University Southern California Trojans
Hackett Discusses Sun Bowl Preparations
June 21, 1999 | Football
December 22, 1998
LOS ANGELES - USC football coach Paul Hackett sat down with the Los Angeles media on Tuesday to discuss the upcoming Sun Bowl. Here is a transcript of his press conference:
"They were just asking me outside if I had a New Years' resolution, and I said yes, we will go for it on all fourth downs from now on. And then they asked me my favorite thing I ever got for Christmas and I was speechless, which is unusual for me, as you know.
"We had an excellent day of practice yesterday. I think getting through the finals, everyone now has the chance to do basically two things, prepare for TCU and the other is to get home with family and friends for Christmas. Those are really the two focuses we have right now. Once again, it was excellent yesterday and I anticipate another good one today. We head to El Paso on Saturday. Things are sort of coming together.
"I've been impressed by watching TCU, particularly their running game. Their running game is the thing you really take note of, particularly their young runner, No. 3. It is tremendous option football, where he gets out in space and makes tacklers miss him. He is impressive. The other thing that I didn't know was that they have another quarterback there who is a pretty accomplished passer. So they have kind of a dual quarterback system which we may or may not see. Defensively, some impressive linebacking. The tempo with which they play, the speed with which they play, the enthusiasm with which they play is the key. It's certainly one of the most excited bowl teams in the country, to go from 1-10 to 6-5 and have a chance to play in a bowl. We're going to face a scary opponent because of their enthusiasm and what it means to them. That's a concern.
"On the other hand, we're delighted, absolutely delighted. Now that we've won the Butkus Award, we're able to focus on trying to win a ninth game. This senior group has a lot of pride in that they've got back to a bowl in their senior year. They put three wins in a row on Notre Dame. They're excited about that. If yesterday is any indication, we are getting back focused again to play football. I'm excited about it and anxious to get down there. And I'm undefeated in the Sun Bowl, in case you didn't know.
(On what he thought before the season) "I said to myself, and I wrote it down, that I thought if we could win eight games we would have made a good first step. Now, to think that we have the chance to win a ninth game is really excellent. I know we had played an extra game. But that win over Purdue made me say to myself that my guess of eight wins was legitimate. That was a pivotal game. Had we lost to Purdue, then I think I would have been overly ambitious thinking we could have won eight games. The fact that we won the game, that gave us a lot of confidence. A lot of good things happened. As it turned out, we had a chance to win 10. The Cal and the Oregon game, we were right there. I would not have anticipated in our first year we could win 10. That would have been fantastic, but I could not have anticipated it. From here on out, just like I'm going to go for it on fourth down, I'm going to put down win every game.
(On aiming high) "No, because this is USC. When you're at USC, you're expected to aim high. There will be people that will say you should aim higher. We had some of our ex-players at the golf tournament in the spring and they said 12-0, 11-1, 12-0 and 11-1. I just walked away. I think what happens, when a change is made, there's a whole another set of circumstances and things that go on in putting together a staff and team. It's different than when you're continuing. I think you just can't put your finger on the types of things that are going to happen in a season. In this particular case, we had our ups and we had our downs. But we finished with the Notre Dame victory, particularly after the most difficult loss of the season, that shows a lot about this football team. That's the thing I'm the most proud of. We were able to bounce back every time that we faced a tough situation. In many cases, we played our best football after bouncing back. I feel very good about many of those things.
(On TCU) "The 9-10, 6-10, 12-14 (scores of three losses), those are the things that jump out at you. And talking to Dennis (Franchione) when we were in El Paso, he was making the point they could have very easily won nine games. He was quick to say there was a number of games that could have gone the other way and they could have won three. He was very realistic about that they're not as consistent a football as he would like them to be. A lot of it is it's their first year. And there are going to be these swings. They were able to play hard the whole game so at the end of the game they were able to be successful. That's not unlike our football team. We started that against Purdue because we weathered the heat all the way through ... (TCU) had an awfully exciting season ... Those quarterbacks that rush for as many yards as they pass always make me nervous too. To have that kind of athlete at quarterback is really wonderful.
(On who TCU's offense resembles) "Clearly Notre Dame. They have the great runner, they have the good option quarterback. The thing about the passing game you have to be careful about is they don't ask him to do very much passing. What I don't know is how good is he as a passer. Because you don't see much of him ... I know they will give the ball to (Basil) Mitchell and they're going to find out if we can tackle him. They know exactly how we defensed Notre Dame. They'll try and exploit and take advantage of that. The advantage we had going into Notre Dame was the uncertainty of how we would defend them. On the other hand, we had another week to prepare against the same kinds of things. We executed against Notre Dame very well.
(On Marc Matock) "Marc Matock has been an inspiration to this football team, certainly as well to this coaching staff and certainly to this coach. To have it happen in the fifth game (a broken ankle), and to say to me that day he'll back for a bowl, and me sort of chuckle, then to see him play the way he did against Notre Dame, it was dramatic. I think Marc appreciates every moment he's out on the field, whether it's the practice field or the game. He's so excited to have the chance to play again. Marc's been a huge part of this year, even when he hasn't been playing. He sets a standard. He was voted our Most Inspirational Player and I think that is richly deserved.
This is one more opportunity for this team to play football together. That's been the focus that I've had. We've had a great go. We started in that first January meeting and it's been a long year. It started early because of the Purdue season and it's been a long season. We worked and worked and worked and we deserve this opportunity to enjoy the Sun Bowl.
(On anything that didn't work as he hoped this season) "I think we leveled off a little bit on special teams. From the Oregon game, we weren't the dominant force on special teams that we had been early in the year. The Oregon game does not sit well with me. To be in control at halftime, to have things under control and to then get shut out in the second half. That game was a tough one for me. We win that one, we're playing UCLA for the championship. And that was the goal we had all along. I don't feel good about that game at all. That's one we'll study in great depth. The Cal game was a learning experience. It's something that happened that maybe needed to happen. We didn't handle prosperity very well. The two top teams we played, goodness gracious, we know what Florida State is and we know what UCLA is. They're very fine football teams. On both days, we turned the ball over too much and our defense played well enough to win, but our offense wasn't up to the task. Those are the things we go back and look through, talk about it, figure how to improve. It's a crazy game. You look back at what you could have done better. That's the nature of improving. But so many good things happened as well.
(On what the pro scouts say about Chris Claiborne) "I think the rumor board says it's a top 10 position. That's pretty safe, but how accurate that is, I have no idea. He's doing his research and I'm doing mine and we're going to put our heads together as soon as the game's over. (On R. Jay Soward) I haven't done much research on that because it's my opinion that with the kind of year that he had, he certainly would benefit from another year. I would say a second-round draft choice, from what little scuttlebutt I get. I don't know how accurate that is. He's certainly a marvelous talent ... It's a matter of what (R. Jay) feels is right for him. I think we all know what's right for USC. I happen to think that's what would be right for him. It's going to be a family discussion and we'll sit down and do that at the appropriate time as well. I think we don't want to take anything away from the bowl by being worried about that. It will play itself out shortly after the Sun Bowl.
(On recruiting) "First class, in terms of taking them all the way from February all the way through. I'm sure we're going to get some and I'm sure we're going to lose some. I think it's extremely competitive. We offer some very specific things to some young people, particularly on the lines, at receiver and in the defensive backfield due to our losses from graduation. I think we offer a very bright, exciting, building-type future with this program. We're going to start our recruiting, as I've said all along, in Southern California. That's where we're going to begin. We hope we can attract the brightest and the best young people from Southern California and the state of California to come here and go through this adventure through this. We're looking forward to it and we're going 100 miles an hour on it. It's like the second season. It's exciting to see what will happen on February 4."
