has zero impact on this game on Friday night, it matters how they line up and how they execute the game.
On Jay King and Dontae having had past bowl experience, they were both true freshmen playing in Detroit, which was a rollercoaster of a year. I was with Tae in my office and he was floating around on clouds, he said it has been the best experience he had and Jay the same way. I told them to soak it up and don’t rush through it and soak it up.
Key on his final game at GT, what I remember is being up 14-0 in the old Georgia Dome in the Peach Bowl against Nick Saban in his first year at LSU and I remember everything from the dinner we had together with the other team and the play where Grady James ran through the A-gap and George Godsey tore his ACL on the play to the long touchdown that was called back then scoring to go up and then they make the QB change and Rohan Davey goes in at quarterback and we wend up losing the game. I remember every single bit of it. I remember the game being over and I didn't want to take my pads off and not wanting it to be over. I told this team there are three types of enjoyment, the enjoyment of the bowl game, two the time that we are preparing to go compete and the third one we have to earn on the field and that is the right to celebrate when it is over and hold up the trophy.
On Haynes King, it is the growth he has had in the last year and the confidence in himself and leadership the way he moves about the team and commands the respect of everyone to his growth as a player on the field and handle adversity, that is so hard at this position and they know what he does well and doesn’t you can’t let it effect you as a player. He has thrown some picks, but a lot of his throws took big courage to do and throwing into tight windows and taking calculated risks. The confidence the team has around him is huge and his ability to run the ball and we knew he was fast, but the things he can do with designed QB runs and reading the option plays, is big. He has grown as a young man, he is a cool dude to hang around and people enjoy being around him. He is not standoffish and there is no woe is me with him.
On UCF’s offense, they’ve won a lot and they are driven by the QB similar to us and it goes through him with the QB designed runs and ability to scramble when the play breaks down. They will run the ball and there is no secret. It is not traditional runs, perimeter snaps and 189 snaps of jetmotion to get eyes out of place on defense and we have to get our eyes set. They have two explosive WRs and they get 50/50 balls they come down with.
On emotions of coaching the seniors for the last time, it is the same message as always, you take emotion out of the game, you turn emotion into energy then after the game I’ll get emotional, but during the game, I want the emotions in check especially in a bowl game, this is the most emotional sport it is and every day we try our minds to take the emotion out, after the game we will savior it.
Now is the time to focus in and we came down here to play in a football game. We will have our end-of-the-year team banquet tonight and that is where our heads are at. Tomorrow will be a walk-through and winning the game tomorrow night is our goal. There are two types of teams that play in the bowl game, there is a team playing hard because they don’t want their season to end and the other that want their season to end, we want to play as long as we can and we want to have one last experience playing as a team. We will continue to prepare for the next 48 hours.
Anytime you go to a bowl game, there is a reason why teams want to go every year and go every year, we are in the beginning stages of building a long-term program when you have an extra opportunity to play and you add an extra session of practice and it allows you to honor your seniors.
On playing hostile crowd, it is another game, we’ve played in front of big crowds and loud crowds in front of 100,000 people we will be ready.
The role of momentum you’ve been on ends and has to restart for the bowl and you want that to drive your team.
On the UCF game means for him, it is the next football game, there are no emotions in this, I’m trying to eliminate emotional elements. I have a history there and I spent 11-12 great years there and I met my wife there, it was a big part of my life. It was a long time ago and where I coached has zero impact on this game on Friday night, it matters how they line up and how they execute the game.
On Jay King and Dontae having had past bowl experience, they were both true freshmen playing in Detroit, which was a rollercoaster of a year. I was with Tae in my office and he was floating around on clouds, he said it has been the best experience he had and Jay the same way. I told them to soak it up and don’t rush through it and soak it up.
Key on his final game at GT, what I remember is being up 14-0 in the old Georgia Dome in the Peach Bowl against Nick Saban in his first year at LSU and I remember everything from the dinner we had together with the other team and the play where Grady James ran through the A-gap and George Godsey tore his ACL on the play to the long touchdown that was called back then scoring to go up and then they make the QB change and Rohan Davey goes in at quarterback and we wend up losing the game. I remember every single bit of it. I remember the game being over and I didn't want to take my pads off and not wanting it to be over. I told this team there are three types of enjoyment, the enjoyment of the bowl game, two the time that we are preparing to go compete and the third one we have to earn on the field and that is the right to celebrate when it is over and hold up the trophy.
On Haynes King, it is the growth he has had in the last year and the confidence in himself and leadership the way he moves about the team and commands the respect of everyone to his growth as a player on the field and handle adversity, that is so hard at this position and they know what he does well and doesn’t you can’t let it effect you as a player. He has thrown some picks, but a lot of his throws took big courage to do and throwing into tight windows and taking calculated risks. The confidence the team has around him is huge and his ability to run the ball and we knew he was fast, but the things he can do with designed QB runs and reading the option plays, is big. He has grown as a young man, he is a cool dude to hang around and people enjoy being around him. He is not standoffish and there is no woe is me with him.
On UCF’s offense, they’ve won a lot and they are driven by the QB similar to us and it goes through him with the QB designed runs and ability to scramble when the play breaks down. They will run the ball and there is no secret. It is not traditional runs, perimeter snaps and 189 snaps of jetmotion to get eyes out of place on defense and we have to get our eyes set. They have two explosive WRs and they get 50/50 balls they come down with.
On emotions of coaching the seniors for the last time, it is the same message as always, you take emotion out of the game, you turn emotion into energy then after the game I’ll get emotional, but during the game, I want the emotions in check especially in a bowl game, this is the most emotional sport it is and every day we try our minds to take the emotion out, after the game we will savior it.
