Oct. 10, 2017
PRESS CONFERENCE VIDEO
Opening statement
“I think that we had a productive bye week. We got to really concentrate on some areas that we hadn’t played as well in as maybe some of the others. During the bye week, we worked extensively on special teams – some one-minute defense and some red-zone offense, just to mention a few things. Hopefully, we got better at it. We’ll find out on Saturday. It’s a game with a lot of importance. It’s a division game and those games tend to count as two, actually, because of the tiebreaker thing that’s involved. Hopefully, we’ll have a good week of practice and go down there and be able to give a good effort on Saturday. It is a place we haven’t played particularly well.”
On if anything has surprised him so far this year through the first four games:
“I don’t know if anything has surprised me. We’re probably, at this point, have been a little better defensively than we were a year ago but we haven’t played against some really good teams so hopefully that will continue when we start to play some teams with better offenses. I think that we’re still a little bit of an enigma. Usually, you know by this time of the year but we’ve only played four games and we’ve played, other than the first game, which we kind of gift-wrapped and gave away, we’ve kind of got out front and picked up some pretty good wins. We’ll find out. We’ll know a lot more after Saturday, that’s for sure.”
On what has impressed him the most about TaQuon Marshall and what he has done over the first four games:
“I think that the moment just hasn’t gotten too big for him – that’s the one thing I worried about the most, especially in that first game. For the most part, he’s kept his composure really well and has just gone about it. Now, it’s going to heat up and this is also his first road game too. I think he’s a pretty confident kid, he works hard and wants to get better, so hopefully we’ll continue to see improvement.”
On whether a game like this is a chance to find out more about his team against a very tough opponent like Miami:
“Yeah, we’ll know a lot more on Saturday night. But, then again, you’re not going to put everything – all your evaluation – on one game either, so it’s a process. But certainly, Saturday will tell us a lot more about it.”
On the front seven of Miami and what they’ve been able to do this season:
“Yeah, they’re some real good athletes. They’re big and fast and explosive. They create a lot of negative plays and a lot of turnovers. They’ve got some really talented people up there up front and a lot of them have played. Their three linebackers, probably as a group, are as good or better than anybody else in the league.”
On if he thinks there will be a letdown by Miami after such a big win last week over Florida State:
“I don’t think they’re going to let down. They know what the importance of the game is, they’re going to be ready to play. It’s like I said: it’s a division game, it’s a home game for them. If we go in there and beat them, it won’t be because they had a letdown.”
