Presser transcript: Bud Foster pre-Pitt
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Defensive coordinator Bud Foster sat down with the media Tuesday. What did he have to say about the upcoming Pittsburgh game?
Pitt has a new offensive coordinator this year, what changes have they made from last year?
"They’re not doing a whole lot different than what they did a year ago. Still a lot of the speed sweep offense, physical up front. A lot of shifts, trades, motions all of those kinds of things, which we need to prepare for. Maybe even a little bit more as far as the trades and shifting. Still very physical up front. They get a quarterback hurt and then the (Ben) DiNucci kid that’s kind of come in and played the last few weeks is getting better each and every week. He’s athletic, he can run with the ball in his hands, create some plays. Just a scary football team offensively and I don’t know what there production is compared to last year. They’ve lost a couple tight football games but they’ve got some weapons at all of the spots. Traditionally they’re one of the better offensive lines that we play and they’re big and physical and I think they’re pretty good up front."
How have you seen this team respond to the adversity that they are going through right now?
"We’re fighting through it. I thought, at least defensively I thought we played extremely hard. You take away a couple plays in this game last week I thought our kids fought their tail off and that was the thing. I told you all we needed to not allow more than a couple explosive plays going into that game and if you can do that you win the game, if you don’t you lose and that ended up ultimately costing us the football game. When I went back looked at the film our kids gave a great effort, played extremely hard, and fought their tail off for 60 minutes. I think they’ve responded very well, obviously we’re disappointed and that’s part of athletics but the exciting thing is you get to go strap it up again and a chance to go compete again. That’s the one positive about what we get to do. I’ve been real pleased with our kids and their approach and their demeanor. If you dwell on it it’ll paralyze you and we can’t let that happen."
On the big plays that the defense has allowed this year has there been any trends in those plays or is it something different every time?
"I think it’s different every time, I mean you can’t put your finger on one every week. We played for the most part really good defense all year. The last couple weeks we gave up a couple plays and unfortunately a couple of those plays more were technique and fundamentals than they were scheme and that’s the disappointing thing. Probably the previous three weeks up to Miami we played extremely well defensively. Almost flawless as far as how our technique, fundamentals and our gap fits and those types of things. The Miami game it came down to gap fits in the run game and those are just basic day one things. Against Georgia Tech the first run that they created was a new play that they had not shown, we adjusted to that and settled down with that. The one score they got on Terrell (Edmunds) was just a good play and the kid made a nice throw and catch. That’s going to happen, you see it in all sports at all levels. The last touchdown was just poor fundamentals with looking in the backfield and looking at keys and things of that nature. I think in today’s day, defensively against offenses you’re going to give up some plays. I think for the most part we played pretty good defense, now we have to play well down the stretch and not give up those plays. It’s kind of the nature of the game these days. When you’re spreading people out you’ve got quarterbacks who can run and you have to play a lot more man coverage maybe then what you would like to do because of getting extra guys to the ball and that’s part of the chess match that you deal with a little bit."
The Georgia Tech game is usually a physical one especially for the defense, how do you come out of that game physically and it sounds that Terrell Edmunds is dealing with something ?
"He’s been dealing all year with something. You have a lot of guys that are. This time of year when you’re going into game 11 and probably week 14, 15 or 16 into the season you’re going to have a lot of guys that are dinged, banged, bruised and strained here and those kinds of things and that’s part of it. We’ve had two weeks of really physical football. I thought Miami was a physical football team and it was a physical game and obviously this last week was and this week is not going to be any different. These guys, that’s what they are known for is being physical up front and wanting to pound you. It’s just a part of the game and we’re ready to go battle."