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(on what else can be said about the Vince Young situation)
Nothing, he's on injured reserve and we're getting ready for the Texans.
(on if he can confirm that Vince Young sent him an apology yesterday via text message)
Yes, I can confirm that.
(on if he replied to Vince Young's text message apology)
No.
(on what the text message apology from Vince Young said)
I'm not going to go into that; he texted me and apologized.
(on if he would have preferred the apology to be in person)
You guys draw that conclusion. I'm not a real big text guy. I'm not really into this new age stuff. I don't twit or tweet, but I think face-to-face is a man thing.
(on if there is some good that comes from Vince Young sending the text message apology)
I don't think so, no. Someone could have grabbed his phone and texted it.
(on if there will be a future meeting between him and Vince Young)
Of course there is going to be a meeting, but right now we're on the Texans. That's the most important thing. Getting this team ready, they're excited to be back on the practice field, they're excited about Rusty (Smith), we're going to be patient with Rusty over the next couple of days and we're going to put a plan together and try to win the game.
(on if they need to make sure Rusty Smith doesn't overload himself in preparation)
No, he's not. We'll have a real good idea. We'll have a real good sense of what he's comfortable with and what he's not. It's a good game plan and he can handle really pretty much anything.
(on the team spirit of the Titans)
We're in our division; we're a game out of first place. We'll go to Houston and play a good football team, that's what their focus is.
(on what he saw out of Rusty Smith today)
He made plays. He made good decisions. He was very accurate with the deep ball and has a good feel for the check system. Considering this is the first day of installation I thought he did a real good job.
(on him having a pattern of being at his best when his teams face adversity)
I think you have to be able to deal with distractions, put them in perspective and move on. Distractions are the primary reason for losing football games. Whether it's somebody's eyes in the wrong place or someone not following a ball in or somebody not concentrating on a snap count—there's all kinds. There are the kinds that we endured over the weekend, there are coaches in the last year of their contract type of things, we have put them in perspective and guess what, our distractions aren't over right now. Coach Heimerdinger is not here at practice today, if you noticed. Mike is very sick. Mike is going to be, potentially as early as today, undergoing chemotherapy for cancer treatment. I don't know whether Mike will be back tomorrow, whether he'll be here Friday or Saturday or whether or not he'll be able to participate in coaching this game. I want you all to pray for Mike, like we have been doing all morning. As the team has, we are going to continue with the game plan. I will make sure that this game will get called and that the offense will be prepared and I just want you all, and everybody out there, to keep Mike and his family in your prayers. He's been sick, he's been very sick for three weeks and we just got the news this morning.
(on if he can share any other details about Mike Heimerdinger's illness)
I don't want to go into detail any more than that. I think we owe it to allow Mike to enjoy the privacy with his family.
(on who will take over the offensive coordinator responsibilities)
We're going to do it by committee. Munch (Mike Munchak) is going to handle the run game. Dowell (Loggains) and the rest of the guys are going to handle the passing game. I want to make sure the game is called appropriately.
(on if there will be multiple people calling the offensive plays)
No, one person will call plays. In all likelihood it is going to be Dowell (Loggains), Dowell can handle it. He's worked very closely with Mike (Heimerdinger) in all the installation phases; he's worked directly with the quarterbacks. In all likelihood it will be him.
(on when it becomes too much for a football team to overcome so many distractions)
It can, it's life. It's life, we have to deal with it and we have to move on. Not that we're moving on from Mike (Heimerdinger), Mike is in my heart and has been on my heart for weeks. What he's done over the last couple of weeks considering how he felt is absolutely remarkable, it is remarkable. When you add the events of the weekend to that, it just doesn't make sense. In any case, the Vince Young stuff is behind us. We're going to move on and get ready to play a football game. Our guys are going to play hard. The players know, I informed them this morning and they understand that they are going to have to do a little bit extra. Everybody is going to have to do a little bit extra, but our focus is on winning the next game and that is what we are 100 percent committed to do.
