MSU Football Press Conference
Enjoy full video and audio versions of all of Coach Mullen's
weekly press conferences on Maroon to the Max.
Opening Comments:
“It was a great today and I am pleased because we have 27 players today, 19 today that signed letters of intent and eight already on campus for us. Nineteen of those 27 players are from the state of
On the positions of the players signed...
“We always try and determine a position for these guys for release purposes, but there is a lot of guys in this class that have flexibility and are real solid football players, one notably Cameron Lawrence, who is already on campus. He is a guy that could play either offense or defense for us and we will just have to evaluate him and see where he fits.”
On signing seven wide receivers...
“When I got hired here, we were a little short at that position because we only had four on scholarship, and I normally like to keep 11 to 12. I think last year at Florida, we had five different guys catch a touchdown pass in either the SEC of National Championship game, so I need a lot of wide receivers to spread the ball around. We are fortunate to get a guy like Leon Berry on campus already and he’s working his way into our rotation, and the other guys are going to need to come in and make an immediate impact for us. We are excited about getting these guys on campus and rolling into the right direction.”
On which positions are emphasized...
“The corner position was a big emphasis for us and we might currently be looking at moving one of the safeties we signed to corner so this class will be more balanced. That position will be a big emphasis for us next year, but every year you just want to recruit the best players possible at every position, but the corner would be one spot I would say we are lacking. Also, next year we will probably recruit offensive line heavy as well.”
On recruiting as a head coach for the first time...
“As a position coach, you only have to worry about three to five players max and as a coordinator you worry about nine to 10 players, but this time I have 27 guys to worry about. Obviously eight are already here, but I am still worried about if they will wake up and get to workouts at 5:45 in the morning, but I spent most of the night going over and over in my head if we covered every possible angle making sure the players we have committed are for sure coming here. My staff did a great job yesterday spending our time calling everyone, making sure we were still on board with the guys we have on our radar. I did not get much sleep last night, being paranoid and wondering if someone like Montrell Conner is still coming, because he told me was on board. But, we did not have any surprises today which was a great thing for us, but you are always wondering till the day comes if things are going to work out like you planned for them too.”
On recruiting the state of
“I felt we put together a staff that has a great relationship with the high school coaches in the state of
On everyone qualifying...
“Currently it is still up in the air. The coaches and I are going to try and work with these school counselors to avoid anyone going to junior college, but that would be a last resort for us. We will continue to work with counselors and there is a big ACT test this weekend that is important for a lot of these guys to get the job done and be eligible and be on campus in the fall.”
On Tyler Russell...
“Throwing and running is probably the least important thing when you recruit a quarterback, because you are looking for mental toughness and sound decision making. With
On fitting players into the offensive system...
“Coaches need to go recruit great football players and then have the ability to fit your system around those football players. Tyler Russell is going to be a great example of that in finding his strength and adapt so we can be successful. Our objective will always be to go find the best football players we can and find a way to fit our system to them so that we can be successful.”
On getting the eight guys early...
“I think it is a huge benefit because they can go through the offseason conditioning and training, as well as spring practice, because now you have the opportunity to learn and absorb the offensive scheme a little better. In the fall, you have two-a-days and it is almost overwhelming to learn. I would like to bring five to eight players early every year, but it does not always work out that way.”
On recruiting in the Southeastern Conference...
“Being in the conference for the last four years, I was well aware this is the toughest conference to recruit in and I made that very clear to my staff as we got things started. You can tell that by all the rankings that are provided on the internet. It seems like almost everyone in the SEC has a top-25 recruiting class, and that translates to the players you have to play against on Saturdays and I believe that what makes the depth of this league so tough.”
On next year’s recruiting class...
“We began focusing on them several days before today, but I told my staff today, ?Okay, we have one year to sign a better class next year,’ because we want to improve on what we have already and not remain constant. We are almost done assigning on what coaches will be recruiting in what areas, which will give us a big boost next year. Like I said the coaches get a couple days off now to be with their families, but next week when we get back, we will start at it again, because recruiting is something you must do every single day year round, because if you don’t, you will fall behind in this conference. We will start within state again and expand out from there. That will be our motto every year, because we want to make sure we exhaust all the talent that is in this state.”
On staff assignments...
“We are done with our staff assignments and I believe tomorrow will be our official release, but we wanted today to be about our recruiting class and the great job that our coaches did by putting such a great group of guys together.”
On policies for playing freshmen...
“We are going to put our best 11 players on the field on every snap that gives us the best opportunity to win. One thing I stress, is not playing a player too early and hinder him, but I will do my very best to make sure that every guy that steps on the field is ready to help us win the game and will try not and send a guy out there if he is not ready yet.”