Indiana University Athletics
Transcripts from Cam Cameron's Weekly Press Conference
9/13/2000 12:00:00 AM | Football
September 13, 2000
Transcripts from Cam Cameron's Weekly Press Conference
Well, let me address one thing before we talk about Kentucky. I mentioned this earlier today in my teleconference. Obviously I was very concerned about the officiating after the game. I just wanted to let everyone know that in the future that's not how we'll handle things. I was wrong in criticizing the officials. I thought I came in with a plan. I talked with Clarence (Doninger, the IU athletic director), actually I talked with Myles Brand and Terry Clapacs(Vice President). The three of us talked about how we wanted to handle it. Obviously, I got going and probably went a little too far but we'll do everything we can in the future that we can handle it through the Big Ten office, handle it through the commissioner Jim Delaney and David Parry, the head of officials. Those guys really assured me that this will get addressed. They have been sent a copy of the videotape and those type of things, we'll let them handle it from this point forward. So I apologize, really just to all of you (the media).
Opening Statement:
We'll focus on the football game and the things that we can control. I think if you go back and look at that ball game, you let the ball go over your head three times - you are not going to be able to maintain any type of lead. But we did, and as we all know that we did, a lot of good things in that football game. When you think about our offensive line from tackle to tight end, they all basically played in their first game at that position. Those guys did some awfully good things, you could see that our receiver group has improved dramatically - they need to continue to do that. Our running backs, if they can stay healthy, should do nothing but get better and better. You are talking about a redshirt freshman Brian Lewis, Jeremi Johnson, a sophomore, Levron (Williams), a junior and (De'wayne) Hogan, a senior. You are talking about some guys that will be around here for a few years.
There were some obvious and real positives offensively. The kicking game, as you can see that Adam Braucher is a guy who you guys saw for the first time, is I think going to give us a weapon from a kickoff standpoint. He has created some competition with Andy Payne in our fieldgoal kicking department. But, I think you're going to see we've got a young, talented kicker. I think Andy will also continue to have a great year. I don't know if you got the chance to watch Ryan Hamre. Ryan Hamre, as you can see in warm ups and those type of things, he's got the type of talent to become an excellent, excellent punter down the road. Defensively, we'll make some changes this week, we'll not announce necessarily any of those because we still got three days of practice in here. Nothing can be final until we head into the ball game. Our linebacker group played pretty darn well. Justin Smith played extremely well in that ball game, you saw Joslin Goodman make some plays, we've got to get Devin Schaaffer to continue to play better. I think we wore down our defensive front. But, there was some good things that were happening up front. We just lost our ability to get any pressure on the quarterback later in the game. Our safeties were exposed and those were guys who haven't played a whole lot. Joe Gonzalez, really hasn't played any before and Ron Bethel, those are two new guys. A sophomore and redshirt sophomore, unfortunately we have to learn the hard way. We got the ball thrown over our head two or three times. We are going to do everything we can to stop that from happening again. A lot of good things, a lot of things we've learned but we've don't have time to worry about what happened against North Carolina State, we've moved right on to Kentucky. I've been really pleased especially this morning (Tuesday) we met with our team, every Tuesday morning, their approach and they are ready to play against Kentucky. Now they know they have three days of practice to get ready. With Kentucky averaging over 30 points a game, creating all sorts of matchup problems for you with their offense. Defensively they are doing the same type of things they have always been doing, a bump-a-run, press, man-to-man, we'll have to do a good job of handling that. This is going to be another, I told you a week ago this is going to be a good matchup, it is going to be an excellent football game. Obviously, any time you go on the road, with the type of environment, there will be in Lexington, especially on national t.v., at night, it's going to be a great game, an exciting game, one we are all looking forward to it.
Is this the biggest quarterback you've seen on the college level, at about 270?
The last guy I can remember close to him (Lorenzen), probably Kent Graham, at Ohio State he was about that big, his senior year. He is a big, physical, big (Dan) McGwire that played at Iowa (who later transferred to San Diego State). Those are the two that would come to mind. He's going to be good, if you look at the teams that we play against good quarterbacks all the time. Obviously, we've got a couple good quarterbacks ourselves. There will be a couple good quarterbacks playing Saturday night.
Can you talk about the series with Kentucky in general, the games, especially the last few being close?
It is a great rivalry, I know our fans look forward to it. I know their fans look forward to it. It's one as I go around in the summers to various Varsity Club outings, people they talk about it and the Purdue game. Those have added significance to all of us; we've played extremely well against each other the last two years. We are in a very similar situation to which you saw Saturday, where we had to make enough plays at the end of the ball game in order to win the game. I imagine that this ball game will come down to the fourth quarter, too.
In regards to the secondary, was it matter of a fact of the defensive backs playing deeper?
"Deeper than the deepest, it is the first thing that they learn as a secondary player. We were unable to do that three times. Obviously they had just done it, the previous week, North Carolina State came back and beat Arkansas State. We'll learn from it."
What kind of baggage did the team bring in after the North Carolina State game?
"We'll see. I like our approach this morning (Tuesday), we meet every Tuesday morning, early because Monday is our day off. Our guys have all come in and seen the tape, they put the time in on their own. They know how well we've played the last couple years against Kentucky that we've made a enough mistakes to cost ourselves the ball game. The number one thing we have to do for this game is to put the North Carolina State game behind us, which we've done but then go out and practice. We've got to still go out and practice, when you're sitting there with a young offensive line, we are sitting there with some young people on defense you've got go out Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, practice, you gotta get back to basics, fundamentals, get ready and that's how you win. That's how you make plays in critical situations, there is no magic to it. Go out and practice harder.
Tell me the difference between the two fullbacks.
"De'wayne has really improved. I think the competition has helped both Jeremi and De'wayne. De'wayne was a tailback when he first came here, he has made a nice adjustment to fullback. Both are good blockers, both understand what we are trying to do offensively. We throw the ball to the fullbacks maybe to as much as anyone, you have to be able to catch the ball you have to be multiple to play fullback in this offense. The play right before the half, where Levron Williams scores because Jeremi Johnson does exactly what he's asked to do and creates the initial block and then Levron cuts it back and scores. You saw the two touchdown runs they had There aren't many people these days, there's probably a handful of schools, that can legitimately recruit a fullback and tell him you're gonna get the football. Most people are ruinning a one back or an offense where the fullback is strictly a blocker. Our fullback has to be able to block, he has to be able to handle the football, running and ultimately catching the football. Those guys are extremely valuable to us.
Tell us a little more about what Antwaan brings to your team, versatility?
"The things that everyone's seen the last two years. He picked up right where he left off on Saturday. He probably missed as I graded out of 75 plays, he graded high on 70 out of 75. I think he knows five plays is the difference in the ball game. That's the other thing, no matter how that game came down, every guy on our football team was a part of and could have no matter how well they're perceived to have played a play or two would have determined the outcome in another direction. He can continue to fine tune the little things. When you miss three, four, five completions that comes back to haunt you. I think you'll see him tighten that up a little bit. As you know, every play, he has the potential to be running down that sideline with nobody around him.
I think it's not an ideal situation for a head coach to be that involved, in my mind, with the play calling because you still need to be involved in the kicking game, aware of what your defense is doing. Our staff, Hal Hunter, Marty Fine, T.J. (Weist) Anthony (Thompson), did an excellent job in between series when we knew exactly what was happening to us. North Carolina State came in and played a completely different defense than Florida State had ever shown, assuming there was going to be the Florida State package. They went and basically played Wisconsin's defense. We caught them immediately, they made the adjustments, got us in to the right plays made a lot of adjustments. You don't score 38 points against a defense that you didn't anticipate with out an offensive staff like that. So that becomes the key, is our offensive staff picking up the slack, but it is not an ideal situation. I still have to have a feel for the big picture and what's going on. Sometimes you can get a little too zeroed in on just the offense, you're sitting there trying to score points. But there's a lot more than just scoring points.
About Lorenzen
"Well he's a young guy that I think is like most young, talented quarterbacks. The more they play, the better they get. The more situations they have to handle, the better they get. It didn't surprise me that Dusty Bonner left because Hal Mumme is not going to let the best quarterback leave. There isn't a head coach in America that's going to let the best quarterback leave. Now he may let the second best quarterback leave, and the second best quarterback may be pretty good, but if he's the second best, he's the second best. Those are the decisions we as head coaches have to make. We've all been thrrough it. Hal knows how to handle quarterbacks and I'm sure he made the right decision. It sure seems like he did. They (McGwire, Graham) weren't quite as mobile as this kid. He'll be a guy that is going to put up the numbers in that system. People are going to know about him. He'll obviously be pretty darn good."
The $10,000 fine - why did you get that and where is that money going to come from?
"The rule is, you ought to look up the rule, it's very clear what the penalty is: $10,000 and/or 1 game suspension. I think under these circumstances, everyone was understanding to a certain degree. I think it is also in there where tha tmoney comes from. Again, the Big Ten office is taking this very seriously what happened. We've got the issue with me, that's been handled. They are taking this very seriously, David Parry (the Big Ten director of officials) been contacting Tommy Hunt, the Atlantic Coast Conference (director of officials). I know those and run those officiating groups take it very seriously. They are very professional and I have got all the confidence in the world that it will be looked at the way it needs to be looked at. It will be handled properly, period.
Playing against a good quarterback like Rivers last week how does that help you prepare for Lorenzen?:
"We play against good quarterbacks and we've played against a lot of them over the last few years, there is a lot of them in this league (the Big Ten). Playing against good quarterbacks is nothing new to us. This guy is very similar to Tim Couch. Very similar to Rivers, similar to the guys we have in practice other than Antwaan. Gibran Hamdan, you guys haven't seen play yet this year, he may be the most improved guy on our football team, he is one of them. He is really improved, so he is very similar, he is a big kid like that Tommy Jones is a big kid so we see those guys everyday.
Similarities and Differences between North Carolina State and Kentucky:
"There are a lot of similarities in what both those offenses do, the defenses are completely different.
Preparing for the Kentucky offense and Lorenzen:
"Just physically, taller, bigger, I guess. A system is a system, they are still running the same thing. One thing that you got to be careful you don't fall in the trap and caught up in all that passing, they will run the ball right down your throat. They did that to us early last year, that became the issue last year, their ability to run the football on us early. Their system is one that what the defense gives them, if you give them the run, they are going to take the run. If you think are going to blitz them, they will throw it every time. We'll have to do a good job of mixing what we are going to do on defense.
Adjustments to Lorenzen being a lefty:
"It depends on if they do somethings based on the fact is left-handed or right-handed. Anytime there is, you only make those adjustments if they like to do certain things. Sometimes people with right handed quarterbacks do only certain things to the right, they don't do things to the left. With a left hander, they may not go to the right. We'd look at self scout and if we could take advantage of something there we would.
Dielman playing both ways:
Bobby Brandt didn't play as well as he'd would've liked to have played but it was his first game playing. A redshirt sophomore playing in his first football game, but you'll see a major improvement. With Bobby Brandt, Dielman will continue to go both ways, Aaron Halterman, a true freshman that played is going to be an excellent, excellent tight end. You could see Ken Gipson play some this week also.
Where do you see this program at?
I think we've made a significant progress, I think we would all agree that it hasn't shown up in the wins and losses. Because I think we all know there was a lot of football games we had opportunities to win and should've won. These next 10 weeks are going to be a real indication of where we are. I am extremely pleased with the players we have , the ability that we have , we are getting better and better. We are starting to get a nucleus of seniors that can play. You saw Joslin Goodman, Versie Gaddis, Jerry Dorsey, some of those seniors step up and play well for us on Saturday. We've got a nucleus of juniors, without questions than you can ask anyone in this program, we've got the most talent in terms of freshman and sophomores we've ever had. We take another excellent recruiting class, we are going to be in great shape.
The significance of this game and the rivalry
"Absolutely, as I mentioned in the beginning when you go down to Southern Indiana, Louisville, Owensboro, Evansville, that is the number one thing that they talk about when I come down to the golf outings and speak. They are pointing towards the Kentucky game, but it is important to us all. The rivalry we have here in all the sports, especially in football and basketball. This game has added significance without question.
