DC Lance Guidry met with reporters to discuss the upcoming game against Syracuse. A summary of everything discussed is below:
On the Syracuse offense: The QB knows where to go with the ball. Pre-snap, he's really good. You can tell he watches a lot of film. He anticipates things. He's got wide receivers that catch the balls when they're contested. The tight end [Oronde Gadsen II] is elite. He's a lot like our guy. You’ve really got to treat him as a wide receiver. They’ve got big guys. They're good at what they do. They play fast in that indoor facility they have. It's going to be a tough challenge, but we've got to do a good job on the back end. We've got to get a good pass rush.
On the importance of the Wake Forest game: I think they needed a spark. They needed confidence. The first series had its moments. We gave up the score, really disappointed. Some things we'd worked on that we didn't get accomplished. And then the second series, they were driving down and then Meesh made a huge play. From that point on, we changed. It's like we were the defense from early in the season. It doesn't matter who you're playing. Always look at us and how we're playing.
You could see the spark and you could see the confidence. Each series after that, it kept building. We got put in some spots that were tough, and we didn't blink, which was awesome. Credit to our guys being mentally tough. I was proud of them.
On the changes to the front: Mesidor has been playing hard all year, and he's had to play inside. We thought [Wake] would be a good week for him to play outside. We put him at the jack. And when we put him at the jack, we moved Tyler to Bain's side because we got Malik [Bryant] at the other. Mesidor played really outstanding, which we knew he would. We knew he would play hard.
And we got healthier inside with some guys. CJ [Clark] played well in there. Marley [Cook] played well. We knew we had to sit Moten out for half. So we're a little bit healthier inside, which allowed us to play Mesidor outside, because we haven't gotten Elijah Austin back in a while.
On the challenge of Syracuse compared to Wake: It's different. It's not going to be slow-mesh. It's different things you have to do because they're a passing attack. They will run the ball, but they're a little bit more pass-first before run. They do have a good running back. It's just a different type of offense. It's a little bit more like Duke. Not quite like Louisville, but there's some similarities between it. They're good at what they do, and the quarterback's smart.
On Dylan Day: He’s getting better. He's getting acclimated to the college game. You really don't ever know when a kid's coming out of high school how quick that is. He’s a safety, so it's harder for a safety mentally to play college football than it is a corner. A corner can rely on technique and speed, but the safety can't be out of position because you've got to make a bunch of checks. His role has been special teams mostly, and you can see him getting better and better. He's made Special Teams Player of the Week for us it seems like every week. He had a big play, and he's getting better and better, and he's going to be a good player in the future for us on defense.
On Syracuse’s aggression on fourth down: Sometimes you've got to treat third down like second down because you know they'll go for it on fourth. I imagine they'll go for a lot of things. They have nothing to lose. It's their last game at senior night, and we've got a lot to lose. From here on out, it's playoff-type football for us. I'm sure we'll get everything but the kitchen sink thrown at us. We'll have to play with great eyes and go through the plays that affected us in the past and see if they come back up.
On Damari Brown: I got my mama saying some rosary beads right now. She's at home saying the rosary. I might bring Mr. Miyagi in with the Miracle Hands.
I don't know, man. When we get him back, we get him back. He's getting closer. He looked good on that field in warm-ups, just the look of him. It's like walking through that candy store, and your mama says you can't get nothing, but they’ve got a big old Snickers bar you'd really like to have, and mama says, “We ain't got no money for it.” Nah, hopefully we get Damari back soon, but we'll take it day by day.
On McCord’s 5-INT game against Pitt: Pitt was a little exotic on him. They run a lot of what we call hot coverage, where they'll bring six guys, and then they all kind of eyeball the quarterback. Sometimes there's guys running free, but they caught a couple picks like that, and then they matched some routes really well. So he got off to a bad start against them, but Pitt had a lot to do with that. They had a good scheme that day.
Sometimes it's like that. Sometimes you might be a little off. You don't read things quick. So it's a film that we looked at, of course. We look at all the films and see what gave them the most problems. And some you can do and some you can't. But Pitt got after them really good.
On Meesh Powell’s touchdown dance: He can't dance. That's a West Coast dance, man. Nah, I was just happy he scored. I didn't even see the dance. I just saw it on Twitter. I'm not going to lie to you.
On Syracuse’s offensive variety: They'll give you a lot of different wrinkles. They'll have the tight end in and he'll be flexed out like a wide receiver and you got to treat it like 10 personnel. Sometimes they'll get 12 personnel and he's out like a wide receiver and really it's 11 personnel. So he's the hybrid guy. You’ve got to defend formations against them and they do a good job.
They know what they're doing. The quarterback's smart. So we have to mix up some things and play really good, tackle well, keep the ball in front of us and challenge the ball in the air. That's what we’ve got to do.
On the Syracuse offense: The QB knows where to go with the ball. Pre-snap, he's really good. You can tell he watches a lot of film. He anticipates things. He's got wide receivers that catch the balls when they're contested. The tight end [Oronde Gadsen II] is elite. He's a lot like our guy. You’ve really got to treat him as a wide receiver. They’ve got big guys. They're good at what they do. They play fast in that indoor facility they have. It's going to be a tough challenge, but we've got to do a good job on the back end. We've got to get a good pass rush.
On the importance of the Wake Forest game: I think they needed a spark. They needed confidence. The first series had its moments. We gave up the score, really disappointed. Some things we'd worked on that we didn't get accomplished. And then the second series, they were driving down and then Meesh made a huge play. From that point on, we changed. It's like we were the defense from early in the season. It doesn't matter who you're playing. Always look at us and how we're playing.
You could see the spark and you could see the confidence. Each series after that, it kept building. We got put in some spots that were tough, and we didn't blink, which was awesome. Credit to our guys being mentally tough. I was proud of them.
On the changes to the front: Mesidor has been playing hard all year, and he's had to play inside. We thought [Wake] would be a good week for him to play outside. We put him at the jack. And when we put him at the jack, we moved Tyler to Bain's side because we got Malik [Bryant] at the other. Mesidor played really outstanding, which we knew he would. We knew he would play hard.
And we got healthier inside with some guys. CJ [Clark] played well in there. Marley [Cook] played well. We knew we had to sit Moten out for half. So we're a little bit healthier inside, which allowed us to play Mesidor outside, because we haven't gotten Elijah Austin back in a while.
On the challenge of Syracuse compared to Wake: It's different. It's not going to be slow-mesh. It's different things you have to do because they're a passing attack. They will run the ball, but they're a little bit more pass-first before run. They do have a good running back. It's just a different type of offense. It's a little bit more like Duke. Not quite like Louisville, but there's some similarities between it. They're good at what they do, and the quarterback's smart.
On Dylan Day: He’s getting better. He's getting acclimated to the college game. You really don't ever know when a kid's coming out of high school how quick that is. He’s a safety, so it's harder for a safety mentally to play college football than it is a corner. A corner can rely on technique and speed, but the safety can't be out of position because you've got to make a bunch of checks. His role has been special teams mostly, and you can see him getting better and better. He's made Special Teams Player of the Week for us it seems like every week. He had a big play, and he's getting better and better, and he's going to be a good player in the future for us on defense.
On Syracuse’s aggression on fourth down: Sometimes you've got to treat third down like second down because you know they'll go for it on fourth. I imagine they'll go for a lot of things. They have nothing to lose. It's their last game at senior night, and we've got a lot to lose. From here on out, it's playoff-type football for us. I'm sure we'll get everything but the kitchen sink thrown at us. We'll have to play with great eyes and go through the plays that affected us in the past and see if they come back up.
On Damari Brown: I got my mama saying some rosary beads right now. She's at home saying the rosary. I might bring Mr. Miyagi in with the Miracle Hands.
I don't know, man. When we get him back, we get him back. He's getting closer. He looked good on that field in warm-ups, just the look of him. It's like walking through that candy store, and your mama says you can't get nothing, but they’ve got a big old Snickers bar you'd really like to have, and mama says, “We ain't got no money for it.” Nah, hopefully we get Damari back soon, but we'll take it day by day.
On McCord’s 5-INT game against Pitt: Pitt was a little exotic on him. They run a lot of what we call hot coverage, where they'll bring six guys, and then they all kind of eyeball the quarterback. Sometimes there's guys running free, but they caught a couple picks like that, and then they matched some routes really well. So he got off to a bad start against them, but Pitt had a lot to do with that. They had a good scheme that day.
Sometimes it's like that. Sometimes you might be a little off. You don't read things quick. So it's a film that we looked at, of course. We look at all the films and see what gave them the most problems. And some you can do and some you can't. But Pitt got after them really good.
On Meesh Powell’s touchdown dance: He can't dance. That's a West Coast dance, man. Nah, I was just happy he scored. I didn't even see the dance. I just saw it on Twitter. I'm not going to lie to you.
On Syracuse’s offensive variety: They'll give you a lot of different wrinkles. They'll have the tight end in and he'll be flexed out like a wide receiver and you got to treat it like 10 personnel. Sometimes they'll get 12 personnel and he's out like a wide receiver and really it's 11 personnel. So he's the hybrid guy. You’ve got to defend formations against them and they do a good job.
They know what they're doing. The quarterback's smart. So we have to mix up some things and play really good, tackle well, keep the ball in front of us and challenge the ball in the air. That's what we’ve got to do.
