Championship Week

Q&A: SMU O-Line Coach Adrian Klemm & A Few Mustangs

Coach June Jones, right, talks with back-up quarterback J.J. McDermott near the end of Wednesday's practice.

DALLAS – SMU meets UCF Saturday for the 2010 C-USA football championship. The Mustangs (7-5, 6-2) earned their first title game berth with a 45-38 overtime win at East Carolina last Friday. UCF’s Knights (9-3, 7-1), with a third trip to the championship assured, closed out Memphis, 37-17, on Saturday.

After SMU’s Wednesday practice at Ford Stadium, offensive line coach Adrian Klemm, quarterback Kyle Padron, linebacker Ja’Gared Davis, center Blake McJunkin and offensive tackle J. T. Brooks took questions.

Talk about SMU’s rushing attack versus UCF’s league-best defense.

McJunkin: “Both units are great units, we feel like. We’re going to get some, they’re going to make some plays. We’ve got to make more than they do at the end of the day. We feel confident in our ability. … We’ll be ready.”

Coach Klemm: “They don’t do a lot of exotic stuff. We’ve seen a lot throughout the season. That’s how people try to generate pressure on the quarterback, just throwing a lot of stuff at us up front. For the most part, we pick that up, but this week we’re not going to have that. These guys are just going to come at you and just, ‘My athletes are better than yours’ kind of thing.”

Brooks: “[UCF’s] Bruce Miller is probably one of the best d-ends this conference has seen in awhile. It’s a good challenge for us, but we feel like we always pretty much rise to the occasion so we’re looking forward to it.”

Coach, what’s your o-line’s greatest asset?

Coach Klemm: “I think we’re just a physical group. Whether it’s the running game or the passing game, we pound people. You see a lot of bodies on the ground.”

What was said amongst players or by coaches before SMU’s touchdown drive to open OT after ECU had tied it late?

McJunkin: “Just, ‘Guys, it’s on us. Let’s go out there and win the game, put the ball in.’ Everyone’s tired. Everyone’s spent. Everyone knew what we had to do. We were just saying, ‘Guys, give it all. We won’t have this chance again, so make sure it’s not lack of effort.’”

Coach Klemm: “We just knew we needed to match [ECU’s] intensity. … ‘Gotta go out there and have a score. A field goal’s not good enough. We’ve gotta end it soon.’ … “I was really proud of them, just because we’re such a young team. Not just my unit but the team, in general, for them to come back like they did.”

Brooks: “They hadn’t stopped the offense really the whole second half so I was definitely confident that we were going to put seven up on the board every time. And I didn’t think their offense was good enough to do that too.”

What about the eventual game-winner, Zach Line’s 1-yard run behind right guard Kelly Turner?

McJunkin: “It was a great play: 32 dive. … Kelly Turner’s as big and strong as anybody. We run it right up his tail. He just, one-on-one, dominated his guy.”

Coach Klemm: “I have a tremendous amount of respect for the way [Turner] approaches the game and just where he’s coming from.” … “I’m always glad to see when we run behind Kelly. If we have him pulling on runs and different things like that I have a lot of confidence he’s going to get the job done.”

League-leading receiver Aldrick Robinson

Kyle, how’s the ankle?

Padron: “It feels pretty good. It’s still a little sore, a little swollen. But it is getting better every day with the treatment and the training staff. They’re doing a good job with it.”

How close were you to coming out of the game when the injury occurred in the third quarter at ECU?

“We never talked about it. When I walked over to the sideline to get the next play, [Coach June Jones] said we were just going to run the ball a couple of times, to kind of get me healthy again, get me thinking right. We never really thought about taking me out.”

But in your mind, did you ever take a step and think, “I don’t know about this?”

Padron: “When it first happened, it kind of scared me. Not that I’m accustomed to getting injured, I’ve been injured a couple of times in my career. It was a little different, kind of hobbling off, but I wanted to play the entire game and I got through it.”

Kyle, huge game at ECU – 331 passing yards, three TDs. But it’s almost scary what the numbers could have been with the passes that were there –

Padron: “- that missed.” … “I missed by a couple yards multiple times to Al and I threw it short a couple times to I think Cole [Beasley]. I mean, it’s kind of [needing to be] being consistent with my accuracy, being out on the practice field, just kind of working every single throw, thinking my way through it.” … “It just shows you what we can do if we are efficient, offensively, and the scary numbers we can put up.”

The key to winning on Saturday?

Padron: “Efficiency. Offensively, we’ve just got to move the ball, we can’t turn it over. … I watched a couple [UCF] games this year. Their defense is impressive. They don’t make too many mental mistakes. We’re going to have to beat them. Just go out there and be efficient offensively and [our] defense is going to do fine.”

Ja’Gared, talk about your 33-yard fumble return for a TD at ECU.

Davis: “I was just in the right place at the right time. It was like I practice every day: scoop and score. It’s just one of those big plays I had to make.”

Did that ball look like a beach ball or a peanut?

Davis: “Beach ball. (laughing) It was just big, just sitting up for me to take.”

What impresses you about UCF’s freshman quarterback, Jeff Godfrey, who leads the league in passing efficiency?

Davis: “He’s a heck of an athlete. He’s probably one of the best athletes we’ll go against all year at quarterback. He’s just so mobile and agile. … We stop him, basically, we contain the rest of the offense.”

You have a team-leading nine sacks. What makes a good sackman?

Davis: “Determination. Because a man my size, Lord knows, some of the tackles and sacks I get I shouldn’t be making. But it’s just determination and will.”

The key to winning Saturday?

Davis: “No mental mistakes. Play our type football. Play hard, physical, all four quarters, and we should come out positively.”

Have you heard from people back home in Crockett, Texas?

Davis: “Yeah, I talked to a couple of people saying they’ve been watching all year, they’ve been rooting for me. They’ve all got our backs.”

Who eats the most donuts?

McJunkin: “I don’t know. Kelly can put ‘em down. [Left guard] Bryce [Tennison] can put ‘em down. But Kelly, usually, is the guy who throws down the most food.”

Brooks: “Kelly Turner, by far.”

Coach Klemm: “We have a lot of guys who would be up in there. But Kelly Turner’s a monster. I know he has a record over at some taco place nearby and I know when we go to eat wings, he tears it up. … I don’t even think he eats because he’s hungry. I think he just likes the taste of things.”

Davis: “I’ll say maybe Al D.”

5-10, 178-pound Aldrick Robinson?

Davis: “Yeah, Al D eats a lot.”

Do you have a Krispy Kreme favorite?

Coach Klemm: “No. I get about six. My thing, I like this place over here, YumYum Donuts. I’ll go in there on a Sunday and just sit in there and just keep gettin’ it over and over and over.”

Davis: “I like to get their cinnamon rolls. I love their cinnamon rolls.”

Brooks: “No, I don’t actually go a whole lot. Their normal donuts, probably.”

McJunkin: “I’m not a big donut guy, a big sweets guy. I prefer to go across the street and get a hamburger.”

Anyone scouted Krispy Kreme locations in Orlando?

McJunkin: “Aw, man, I don’t know. We’re just worried about winning right now. If that happens, then we may find it. We’re just focused on beating UCF.”

Gameday: C-USA Championship, SMU vs. UCF, Saturday, Dec. 4, 2010, 11 a.m. Central, Orlando, Fla.

Prediction: Tinman needs a tune-up,SMU 24 UCF 22 (Last week: picked SMU, 41-38, over ECU.)