Football - October 11, 2004

Monday's football press conference quotes

ANDY MCCOLLUM PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES

How does a guy throw for almost 90 percent in the game, like Clint Marks did, with that many attempts?Number one, it's protection. I'm very proud of our offensive line and our running backs, they protected him well. Clint has a lot of good guys to throw to and receivers made some big catches, yards after catch. You have to remember this is Clint's first year as a starter, basically, and we have said all along that he will go through some growing pains. He's been close on a lot of others. Percentage has not been his problem. It's been a decision here or a decision there, but he made some great decisions Saturday and you can see him growing up in the offense. He had a great day, but a lot of guys around him gave him the opportunity to do what he did.

This is a young secondary with two freshmen corners starting, but they seem to be improving each week. They are. In the first half Arkansas State was able to get some receivers open where it looked like they just parachuted them in back there, but the guys settled down and played. The young guys can make plays but the thing can't do back there is have critical errors. We have had critical errors in games early, but I'm pleased with how they responded Saturday. We are still not where we need to be, at all, because we have opportunities to make more plays. When you play young kids back there, and we basically have two seniors playing on defense right now, it's good to see them maturing and they did that against a good offensive team that has put up numbers on some good people.

Is the game plan any different from Florida this week, based on the fact you have spent a week preparing for this game already? Both teams have played five games now so you go back and there are different tendencies and a few things they are doing differently. It's not much, but it still goes back to being like we didn't have the first one scheduled. We will use the first four or five games they have played for our preparation.

Florida is young on defense, particularly in the secondary. Is that a weakness you can exploit? I don't know about that. They picked off two against LSU and ran them back inside the 5. You can call it what you want but when you have the Parade All-Americans at every position, there's not many weaknesses on that football team at all. When you look at a Florida team, No. 1 you look at speed. They are a well-coached football team. I think coach Zook does a tremendous job. We have all the respect in the world for what we have to go against. It's a great opportunity for Middle Tennessee and for our players to go against one of the best programs in America. Is it tough? Yes, it is, because you don't find many weaknesses on either side of the ball. They have great players everywhere, but our kids will prepare this week and we will go down there and see how good we can be on that day.

Florida's offensive line is one of the most experienced areas of their team. Can you talk about that and how it fuels their offense? They are big, strong and physical. They are coached by a man I consider to be one of the best offensive line coaches in the country in Joe Wickline (a former Middle Tennessee assistant under McCollum.) I know what kind of toughness they have because that's what Joe demands. That's one of their strengths because they have some guys who have played and they have some guys who have been under Joe for awhile. We know what 'Wick' brings to the table. He's as good as there is out there.

Talk about Florida's offense. They have physical running backs, great receivers. (QB Chris) Leak is as good as there is out there, he's special, but you knew that coming out of high school. He can make things happen when something breaks down. He can hurt you in a lot of ways. There are no weaknesses on their team. When you go play the best in the country and you play in an environment likes the 'Swamp,' it's tough and it's supposed to be.

Has the mindset changed since you have been in conference play for three straight weeks and now you are stepping out? No because we are week-by-week right now. This is our next game and that's where we are. Whether it's conference or not doesn't matter. Last week it wasn't about conference for us, it was about how we play. We feel like we have a good football team but we have hurt ourselves at times. This team wants to go out and be respected. We know we have a lot of winners on this team and we put a complete game together last Saturday, and it came at a good time for us. It's the same approach this week.

QB CLINT MARKS

How much better does it feel coming in on Monday after a win? It feels great. Winning takes care of everything. We worked really hard last week and believed we deserved the win.

Is this game against Florida one where you just come in loose and see what happens? Florida is a great team with great athletes and we are just going into this week working hard, fight and have fun. We have to go into this game with the attitude of having fun, seeing what happens and not hurt ourselves. Don't make mistakes and you never know what might happen.

Is it strange that you guys have already spent a week preparing for this game, six weeks ago, and now you go back and prepare for it again? I think it's going to help because going into this game now I know so much more than I did the first time we prepared for them. Their tackle, Randy Hand, played high school ball with you.

How well do you know him and how much do you guys talk? I know him well. I don't talk to him often, but I'm going to talk to him this week. He's a great player and he blocked great for me in high school. Hopefully he doesn't block as well this Saturday.

Has it sunk in when you look at 45 points on the board (against Arkansas State), no turnovers, how scary this offense can be when you take care of the ball? It really has. I knew we could do it because we have the potential. We have just been kicking ourselves in the foot with the turnovers. We hadn't played a whole game, but we did that against Arkansas State.

Talk about leading the nation in completion percentage. I don't think about it, I just want to win. As long as we are winning, I'm happy. The offensive line has been great. They give me time back there to make my reads and the receivers do a great job getting open. The entire offense has been great and they make my job easy.