Sept. 11, 2007

In Attendance: Bill Wagner (Annapolis Capital), Corey Masisak (Washington Times), Bob Socci (Navy Radio)

Wagner: That was pretty brutal at the end of practice.

Johnson: Brutal? That was just a little conditioning. We don't play very hard and we are going to learn to play hard.

Wagner: Is running them to death going to make them play harder?

Johnson: You know what? When you become the head coach you can run them however much you want.

Socci: The third series of the night for the offense it seems like you picked up the tempo. Is that the kind of tempo this team needs to play?

Johnson: I don't think it was a different tempo. The first two series we started on the four and the seven. That's a tough place to start. We didn't execute. In the second series we made a couple of first downs and should have had another first down but we got a bogus call by the official. I didn't see any difference. These guys need to understand how we win here. We aren't very good right now. We are awful. I've done a horse crap job. I'm going to do a better job. I can make them play faster I think.

Wagner: So two games into the season you don't feel like these guys play as hard as last year's team?

Johnson: I know they don't.

Wagner: What is the quantifiable evidence of that?

Johnson: 62 efforts (lack of effort) in the last game against a team ranked in the Top 20.

Wagner: What should the figure be at?

Johnson: You would like to be in single digits on each side of the ball. That is where we were last year towards the end of the year. 15 or 20 might be acceptable for now. 31 on each side of the ball is not acceptable.

Wagner: It was divided equally? It wasn't one side of the ball or the other?

Johnson: No. It was the same on both sides of the ball.

Masisak: Anybody else besides Deliz and Sovie that might not play this weekend?

Johnson: I don't think so.

Wagner: Kuhar-Pitters OK? He came out of the game.

Johnson: Came out for what?

Johnson: He's OK.

Wagner: Did you pick offensive, defensive and scout team players of the week?

Johnson: Nope. We didn't have anybody.

Wagner: What do you think about Ball State?

Johnson: I think they are pretty good. They have a good quarterback, a good group of receivers and on defense they haven't given up 300 yards of total offense. They gave up 14 points in one game, seven which came off a punt return, and one touchdown against Eastern Michigan off a blown coverage and that's it. They are pretty good. They have to be licking their chops after watching us on tape.

Wagner: You are favored by nine points.

Johnson: Who cares?

Socci: You mentioned their quarterback. He has five touchdowns and no interceptions this year. What kind of quarterback is he?

Johnson: He has a good arm. I think he's a good athlete. He's mobile, he's not a Michael Vick type guy, but he's mobile and he has a strong arm. He has a good group of receivers and he throws the ball well.

Masisak: What about your quarterback? After watching the tape was it what you expected, worse, better?

Johnson: As far as what? How the quarterback played?

Masisak: Yes.

Johnson: He didn't play great, but neither did anybody else. He made some poor decisions at times and there were other times where he got us in the right play and did some good things. He was like everybody else, no better and no worse. He has to get better and the supporting cast has to get better to help him.

Wagner: Did you counsel him about throwing the ball away if a guy isn't open?

Johnson: No, I just told him to throw it to whoever he wants.

Wagner: Seriously.

Johnson: Well, what do you think I did?

Wagner: Did you have a talk with him?

Johnson: I had a talk with him when he came off on the sidelines. I had a talk with him before he threw the one. We have to keep working with him. He hasn't played a lot. You try to coach all the time. That guy (the quarterback) takes all the blame, but he is also getting knocked on his damn back when he's trying to throw it too. That's not the easiest thing to do.

Wagner: He was under pressure a lot wasn't he?

Johnson: Pretty much.

Wagner: How many hits did they get on the quarterback?

Johnson: I don't know. I don't count them. Unless he has the ball it really doesn't matter.

Wagner: The first two games were within driving distance yet the only Mids at the game were the Drum & Bugle Corps and the cheerleaders. Were you disappointed? You said you were going to wait and see, but the wait and see is over and bottom line is there were no Mids at your first two games.

Johnson: There will be some there this week I hope. We are excited to get back and play in front of the Brigade. I think that's a big help. We will be excited to play in front of them. Hopefully we will play better.

Socci: On the defensive side with Sovie out at linebacker and the young guys that you were playing at inside linebacker do you change the defensive calls?

Johnson: No. You have to play. You have to line up and play. You have to play. You can't change the defense. It would be nice to come up with one where we didn't have to play with linebacker's maybe, I don't know. It was disappointing that we had so many missed assignments last week and we were as simple as we could be. It was ridiculous.

Masisak: Irv said after the game that the other guy, whoever was playing beside him, was making the calls when Sovie went out of the game. Have you guys thought about having Irv make the calls instead of the sophomore?

Johnson: We might have thought about it for about 10 seconds. That hasn't worked very well.

Wagner: Is there a particular reason why that one position makes the calls?

Johnson: Maybe we think they can get our defense lined up better than the other one I guess.

Wagner: But it's not the position, it's the person.

Johnson: Yes, either one could make the call.

Wagner: Is Pospisil the starter this week at linebacker?

Johnson: I don't know who the starter is. Not yet. We will have to see. We will have to wait and watch practice this week.

Socci: How disappointing is it when the defense gives up the big play, something that you really haven't done the last couple of year's?

Johnson: You know what? That stuff isn't as big a concern to me as some other stuff. When I turn on the film I'm embarrassed by the way we played. We can't get lined up, we can't read our keys, it's one thing if you get beat and it's another if you just line up and play street ball. We were out there playing street ball. It's disappointing.

Socci: How about the different schedule this year with playing on Friday nights and not having an open week early in the year like you've had in the past and the challenge of preparing for an opposition with a short week?

Johnson: You know what? I could care less about the opposition right now. I just want us to get better. We need to get back to fundamentals and play hard. If we will play hard the other stuff will take care of itself. You don't have to be right all the time if you play hard. If you aren't right and you aren't playing hard it's a bad combination.

Wagner: You would think that these guys would know that by now.

Johnson: You would think. These guys haven't seen the other end evidently (losing season). If we don't improve pretty quickly they are going to see what it's like.