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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Head Coach David Cutcliffe's Music City Bowl Press Conference
12/27/2000 | Football
OPENING COMMENTS
"Let me reiterate the fact that we're extremely excited to be in Nashville. Nashville is a great city. Our players went out and saw a few things last night. There was a lot of excitement in town with the Titans and the Cowboys playing - so they had a real chance to get a feel for the city. I know we're all excited about playing in such a great facility as Adelphia Coliseum. We'd like to say thank you to the Music City Bowl people. They have been to us. They've been outstanding folks to work with and we appreciate that very much. As for our team, we had a good practice, today. We've had a good practice facility at Goodpasture High School - Coach David Martin has done a great job of hosting us and has worked hard so we could have good practice fields to work on. Even so, the conditions have been a little tough. The ground is frozen although it little thawed today - I think it got up to 34 or 35 degrees today so it was like a spring day in Canada so the ground softened up some, which was good for us. Our squad has had a good attitude. I've been concerned that we hadn't been able to go as quickly or as fast as we would like to go because of the weather back home, but increasingly we've seen our focus get better. I think we know what we need to do. I'm interested to see how our timing is going to be. It's always critical in Bowl games that you play the kicking game well, that you tackle well, that you do all the little things. We haven't played for a month and playing helps with all the "little things" you need to do to win a football game. I don't that that we've been able to work on those little things because of conditions that we've been able to practice under. But we have some veteran players that I think will respond to the challenge in a big way. We have a great challenge in front of us. I know West Virginia will be a very highly motivated team. Coach Neyland does a great job. All of his teams through the years have been very physical. They will play physical defense, they will be physical in the interior on the offensive side. They have some balance - they're able to run the football, if they can run it and throw it on you, you have a difficult time stopping their offense. They are an extremely well coached team so we know we'll have to play probably our best game to win this ball game. So it should be an emotional game from that stand point and we're looking forward to the challenge."
Q- A lot has been said about their zone defense. What do you think?
A- Their zone blitz package is outstanding that give you many different looks. This makes preparation more difficult. They do a great job with it and they have good athletes to execute their assignments. Their outside backers are able to do a lot of things for them - rush the passer, drop in zone, they're able to mix some man coverage in with it. Their safeties are very physical football players and they're put in position to make hits. It's impressive what they have done with that package. We're just going to have to know what we're doing and be very sound on offense to manage that.
Q- Have you faced anything like theirs this year?
A- Not a team that has as expanded as their zone blitz package as theirs. We haven't seen anybody that does that much. And they do a really good job of teaching that package.
Q- Is there a sense on your team that WV is going to be playing with a lot of emotion because of what's going on with Coach Neyland's retirement. Is this something you have addressed with your team?
A- I think our team has been aware of that all along and even read comments where some of their players have made comments about that. We know it's an emotionally charged situation for them but we have a lot to play for ourselves. We have a lot on the line in our minds. This is a great opportunity for us not only to be in a great bowl game, but have a chance to win our fourth straight bowl game - that's an exciting opportunity and challenge for our team. Coach Nehlen's retirement is one thing we can't control. We know it will be an emotionally charged game for them - we'll just have to play real well and execute our assignments.
Q- Talk a little bit about their running back Avon Cobourne - what you see in him, and how you plan to stop him?
A- I think he is an outstanding back. He's a strong youngster and like a lot of backs he runs with great leverage - great pad leverage. And when he's been healthy he's phenomenal - and I understand he's healthy. He's a guy that's a threat to take it all the way, but he's a very tough back - he goes and gets tough yardage as well. He's a very impressive young back. He's got a great career in front of him.
Q- Does the conference match-up come into play to any extent in what you talk to with the team?
A- I think every team plays with a certain sense of conference pride. A strong conference showing in the bowls makes each of our conference wins more important. We feel it's important to play well certainly for our sake and our program, but we do know we're representing the SEC. I'm sure if you were to ask WV the same question, they would answer the same way - that they know they're representing their conference, the Big East. There's always conference pride - people keep score conference to conference, we all know that.
Q- Have you ever faced Coach Nehlen before?
A- I've never coached against him. I've faced him in recruiting - and that's a tough battle. They've done a great job recruiting a lot of places nationally. I ran into him a lot in south Florida through the years. He's a great, energetic man - always recruiting with great energy. I know a lot about his program and have been friends with some of his assistants through the years. I feel like I know a lot about the type of man he is and the program he's run, but I never have faced him in a ball game.
Q- Did you recruit Khori Ivy?
A- We recruited Khori Ivy when I was at Tennessee yes. He's an outstanding talent, but no I didn't personally recruit him. I was involved because he was an offensive player and receiver, but he wasn't in my geographic area. He's a very talented youngster, very fast with all the tools you need to be a great wide receiver.