Alabama football postgame interviews with Mike Shula, Shaud Williams, Wesley Britt and more

These comments came during Coach Mike Shula's Tuesday October 7th press conference ...

Coach Mike Shula – We’re getting ready for Southern Miss and Homecoming. We’ve got to have a good week of practice. We know anytime you play a Southern Miss team it’s going to be one of the hardest hitting games we have all year. I think our players realize that, especially the older guys. It was like that when I was a player, and from talking to folks around this building (the football complex) it continues to be that way. You can throw out hat happened the previous week anytime you’re playing Southern Miss because you know you’re always going to get their best. They’re playing well. They’re 3-2 and 3-0 in their conference and recently had a nice come from behind victory. They’re well coached and do a lot of things in all three phases of the game to try and create some confusion. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us this week, starting today. We’ve got to do a good job of focusing in on every little detail. I think that’s one of the biggest things we’ve talked about. Especially when it’s a time like this when you’re looking for a win. We’ve got to go back and do things right fundamentally. Every guy, every coach, every player at every position. We’ve need to take a good look at what we’re doing and have each person get better at doing their job. With that, I’ll take some questions.

It’s going to be kind of a day to day thing. It’s very similar to last week. We’ll just see where he is today. It’s a pain thing a little bit obviously. We’ll take a look at him with our trainers and our doctors today and tomorrow. If he’s feeling good we’ll try to get him some reps. He probably won’t get any reps today. But we’ll see what it looks like tomorrow.

Mike, you’ve had breakdowns in special teams fairly consistently throughout the season. How much of that is due to only having three weeks to put that in and what can you do to make corrections during the season?

Well, it’s just like our other two phases. We’ve had some inconsistency. Unfortunately, when that happens on special teams it can result in a play that costs a touchdown or what have you. We’ve also made some big plays on special teams. Consistency is one thing. At other times, we’ve had some guys step into some roles on special teams due to some injuries on offense and defense. All of a sudden a guy who wasn’t starting or playing a lot of plays is in there. So some new guys have had to come in there and learn some new things. Last week was a great example. We had some big plays and did some big things coverage wise and had some nice returns. We put the ball in the end zone and had a couple of nice punts. We also had a nice return, but then fumbled the ball. Then we made a mistake on a punt protection and it cost us a touchdown. But we also had a block on where (Georgia’s) punter fumbled. We felt like we had a chance to block it anyway and it resulted in a touchdown for us. But there’s too much inconsistency. You only have one chance on special teams, whereas on offense and defense you usually have three downs.

This is the seventh game, kind of the midpoint of the year. You’ve got a couple of guys who haven’t played at all this season, Cornelius Wortham and AC Carter. Have you made a decision on them yet?

We’re leaning towards not playing them, but we take it week to week. We try to involve all the coaches and also look at it medically. If a guy is not ready, then he’s not ready. So those are things we weigh into it. It’s been tough on both those guys obviously, especially AC because it’s been two years now for him. But we’re kind of leaning that way.

As you try to find that consistency on offense that you’re looking for … how much does it slow that process down when you don’t know who the quarterback is going to be?

It slows it down a little bit. It’s a tough situation there, as well as having to play some younger guys. We’ve had some young fullbacks in there. We’re playing a couple of young receivers now. But that’s our job as coaches, to understand what we have to put on the field. And when they’re in the game, we have to give them the best chance to make some plays, whether or not that means altering your game plan or doing something differently with your personnel groupings. But what we have to get back to is just the fundamentals of blocking and tackling. If you’re a quarterback, getting back and getting set up. Just making sure every little thing is covered and not taking anything for granted. That way we eliminate making some mistakes that hurt us. That’s what we did early in the game last week. If we can stop the mistakes, we feel like we’re just playing against one football team.

If Brandon Avalos is your quarterback this week and Southern Miss throws a variety of looks at you, how simple are you going to have keep things for him?

If the word is simple, then we’ll keep it simple. But I think we’ll tailor the game plan to what he does well. And also use some of the guys around him. We feel like we’ve got enough flexibility in our offense with our scheme and our personnel to tailor our plan against a defense, and then do it with some new guys that are coming in. We’ve got a lot of work to do. If he’s going to be the guy … he got five reps last week, and that’s five more than he’s had all year not including training camp. If he’s going to be the guy, he has to make sure he prepares thoroughly and we’ve got to do our job as coaches.

You’ve got some true freshmen and redshirt freshman playing some roles that you may not have envisioned them in to start the year. Is there a two sidedness to this that they’re getting some action now and that will help you be more of a veteran team down the road?

I think it’s a little bit of both. I think we’re nicked up a little bit too. We wanted to get some of those guys in there earlier, but just the way the games have gone, we haven’t had the chance to. Any experience you have, whether you’re a true freshman or a redshirt freshman, is obviously going to help. We’ve got some guys that are sophomores who are playing a lot, which makes us feel good as a staff and good for our organization in the future. Not just down the road, but right now.

Are you concerned about “losing” this football team? And what is the best way to guard against that?

(listen to a soundbite) No, I don’t have a concern with that. Not with our guys. If you want to go back and watch the fourth quarter of the Georgia game, that will answer any questions in all three phases. The way we played defensively, the way we got some special teams play. Even offensively, when we weren’t throwing the ball and were running it. Just watch our guys up front and watch how they finish when we’re down two touchdowns and didn’t have a lot of things going our way. Not one guy (gave up). That’s what I base it on and see in these guys everyday. Those are the things that make you feel good about this football team. Now we just have to channel all that energy and all that effort into some positive results.

I think that we are in areas but obviously not enough. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have lost three games. I think there are some positive things that we take from each week, and there’s some things we have to get corrected. We try to talk to our players about not making the same mistake twice and being able to make adjustments. Have we done that? Not well enough the last three week, but it’s something we continue to work on.

How little do you want me to comment? (press pool laughs) Someone asked us that Saturday after the game. We checked and Dave Rader doesn’t have any eligibility left. Michael Machen will get reps if nobody else is ready to get reps. So we’ll go in with those two guys. Brandon’s had five reps. Michael has had none.

Could you talk about the strengths you’ve seen from Avalos so far. What suits him?

(listen to a soundbite) He’s definitely athletic, so we’re going to look at some of those things. He’s an interesting guy. He has a good feel for the game. When he had the chance to go in Saturday, it was similar to Spencer, maybe even more so. He had a great look in his eye and was excited about getting in there. We called the fourth down pass and talked about which play he liked. He knew right away which play he liked. So he has some things in his mind and you can tell he thinks about it. That’s tough to do for a guy that doesn’t get any reps. So we’ll look at the things we does best, and we have to have some guys help him. Meaning our running backs, our offensive line and our receivers.

Mike, does what happened Saturday with the decision to put Brodie in the game and all the flak you caught from that … does that make you a bit gun shy about putting him in this week unless he’s totally healthy?

No. I look at it as a decision, just like last week. It was real tough when we were talking on Friday night about who was going to start. We knew going into the game that Brodie was probably going to play at some time. Those are things we talked about within our staff. After talking with the doctors and the trainers, if he’s ready to go then it’s just a matter of how he feels, if he can hurt it worse or not. That’s something that’s going to be day to day. As far as second guessing myself? … no, I’m not. I thought that was the best thing to do to help us win the football game. Obviously, if we knew we weren’t going to have protection and he was going to get hit, that’s a different story.

Where is the line drawn between being healthy enough to play and healthy enough to start for Brodie?

I think there are a lot of factors involved. One of them being practice time. I think he was healthy enough last week to start. We listen to or trainers and doctors because that’s what they’re there for. It is a fine line. But also, it’s hard to play any position if you don’t have a lot of practice reps, and that’s why he didn’t start. Again, that’s something we’ll look at as well as how he feels and what the doctors say.

Knowing that separated shoulders often end up required some kind of surgery … I’m not saying Brodie needs that … but at what point do you do that to make sure he’s healthy by Spring? How do you make a decision over this year as compared to next year?

(listen to a soundbite) Our decision right now would be to get him ready for this year and get him ready to play as soon as he can. If it were his other shoulder, it would be a different story. I’ve been around some guys that have played with a shoulder injury on their non-throwing shoulder and they played well.

Spencer will probably be out for a couple of weeks. Without getting into to many details, his is probably a little more serious. Plus, it’s on this throwing shoulder.