Warchant TV: Haggins press conference (w/ transcript)
Florida State interim coach Odell Haggins took to the podium for the second week of his tenure and fielded questions about the successes from Saturday vs. Boston College, the changes he's tried to implement to help the turnaround and the prospect of a bowl as they prepare for Alabama State.
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ODELL HAGGINS: I want to start off by recognizing it's veteran's day today, for the people that served the United States of America and the people that are serving the United States of America, I really appreciate it and Florida State does and I wanted to thank you for that.
Actually we had a good day of practice yesterday. The kids came out and they worked hard and it was joy full after the victory it's a very physical game and like I say, [Steve] Addazio is a very good coach and he had a plan and we had a plan and our kids all week long the coaches and myself we were saying, let's attack no matter what, let's attack. Don't sit back, don't wait on anything, we're going to do it the Florida State way, attack.
And so and I felt very confident that our kids are going to go in and play well because that morning of the game, that morning of the game I looked at each kid that walked in there, they were bright eyed and bushy tailed they were ready to go. We didn't have any kids going in there sitting down saying, Oh, man, coach, why we getting up so early? They came in smiling and ready to go. And kids like D.J. Matthews had the flu, had to get IV’s at five o'clock that morning, you know, I went up to him I said, D.J., are you okay? He said, Yes, coach. He said to me, he said, Coach, I'll be there, I'll be there. And that tells you something about these young men and just like -- and another instance too, that last play on Boston College tried to onside kick, Tre' McKitty, it was a game-time decision, his ankle was messed up, he couldn't play. He said, Coach, no, no, I'm going in, I'm going in to help my team win. And D.J. Matthews was in there also. So this tells you the commitment of these kids this week and that's the expectation of Florida State University. And I said it before, the kids say this, only one way is the Noles way. So that's what we're going to stay with and that's how Florida State was built and that's what we're going to do.
Q. Obviously you guys got the big win on Saturday but you had some familiar issues such as penalties. I guess throughout practice this week how do you go about cleaning it up?
ODELL HAGGINS: Well, we addressed that yesterday. We ran for it. And I talked to each kid personally myself and we have some young kids out there playing, like our offensive line you have three starters on offensive line that were freshmen and I talked with them, I was keeping them calm on the sidelines, the kid wanted it so bad until he lost his composure, but you see that last drive they came back, went back in the game and played well. The thing about it, everybody wants to jump on the kid and say, well they did this and they did that. They made this penalty. But sometimes you put your arm around a kid, your arms around a kid and let them know that you love them and that you're there for them, they will go back in and perform for you very well. The same kid went in there and made a key block. A key block. And I brought that up to him. I said always keep your composure. Nobody's perfect but we don't want it, but we took care of the penalties yesterday and we will keep working on it.
Q. You went through this a couple years ago but I'm just curious like how many text messages, voice mails, how many people have reached out to you in the last 48 hours?
ODELL HAGGINS: So many I can't even read them. I try my best to answer every one of them, say thank you and I appreciate the support, but it's very encouraging text messages and also messages. And my voice mail is filled up. Once I clear it out, it fills right back up. So therefore it's a lot of encouraging things going on, a lot of support, supporting the kids.
Q. How are you handling recruiting during this time? What kind of feedback have you got from the kids that have already committed because guys are kind of in this transitional period right now?
ODELL HAGGINS: Recruiting, we're handling it, each coach we're calling and we're texting them every day. And the best way to handle recruiting, this coach thinks so, is keep winning and letting them know that we're going back to the Florida State way. And the kids understand, of course we are going to have some de-commitments, but the kids, they want to see, they want to see what's going on. And everybody will say, well they can't hold this, but the kids, they just want to see what's going on. And Saturday, the kids looked at that -- a lot of them was excited about it. I said that's the way Florida State place football. True enough it wasn't perfect, but you show, we showed fight and we showed resilience. So therefore a lot of families, that's what they want to see, they want to see a plan in recruiting.
Q. Last home game this week for your senior class, that group's been through a lot over the last few years. What can you say about them and their contributions to the program?
ODELL HAGGINS: Man, I tell you what, it's amazing, standing up here and knowing that I'm a Florida State graduate and coached here for so long that question, it's a hard question for me to answer, but I'm going to answer it. You love these kids because they stayed here, they fought together and all the kids that's here have been through this twice, man you just got to love them, love and show them that, hey, Florida State is always going to be here for you. Even though we haven't won ACC championship, we haven't won a National Championship, but something special about this place right here, we're always going to support you. And also I would like to say too to our fans, our boosters, everybody: let's come out and pack Doak Campbell stadium for those fourth and fifth year seniors. That's extremely important. We need it. It's Nole pride.
Q. You mentioned on Saturday that I think it was at halftime you told the team it was time to grow up and it seemed like you did. How did they go about doing that and did they grow up in your mind?
ODELL HAGGINS: Yes. They took major steps. They took major steps. You saw the first half. Boston College, they came out, man, they came out running the football. Like I said, I knew and the coaches knew that we were going to have our hands full with that team. A team that ran for -- well 496 yards the past game -- and we knew it. But my statement to them was saying, hey, we got to grow up now. We got to make a decision, we got to make a decision at this point. We're going to go back out there and play Florida State-brand football. One, do your job. Fight every play. And communicate. And that's the thing. Growing up means you play, doing your job, to the best of your ability, and out there fighting and communicating on the football field. And they took major steps, major steps.
Q. Marvin Wilson was waiting for the team bus at Doak after the game. How much does that speak to his leadership and how much the team means to him and how much he means to the team?
ODELL HAGGINS: That means a lot. Well first of all Marvin is a special kid. Marvin came to Florida State from Houston. That young man, he loves Florida State. And that tells you about the branding of Florida State when a kid comes here. He gets a feel for the community and the university and the people around. And a lot of players and as his coach, position coach it brought tears to my eyes. Just think about this. You are an adult. You want your best player on your team he can't play, he wants to be there, he's sacrificing, ‘Coach, I'll wrap it up and I'll play this game make sure we get bowl eligible’.
That speaks a lot. He's a big-time leader. Great kid. I love him.
Q. We saw on social media yesterday it seemed like a lot of position groups maybe all got together for dinners or that kind of thing. Was that something you really encouraged coaches to do or do you see a lot of coaches just after a win like that feel like that was something that needed to happen?
ODELL HAGGINS: It wasn't about the win, it was about our family at Florida State. Like I say, I woke up that morning, only one person knew that I was going to do that. Mario Edwards, he was sitting beside me, I was smiling, he said, Big man, you're ready to go, you're over there smiling, you got something up your sleeve? I said, You know what I'm going to do Mario, I felt very confident after I saw those kids walk in that room and I also the way we practiced during the week. I said you know what, these kids, they have gone through a lot, and the coaches, this staff, I said, Saturday, no Sunday when we get back, we're going to go home, we're going to go home, after the game I want each coach to go in and grade his film, dissect that film, make sure we correct our mistakes and go out and practice and run and the coaches take their players out and enjoy them. Rest of the staff when you finish your work, go home, get lost, don't come back until 7:30 Monday morning. Because that's what a family is about. And you can see it, everybody jumped into it Monday, practice, administration, everybody just worked together. So therefore me as a coach, I, as the head coach I thought we needed that. And that's very important. I'm big on family, being with your family.
Q. Looked like James Blackman seemed to play inspired football. Did you see anything from him last week or I know it's been a difficult year for him kind of in and out of the lineup, what did you see from him?
ODELL HAGGINS: Well, you know what I saw from James Blackman, he had a great practice and Kendal [Briles] installed his offense that week. The plays that he wanted to run. James Blackman, he went out and practiced well. He executed what Coach Briles wanted so therefore he had a great game. He did exactly what he wanted him to do in practice, what he demanded. And James Blackman, the message all week to this football team was to attack our opponent in all three phases, that's what Coach Briles did with James Blackman, we attacked. So he had a great preparation.
Q. Looked like I saw Jaiden Lars-Woodbey on the sideline with a headset. Is he another example of a guy who is staying involved and supportive even though he's out right now?
ODELL HAGGINS: Yes, man, that tells you about these kids man. He said, Man, coach, I need to be involved. I said, You're involved, man, just coming to the game, being a leader, we know you can't play. But he grabbed the headsets and said, Coach, man, he listened, he listened to some of the calls and things like that and he was talking to the guys encouraging them. And that was, that's a big key to this football team. Encouraging each other. I always use this and I told the kids this week, don't laugh at each other, laugh with each other. Build each other up. Don't laugh at your brother, laugh with him.
Q. What were some of the things you tried to maybe change in the approach whether it was practice or managing the game you think that kind of made the difference for you guys on Saturday and will do so moving forward?
ODELL HAGGINS: Well, we had a plan together, the offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator, I said to them Monday, on Thursday we're all going to sit down for a full hour and communicate with each other and find out how are we going to attack this game. So Coach [Harlon] Barnett, Coach [Kendal] Briles and Coach [Mark] Snyder and myself we sat in that room for an hour and discussed it. Coach Briles said, Coach Barnett, this is what we're going to do in different situations and I asked him what kind of calls we have on let's say third and one, if we're going to go for it on fourth down, how are we going to punt, when are we going to punt, you know, what yard line, let's say if we in somebody territory what yard line would we go for it, would we not go for it. Situations like that. Situational football. That's what we talked about. And just like Snyder said and like in practice on Thursday, you saw Isaiah Bolden and Snyder said, Coach, they all squeeze in when you show you're going straight to sideline return, Isaiah Bolden runs a 10.4 100 meters. So I said, Snyder, I said, let's run that field return. See things like we communicated about that and I said, Snyder, first one, run it and so you see Isaiah Bolden he ran that field return we got out to the 40 and then in the last right before the last score the same thing happened, he showed it, bam. He hit it. Things like that. Communication, timeouts, you know different situations. And a lot of the situations didn't come up that we talked about, but we were ready for it, I tell you that.
Q. Wondering what you remembered about your Senior Day if you remember who you played, what the score was, and more importantly what your emotions were walking on to the field your last time as a player.
ODELL HAGGINS: You know what, my Senior Day I can tell you, I can remember it. I said what am I going to do without Florida State football? I was getting a degree. Played football my whole life and I thought about it and I said wow, this is going to be my last time on this football field. And it just is a feeling that you get, say, man, this is my last time on this field, it felt funny, it felt funny. When you're a freshman you never think it's going to come to that, come to an end. But once you get there, man, you have to ask yourself some questions. But for the Senior Day it's going to be a wonderful day for our seniors and I know our fans are going to be there, they're going to pack Doak. They're going to pack Doak. I'm positive. I’m going to speak it. They're going to pack Doak. But for these kids that have been here for four or five years that have gone through this twice, I really appreciate them and we love them for that. That's what -- if that's what we can do at Florida State, that's all we can do, we got to do it for these kids.
Q. Jordan Travis had a few big plays for you guys on Saturday but he hadn't played before. How much do you expect him to have a role in the game plan going forward?
ODELL HAGGINS: Well Jordan Travis, Coach [Kendal] Briles came in and said, coach, we are thinking about doing this I said Coach Briles, run your offense if he's in the game plan he's in the game plan. So Coach Briles running his offense and we don't know, maybe one game we want to do something different, want to put Cam [Akers] back there. We don't know. So Coach Briles is running his offense.
Q. Hamsah [Nasirildeen], a safety is not always a guy who is going to be your leading tackler for as many games as he has. He has 30 more tackles than anyone else on the team. What is it about him that he just always seems to put himself around the ball?
ODELL HAGGINS: Yeah, Hamsah’s a great football player. He's a kid that's determined to help this football team win. He's very determined. And actually you talk about 22 tackles in the game, Boston College does a great job, what they do, they block, block, block, and make your safeties and your cornerbacks make plays. So therefore they want them 240 pound, 250 pound running backs running against guys that weigh 205 pounds, 190 pounds. So Coach [Harlon] Barnett, he schemed it whereas instead of the corner back making it, we got Hamsah, Hamsah is 6-4, 215 pounds and it worked out that way. And he just has a nose for the ball too. So they were blocking out and blocking down and in that situation they were just trying to pound it and Hamsah was pounding them.
Q. How much did it help on Saturday to have Jim Leavitt with the head set on and actually being able to coach in that game?
ODELL HAGGINS: It helped a lot. He helped with Coach [Harlon] Barnett, communication and things like that, sideline organization. It helped out a lot. Like I said, I call him the Duracell battery, he keeps going and going and going.
Q. Injury questions, we haven't seen Cyrus Fagan in a while, Dontae Lucas didn't play last game and then Khalan [Laborn], I think we saw him warming up he ended up not playing. Do you have any updates on those three players?
ODELL HAGGINS: Well, today we have a 4 o'clock meeting and I'll talk to Jake Pfeil about that and we'll talk about the injuries and things like that and from there we move forward.
Q. You said when you walked off the field that you thought it might be the last time you were on that field. So that leads me to believe that you didn't know you were going to coach, when did you realize you wanted to be a coach? Did you know you wanted to be a coach?
ODELL HAGGINS: Oh, yes. I tell you what, to make a long story short, I'll never forget when I made the move in 1987 from linebacker to nose tackle, an unselfish move, in which I was starting at linebacker and two of our nose guards got hurt and I was a 232 pound nose guard, Coach Bowden asked me to make the move, I said, Coach, I'm 232 pounds. And he said, Son, believe me, you have that burning desire to get to the football and it won't bother you. And I made the move in my career, when I left Florida State, when I graduated, he always told me, he said, Son, I want you to come back and coach with me. You made one of the biggest decisions of my career, you helped turn things around and get us to the next level. He said, I wish every player was like you, make a decision for the team, not for yourself. And he said to me, That's leadership, that's great leadership qualities.
I'll never forget that. And he said, You will be an excellent coach. And he said, You do things naturally. And I looked into it and I liked it and when I went to the NFL I took a meeting and I had spiral notebooks full of notes. That's when I really found out where I wanted to be a coach because I took so many notes and understood the game.
Q. A lot of former Florida State players are in coaching whether it be college or high school, a lot of your former teammates and just guys from the program. Do you think that's a reflection on Coach Bowden and the leadership you guys had or why do you think that is?
ODELL HAGGINS: Hey, that's big, man. And it's funny though I called coach, Coach [Bobby] Bowden this morning. I called Mickey Andrews and Coach [Jim] Gladden and Coach [Wally] Burnham. I said, Thank you, thank you all very much. They said, Why? They said, You did that. And I said, No, coach, y'all did it the Florida State way, I learned a lot from y'all. What y'all see in me now, that's what I learned from a lot of ya'll and my mother. And they instilled integrity in us and character and never quit. And that's why I'm able to stand up here now and talk and be the interim head coach because of men like Coach Bowden, men like Mickey Andrews, who was honest with you and will work you and love you and didn't lie to you. That's why I'm standing up here now. Men like that. I'm able to go out and lord willing, perform at the highest level.
Q. With Jordan Travis and how athletic he was in the running plays he made I guess did you guys have an idea that he was that explosive during practice and did he show that throughout the season in practice or was that something that just kind of came about recently?
ODELL HAGGINS: He showed it in practice some. Sometimes we played a mobile quarterback he volunteered to come down there and some days we couldn't tackle him. But hey it is what it is. And we thought we could tackle him, sometimes you touch him on the hip and he said no you wouldn't have caught me and the guys are like Travis, no, we would have got you if it was live. But he's been, he has been a soldier all year, working hard, didn't play, but no, when his time was called he went out and did great job. And that's, that's what Florida State is all about. Everybody doing their job and then executing your job. The guys that we have here now, these young men, they are grinding and they're going to keep grinding.
Q. Both of your first games as interim head coach in the seasons were kind of emotional times, I mean challenging times, how confident are you that the players will kind of challenge, channel that same energy when it's the second game coming home and it's a little bit further in the past, it's more of a rhythm week-to-week kind of thing.
ODELL HAGGINS: Yes. Like I said, that's a good question. What are we going to do? We're going to go day by day and we're going to build up to Saturday. We're not going to look so far ahead and say oh we got Alabama State here, no, we're going to attack tomorrow, Tuesday practice and work on the fundamentals and just build-up to it. And like I said, it's not about me, man, my first game, it's about these kids and I know it's a question, but it's about these young men.
Q. At times on offense we saw you bent over, hands on the knees and intently staring the way you would when the defense was on the field. What are you looking for when the offense is out there and what sort of communication do you have with Coach [Kendal] Briles?
ODELL HAGGINS: Yeah, well, I clicked over to the offense when they had the ball and I was, I was just looking at the interior, looking inside seeing what's going on, maybe I could see something being a defensive line coach how they're moving or what they're doing, a key I can let Coach [Randy] Clements know and let Coach Briles know how they're going to blitz or how the linemen were slanting, I see the weight on their hands and things like that. And we communicated well, we had fun communicating. Because I said, I was saying on that, Coach Briles, keep calling it baby, keep calling it, call your game. But that's it. You try to help in every aspect of the game if you're a coach out there.
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