Sunday Conversation: Bobby Bowden Q&A

Florida State Seminoles head coach Bobby Bowden hosted a media teleconference on Sunday afternoon. Below is the transcript of the teleconference:

Q: It must be hard to celebrate your birthday after this weekend? Bowden: You don’t celebrate after last night. Our team got beat. Terry’s team lost their first game last night too in overtime. My son-in-law Jack who coaches a local high school who had a seven game winning streak, they got beat. So our whole family got whipped. We aren’t celebrating nothing.

Q: What will you need to do to prepare E.J. Manuel for Wake Forest?

Bowden: Ever since he has been number two, which has been since spring, he has been getting as many reps as Ponder does. Ponder just gets them with the first unit. Manuel gets the same thing with the second unit. Of course last week, Manuel got nearly all the reps, and our third team quarterback got all the reps. I don’t think Ponder got any reps until Thursday and that was about 50 percent of the team work. My big concern was he going to be rusty? That was the thought that kept running through my mind. So anyway, Manuel has gotten the reps. Jimbo will have to take him and prepare him the best he can. He will have to feed him what he can handle. I am sure he isn’t going to be able to feed him the whole package like he could with Ponder, but he will feed him as much as he can handle and go from there, and the other quarterback the same thing.

Q: Who would that other quarterback be?

Bowden: It would probably be (Will) Secord who is a freshman who we are redshirting. We will have him in there getting reps. We will be hoping like mad we don’t have to go to our third. That’s about what most people are doing is to prepare at least two quarterbacks. If you give three of them reps, the first one ain’t getting enough.

Q: Do you think you will have to burn Secord’s redshirt at this point?

Bowden: We will be preparing him hoping he won’t have to play. If worst came to worst… We -have several other walk-ons, I am speaking out of turn right now because Jimbo could fill you in better since he coaches our quarterbacks. He might have a walk on over there because we have about six of them out there that he prefers to bring along in case. You don’t want to take a chance on burning Secord. You would need to ask him that question.

Q: How do you think E.J. did with the reps he got with the ones this week?

Bowden: He looked pretty good. It’s just different in the game. I felt like watching him last week that he has really improved. I think coach Fisher feels the same way. But when you get into a ball game, that’s much different. That is a different type of improvement there. At least he got in three or four plays last week. That doesn’t hurt.

Q: Where do you think he has made his biggest improvements?

Bowden: The only thing that you can do is get reps, and reps, and reps, and reps. Then you begin to recognize things and make check offs. He’s got a whole bunch of it, but he hasn’t been under fire. He doesn’t have it down as good as Ponder yet.

Q: How much of a psychological change is it when the number two goes to the number one spot?

Bowden: You tell them to always be ready. You are only an ankle sprain away from starting. If you are second team, you are an ankle sprain away from getting the first team guard, tackle, quarterback, or whatever you are playing. Down inside there they are hoping they get to play, and now he is. You just hope they have prepared and you won’t know the answer till they play.

Q: In the past you have had quarterbacks injured late in the season, but then you had a defense to count on. How tough is this situation?

Bowden: It’s tough but there is nothing you can do about it. All you can do is face the situation and do what is the best. That is to take the next guy, move him up, prepare him the best you can. It is kind of scary. This has been a year in which I can never remember any year like this - yes I do. My first year at Florida State, maybe around 1980, or maybe around 1981 the only year we didn’t go to a bowl because we didn’t win enough games - where it felt like you had to outscore people to win. That isn’t a healthy situation. That’s the way it has been this year. If they score, you have to score. If they score, you have to score. If you score, you score. We’ve matched them for a certain period of time, then turnovers kill that. Turnovers kill that philosophy. That’s what happened against Clemson. If your defense isn’t playing very good, it’s precarious.

Q: You can’t go out there and have a young quarterback feel like he has to go toe-to-toe can you?

Q: Bowden: Unless he can do it. Who knows that he can’t? We watch him practice since he has been here. We see him go out and have a good day, we see him go out there and don’t have a good day. How is he going to go out there in a game? But you never know. Some kids really play out in that situation. How is he going to do? I don’t know but I am anxious to see.

Q: What do you see from Manuel just in terms of his make up?

Bowden: I think he played at an excellent program up there in Virginia in high school. He played in all-star games after he graduated from high school - I mean before he graduated from high school. I think he played in the Army All-Star Game or the one down in San Antonio, or the one in Orlando. In those games he did well. So he has leadership qualities about him. He’s tall, he is 6’5. He should see better. He is faster than Ponder, he can run faster. Now will he go out there and play great? I don’t know. I like him, but you don’t know he might. He has those good qualities that a leader have. He just doesn’t have the experience yet, but that will happen sooner or later.

Q: You’re out of the running for the Atlantic Division, but you still can keep your bowl streak alive if you win two more games. How much of a motivation can that be for your players?

Bowden: As the season goes and you lose more, and you get behind the eight-ball, all of a sudden those opportunities begin to escape on you. Of course, playing in a bowl is an exciting thing, and every kid wants to play in a bowl. They’d rather play in a bowl than be at home. So yes, you hope it’s motivating. And I think it will be.

Q: It looked like C.J. Spiller was everything you feared he might be going into this game.

Bowden: Yeah. I think I mentioned last week - it’s like a ticking bomb. It will tick, tick, tick, and then all of a sudden it goes off. How long can you contain him. Gosh, we contained him pretty good in the first half. I think he got loose for a 40-yard run. But we contained him pretty good. But the second half, boy, he hit that little wheel route on us. We worked on that. I talked about it all week. We wanted to be in a certain defense when that thing came up. We were not in it, and it was just a physical mismatch. His speed against our linebacker’s speed. I thought he was the difference in the game.

Q: With E.J. making his first start this week, your running game might need to become an even bigger factor. It seems like it’s been kind of hot or cold all year. Will the running backs have to step up now and maybe carry this team?

Bowden: Well, we will emphasize it, but you can bet that you don’t have to. They recognize that too. Nothing helps the passing game better than being able to run it. Nothing helps the running game more than being able to pass it. So you need balance. You need both. And so we’ll continue to work on both. But you’re more likely to rely more on the running than the passing.

Q: Coach, even though Spiller made those big plays, did it seem like the defense made some strides?

Bowden: I thought they made some improvement. We did pretty good in the first half. But of course in the second half, we were turning the ball over. Turning the ball over. I think I mentioned this last night at the press conference that I was talking with [announcers Todd] Blackledge and [Brad] Nessler, and I said the thing that scares me most … is [Ponder] going to be rusty? Because our last day of practice, Thursday, when he finally started getting some reps … I noticed the first five passes he threw were [off].