Ole Miss/Alabama 10/19/02 - Dennis Franchione druidcityonline.com your guide to Tuscaloosa, Alabama and the Deep South
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Dennis Franchione (Head Coach - prev. HC @ New Mexico 92-97 & TCU 98-20)
The winning coach gets the national television interview.

These comments came during Coach Fran's postgame comments to the press pool ...

Coach Fran-Let me just say this first. If Lane Bearden isn’t the SEC’s special teams Player of the Week then I don’t know why the award exists after what he did today. A courageous performance. 40-yard average. In 30 years, I’ve never seen a young man go out and play without an anterior cruciate ligament, and do a great job for our team at a time when we really needed it in so many ways.

Great game for Santonio Beard. Kind of a breakout for him. I know that he’ll mention his offensive line and his fullback and so many people that did a great job for him today. I was really pleased with the balance in our offense. We were just about even with 234 rushing and 222 passing. Have to tip your hat to the defense today. A stop inside the 5. A stop inside the 15. Offense goes 98 yards after one of those stops. Our coaching staff challenged our football team on our open week. We talked a lot about what had happened to teams, and how they had come off open weeks. We challenged them. We challenged them in areas that we felt like we could improve, and we did improve a lot of those areas and that was gratifying to see. Certainly makes you feel good as a coach that your players responded well in their time off, and in the opportunities they had as we came out of that open week and into this game. So that’s something that’s very pleasing. Kickoff coverage was improved in so many areas. We played very solid football. Our kicking game was solid, and so were our offense and our defense.

Reporter-Coach, is this the complete game you were looking for?

Well, I’m not willing to go that far yet. But I would say that it may be the best that our football team has played – offense, defense and kicking game- in one day. But we’ll wait and watch the film and then make final judgments on those things.

When Tyler went out of the game, did you kind of have to shift gears?

Not really. The gameplan was the same and I think we had a good one that fit both of them. You know, we have confidence in everything that got called with both of the quarterbacks. I don’t think there was a single play called with any thought of who the quarterback was that was in there at the time.

Coach, talk a little bit about the offensive efficiency. The first two drives showed that. And Brodie didn’t throw it much, but when he did, he was very efficient in gaining yards.

Well, we were very good in the first quarter. We came out in two drives and got two touchdowns. We executed very well. We blocked, and we got off blocks. The offensive coaches had a good plan, and the guys executed it very well. Brodie did what he was asked to do for the most part today. He had a drop or two out there, but he came in and did what he needed to do. This was not a game that had to be carried on his shoulders. It was game where he just needed to execute. They’ll be days the other way around, and he’ll have to be ready for those. But I thought he played very well in light of what he was asked to do, and was a part of our offense. Sometimes the quarterback can get more credit or more blame than he deserves. So much of it depends upon the other 10 playing well too. The whole unit played well together for the biggest part of the day.

How key was the pressure you got on (Eli) Manning all day long?

Always a key. I don’t know if I’ve seen him pressured anymore than he was pressured today. I’m not sure whether they’d say that or not. But we sacked him four times, I believe. We made him throw off his back foot. We made him throw the ball away. We made him throw off rhythm several times. But you know, the guy is still really good. He threw for 219 yards today, so he’s still a really great player. We just put him in rally uncomfortable situations, or at least it looked like that from our vantagepoint.

Does today send the quarterback position back to a day-to-day competition?

It’s always day-to-day as far as everybody’s concerned other than me.

What was the coverage plan on Manning today? It looked like ya’ll ran a lot of dime.

Carl (Torbush) would have to verify all that for you. But when you can defend the run like we did today then it really makes you get into coverage packages that enhance coverage and disguise blitz. I think the defensive coaches had a good plan for that and did a good job with it. Some of it’s based on their personnel with who’s in the football game.

Fran, were you aware of the fact that Santonio needed the one touchdown there at the end to tie the record?

No. I only keep track of Alabama scoring.

What is Tyler Watts’ status?

He’ll be at practice tomorrow.

Did you mention Tennessee in the locker room after the game?

We just talked about everything we had to do, and that we needed to continue to improve and get better. We’ve got to build on this and do the things that it takes to get better from this game and use it as a springboard for the future.

Is this the freshest the team has been all season following the off week?

Well, we were fresh earlier. When you play six games in the humidity and the heat it takes a wear and tear on you. And we played some good football teams too. Two teams in the top five or six in the nation. That certainly made the open week come at a good time for us, and we were fresh today.

What about your 150th win? Does that mean anything to you?

You know, it’s nice and I’m sure I’ll have an opportunity to think about it sometime. But you know what? Number five means a lot more than number 150 right now.

How about the play of Kyle Robinson?

I thought he came in and did a good job. He didn’t have to kick a field goal today, but he came in and did the things he needed to do. Hopefully, we’ve found some consistency at the kicking position. I not sure that six extra points qualify yet for that, but we’ll keep the competition open and see how it goes. We gave him a shot and he did good.

Santonio, after the fumble … how did you have the confidence to go back to him.

Well, we did have confidence to come back to him and we need him to play well for us. And he needed for us to show confidence in him in light of that play. At the time, we didn’t feel very good about it. But I know he didn’t either. We may have gotten to 28-7 at the half if we don’t have that play.

Can you talk about that long touchdown pass to Dre?

Well, it was a great call by Coach Koenning. Great throw by Brodie, and a great catch. I think he broke a tackle. It was a big play for us. I think anytime you can get a touchdown before the half, as a home team especially, they are big. A two touchdown separation is big. It’s never enough. We had to come out and play well in the second half and put them away. But it was certainly a big play at the time.

Talk a bit about that stop on 4th and Goal. If they had gotten they it would have given them some momentum.

Well, that’s a big swing. If they get that in there it goes from 28-7 to 28-14. But they don’t get it, and we go 98 yards. Whether that finished them off, or deflated them, would be for them to answer and not me. But I was proud of our defense for the stop. They made some big plays down there. And I was proud of our offense for taking it off the goalline. If you give it right back to them there, you haven’t gained much except time off the clock

Can you talk a bit more about Bearden, and him coming back? When did you think he might be able to play?

In 30 years of coaching, I have never seen a played come back from a torn anterior cruciate ligament at any capacity in the same season. The doctors were confident that the brace would let him play, and that he would still need surgery at the end of the year, but that he could do it. I know I haven’t seen a kicker and a punter tough enough to do it (smiles) I don’t know if I ever seen many football players tough enough to even think about doing it. If you haven’t had a knee injury, then I don’t think you can understand how courageous it is for a young man to go out there and do that. And as I told Nick Ridings, “Your snaps are going to have to be good today because he’s not gong to chase many of them down. Nick did a great job and we need to point that out.

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Dennis Franchione (Head Coach)

Les Koenning (Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Coach)

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

Lane Bearden (#44 Sr. P, 6-2 198 lbs. Helena, AL - Pelham High School)

Gerald Dixon (#4 Sr. LCB 5-1 190 lbs. Burtonsville, MD - Paint Branch High School)

Santonio Beard (#34 Jr. TB, 6-1 225 lbs. Nashville,TN - Pearl/Cohn High School)

Dre Fulgham (#3 Jr. WR 6-1 209 lbs. Montevallo, AL - Montevallo High School)