Aug. 30, 1999
Coach Mumme
(On Dusty Bonner’s progress leading up to the game): “I think he’s done anice job becoming the leader and leading the offense. Through camp he hasbeen excellent and he’s been extremely accurate. I can see someimprovement just from the spring and over the summer. I think his accuracyis better. I think he’s in better physical condition. We think he’s goingto be a great player for us.”
(On UK’s preparation for Louisville): “We can’t wait until Saturday.We’re tired of practicing. They’ve got a great team and Coach Smith hasdone a great job over there. They’re coming off a bowl game and they’vegot a Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback (Chris Redman) so it’s goingto be a real challenge for us.”
(On comparing last year’s Louisville team to the one UK will faceSaturday): “I don’t think there’s any comparison. We caught them last yearin their first game, opening a new stadium and with a new staff. You canjust see that on film last season and they got better every week. They area lot better team now than they were last year.”
(On what is impressive about Louisville’s offense): “Obviously theexplosiveness of it. Arnold Jackson and Ibn Green and all of theirreceiving corps is really good. Their offensive line is solid and ofcourse they have Chris Redman. There’s been plenty written about him andhe’s a great player.”
(On the pressure to win): “I think the thing that drives anybody in acompetitive business is the fear of failure but it’s not any different withthis game than the first game here. It’s not any different here than itwas at Valdosta State or at Iowa Wesleyan. I’m so fortunate to get to dothis. As far as a lot of external pressures from fans or media, that getswritten a lot but I never really have thought much about here or any placeelse.”
(On where Louisville has improved since last season): “Obviously, I thinktheir offensive line improved a great deal because we were able to get toChris last year but as they played through the season they got considerablybetter. The bowl game against Marshall was probably a lot closer than thescore ended up being. I think offensively that’s where they improved themost. The always had Redman and the receivers, but I think their abilityto pick up blitzes got better.”
(On Louisville’s defense compared to last season): “They changed somepersonnel around from when we played them and the last game of the season.They were probably more cohesive at the end of last season than at thefirst, and I’m sure they’re a lot better now for the same reasons. I thinkthey’ve changed three or four people but we don’t have any way of knowingabout them because two of them are redshirt freshman and two are juniorcollege guys.”
(On who has improved the most heading into Saturday): “I think ouroffensive line because it’s an area we worried about the most because theyare so young. Poor old Kip Sixberry has to play against a top ranked teamin his first start and he doesn’t even shave yet. He’s really been apleasant surprise and hasn’t backed down from anybody in our camp.Hopefully on Saturday he can play the same way. I would say those guys asa unit have been the most pleasant surprise.”
(On UK’s defense entering the first game of the season): “We’re moreathletic and we’ve got a year of experience under our belt. This time lastyear we were really green. Guys like David Johnson and Dennis Johnson wereall starting their first games. We feel a lot more comfortable in whatwe’re doing.”
(On Dusty’s ability to bring a team back from behind): “Dusty has thisinner calmness about him that I think effects everybody around him.Hopefully if we get in that situation on Saturday that will be a calmingeffect on those guys. We were down last year in the game. We’ve been downa lot of times. We just don’t want to be down when the clocks hits 0:00.”
(On recruiting Dusty out of high school): “He was on a list of abouttwenty guys. The guy we really wanted to get that year was Drew Brees andDrew really took us right down to the wire between us and Purdue. Hebasically didn’t want to sit behind Tim. When we went to our secondchoice, we had Dusty on a list of about 20 guys. If I hadn’t known thethings about him that I did, I can’t really say I would have picked himover the other 20. Physically on film, they were all about the same but Ithink having been around him so long helped a lot. It probably helped usget him, too.”
(On the rivalry being played in the new stadium): “I think the stadium isa beautiful place and I think the noise level is going to be incredible.”
(On what the last week has been like in preparing for the game): “I getmore nervous during camp than I do during the season. I like it when wefinally get in the rhythm of three practices and then play the game. We’reat that point now. Last week, we were just trying to get some thingsstraightened out in the kicking game and all those last minute details youtry and work out. We had a good week and feel good about everything wedid. We’re just ready to polish up everything and get ready to play. Iwas hopeful going into this season with our young offensive line we haveand with Dusty that we can be at that point Saturday and we were. We wereprobably a little ahead of schedule.”
(On injuries going into the Louisville game): “We’ve got everybodyhealthy. The only one not healthy right now that we’re a little worriedabout it is Jeremy Bowie and we’re going to see how he responds totreatment to a slight knee injury. Everybody else is fine. We rested someguys Saturday and we just wanted to rest their legs so they’re ready to gonow. (Kicker) Seth (Hansen) still has that quad pull so he’s day-to-day.We’ll just go with Marc Samuel instead.”
(On Marc Samuel being the starting kicker): “Marc has done a great job onhis strength and I think Coach Bassett has done a really good job with himon his steps. As far as kickoffs, he’s getting a lot of them into theendzone which is good. If we get to the 20-yard line we might kick it ifwe have to. You know how I am about that. I’d just rather go for it.He’s a hit a couple of 50-yarders in practice.”
(On Dusty’s ability to make big plays): “I know our defense has put anincredible amount of pressure on Dusty since April and he’s been able tomake plays. It’s one of the things that has kept us optimistic about thisyoung offense and we feel like our defense is a lot better. He just needssome experience to get in the game and do it. Everybody remembers Tim lastyear against Mississippi State and LSU, but if you go back to those 23games (that Tim started during his UK career) and start at games onethrough six, there’s an incredible amount of mistakes in there, too. Youalways tend to remember the glowing parts at the end of the career and youdon’t really remember the growth pains as much.”
(On Nolan DeVaughn’s effect on Sixberry and the rest of the offensiveline): “I think Nolan has done a good job on the offensive line andleading them. His first start was in the bowl game and those guys lookedlike they were a fairly decent team on television the other day. Nolan dida pretty good job so I’m sure he’ll probably tell Kip to play hard andeverything will work out.”
(On Louisville’s defense compared to others UK has faced): “Last year,they were much like Mississippi State and ran a lot of 4-6 front with a lotof man coverage. It was a little like Vanderbilt. Tennessee pressured usa lot and their scheme was a lot like Tennessee.”
Dusty Bonner, QB
On his biggest challenge:“I’m not sure what it’s going to be. I’ll just need to stay calm and enjoyplaying football.”
On his mindset:“I think if you go out there worried about not making mistakes, you’regoing to make mistakes. So I’m just going to go out there and focus onplaying football.”
Anthony White, RB
On the relative ease of last season’s win:“Last year, we had a lot of veterans at a lot of positions, so we expectedto have a good showing. You never expect to score that many (68 points)against an opponent, but we did expect to come out and pick up a lot ofyards. They just turned into a lot of points.”
On Louisville being favored heading into this year’s game:“I doesn’t surprise me with all of the hype they’ve have, but look at theArizona-Penn State game. You really can’t tell about a team until theyplay. Nobody will know what we have and nobody will know what Louisvillehas until they see us play on Sept. 4.”
On whether or not Louisville is improved enough to close the 34-point gapfrom last season:“I don’t think it will be that big of a blowout either way, but I do thinkthat we’re getting less credit than we deserve. We’ve replaced everybodypretty well and we have a lot of players back that played big roles lastyear.”
David Johnson, SS
On Dusty Bonner:“Some people say that there’s a lot of pressure on him, but he’s notshowing it. He’s just taking it all in stride. That’s just his demeanor.He’s always relaxed and easy-going. He’s a lot like Tim (Couch) in thatrespect.”
On UK’s defensive goals:“We want to improve in a lot of areas. We want to cause more turnovers,more three-and-outs and control the game. We should be a better defensebecause a majority of the guys are back from last season. We’re used toplaying around each other and that should play to our advantage.”
