University Southern California Trojans
Hackett, Price Preview Football Game
November 09, 1999 | Football
Nov. 9, 1999
LOS ANGELES - Following is the transcript of the press conference held by USC football coach Paul Hackett, and the teleconference with Washington State coach Mike Price, as they previewed Saturday's Trojan-Cougar football team with the L.A. media on Tuesday.
USC COACH PAUL HACKETT
I'll begin with a couple issues about the game. The first one is as proud as I have been this year, is when the team responded to Ennis Davis' interception and touchdown. The game of football is about players making plays. That's something we haven't done enough of this year. At that moment, we were looking for something. The game was going back and forth and he gave us something that great players do. It was disappointing, and that's been the story of the season, was that we couldn't capitalize on it and use the momentum to tie it up or take the lead. And then, for the defense to stop them on the 4-yard line, is that same thing about this football team. We are playing as hard as we can play. We don't play consistently enough to win. We don't make enough plays to win. Probably the single-most important thing that we don't do is take care of the football. Eleven turnovers in three games is totally unacceptable. It's remarkable that the games have been as close as they have. Three turnovers turned directly into touchdowns.
The second part was the quarterback issue. My feeling was that John Fox would give us the spark that we needed. He made the one errant throw that cost us dearly. But he played well for a guy making his first start in two years. The reason we made the change, I felt going into the game we would use both quarterbacks. Mike (Van Raaphorst) clearly has more experience, so let's see what he can do at 19-10. Then you're sitting on the fence, do you go back, do you not go back. We made the change and went with Mike. We came up short. This week, John will be the starter. We certainly could use both guys. But John will be the starter. With another week of playing, now with an opportunity with a half under his belt, that will really help him. He is representing these seniors, there is great pride in our senior class and I want this senior class to go out on a streak, to turn the tide.
Those are the two issues of the game. Our defense shut them down in the second half. We had our opportunities. We had to settle for a field goal early in the game, and we missed a field goal. We had our chances. (ASU) is a good, solid football team with an outstanding runner. I thought their quarterback played very well. It's making plays. There's far too many discussions in here where I say the same thing. It's far too many opportunities that are missed, and that's the bottom line. We now have a three-game season to salvage this year with a streak, with some momentum.
Washington State is having the same kind of year that we're having. They have a chance to make plays, and they don't make it. They had Arizona beat, and got beat on a hail mary. They've played some close games. They are a young team, particularly on offense. They have a very good-looking quarterback with a good future. They spread you out all over the place, all kinds of different formations. Defensively, they play very hard. They gave us all we wanted a year ago when we were up there. They play hard. There's a bunch of seniors and we expect it to be rough. It's a dangerous team in a dangerous enviroment, because it could be snowing, windy, we don't have any idea. We have to play at our best and I've been saying that for five weeks and we have yet to do it.
(On a Carson Palmer update) The evaluation is tonight. I expect it to be positive. I expect him to be able to come out of his brace, that's what I'm hoping for, and to start some of the rehab with his shoulder. We'll wait and see after and he and the doctors speak tonight ... Two weeks ago they said it was too premature for the upper body. He's been doing the lower body and getting the conditioning back ... We won't know until Sunday or Monday. We would have to give him three or four days of rehab, and then try to see. They normally plan a couple of weeks before he can throw. But this guy has surprised us before. When you look at it realistically, we're going to run out of time. It's probably not going to happen. It's going to be a medical issue ... At this point, depending on what the doctors say tonight, if he can start the rehab, we'll let three or four days go and we'll see how sore it is, and we'll regroup on Sunday. Sunday would be the pivotal day. Will they let him throw within a week? I don't know. Whenever they give him the green light, we need to proceed.
The enthusiasm of this football team under the circumstances continues to amaze me. They play hard and play well because they have pride. We're a struggling football team, but they are continuing to work as hard as they possibly can. It's a three-game season, and we've got to do it this week. We can't think beyond the practice field. We've got to go out and practice the best we can today, and that's how you can get a win. We can't worry about the other stuff. When the season is over, we'll hash it out, but not now. Right now we have to focus on Washington State.
(On John Fox) The improvement that he made, getting his feet wet against Cal, practicing like he did, and then playing like he did in the first half, all those things are progressing like I would have hoped. I see all positive things. We had a feeling in the middle of the game to put Mike in, he had more experience. But it was nothing against John Fox and the progress he's made. He will be far better next week, and that's why we're going to let him do it and see how far he can take us ... (on if moving him to linebacker was mistake) I'm going to be very critical of myself for not reevaluating that when Jason Thomas transferred. Maybe moving him was a mistake that could have prevented some of the things that happened, because you would have Mike and John competing and better play at quarterback from the very beginning once Jason stepped out. But I ignored it, we're going to go with two quarterbacks and John can go over there and make a contribution. But there's plenty of time when the season is over to go back and learn.
(On turnovers) The thing that is so hard for me is that a year ago we were excellent in this area. And this year we started off well, but it unraveled. With all that we talk about, it just mystifies me. The last three weeks, oh my goodness, 11 turnovers. You're not going to beat anybody, nevermind good football teams. And what's amazing to me is they're close games. And we're throwing the ball to them for touchdowns. That says something to me about how good our football team is playing. What I'm impressed with is there's no defense vs. offense. The defense gets put in tough positions, but they're as upbeat as they've been all along. That's the character of this team that needs to come out in the last three weeks. This is now the real test.
(On if changes need to be made the final three games) I think at this point we have to focus on John Fox. If we go with John Fox, we need to focus on the things that he can do. Coach Jackson obviously coached him the year before I got here so he has a feel for him. Chad Morton continues to have a good year so we can continue to rely on him. We're getting somewhat inconsistent play at times from our receiver corps but I think for the most part they'll be there and getting better. We have to go back to what our strengths are. Now, four weeks from now, we can go back and look at what we might have done differently. Could I have put in the option with John Fox? Could I have put in the shotgun with Mike Van Raaphorst? Could I have changed the offense dramatically when we realized Carson Palmer was not going to be here? Yes, perhaps that's something we'll go back and criticize, and realize we needed to make a dramatic change. There's plenty of time to go back and look at that.
(On the running game) I think that up until this last week, we had done a good job of mixing the run and the pass. Last week, we needed to run the ball more than we did, particularly in the second half. But they had some real long drives and we didn't get the ball very much, and we got a little antsy. Chad has continued to do what he does best, which is compete as hard as he can with each play that is presented to him. We have had at times solid blocking, at times porous blocking. Chad just continues to compete. The use of Sultan McCullough and Malaefou MacKenzie, really is part of where we are for the next three weeks. Getting away from the running game is probably part of the turnover issue. The better you run the ball, the more effective your passing game is. We just haven't been effective. We have to get better at it.
WASHINGTON STATE COACH MIKE PRICE TELECONFERENCE
(On reasons for WSU's disappointing season) We just had a rash of injuries like nobody has ever had around here. Our team is very young, we're playing about 20 freshmen. We had some guys with bad citizenship that we did not allow back on the team. So we lost some athletes, and then young players were making mistakes, and players were getting hurt. And probably bad coaching! It was good coaching a couple years ago and now it's probably bad coaching.
(On the last three games) We have three unusual games. USC here, and we love to play USC in Pullman. It's the seniors last game in the stadium. That'll be a good, emotional, uplifting game for them. Playing on ABC is real nice, especially with the record that both of these schools have. It's great for us because normally they take winning teams. The kids are jacked about it. Then we have the Apple Cup and going to Hawaii, there's a lot of good reasons to keep the faith and have a positive outlook.
(On Deon Burnett) I'm sure Paul Hackett and Bob Toledo are looking at their assistant coaches and wondering why they weren't recruiting this guy. He's from right down the road. He probably wouldn't have the chance he has right now had we not lost two backs in the offseason. He got thrown into the starting position, and he's done a great job, he's improved every game. The last game he stumbled a bit, took a step backward, but he'll take two steps forward. He can run inside, outside, he's a good pass receiver.
(On Steve Birnbaum) He's not in the elite group, but he's a lot better than people think, particularly around here. We're pretty spoiled. He's completed 57 percent of his passes, only Smith of Arizona has a better average. He has the fewest interceptions of any quarterback in the Pac-10. He's been consistent and responsible with the football. We haven't made a lot of big plays around him to help out. His touchdown passes aren't as high as it could be. But he's doing good, not great, but good, and he's doing the best that he can do, and that's all you can ask.
(On USC) It's always fun to play USC in Pullman and I just know that they love coming up here. It might be a little cold and dreary for them, and a little slippier on the turf, but I know they're excited to come up and play. Paul has always said that he loves it up here. I think they're really good. I know their record isn't very good but they've lost close games. When their quarterback went down they really haven't been able to get on all eight cylinders. They've got some great receivers. Their defense comes to play. Their line is as good as anybody's.
