Middle Tennessee/Alabama 8/31/02 - Carl Torbush druidcityonline.com your guide to Tuscaloosa, Alabama and the Deep South
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Druid City Online's unique coverage of Alabama football brings you up close and personal with players and coaches after every home game. Click below to read pieces
of their post-game interviews ...

Carl Torbush (Def. Co-ord./LBs Coach - prev. HC@UNC 98-20, HC@LBC 88-97)

this is a transcript of Torbush's opening address to the media ...

“Defensively, the first and first half we probably played about as well as we could play. I mean we were three and out probably the first four possessions. After that, I’m not sure they even punted again. But the thing that was disappointing was we’re trying to get off the field, and then we rough the punter. We were on the field for pretty much the whole second quarter after that. It was frustrating. I had a penalty on that, then we lost containment a couple times, so we’re out there for 19 straight plays. Anytime you’re out there for 19 straight plays, there’s going to be some bad things happening. I’m not sure we ever recovered.”

“I thought our kids competed and fought. You have to give Middle Tennessee credit. They’ve got two SEC caliber running backs. Strong physical guys. They mixed it up well. They’re offensive line is experienced. I thought their quarterback got better as the game went along. Early they didn’t ask him to do a great deal . Later on, he did do some things. Probably a better runner than a lot of people, me included, anticipated. He was able to scramble and get some key first downs when we had his receivers covered. It got them out of trouble.”

“I big positive for us in the second half was Freddie Roach’s interception. That was a big, big play in the ball game. But sure enough after we did that, we end up letting them get the ball on the other side of the 50, and gave points back. Those are things we have to do a better job of.”
“Guys that just jumped out … Brooks Daniels seemed to always be around the ball and make a lot of tackles. Jarret Johnson played good on special teams. I thought Herschel Bolden had some one on one situations and made some good plays. I think we'll have to go back and see where we didn’t do so well. We’re going to face a very, very similar offense next week (Oklahoma). When I say similar, I’m talking about the same type of schemes … the shotgun, the slices, the options, the counters. I think one good thing Middle Tennessee does is they keep you off balance. They took the quarterback and moved him out there as the wide receiver. Probably shouldn’t have bothered us, but sometimes it does. They did some unorthodox things to try and get you in a mismatch. But like I said, 24 and 4, both of them are very strong runners. And physically, second half, I didn’t think we had that many knockbacks. I saw Derrick Pope make a big time hit one time, but overall we need to be more physical on our tackling, and create more turnovers, and get the quarterback on the ground.

on Freddie Roach's interception …
“He anticipated when he saw the ball thrown, and he went downhill, caught it right on the dead run and put it in the endzone. It was really nice play. He’s done a good job. You’ve got to compliment Freddie. It was his first time as a starter in his first college game. Seemed like he played fairly consistently.”

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Click on the name for parts of their post-game interviews ...

Dennis Franchione (Head Coach)

Alonzo Empraim (#58 Sen. C, 6-2 303 lbs. Birmingham, AL - Wenonah High School)

Jarret Johnson (#96 Sen. DT, 6-4 287 lbs. Chiefland, FL - Chiefland High School)

Tyler Watts (#14 Sen. QB, 6-3 220 lbs. Pelham, AL - Pelham High School)

Freddie Roach (#8 Fresh. MLB, 6-2 238 lbs. Killen, AL - Brooks High School)