John L. Smith 9-17

Head Coach John L. Smith (opening statement) -"Rutgers is coming to town this week. We've got to go to the field and prepare. Those that prepare the best, those that make the fewest mistakes; I mean those guys are going to play. We have to correct the mistakes we are making. Again, I think as coaches we have to sit down and make sure we are as very, very simple as we can be but yet you have to have enough ammo to get things done. That's kind of a fine balance that you have to prepare for. That's what we're going to get done is making sure that our guys can do it. The other thing is we have to go to the practice field and we have to make plays and not make mistakes and then when we go to the game field do the same thing. We're excited about Rutgers. They're a good football team. The great thing about athletics and football is that you get to go this week and try and get rid of that bitter taste like we've said before. Rutgers, they're 3-0. They're very good. Offensively, they are somewhat traditional. They can throw it around; they've got great wide receivers, nice, big good-looking targets that catch the ball. The running back is extremely good and a very, very capable quarterback without a doubt. They're a great football team on offense and a good football team on defense. They move it around a bunch on defense and have done for several years. Maybe they're not as big as some of the teams we are going to see, but they move it a lot. That's their M.O. and they've had a lot of success in doing that. We're going to have to do a great job prepping."

Head Coach John L. Smith (on QB-Tyler Wilson) -"Tyler is here. By the way, I saw Tyler this morning as I am seeing him right now. He looks extremely good, but you'll be able to talk to him so we'll go from there. As far as his situation, he's going to go to the field and prep and of course we're keeping our fingers crossed that he will get cleared before game time. Right now things are very positive in that regard. He'll prep as if he is going to play as will the other guys prep as if they're going to play. That's just the way that we'll approach it. We'll see and go from there."

Head Coach John L. Smith (on having different game plans for different QBs) -"You have to narrow it down a little bit. The only thing that may expand a little bit is when (Brandon) Mitchell comes into the game. The game plan that can kind of fit (Brandon Allen and Brandon Mitchell) is a game plan that we're not going to let (Tyler Wilson) run a portion of that. We're certainly not going to say 'OK he's going to go out there and run option,' and things like that, where they can do that and vice versa. Brandon Allen would be in a situation where he can handle whatever it is we give Tyler as well on that end of the game plan. This is the way we look at it. You're going to have a game plan with a little extension on one end or a little extension on the other end that maybe not everybody would use."

Head Coach John L. Smith (on QB-Tyler Wilson addressing the media after the game Saturday night) -"It was good to see him get up and talk. He is the spokesman of our football team. I think he's saying nothing more than we all have to be accountable. We all have to go to the field and we all have to get our jobs done. That's something that we talked about with our football team last night. We all have to be accountable. Let's go get it done. Playmakers make plays."

Head Coach John L. Smith (on players responding to QB-Tyler Wilson's statement) -"I didn't give them much of a chance to respond. We went out on the field and ran. But again, they're going to make sure they're accountable. That's something that's been preached in this program since day one. And again, we're not doing anything other than we all just have to go get better. Nobody played in that game that didn't have a mistake. Nobody coached in that game that didn't have a mistake. Let's all go to the field and work at getting better."

Head Coach John L. Smith (on if the rest of the season hinges on QB-Tyler Wilson playing) -"I don't know whether that is the case. We can't allow that to be the case. We'd certainly rather have him with us than not with us. But again, we have to approach it the way we're going to approach it. We're going to go work, and we're going to get better from where we were. A good football team came in here. And we did do some good things. We did. We made a lot of mistakes though, too. You can't put the ball down that much. But from the defensive standpoint, you want to say, look, they had four scores in the first half, three of them we gave them a short field. They worked for one. We can't afford to make the mistakes that we're making. We're just not a good enough football team to do that. We all have to realize that and make sure that we don't make those mistakes."

Head Coach John L. Smith (on concerns about turnovers) -"I don't know I can put a figure on how alarming they are. You are not going to win a football game with turnovers. You can't afford to turn it over. You turn it over four times against anybody, you're going to lose.  You turn it over five times, you are going to lose. You turn it over more than that, you are going to lose. We can't afford to turn it over period. Very alarming, I guess."

Head Coach John L. Smith (on the strength of the top of the SEC) -"I think it's good for the league. Anytime you have that power at the top, we all strive to get there. I think it makes us all better, the entire league. Throughout the country you sell that, and say, 'Do you want to play against the best?' If these guys are truly the best, then a lot of guys out there want to compete against the best. For us, it's a selling factor. Would you rather play in this league or some other league? This league is real good."