Croom's Thoughts this Week

On beating Tulane: “We had guys who played very well last week. Willie Evans of course had an outstanding game, David Heard, Kevin Dockery, Quinton Culberson, Clarence McDougal. Blake McAdams did an excellent job punting and keeping us out of trouble all night long. Chris McNeil had one of his better games."

On game week: “It’s a big game this week, against a great opponent. Fine players, good coaching staff, tradition, all that good stuff that you like about college football. We’ve got it all here on our campus Saturday night in prime time, so we’re excited about being a part of that."

On practice this week: "If I had a truly veteran football team with a lot of experience we’d be in shorts all week under these circumstances. But we’re still very young and have a lot of work to do in order to get better and have any chance of beating Georgia. It’s a fine line we have to cross this week, but our players are excited about it and we’ll be enthusiastic."

On three-straight games against top-ten teams: “It’s big-time. And we’re going to focus on this one because we definitely have to take them one at a time. But this truly is what college football is about—playing a big-time opponent, on TV, what more can you ask for? It’s great exposure for our program, a great chance for our players to display their skills, their character, to see the product of all the hard work they’ve put in. I look at it as a challenge but more than that as a great opportunity for us.”

On similarities to the 2004 Florida game: "We won’t know until around midnight Saturday, but I sure do hope so. I’ve been talking to our players, last year’s Auburn team and Florida team, this year’s Auburn team…I doubt anyone puts Southern Cal or one of those NFL teams on the schedule, (so) we won’t see any more talent than we saw in those games. There’s nothing to be afraid of, we know what to expect. We’ve been up against the best so let’s go line up and play."

On defending a mobile quarterback: "It’s not going to be easy, (Shockley) is bigger and just as elusive (as Topps), and he has a better cast of characters around him. That changes everything. We were able to shut down Murray State’s running game and focus on Topps, and even that was difficult. Georgia has an excellent running game, excellent wide receivers. This will be a huge challenge for our defense.”

On the offensive line: “They didn’t have any sacks this week so that’s a positive. I don’t worry as much about us running the football, I really don’t. When I get worried is in our protections, making sure we can throw the football. Because if there’s any crack Jerious Norwood will find it. We still have to scheme some things, the reality is we still don’t match up as well as I’d like to physically in the offensive line vs. the top defensive lines around. This year none of our players played offensive tackle last year. We don’t have a single (veteran) tackle, Anthony Strauder didn’t start at guard last year, Johnny Wadley didn’t start most of the year. Chris McNeil is really the only true starting offensive lineman from last year, that would make any coach in this conference real worried. And then our backups are freshmen.”

On Willie Evans: "He might say he’s progressed in spite of me the last two years! But he played a very good game the other night, great effort, great intensity. He did not have a quality spring, I think he was distracted by some things off the field and had his attentions elsewhere. But he’s come back this fall really focusing and trying to have a big year, and the other night was a great individual effort. And he’s going to have an opportunity this week to have another one."

On the secondary's tackling: “I thought Dock approached (training camp) like a NFL player. He went out every day with a professional attitude, he was going to strap it on, smile and have a great time. He competed in every drill, it was really amazing to see because last year I didn’t think we had anybody take that kind of mental approach towards practice. He made it fun for himself. Now we’re seeing the results of the work he put in. Just the tackling in the open field, the timing and breaking on balls, sometimes he’s almost too confident. But a good corner has to be confident, in fact you have to be downright arrogant to play back there and be very good at it. Both he and David Heard are not very big, but Dock made a few hits that looked like he was propelled from a gun. Demario Bobo is the one who really surprises me, that was a major decision when we moved him back to that position. We moved him to get some more range, because Florida hit a few post-patterns on us last year and we knew we had to put somebody back there to cover ground and keep people from going deep over our middle safety. He has speed and length. We felt we were giving up run support doing that but so far that has not been the case. He played well the other night, but the Auburn game really surprised me the way he tackled. In spring he was not one of our better tacklers but he has really improved it.”

(All quotes taken from David Murray's weekly press conference recap.)