<p>Transcript of Navy Head Football Coach Paul Johnson's Press Briefing Following Practice On Monday, September 3</p>
<p>In Attendance: Bill Wagner (Annapolis Capital), Ken Murray (Baltimore Sun), Christian Swezey (Washington Post), Pete Medhurst (CSTV)</p>
<p>Murray: Coach, can you talk about the big play capabilities of the Rutgers offense and what your defense has to do to stay away from that.</p>
<p>Johnson: Keep them in front of us.</p>
<p>Murray: How do you do that with their speed?</p>
<p>Johnson: You backup far enough to where you keep them in front of you and when they catch the ball you tackle them. We can't have 40 missed tackles like we did last week.</p>
<p>Murray: What do you think about their balance this year?</p>
<p>Johnson: They've played one game, I don't know.</p>
<p>Murray: Does it mean anything that they threw for so many yards in the first game?</p>
<p>Johnson: Not really. Not to me.</p>
<p>Murray: Do you see any difference in Teel?</p>
<p>Johnson: I¹m sure he's a better player. He's had another year in the system and he had a great game against Buffalo. I'm sure he's going to be a better player. We will see how it plays out.</p>
<p>Murray: What do they do best?</p>
<p>Johnson: Play defense. If you are asking me what they do best it's play defense. They run the ball well and they hit big plays in the passing game. They are a solid football team.</p>
<p>Murray: What is your take on their defensive tackles?</p>
<p>Johnson: The one guy, Meekins, is gone, but the other guy, Foster, is an All-American. He's a great player. They have really good athletes, they have a good scheme and they understand what they are trying to do. They give their kids a chance to be successful.</p>
<p>Wagner: Do you think they've defended the triple option as well as any other opponent the last couple of years?</p>
<p>Johnson: I don't know about the last couple of years. Last year they did. The year before we scored 21 up there and turned it over twice. Last year they played us pretty good. They always play us tough, but last year they played us good. There are no magic scheme guys. You guys want to drum up eight in the box, seven in the box, 12 in the box, there is no magic way to play. It's the guys lining up in those spots. That's what makes the magic. They lined up exactly the same way Army and UConn did and they didn't have nearly the success.</p>
<p>Wagner: Every coach has their own take on what is the best way to play the option. </p>
<p>Johnson: Sure.</p>
<p>Wagner: Everybody has their own opinion.</p>
<p>Johnson: Exactly. The key to it is they have a good scheme against what we do, they have a pretty good scheme against what everybody does, I haven't seen anybody except maybe West Virginia really light them up.</p>
<p>Murray: How about their overall team speed?</p>
<p>Johnson: It's good. It's really good. They are an outstanding team.</p>
<p>Wagner: What are your thoughts on Ray Rice?</p>
<p>Johnson: He's a great back. He's hard to tackle; he breaks a lot of tackles. He's a good player.</p>
<p>Murray: I read in their release where they scored six touchdowns last year on either defense or special teams. Have they really outplayed teams there?</p>
<p>Johnson: Last year they killed us on special teams. They blocked two punts that led to two touchdowns.</p>
<p>Wagner: Schiano mentioned that. He said without those two blocked punts it would have been a different game.</p>
<p>Johnson: Yeah, it would have been 20-0.</p>
<p>Murray: Is there anything you can take out of last year's game and apply it to this year?</p>
<p>Johnson: Yeah, there is a lot to take out of it. You look at the film and try to correct your mistakes and see what worked and all those kinds of things. They have a different team this year and we have a different team. We might get beat worse than we did last year. Who knows?</p>
<p>Wagner: Schiano did say he thought that Navy has defended them as well as anybody the last two years. Do you agree with that?</p>
<p>Johnson: Last year for sure. The year before we couldn't quite get over the hump. Every time we tried to make a run at them and score they would answer. I thought we played pretty well on defense last year, especially in the first half. We wore down in the second half.</p>
<p>Murray: What do you remember about Kaipo's game last year after he went in?</p>
<p>Johnson: It wasn't so much Kaipo, everybody was struggling. It was just blah. We didn't execute very well and they had something to do with it. I think we can play better.</p>
<p>Murray: How did he play in particular?</p>
<p>Johnson: He didn't play real well, but he didn't have a chance. It's hard to play well when someone is hanging on your back. He didn't play any better than anybody else, but it certainly wasn't all him.</p>
<p>Wagner: After the game the other night we failed to ask you about Matt Harmon. He made three field goals, including a career-long, and I thought he did a fairly good job on kickoffs.</p>
<p>Harmon: Matt did a nice job. He was our player of the game on special teams. That's good to have that consistency and a guy that you can depend on. It makes it easier on me to make a decision when we get down there. If I'm confident that he's going to make them I will be more apt to kick them.</p>
<p>Medhurst: The last field goal was kind of under duress too. It looked like you were trying to catch them with 12 men on the field and you sped things up.</p>
<p>Johnson: Yeah. He did a nice job. It's funny because I always ask the guys before the game what their range is, I watch them warm up and I have my own idea, but I ask Matt what his range was and he said 55 yards. I said I thought it was 35 yards so we will split it in half. That last field goal was at about the end of that range. There was a little wind blowing too.</p>
<p>Wagner: It barely got over that upright.</p>
<p>Johnson: Yeah it did.</p>
<p>Wagner: And you were pleased with his distance and placement on kickoffs?</p>
<p>Johnson: Yeah, I thought he did a nice job. I thought our kickoff team, other than the one stupid penalty, did a pretty good job covering kicks.</p>
<p>Murray: Would it be your opinion that a team's best progress is between game one and two?</p>
<p>Johnson: You hope so. That's what everybody says. You hope so.</p>
<p>Murray: Has that been your experience though?</p>
<p>Johnson: Different teams are different. I think everybody gets better the more you play. </p>
<p>Murray: But the biggest jump is between games one and two?</p>
<p>Johnson: Maybe. You can't guarantee that is going to be the case. A lot of times that's what happens. It varies from team to team. Sometimes you have to get hit in the mouth pretty good before you realize.</p>
<p>Wagner: You don't think you got hit in the mouth last week?</p>
<p>Johnson: We took a punch, but we were still standing. Sometimes you have to get knocked off your feet.</p>
<p>Wagner: That could happen this weekend.</p>
<p>Johnson: Yeah, I would say.</p>
<p>Murray: I would like to ask you about the Michigan-Appalachian State game. I'm interested in your perspective having been on both sides. Why don't you think there are more of those, not necessarily Michigan, but why don't more I-AA schools beat I-A schools?</p>
<p>Johnson: As a general rule it's hard to get games. In the five years I was at Georgia Southern we couldn't get many I-A teams to play us. The only people willing to play you are the Georgia's, Michigan's, Miami's, and Florida's of the world and there aren't many people beating them no matter what classification you are in. That would be one aspect of it. I think in the five years I was at Georgia Southern we played Georgia and Oregon State, both on the road. Oregon State beat us 49-42 on a blocked punt and we got hammered by the Pac-10 officials in the game, I can tell you that. After the game Dennis Erickson told me that we wouldn't be playing anymore.</p>
<p>Murray: Erickson said that?</p>
<p>Johnson: Yeah, but you have to look at it from there standpoint. What do you have to gain by playing those teams? Look at us here at Navy. We have managed to play some of the beat teams in I-AA since I've been here. We beat UMass last year and they end up going to the championship game and we lost to Delaware the year they won the National Championship. This year we are playing Delaware and it looks like they are going to be really good again. There is not any difference between us and those teams and the fans think we should beat them because they are I-AA, but they have good players. If you look at Delaware's roster they have 8-10 kids that have played at a high Division IA level.</p>
<p>Murray: How would you describe the gap between I-A and I-AA?</p>
<p>Johnson: I think at the very top, at the elite I-A schools, there is a pretty good gap. I think the Top 10-15 I-AA schools would be comparable to the mid-level I-A schools. Not if they had to play those teams every week, because then depth would come into play because of the scholarship limitations, but on a given day they are comparable. I mean Appalachian State has beaten Wake Forest several times.</p>
<p>Murray: What was your impression when you heard Michigan had been beaten?</p>
<p>Johnson: I was stunned. We were working in the office and guys kept talking about the score and knowing Jerry Moore, I coached against him for five years, I was hoping they would pull it off. I was stunned a little bit, but not that surprised. I guarantee you that if a team isn't as good as they seem to be and they go into the game thinking it's going to be a walk in the park, Appalachian is a pretty good football team right now. They have won 18 or 19 games in a row. The thing that people don't understand is that those guys, just like when I was at Georgia Southern, they think they are supposed to win because they win every week. They didn't go in there intimidated, I guarantee you.</p>
<p>Murray: What did you say to your guys when you were at Southern and going to play Georgia?</p>
<p>Johnson: I didn't have to say anything. They thought they could win.</p>
<p>Murray: Do you think because of this more elite teams will not want to schedule I-AA teams?</p>
<p>Johnson: No. I doubt that Michigan is afraid to play Appalachian State again and I doubt that LSU or Miami would take them off the schedule. What they will do is take them a lot more serious when they play them.</p>
<p>Murray: A lot of people want to call this the biggest upset in college football history, do you subscribe that?</p>
<p>Johnson: I don't have any idea about that. I'm sure there have been less talented teams beat more talented teams. I mean Appalachian State is not a bad football team. They are a pretty talented team.</p>
<p>Murray: To me it's a wake up call to people that I-AA plays pretty good football.</p>
<p>Johnson: It's the first time a ranked team has lost to a 1-AA team so it gets everybody's attention, but every year somebody loses. Last year Montana State beat Colorado and the next week they lost to a Division II school. I remember Maine beating Mississippi State a couple of years ago, Furman has beaten Georgia Tech and North Carolina, it's just that those teams weren't ranked so it wasn't as big a deal.</p>
<p>Murray: What kind of game was the Delaware game when they beat you here? How did they do that?</p>
<p>Johnson: They just beat us. It was a back and forth game. They won the National Championship that year. They were just better than us.</p>