Al Groh | Weekly Press Conference

Monday, Nov. 2

COACH GROH: Good morning. What have we got here today? What would we like to get?

QUESTION: Pretty remarkable come-back for Miami against Wake Forest?

COACH GROH: Actually, watching it reminded me of the game we had last year with them. It reminded me quite a bit of the game we had with them last year, and unfortunately reminded me about the game on Saturday.

It was a game that Wake Forest had the ball and an opportunity to run the clock out and were not able to do that, turned the ball over to Miami in which they had a third and 10 and fourth and 15, and Harris made two of those kind of throws that the phrase that I think I used once before is he made “the kind of throws that quarterbacks who elevate their team to a different level make.”

And without the throw, everything else being the same, the linemen blocking the same, the receivers running their same routes, without those throws, probably the comeback wouldn’t have come about, which was the case when we played them last year. When we watched it I said I don’t need anybody to tell me what it looked like in real life; he made some of those throws last year that were the difference in the game.

When I said it reminded me of the other day, just add Thaddeus Lewis on that third and 9 play. Had he missed the throw, it would have been, I’m sure disappointing to people on their side, but understandable too, because under those circumstances that throw gets missed a lot, and he made the type of throw that elevates a team.

We went from that circumstance with Thad to obviously a quarterback that we have personal experience with and recent observation of being able to do the same thing. So two really terrific throws.

QUESTION: I’m guessing Miami has not gotten any slower since last year, is that the biggest issue in playing them, speed?

COACH GROH: Very much so. All across 22 positions, Jeff, the most obvious are the wide receivers and guys who can get vertically up the field. It shows in kick coverage, it shows in pass rushes off the edge, it certainly shows in defensive backs closing on the ball. So they are impressive in that.

And I guess we would probably think for the better part of this month we have probably entered into the “speed” part of our schedule, the “high-speed” part.

QUESTION: How does this team match Georgia Tech’s athletes?

COACH GROH: Probably, Mark, along with what Jeff raised, not the bruisers, but certainly those two guys, Cooper and James can really get up and go. Very elusive, very shifty and a lot of overdrive when they get in the open.

QUESTION: Do those stretches have an affect either positively or negatively?

COACH GROH: I think it’s – it’s a good rhythm to get in. You just know every week it’s going to require the same. What becomes trickier for teams, Zach, is maybe when erroneously but still plausibly, a team or certain members on a team can look at one game as not being as challenging as the others, and then in reality it becomes that. So you’re right to make that comparison, certainly we lived that experience, it was certainly that.

And really that’s both in the closeness of so many of the games that we have and in that type of week-after-week deal. That’s why where the quality of play in the ACC and the two divisions may not be the same as the quality of the NFL, the intensity and the competition is. I think it’s good for a team to kinds get in that rhythm, and you know you got to be preparing every week to bring your best.

QUESTION: In the press conference last night you mentioned that Jameel has been dealing with an ankle injury. Given the schedule and that you’re done with the bye week, is he going to get healthy? Is there much healing that goes on during the weeks?

COACH GROH: It was an easier week for him last week than it was the previous week, because there was no dramatic flare-up, there was no single incident in the Georgia Tech game as there was in the Maryland game. When he hurt his ankle in that game, that was not a new injury, it was a re-injury and that’s why even though he had the leave the game he was able to play the next week.

Whereas, Matt Conrath was an initial injury and when it occurs for the first time, the damage is more significant usually takes longer healing time.

Usually with those things, just the grinding on them and whatnot, it takes a significant down period for it just to get fully calmed down, so we would expect it would take a little bit of time to do that.

QUESTION: Coach, you guys are big on the “next man up mentality.” Zane Parr a pretty good example of that?

COACH GROH: Yes, he is. Really to Zane’s tribute he has watched his predecessors do that and gotten some good inspiration and motivation from it, but he really has stepped up very nicely and his production really for two and a half games now has been quite excellent.

QUESTION: Now that Rashawn and Mikell are both healthy and seem to be running well, how do you manage getting two running backs carries in a game?

COACH GROH: You know, there is a – it involved more running backs than two, but there was a fellow that I was associated with once, and I didn’t hear this conversation personally but it was relayed to me by the party who was asking the question. Who asked that coach one time – actually as he phrased it in repeating it to me, “Coach, it looks like we have a problem here with all these running backs that we have,” and the coach responded “Johnny, that’s their problem not mine.”

In that circumstance that’s – a few of those guys provides depth, it provides competition, it provides the it opportunity to play the hotter hand if that’s necessary, and that was somewhat the case the other day. Obviously Rashawn had a very effective first half, and it just didn’t seem to add up to make much sense to doing anything significantly different from that point on.

We’ll see how the week goes, different games call for a little bit different tactics and that changes certain players’ roles at certain times, too.

QUESTION: One is a full back and one is a running back. Does that make a difference?

COACH GROH: Really it’s not – you can see the way they have been used – they’ve been used – Mikell because of his body type, he’s solely a tailback. But Rashawn has played both roles because his additional size allows him to take on some full back roles, but most of his production here this year has been in the tailback capacity so really is no conflict there.

QUESTION: It’s been a while now and I’m going to try to remember the facts, didn’t Rashawn – he came in as a running back, moved to inside linebacker, then moved back?

COACH GROH: Right.

QUESTION: What do you remember about those two moves? Just wasn’t a natural at inside linebacker like you hoped he would be?

COACH GROH: Wasn’t going to happen as fast, and we had some plans in mind for a particular role that he could play on offense, which he did a nice job with. Unfortunately, there were, I think once in each of those years he was lost for a significant period of time. I know one of them was – it was out here, I think it was – perhaps it was either Pittsburgh or Connecticut, that particular year, where he sprained his ankle, missed quite a bit of time during that season. So it was just a combination of those things.

We really put him at linebacker just because those are the kind of players that can – those are the type of athletes that can make you really good at that position. They can obviously be really good at other positions, namely when they’re going to carry the ball but if you want to be really good on defense you got to make that choice sometimes. We were hoping we could do it, but we had Applebee and Copper both playing well, and it looked like he could perhaps carve out a faster niche on the other side, which is where he did have more experience.

QUESTION: Joe Torchia had a couple of nice catches the other day. Where is he in his evolution as a college football player?

COACH GROH: Hopefully the last one probably was as good a catch as he’s had here, and Joe’s diligent in his preparation, he’s one of the players to whom this means a great deal. His confidence level, as he generates it himself, sometimes perhaps hasn’t been as great as it should be, and besides the catches he had some good blocks at the point of attack the other day and hopefully this will be the case where this gives him the type of boost where he can really take off with his play.

QUESTION: Coach, you’ve played 14 true freshmen this year, the previous years you were averaging seven or eight freshmen getting playing time. What is the difference this year? Is it a matter of the guys that have played and performed well and you want them there?

COACH GROH: No, they bring skills at each particular point, looks like they could increase the talent level available to win the game. So what we have always done with players when they come in is take the attitude, when they’re ready, we’re ready. In other words, when they’re ready to make a difference, make the team perform better than it would without them, then it’s reasonable to use them, that’s what everybody is here for, to help us win that particular game. Some of those guys here, we would be probably not – in some difficult circumstances if it wasn’t for their production.

That’s a bit of a challenge for a young guy to come in and do all that. Clearly it would be nice to be in a cycle where everybody could sit around for a year and kind of marinate, get ready to play a little bit the next year, kind of a case that Texas or Alabama or those kind of places, but some of these players have done a nice job for us, especially on special teams.

QUESTION: Winning on the road is hard enough. What do you remember about beating Miami 48-0 the last time you were there and how special that was?

COACH GROH: I haven’t thought about it. I’m sure if I – I know if I stopped here to reflect in order to accurately answer your question, Jay, I’m sure it would bring some big smiles and some warm memories. That was a special night the way the players responded to that whole environment.

You know, it wasn’t just the last game in the Orange Bowl but it was quite the big “dog and pony show” and all the big guns were being brought in to make this quite a celebration, and that particular team really took that challenge and played about as well as we could possibly play, as well as we’ve ever played against a really quality opponent.

And obviously as you say, after that game that was it. Nobody was ever going in there again. There will be plenty of time in the future to pull those books out and look at ’em, but now that you bring it up it was a good time. You know what I remember most about it, now that you got me thinking, which is the case about a lot of games, what I remember most about it was the players in the locker room after the game.

QUESTION: You talked about the true freshmen, you indicated for a while that Freedman and McCartin were on the verge of playing. Is there anybody else on the verge of seeing their first action?

COACH GROH: No, probably not right now. Connor did a real nice job on kickoff return, in fact better than that position has been manned in previous games, so that was an upgrade for us, to use him. We really like Paul’s development, what he’s doing and want to get him some exposure, some experience along the way as well as using him in some roles that can help us out.

QUESTION: You talked last night about dropped passes and things like that. With all that’s going on around the program and all that, is there a difference between a sense of urgency to do well and pressing to do well and maybe putting too much out there?

COACH GROH: No, I don’t – I think you just, frankly, as it applies to players and teams, Hank, speaking hypothetically.

QUESTION: In determining who runs the ball – what kind of sample size do you use?

COACH GROH: Huh, as is well documented, Zach, sample size is a – that’s a scary proposition for me because some people have been here for these press conferences over the years remember that sample size is associated with statistics, and statistics as required in the McIntyre School when I was in school and I know it’s upgraded more significantly since I was in school, but that is a principle reason for my being a five-year student, and all I remember about sample size was that it’s got to be a certain number to make it a reasonable sample.

Outside of that I couldn’t figure out too many of those sample sizes, so I would have to say in my case it would have to be done visually or intuitively without any particular mathematical formula. Another one of my mental weaknesses.

QUESTION: How did Burrell do handling a lot of the playing time, and what do you think about the season he is having?

COACH GROH: Jerry, actually ironically with Aaron out of the game, ironically it was the least amount of plays that Denzel has played this year, and that’s principally because as we discussed on other occasions, we have our substitution dime defense that we play on third down because of the nature of the team we are playing against and their style of play.

We had two other subgroups that we played on regular down, both of which had us with a different overall set of players than the dime but still with five defensive backs in there, so we had somebody in there who essentially was the other outside linebacker, so it was only when we had our regular group in there, which was on a limited basis, that he was in there.

But he’s had a real nice season for us. Last year it happened kind of fast in the beginning. As the season went on he grew into it, and he’s really picked up on it here this year. I’d say it’s been a positive season for him.

QUESTION: You’ve had the luxury of kind of bringing Chase along at a good rate, not having to throw him in before he’s ready. Is he at a point if he needed to start you would feel comfortable with him – seemed like he was out there every play on Saturday –

COACH GROH: Yeah, just about. It’s a little bit of the reverse. We did have to throw him out there as a red-shirt freshman, and his first start was against USC, an eye-opening way for a guy to start his career, particularly against the No. 1 drafted quarterback in the draft or whatever. Then we saw some circumstances where we backed off that and tried to get him in a little bit more natural progression, and that worked out okay.

And now with more depth there, with Cook back and some of the other players there, we’ve been able to major his role in playing the slot corner on the dime, and when we played these other groups the other day that put him in there, so that’s worked out well.

He’s really taken a real interest in that position. It’s an entirely different position than playing outside corner, so when a guy goes in at that role he’s got to have the flexibility skill-wise and mentally and the willingness to do it to learn two positions at the same time.

QUESTION: What about the athletic ability he showed on the interpretation?

COACH GROH: Terrific, right. It was a great intuitive play, just had a sense of where the ball was goin’, broke on it, and he’s got that type of high-level athletic ability.

QUESTION: How much better is Harris now that he’s a full-time starter, last year he was sharing time with Marv, and this year it’s his show completely.

COACH GROH: Based on our one in-person observation with him, he was pretty good that day. Without knowing every quarterback who is coming back in the league, I know in some discussions sitting around talking with guys during the off-season, we thought that there was really a good chance that Miami would have as good of a returning quarterback as anybody.

Now, there has been a change in the system, Mark Whipple, who has a very strong background with offense from when he was the head coach at Massachusetts and his experience with the Steelers and the Eagles, clearly has been positive in his development with both the implementation of their schemes and, you know, I would say that a guy who is – was there for Ben Roethlisberger’s first snaps in the NFL would have good credibility with any college player.

QUESTION: Can you talk about the job Head Coach Randy Shannon has done at Miami since he arrived?

COACH GROH: Usually in those things when there is a dip for whatever reason – and it can be different at every place, Mark, when there is a dip like that it’s usually because something has occurred to lessen the talent level. And that’s pretty – you could pretty much go from place-to-place and find out – now that’s the symptom. Every place has a different cause for it.

So really the big change there has been and certainly Randy was a key recruiter in the past there, he played there, he was an assistant coach there and he’s from that area, and where you can see the difference is the talent level on the team now looks like the talent level of some of those great Miami teams. A lot of that is in first, second and third-year players who have been brought in on Randy’s watch.

So I think that’s where it started, was the ability to get those players there, and then clearly with their changes in scheme this year, you can see a difference in the execution of the players.

QUESTION: If you look at the quarter-by-quarter splits, the fourth quarter is the only quarter that you guys are losing in. I know that’s a heavy emphasis from talking to the players. Is there something to that number? Where that’s just not working in the fourth quarter?

COACH GROH: No, I think there is certainly something there in line with an issue that you raised ten or twelve days ago, Zach, is that’s a point in the game where defensively the play count has gotten to a high number, and that being said you can’t attribute that fact to any one particular issue, but that was certainly the case the other day, you know, but it was only – I can’t say that it was – you can completely attribute it to that because it was really just one bad play, you know, it wasn’t as if the dyke broke open it was one bad play, it was third and 9 and we have a pass rusher who is free and the quarterback makes the throw and we get beat in the man coverage.

For that much the play doesn’t occur and maybe nothing else happens, so my point is it wasn’t as if there were two 12-play drives in the fourth quarter and then we have the unfortunate turnover again and the ball is in the end zone. So for the players who played, the play count was well above what I would like to see it be, I can’t say that it had a major impact at that time but certainly it’s – here is the – here is TCU that’s wherever in the top four or five teams in the country, and it was in the latter stages of the game where the points went up.

It was Southern Mississippi where at the later point where the points went up. Clearly they continue to be a high-scoring team with a new quarterback, against Georgia Tech is where the points elevated, and the other day is where the points elevated, but that’s part of the reason – back to using some of these young players, that we’re trying to create some more playable depth, either if we do have players who are out, if they have to play a prominent role at least they’ve been engaged or maybe we can here – when we’re in the latter third of the season that maybe some of those guys can take some plays away from players and let them be a little bit fresher.

QUESTION: Chris Cook has not been beaten on very many plays in his career. Do you say anything different to him this week or is he experienced enough to know a defensive back is going to get beat occasionally?

COACH GROH: There are some times where maybe the best course of action is to bite my tongue. There are some times where it would seem that the obvious was being missed. That’s what you’re supposed to do when you coach. If you’re afraid to – if you’re afraid to bringing things up to players because you think it might hurt their feelings then you’re not doing their job.

You’re supposed to coach the players on everything that happens every day and hopefully the players take the instruction to improve themselves and there were some ways that that technique could have been played differently that very likely would have resulted in a different outcome.

I’m sure we’ll be in coverages that will call for that technique again here during the month of November so hopefully when it comes up again, it will be played in a different fashion with a different result.

QUESTION: I’m sure you were pleased with getting six sacks the other night. Did you do anything differently with Duke and are you blitzing more?

COACH GROH: We did Duke a number of things with the scheme, Jerry, to put the players in some positions where they would have a chance to make plays, yes, we did. You know, I would say – certainly in that game that we did – we’ve had some where we didn’t do quite as much, but we did a lot with the schemes there that times when we had – when we had rushers like Jeffrey and Chris and Clint all at the same time we could leave it a little more up to them.

Here we have a circumstance where we feel like we have to juice it up with some schemes, and I think I did mention one of these last two days that the players – it’s taken – it’s a little bit – takes a little more on their part to have to come and pick up on those on Tuesday rather than okay, we’ll do what we did last week.

We’re appreciative of how they’ve been willing to embrace those things and take the time to learn ’em and do ’em during the course of the week and they’ve been helpful to us, real helpful the other day. They were helpful at North Carolina, they were real helpful at Indiana, so some of those things have worked out okay.

QUESTION: Could you talk about Dolce the challenge it has been with his “tweener” kind-of-build to find a role for him?

COACH GROH: He’s a very, very passionate player. It means a lot to him. So you always want to – it’s to everybody’s benefit, it’s in the fairness to the player and for the benefit of the team to do the very best to find roles for those kinds of players, passionate about football, really care about their team, highly committed to doing whatever it takes to have a level of success.

You root for those guys and you owe it to ’em to try to find a spot for them. That’s what we did with John-Kevin, his energy level, we’re just trying to find a right fit for it and eliminate aspects of playing the game that might be holding him back and take advantage of what he did bring, and so we were able to initially just create a role for him on the sub and from that he tended to grow more comfortable with being in the interior, whether it was on the sub or in the regular down, and now that he’s more familiar with the schemes it’s grown so that he’s able to take on a few more diverse roles, too.

QUESTION: Can he just not gain weight or has he tried to or –

COACH GROH: He’s probably about maxed out at what he’s going to be. You know what I mean? I don’t know what he is today but I know when he came back at training camp, you know, he was at 254, something like that, in other words maybe he’s not a real tall person but he’s – there is a lot of muscle on that body, a lot more than most bodies, probably come in third in this room. (Chuckles.)

QUESTION: Part of your job as head coach I guess is being the face of the program. When you have a couple of losses like this, how does that role change or how does the interaction change for you?

COACH GROH: Far and hopefully that embodies the right things. So that’s – I don’t think probably that I’m a very hard book to read, ‘cuz I don’t really try to do things with any pretensions, and I got this sign on my desk that says “just coach the team” and that’s what I like to do, and that’s my responsibility, and I try to coach the team the best way I can every day.

QUESTION: Was it noticeable when Oday came in this summer, kind of sped up the process for them, they had been around football with the 7-on-7 etc. (Away from mic.)

COACH GROH: No, we thought that it might, but I think that was an isolated experience. That was a very good experience for them, they talked in positive terms about what it meant for them to represent their country in that tournament and what fun it was to meet players from around the country who were doing so and talk about what each one of them had to face.

Frankly, if we could get some of those teams on our schedule – if we could get to play France, you know – (Chuckles.) Now I’ll probably get all the Frenchmen mad at me, but if we could get to play France – I guess a lot of Americans probably wouldn’t get mad at that, but if we could get to play France probably the experience would have more value for them.

QUESTION: I’m sure you spent a lot of time in the Joe Robbie stadium in the visitors’ locker room. What kind of memories do you have there?

COACH GROH: Yeah, actually talking about that here in the last two days because coaches on the staff kind of want to get a feel for it, what’s the noise like, what’s the turf like, how far is it from the locker room to the field? Did you ever experience any wind there, those kinds of circumstances.

So we went in there for eight straight years and that was a pretty good rivalry within that division. At that particular time probably the Jets/Miami rivalry was a particularly big one. In those years we were going in and had to deal with Dan Marino, but Coach Shula was still the coach and – Brian Cox was with them at that time and fortunately he came over to our side after a while.

We had a couple of Monday night games down there. I remember one we played the first game of the season and they had the skin infield in there, and it was a 4 p.m. game and it was a late afternoon, early September, South Florida storms, so the skin part of the infield – it was such a heavy storm that in the dirt part of the infield there that as the game went on and there was more plays in there.

There were occasions where the mud literally sucked the shoes off the players feet and the player would come running off to the sideline with this mud-soaked shoe trying to get it back on that sock that had been in the mud the whole time.

So that was a game where – that was the quarter that that team was going to be down in the dirt they were never going to get out of there. We had a couple of good Monday night games down there with ’em, too, it was good. It was good.

QUESTION: Sometimes you said Cam needs to be one step faster, are there times when he is so fast he flies by the quarterback?

COACH GROH: No. I – maybe I used the wrong word there, Hank. Really what I should have said was “get there one step sooner” not “be faster” just “get there one step sooner.” Sometimes that’s a question of recognition or angles, that if the player runs that angle instead of that angle, he’s going to get there sooner. Players learn that from repetition.

QUESTION: Struck me that this team doesn’t have an identity offensively, but then you wonder do you need an identity?

COACH GROH: Well you can have one, it’s a very beneficial thing. Most teams work to have that. Georgia Tech has an identity, singular as it is. With Schaub what our identity was, okay, we were passing the ball.

When we had that offensive line with Butler and Ferguson and Brown, and we had Lundy and Pearman running the ball, it was clear our identity was power running. So I think the point is that those identities are built around a combination of things, they’re built around starting maybe philosophically with what coaches would like it to be but most particularly those identities are built around what players can do.

I think – I mean, what’s the Yankee’s identity? Hit the long ball –

QUESTION: Are you guys still searching?

COACH GROH: – they’re not playing hit and run, they’re trying to hit the long ball; that’s what they have. If you have 3-point shooters, then you probably run and hit threes, if you don’t, then your identity is to work the ball around – so what players can do best have a great deal to do with the establishment of an identity. To try to force an identity on an offense or defense without the skills match it go would be fool hearty.

QUESTION: How close is this team to being 5-3 and in a different position?

COACH GROH: It certainly could be the other way around. By the same token we have said over the years so we can’t change it, you know, you are what you are. That team that two years ago that won nine games and a lot of ’em were close, people wanted to see if the glass half empty standpoint would say they’re not winning by a lot. Look, if you win, you win; you are what you are. That doesn’t make you the worst nine-win team because the games are close, you’re a good team, because it’s hard to win a game.

You win nine games you’re pretty good, and if you lose those same games doesn’t make you that much different than the other team, it’s just a play here and there, but that’s what it is. You’ve got to find a way to make those plays. As I said last evening, we had a play there at the end of the third quarter that would have made a substantial margin. Had we made the play – it was just one play, and probably be pretty easily forgotten. When a receiver drops a pass in the end zone, everybody remembers it, but that was the same thing.

And I’m not trying to put it on a player, just easily forgotten, I’m just answering the question. It’s one or two plays like that that makes the difference, and that’s why it is such a fine line. What’s the difference a lot of times between winning nine and winning five or six is, six, seven plays. Go ask Iowa.

They’re having – and I give ’em a lot of credit, I think they’re having an awesome season. They’ve won a lot of games right at the end. I think it speaks volumes of their team. It doesn’t diminish what they’ve done, it enhances it.

QUESTION: Coach, you brought up the Yankees. You’re from Long Island, are you a Yankees fan and what do you think of the World Series so far?

COACH GROH: I haven’t had time to watch the series. I grew up a Yankees fan, but I’ve really kind of lost track, but I had all the stuff. I had my little Yankees jacket and every time my father would take us to Yankee Stadium we would get another one of those pins with the players’ picture on it and the bat hanging down. We had quite a few of those stuck on the banners in our bedroom, so we had a lot of good times going there.

Those were the days of, as the song went, “Mickey, Willie and The Duke.” There was a great center fielder in each borough: Duke Snyder was over in Brooklyn, and Mickey Mantle was in center field for the Yankees, and Willie Mays was across the river, so for kids playing baseball it was a fun time to grow up and a good place to be.

QUESTION: They’re up three games to one. Are they going to close it out in 5, 6 is, or 7?

COACH GROH: Well, since we’re talking about Yankee lore, speaking of that and about games and whatnot, a thought that came into mind is how games go.

I didn’t see it, and I wasn’t aware of it, I just knew the score, but one of our coaches came into me this morning and said an amazing story – I guess you all are probably familiar with it – how the Jets/Dolphins game went yesterday. The offense had something like 115 yards total offense and the Dolphins won 30-25. Doesn’t make any difference, you know, like whether it’s those games, or – it’s just about how you get the points on the scoreboard and how you keep ’em off.

So did their offense have a great day? No. Did their defense have a great day? I don’t know, they gave up 25. Did they win?

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach.