From UM Media Relations:
Hugh Freeze Weekly Press Conference
Ole Miss Head Football Coach Discussed Florida Setback and Previewed Homecoming Game Versus New Mexico State
Watch Here
Ole Miss Football Head Coach Hugh Freeze met with the media Monday to discuss the Rebels' road result at Florida, while also looking towards this week's Homecoming game versus New Mexico State. (11:00 a.m. CT, SEC Network).
Opening Statement...
“Obviously it was a disappointing night down in Florida. Credit to Florida, they are a much improved football team. They are very good defensively and they made explosive plays on us. We certainly did not play our best. Some of that had to do with them, some of that had to do with us not making plays or not coaching them to play well enough. It is a great lesson for us. We owned it when we went to Tuscaloosa and lost, so now we need to own the loss on the road. We have to own it when we lose in difficult places to play against really good teams. The expectations of this program are to compete in those games. I know that and I understand that. So, like many other teams, we need to get in here and get to work.”
On the difference between playing Alabama and Florida…
“We did okay at Alabama. This was a different defensive front that gives us a bit more of a challenge. They’re a lot like our guys. They’re extremely quick. The environment gave them a distinctive advantage with the get off that they had. It was very difficult. We had some guys out. Justin Bell, of course, he’s a senior. Javon (Patterson) was real gimpy. We struggled in that environment with their quickness. Not sure how well we did at Alabama, but it was for sure better. The biggest difference that I would take away was we were able early on in Alabama to have a little success. What we needed to go on the other night was for us to go back and forth a little bit to settle that place down. If you look at the first drive, one of our guys gets the wrong signal, and we have a sprint out pass to get Chad away from it, and we take a sack because our guy goes the wrong direction. The next one, we had a fumble on an exchange. That is the first time I remember that happening since I’ve been here. The next drive, we get two first downs and we snap the ball over the quarterback’s head. That kind of fed the frenzy. Before you know it, you’re down two scores. That wasn’t a good spot to have our offensive linemen in at that point. Credit to them, and the mistakes we had made it a tough night for us.”
On where the team level is right now…
“We are not elite right now. We have potential to be much better than the way we played that night, and we’ve shown that. We still have a lot of work to do. It’s evident the other night that we weren’t prepared to play our best and didn’t. We got exposed in some places in the secondary that we need to work on. Maybe we’ll move some people around. Offensively, we have got to find a way to get where you are on the road, and to play in that type of environment in this league, you have to find a way to have success early. You have to put an extreme amount of time into doing that. I believe that this team will respond, no question. We have the ability to be one of the best teams in the country. I can’t control injuries. There’s no telling what will happen with those. We certainly miss people like Issac Gross, Tony Connor, Justin Bell and Laremy Tunsil, but everyone has some of that. So you have to continue to build your program to where you can be elite when those things happen. But I am confident. I can’t wait to get to work and back on the practice field to get ready for Saturday.”
On the assessments of their third down conversions…
“Not good right now. If you look at our defense and the stats from the other night, and not the scoreboard, it would be hard to tell who won. We had about 23 first downs to their 17 or so, but, we turned it over four times to their zero, and they had explosive plays and we had very few. If you look at everything but the explosive plays and turnovers and third downs, you’d say it was a pretty solid game. But we’re not playing well on third down and not getting off the field to get our offense possessions or our defense off the field.”
On the moral of the team after big wins and tough losses…
“Well, you have an enormous amount of things that kids have to experience on both sides. Both can be your adversary and being adverse to success and how you handle disappointments. I really thought after the Alabama game we had a good mind set. We weren’t too excited. But we certainly haven’t played the last two weeks with the same drive and passion to be an elite team that I think we have the ability to be. Of course, in this world, when you have a disappointing loss, the burden and negativity that comes toward not only me, but the coaches and the players, I understand that. And you hate to see that for your players, but you can’t run from that. It’s part of the world you live in. Hopefully the leadership of our team can handle that, and we need to circle the wagons, own what we did, own what we didn’t do, and we still have a lot to play for and a long season left. We can’t operate like the rest of the world and put our hands in the air. We have to get back to work. We didn’t make a sale this week. We didn’t produce. So we need to get back to work and get back to producing.
On the update of Tony Connor and his rehab…
I believe this Wednesday will be two weeks, and that’s when they will start his active rehab, where he is actually starting to rehab it. So it is kind of hard for me to say right now. Everything looks good, but he’s going to rehab, and that starts in the middle of this week, I believe. We do miss him. The softer coverages, some of it is bad planning and not our awareness of where the sticks are when we run zone coverage. Some of it is blown assignments. It’s a combination that we are all responsible for. It’s really not part of any certain person. We struggled a little at the Huskie position the last couple weeks, not because of a lack of effort or having the experience Tony had, or the tackling skill or physicality. We have struggled there a few times. We’ll probably bring Mike Hilton in there and see how it goes the next few weeks.”
On how big of a factor the environment is on the road…
“It affects you. It does any time you go on the road in this league. And you just hope you can do something early. That’s why I said, we needed for this game to go kind of back and forth a little bit in the first quarter. The first quarter and a half, we needed something good for us like it was for them to keep things somewhat balanced. But as things escalated and went in their favor, that became increasingly difficult. To get our protection set and to communicate with our offensive line, it certainly was a challenge for Chad (Kelly). It caused us a mistake at times. Once you do that, you can’t just freeze things all the time because you know chances are you freeze it, and then you have to check your protection late in the clock. It’s definitely an advantage when you’re playing at home.
On whether Freeze personally knows New Mexico State Head Coach Doug Martin…
“I don’t. I’m sorry to say that. I’ve been watching his team, and they play extremely hard for him. I know he is trying to build something there. His schemes are good, but I do not know him personally.”
On Tee Shepard…
“He’s really struggled in getting the checks. In that kind of environment, they used a lot of shifts and a lot of motion. A lot of teams have been doing that to us. It has nothing to do with his physical skills. When they do that, we have to make a check, and that is very difficult for him. With the games that we are playing, it’s much easier to play at home than on the road. That is an issue for him. While all of us hate that, there is part of that to it. If there is any short motion or shift, he has to look back to see it. And when you turn around, all of a sudden, the ball is snapped. So that has been an issue for us. We’ve reported a knee injury that slowed his preparation during the Vandy week. We just have to, hopefully, keep getting him some work.”
On who to put at the Rover position…
“We would put Trae Elston (there) and C.J. Hampton would play free safety. Chief (Brown) would back up C.J. and we’d move Kendarius (Webster) back to Rover.”
On what they are doing to put Tee Shepard in the best position possible…
“We’re thinking about all the possibilities to try to get him to have success. I had a long meeting with him to figure out how we can do this and make it to where you are successful and be on the same page as everyone. We’re looking into everything that we can.”
On the mindset of the team in the locker room after the loss…
“The mindset of the team was disappointing. We were disappointed with our performance and not only the outcome, but the way we went about our business out there. I’m not big on talking about anything other than practice tomorrow, and they know that about me. I heard a couple of my kids mention that we still have a lot to play for, and I’ll stand by that with them, but all we need to be talking about right now is improving ourselves in the red zone, third downs, taking care of the ball, and getting turnovers, and that’s the mindset I want our team to have going forward. Certainly in the back of our mind, it is still there. We still have all of the best teams left to play on our schedule. That is helpful, we just don’t talk about it a lot."
On the tight red zone that they have faced…
“I would love to show you the tape. We only got down there one time, and we should have scored. I wouldn’t have called anything differently. And I said last week from the Vandy game we made two bad calls, schematically. The two we made the other night, both should have scored if we executed. We had a guy whiff on both plays. We knew what they were going to be in. Sometimes you physically get beat one on one, sometimes you make a bad call, and sometimes you make a mental mistake. Those are the toughest ones to deal with. One of them was a mistake, the other was he lost a one-on-one. One was a bad call. The first option on the toss, they had two guys outside. That was a bad call. We just need to continue to work and be true to who we are. We’ve tried under center, and we’ve tried almost everything. We need to make sure the plays we call are sound, and we probably need to get Chad (Kelly) the ability to throw more one-on-one balls."
On the status of Laremy Tunsil, and his morale…
“That is the most difficult part, is to see a young man like this as the weeks go by. He’s handled it as well as anyone could, but at the same time, he’s antsy. He’s just ready for finality to it, as are we. I hope to hear something this week, but I haven’t heard anything to this point. Just hopeful that it can be resolved this week, and we can get him back soon."
On Eugene Brazley, and how he may fit into the offense…
“He’s got a little special talent on the inside zone plays. He’s very patient. He’s got something to him there. Jaylen is day-to-day right now with his availability this week. We’ll see, so if he can’t (go), we’ll have some guys ready to go. The good thing about playing at home non-conference is you can play some more guys. It helps us on special teams. And D.K. Buford is a guy that I think is a pretty good running back too. So we’ll see what his availability is this week.”
On his mentality of possibly not having Laremy Tunsil for the season…
“I don’t let my mind go there. From what I know, which is limited, I would think he is going to be back with us at some time. It’s frustrating as a coach, when you deal with young men and their futures, and they are part of your family, you know that mistakes are done in people’s lives. If that was done, then let’s just get to the finality to it. I do think that is coming, hopefully this week. I won’t be able to say that until they say, ‘this is what we’ve been waiting on.’ I don’t know all of that.
Hugh Freeze Weekly Press Conference
Ole Miss Head Football Coach Discussed Florida Setback and Previewed Homecoming Game Versus New Mexico State
Watch Here
Ole Miss Football Head Coach Hugh Freeze met with the media Monday to discuss the Rebels' road result at Florida, while also looking towards this week's Homecoming game versus New Mexico State. (11:00 a.m. CT, SEC Network).
Opening Statement...
“Obviously it was a disappointing night down in Florida. Credit to Florida, they are a much improved football team. They are very good defensively and they made explosive plays on us. We certainly did not play our best. Some of that had to do with them, some of that had to do with us not making plays or not coaching them to play well enough. It is a great lesson for us. We owned it when we went to Tuscaloosa and lost, so now we need to own the loss on the road. We have to own it when we lose in difficult places to play against really good teams. The expectations of this program are to compete in those games. I know that and I understand that. So, like many other teams, we need to get in here and get to work.”
On the difference between playing Alabama and Florida…
“We did okay at Alabama. This was a different defensive front that gives us a bit more of a challenge. They’re a lot like our guys. They’re extremely quick. The environment gave them a distinctive advantage with the get off that they had. It was very difficult. We had some guys out. Justin Bell, of course, he’s a senior. Javon (Patterson) was real gimpy. We struggled in that environment with their quickness. Not sure how well we did at Alabama, but it was for sure better. The biggest difference that I would take away was we were able early on in Alabama to have a little success. What we needed to go on the other night was for us to go back and forth a little bit to settle that place down. If you look at the first drive, one of our guys gets the wrong signal, and we have a sprint out pass to get Chad away from it, and we take a sack because our guy goes the wrong direction. The next one, we had a fumble on an exchange. That is the first time I remember that happening since I’ve been here. The next drive, we get two first downs and we snap the ball over the quarterback’s head. That kind of fed the frenzy. Before you know it, you’re down two scores. That wasn’t a good spot to have our offensive linemen in at that point. Credit to them, and the mistakes we had made it a tough night for us.”
On where the team level is right now…
“We are not elite right now. We have potential to be much better than the way we played that night, and we’ve shown that. We still have a lot of work to do. It’s evident the other night that we weren’t prepared to play our best and didn’t. We got exposed in some places in the secondary that we need to work on. Maybe we’ll move some people around. Offensively, we have got to find a way to get where you are on the road, and to play in that type of environment in this league, you have to find a way to have success early. You have to put an extreme amount of time into doing that. I believe that this team will respond, no question. We have the ability to be one of the best teams in the country. I can’t control injuries. There’s no telling what will happen with those. We certainly miss people like Issac Gross, Tony Connor, Justin Bell and Laremy Tunsil, but everyone has some of that. So you have to continue to build your program to where you can be elite when those things happen. But I am confident. I can’t wait to get to work and back on the practice field to get ready for Saturday.”
On the assessments of their third down conversions…
“Not good right now. If you look at our defense and the stats from the other night, and not the scoreboard, it would be hard to tell who won. We had about 23 first downs to their 17 or so, but, we turned it over four times to their zero, and they had explosive plays and we had very few. If you look at everything but the explosive plays and turnovers and third downs, you’d say it was a pretty solid game. But we’re not playing well on third down and not getting off the field to get our offense possessions or our defense off the field.”
On the moral of the team after big wins and tough losses…
“Well, you have an enormous amount of things that kids have to experience on both sides. Both can be your adversary and being adverse to success and how you handle disappointments. I really thought after the Alabama game we had a good mind set. We weren’t too excited. But we certainly haven’t played the last two weeks with the same drive and passion to be an elite team that I think we have the ability to be. Of course, in this world, when you have a disappointing loss, the burden and negativity that comes toward not only me, but the coaches and the players, I understand that. And you hate to see that for your players, but you can’t run from that. It’s part of the world you live in. Hopefully the leadership of our team can handle that, and we need to circle the wagons, own what we did, own what we didn’t do, and we still have a lot to play for and a long season left. We can’t operate like the rest of the world and put our hands in the air. We have to get back to work. We didn’t make a sale this week. We didn’t produce. So we need to get back to work and get back to producing.
On the update of Tony Connor and his rehab…
I believe this Wednesday will be two weeks, and that’s when they will start his active rehab, where he is actually starting to rehab it. So it is kind of hard for me to say right now. Everything looks good, but he’s going to rehab, and that starts in the middle of this week, I believe. We do miss him. The softer coverages, some of it is bad planning and not our awareness of where the sticks are when we run zone coverage. Some of it is blown assignments. It’s a combination that we are all responsible for. It’s really not part of any certain person. We struggled a little at the Huskie position the last couple weeks, not because of a lack of effort or having the experience Tony had, or the tackling skill or physicality. We have struggled there a few times. We’ll probably bring Mike Hilton in there and see how it goes the next few weeks.”
On how big of a factor the environment is on the road…
“It affects you. It does any time you go on the road in this league. And you just hope you can do something early. That’s why I said, we needed for this game to go kind of back and forth a little bit in the first quarter. The first quarter and a half, we needed something good for us like it was for them to keep things somewhat balanced. But as things escalated and went in their favor, that became increasingly difficult. To get our protection set and to communicate with our offensive line, it certainly was a challenge for Chad (Kelly). It caused us a mistake at times. Once you do that, you can’t just freeze things all the time because you know chances are you freeze it, and then you have to check your protection late in the clock. It’s definitely an advantage when you’re playing at home.
On whether Freeze personally knows New Mexico State Head Coach Doug Martin…
“I don’t. I’m sorry to say that. I’ve been watching his team, and they play extremely hard for him. I know he is trying to build something there. His schemes are good, but I do not know him personally.”
On Tee Shepard…
“He’s really struggled in getting the checks. In that kind of environment, they used a lot of shifts and a lot of motion. A lot of teams have been doing that to us. It has nothing to do with his physical skills. When they do that, we have to make a check, and that is very difficult for him. With the games that we are playing, it’s much easier to play at home than on the road. That is an issue for him. While all of us hate that, there is part of that to it. If there is any short motion or shift, he has to look back to see it. And when you turn around, all of a sudden, the ball is snapped. So that has been an issue for us. We’ve reported a knee injury that slowed his preparation during the Vandy week. We just have to, hopefully, keep getting him some work.”
On who to put at the Rover position…
“We would put Trae Elston (there) and C.J. Hampton would play free safety. Chief (Brown) would back up C.J. and we’d move Kendarius (Webster) back to Rover.”
On what they are doing to put Tee Shepard in the best position possible…
“We’re thinking about all the possibilities to try to get him to have success. I had a long meeting with him to figure out how we can do this and make it to where you are successful and be on the same page as everyone. We’re looking into everything that we can.”
On the mindset of the team in the locker room after the loss…
“The mindset of the team was disappointing. We were disappointed with our performance and not only the outcome, but the way we went about our business out there. I’m not big on talking about anything other than practice tomorrow, and they know that about me. I heard a couple of my kids mention that we still have a lot to play for, and I’ll stand by that with them, but all we need to be talking about right now is improving ourselves in the red zone, third downs, taking care of the ball, and getting turnovers, and that’s the mindset I want our team to have going forward. Certainly in the back of our mind, it is still there. We still have all of the best teams left to play on our schedule. That is helpful, we just don’t talk about it a lot."
On the tight red zone that they have faced…
“I would love to show you the tape. We only got down there one time, and we should have scored. I wouldn’t have called anything differently. And I said last week from the Vandy game we made two bad calls, schematically. The two we made the other night, both should have scored if we executed. We had a guy whiff on both plays. We knew what they were going to be in. Sometimes you physically get beat one on one, sometimes you make a bad call, and sometimes you make a mental mistake. Those are the toughest ones to deal with. One of them was a mistake, the other was he lost a one-on-one. One was a bad call. The first option on the toss, they had two guys outside. That was a bad call. We just need to continue to work and be true to who we are. We’ve tried under center, and we’ve tried almost everything. We need to make sure the plays we call are sound, and we probably need to get Chad (Kelly) the ability to throw more one-on-one balls."
On the status of Laremy Tunsil, and his morale…
“That is the most difficult part, is to see a young man like this as the weeks go by. He’s handled it as well as anyone could, but at the same time, he’s antsy. He’s just ready for finality to it, as are we. I hope to hear something this week, but I haven’t heard anything to this point. Just hopeful that it can be resolved this week, and we can get him back soon."
On Eugene Brazley, and how he may fit into the offense…
“He’s got a little special talent on the inside zone plays. He’s very patient. He’s got something to him there. Jaylen is day-to-day right now with his availability this week. We’ll see, so if he can’t (go), we’ll have some guys ready to go. The good thing about playing at home non-conference is you can play some more guys. It helps us on special teams. And D.K. Buford is a guy that I think is a pretty good running back too. So we’ll see what his availability is this week.”
On his mentality of possibly not having Laremy Tunsil for the season…
“I don’t let my mind go there. From what I know, which is limited, I would think he is going to be back with us at some time. It’s frustrating as a coach, when you deal with young men and their futures, and they are part of your family, you know that mistakes are done in people’s lives. If that was done, then let’s just get to the finality to it. I do think that is coming, hopefully this week. I won’t be able to say that until they say, ‘this is what we’ve been waiting on.’ I don’t know all of that.
