Riley meets the press
October 20, 1998
(Seattle Times writer Percy Allen called this the last of Washingtons "Goodwill Games" before starting the crucial part of the Huskies schedule. Does that sort of thing bother you?) Yes. I think that it probably is understandable. I mean, it wasnt from them specifically, from their football program. But thats the kind of thing we want to get past. Thats probably, until we prove differently, something thats going to be said about Oregon States football program. I think it probably helps spur us on a little bit, even though we dont need any spurring on. Were very excited about whats going on in this program and what the future has for us. But its just kind of a reminder, a needle, a body shot, whatever.
(Injury to free safety Terrence Carroll) Im sure Terrance is now considered very doubtful for this game. When you have a hamstring and then you try to come back and it happens again that fast ... it was a first-quarter deal. By the time he came out of the game he was limping badly, and that scares me. Hamstrings are nothing to mess around with. I would assume hes not going to make what I would consider a miraculous recovery to play in the game. And his backup, Bo Marthaller, blew his knee, so were in the process of determining which direction to go with that. Aaron Wright plays there, and weve always thought Keith Heyward-Johnson would be a natural in there, thats what he played in high school, so were looking into that possibility, too.
(Injury to Terrance Bryant) The latest from practice today is that his back bothered him a little bit. That surprised me because he threw on Sunday and then didnt even feel the need for treatments yesterday. I still would again assume that he would be the other way, that hed be ready to go 100 percent by the game.
(Washingtons 26 sacks in the past two games) They are historically a team that kind of gets in almost a feeding frenzy up front. If they smell blood a little bit, they can really go crazy. Theyve got a great system thats been in place under coach (Jim Lambright) that I really respect now for six years. Players are fit into these spots that fit for them physically. Ive been impressed by that. Thats what you really like in a program, that continuity, so that recruiting and physical attributes all fit together into a place. Its pretty neat. So theyre very good. They are very active and they give you a lot of variety, and they have an atmosphere there that lends itself to playing that kind of defense with the offense struggling with noise and then executing against their movement up front and all that kind of thing. Some teams in the past - Ive heard stories about their 1991 team, the guys at SC told stories about that game as nightmares. I mean, they got shakes talking about the game where they couldnt block them. So thats the kind of thing they feed on in ballgames, and obviously the last two games theyve been very successful. I mean, 26 sacks is an unbelievable thing. Thats a season for a lot of teams, so its a concern.
(Washington quarterbacks Brock Huard and Marques Tuasosopo) I think the way it hits your defense is that theyre two distinctly different guys. Arizona had two starters who played who were both good athletes, and they didnt really run different offenses for those two guys - they both played because they were good enough to play. These guys are distinctly different, so the thought process and what might happen when Marques is in opposed to Brock is different. Ive seen Marques pull the ball down on a pass and run very well, Ive seen him run the option and the quarterback draw. All those, Brock can do - Brock is not a non-athlete, hes a very good athlete. But hes not like Marques in that regard. And theyll run those plays with Brock, but just not as much and it probably wont be as effective running the option as it would be with Marques 20 yards downfield. But to execute the play, theyll still have it in. So they do present distinctly different problems. I was just noting, reading in their notes, that theyre going to find time for Marques to play regardless of the situation, which doesnt surprise me.
(Fewer runs against Arizona a bit like the situation against Arizona State?) Yeah, it was. The difference was, we didnt abandon it because we couldnt do it. The runs were actually going much like I thought they would against Arizona. We were getting sometimes nothing, but more often we were getting four, five and six (yards), which I thought we would, which was good. But then as we fumbled or had a procedure penalty and got us into situations - and then as the game went on, the score said five and six yards wasnt going to be enough. I probably still wish to this point right now that we had gone ahead and attempted more runs; at the time in the ballgame I felt more pressed to not do that. So it was for different reasons but similar circumstances. I dont like to see (tailback) Kenny Simonton feeling that fresh on Sunday. Id rather see him worn out a little bit. He had too much bounce.
(In passing situations, any thought of a blocking back other than Ken Simonton?) Yes, we have. Weve talked about that. (Who else?) Isaac White. Hes our best blocker, and Isaac should be playing more football for us right now. Hes a good football player. We dont have time, right now, to make him a bigger factor in the offense. But for next year, he will play a bigger role running, blocking and catching the ball - all that stuff.
(Is there any way to stop guys from fumbling?) The ironic part of that question is that we emphasize, with our defense, stripping the football. We dont do a lot of it during the season, during the week, of full-speed tackling. We try to play full-speed without full-speed tackling so we dont get piles and injuries. What we do is make sure we try to strip the ball. Therefore, we get a lot of practice protecting the football and covering it. Every time a guy carries the ball in our practice, hes getting the ball swiped at and knocked at, much like in the game. I dont feel like weve under-emphasized that part of it. The answer to your question is, I think there are points about how to do it we have to emphasize - covering the points of the football, covering up in traffic. Some fumbles you see are almost unavoidable. I dont think ours were, necessarily, in the game. A lot of it is concentration and doing the right thing at the right time in traffic or whatever. Martys (tight end Martin Maurer) was a classic case. He caught a nice ball, a big gain. A classic case of the most dangerous guy at stripping the ball is behind you, because you cant see him. He caught the ball, was tucking it away to run ... he should have known a guy was there and still covered the ball, because believe it or not hes not going to run away from that DB, probably. So he should have covered the ball, but hes running and the most dangerous guy is always right there. When I was coaching defensive backs, I told them when you are chasing a guy, its the greatest time you have to strip the ball, so we practice that a lot. Thats what happened to him - it was a classic case. But they are preventable most of the time, I believe.
(Jonathan Smiths situation at quarterback) Right now, its not necessarily competitive as to whos going to start the game. Terrance (Bryant) is going to start the game. We have contemplated and thought its maybe best for our team, best for Terrance, best for everybody that Jonathan does have a designated time to play in the game. We havent finalized that, but its something we have thought about. So thats definitely entered into a new level. Whether its starting, were not considering that now. But I think it is valid to say that he has moved up to a different level and is in our thoughts to get into the game and play more. We want a guy whos more prepared than we have been with a backup who hasnt played in ballgames.
(Satisfied with the way the Beavers have bounced back from Saturday?) Im not necessarily satisfied at this point. Wednesday will tell a bigger tale. I dont want to make too big a judgment based on Tuesdays, because theyre had days. Its the first day back, theres a lot of learning, its a little slower, youre just getting started again. Historically, Tuesdays are frustrating for coaches, so I dont want to jump the gun. If I made a judgment now, Id say were not as enthusiastic as we have been normally. But Im not going to say that because Im going to reserve judgment for tomorrows practice.
(Tim Alexanders punt returns) I started to tell one of the coaches this morning during specialists period that hes really looking comfortable back there, but I said, aw, Id better not say anything. But he is - and he did today in practice. It looked like it was easier for him than having the basket down there trying to find the ball. And he is obviously exciting when he runs. The one thing I will say about the game, I was really proud of the special teams, the job (assistant coach) Bruce Read did preparing that group. Arizona is historically, in my history in the Pac-10 the last six years, the best special teams team in the conference, and we won. We made them pooch the ball; they didnt want to kick deep. We had good punt returns, we protected our punter - I thought we did a great job.
(Washington probably wont kick deep either - how do you combat the pooch kicks?) There is a different way, but you guys will all tell them what were going to do. We are going to change something about that. We are going to try something different; there is another way to do it. I dont know if you take the chance (bringing the deep men up to the 20), because those are live balls. Even the way it was, with Mark (Walsh at the 20) doing that, the ball was up at the 40. Well take that. But what if a guy who is faster was where Mark is?
(Go after them on special teams?) Were going to play aggressively in that area. In some areas, theyve had a rough time. That will be something we have to do well in a game. The concern is, I have watched that "Super Joe" (Joe Jarzynka) - hes a good returner; he wont fair catch a ball. Hes really been effective. That concerns me. Weve got to do a good job with that.
(Toughest thing about playing at Husky Stadium?) Its a combination of the noise and the movement. I wasnt there, but Jeff (McInerney, OSU assistant coach) was there last year, and I think USC started the game off with three procedure penalties before they got a play off. Its tight ends. When we were up there, John Allred jumped offside right off the bat, because the further you are from the ball, the harder it is. Were practicing right now with the quarterback whispering the cadence - only the center can hear it, and everybody else responds to movement. Its hard; thats a disadvantage. Virtually everybody has problems up there. Ive had some interesting stories with noise. The noisiest place in the world is BC Place in Vancouver, Canada. Back in the mid-1980s when the Canadian league was going strong, and thered be 55,000 people in that dome, you absolutely could not talk to a guy. Theyd get the crowd going and it was unbelievable. We were being called by NFL teams about what to do with noise because of our experience there - the earplugs that filtrate sound, all that stuff. It was really interesting. The only way to beat it is to get ahead. It naturally quiets people down.
