TOM O’BRIEN PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES
The Wolfpack have a huge game at home Saturday against Pittsburgh as the try to insure themselves a bowl game this season. State fans may laugh at the notion that a bowl game is not a definite thing, but a loss this weekend would mean the Wolfies would have to go 5-3 in ACC play. How many would be that’s a sure thing?
Can you talk about Pittsburgh and in particular how they run the ball? No. 28, Lewis, actually is a true freshman, I guess he went to school in January so he went through spring practice. He’s quick, he’s small, he hides behind them. They’re top three in rushing offense and rushing defense in the conference, top three in scoring offense and scoring defense in the conference. They do a great job running the ball and stopping the run. The thing that is more worrisome for us is they’re No. 1 in not giving up sacks, and they’re No. 1 in sacking people in their conference. They play very solid on defense and they’re committed to running the football. They’re big, physical guys up front. They’ll really knock you back off the line of scrimmage and then really do a great job with their play action passes from there.
You have done a nice job stopping the run since middle of last season, why do you think that is the case? We haven’t seen an offensive line like this one. These guys, they’ve got pro prospects up there. They’ve got guys that have played three or four years, I think four of the guys have started. Now they’ve got a ton of experience and they’re committed to running. A lot of these teams we were talking about in the past haven’t been committed to the run as much as Pittsburgh has.
What has the team accomplished in the last two weeks? The thing that’s been not good for us is that we’ve started four offensive line. This will be our fourth starting offensive line and our fourth starting secondary in the fourth game of the year because of injury or sickness or whatever. We really haven’t gotten the continuity at the two most important position on our team especially the last two weeks. The only thing we have done is gotten some young guys in the football game which is down the road stuff, but for immediate getting better as a football team, when you’re on your fourth different offensive line, your fourth different secondary, not a good situation to be in.
Have you ever been in a situation like that? I don’t remember anything since I’ve been here like that.
What’s the offensive line and secondary? Williams is back and playing left guard, which is where he started first game and ended up playing left tackle. Now he’s back at left guard, Wallace is at left tackle. So the left side of the line is different again for the fourth game than it’s been in the previous one. Rashard Smith and the ankle, that’s another change we have to make in the secondary.
What did you think of Andrew Wallace’s first start? I think he did a really good job. We started him at tackle in preseason camp, moved him to guard because of the situation when we set it up with Williams going inside we figured, not that we figured, but Williams would go outside and help at tackle with Vermiglio. Then when Vermiglio went down we moved him back to left tackle because we needed a backup at left tackle. So in essence he’s the third guy, but he did a nice job. We think he’s a good prospect and a good player. He’s still a redshirt freshman playing against a veteran defensive line. Those two ends had 13 sacks between them last year.
Are you concerned about generating a running game against them? As I’ve said, they’re top of their league in rush defense, especially when you shut out teams like Navy you ought to be the best there is so we’re going to have to work hard to run the football. They lead in sacks so we’re going to have to work hard to throw the football, too.
Overall, are you pleased with the progress you’ve seen at offensive line and secondary the last few weeks? As I’ve said the positive is we’ve gotten a lot of guys to play in football games. The backup quarterback has gotten a lot of snaps which he normally wouldn’t have gotten at this point of the season. That’s always a positive. Eleven different guys caught balls last week. A lot of guys got into things on offense. We’ve played two front fours, two sets of linebackers, we’ve played two groups in the secondary. People have gotten on the field, but certainly the areas that can cause you the biggest damage the quickest we’re still unsettled in.
Can we presume Rashard Smith is out? You saw him on crutches so I’m not going try to poo-pah this one. I told the trainers no more crutches on the sideline after the game, I can’t play my little games here.
Can you tell me about Russell Wilson’s approach and why he’s been able to take care of the ball so well? It’s pretty amazing seeing where he missed a couple of games last year and really did this probably with about 12 games. I think he has a real good understanding of what we want to do right now. Certainly last year might not have been the case, he’d pull the ball down, take off and run with it. It hadn’t been because he’s afraid to throw the ball because there certainly have been multiple occasions when defenders got their hands on the ball but just couldn’t quite catch it. I think he’s much better this year. His decision-making process, we’ve worked hard this year with him, and he’s done a nice job dropping the ball off and he can still use his legs to run around. When he gets out of the pocket and run around he’s able to make good decisions still throwing the ball down the field.
I’ve read somewhere that he vowed not to throw an interception again after that pick against Clemson. Is he especially intent on taking care of the ball and not making mistakes? I think he is. I wasn’t there when he said that. I think if he said it, it was meant as a competitor, it was best not to throw an interception. As I’ve said before he’s not afraid to throw the football, and he’s not afraid to throw the ball where he thinks it’s supposed to go. That’s just his competitive nature coming out.
Coaches at Pittsburgh say his release is as quick as they’ve seen since they’ve been at Pitt. How much has that played a role in his success? I guess that comes from his baseball days. He plays second base here and turns a double play, so he gets rid of the ball fast. That’s all part of the coaching, Coach Bible does a great job with him. As I’ve said before he’s got pretty good decision-making, and when he knows where he wants to go with the ball he gets it out of his hand pretty fast. That’s a good thing for us.
Statistically, you are doing well defensively, what’s your take? I think you have to take into consideration, and it’s no disrespect to who we play, but I think going forward we’ll have a better idea. Certainly after three games that’s good, but it’s going to be much better if it’s that way after 12 games.
Is there anything you want to see Saturday before conference season starts? No, we have to play a great football game. That’s what we have to aim for. Certainly could use a victory heading into ACC play. Have to play a great football game. It’s going to be like 60 minutes in middle drill the way it looks with their offense and defense. They’re hard-fought slug them out hit them in the mouth kind of game. It’s old-school football.
George Bryan is your leading receiver right now, talk about him: I think as I said Saturday night because of a lot of the blitzes and a lot of things that they did they voided a lot of the underneath zones. That’s where we were supposed to go, Russell made good decisions, he was the guy that was there. With something else he might not have got the football. It’s all part of what the defense is going to give you and the quarterback makes the decision and throws it to the guy that’s open. He’s been open.