TITANS INTERIM HEAD COACH MIKE MULARKEY PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT - November 17, 2015
(on if he wrapped up practice a little early today)
We did, we got off about 12 minutes early. I just made a decision that the last two periods were going to be walk through periods anyhow, and we were going to do it where each team was going to service each other. I just decided if we could cut that in half and just go offense on one side, defense on the other, and get them off their feet. We'll get a chance to meet earlier with them here now and get them out of the building a little earlier, so it's a little more normalcy for them.
(on if he can gauge how tired the team is at this point)*
I think we're all aware of the situation. I really tried to let them sleep in again this morning. We had a good walk through last night under the lights. Actually, it was pretty spirited. We really have never had a bad practice under the lights, the players enjoy it. But I let them sleep in a little bit and now we had some good meetings, really, we got a lot of reps without really stressing them. But we did go hard for three periods. We did that for timing and especially with a young team, young quarterback, now a young secondary, receivers, we had to have some periods that were full speed.
(on if it will be easier to get Andrew Turzilli up to speed as he was with the team during training camp)
Yeah, it was amazing some of the things he did already in the walk throughs since he came out here. He already had picked up some things, and that's not easy to do. That's hard. When you're in another system, the terminology is different. I don't care if you've been here for a camp or not. I experienced something like that when I was playing. It's difficult to retain that much information and to be able to process it and come out here. But he picked it up. (Wide receivers coach) Shawn Jefferson has got a long night ahead of him, a long day tomorrow, and they're going to be sitting together on the flight. So we'll see how fast he takes it all in.
(on if all of the team's healthy wide receivers will be active Thursday or if he will only have four)
I would anticipate four right now, just based on other positions, but I would anticipate four.
(on playing Jacksonville twice in three weeks)
Actually it's not a bad thing. You've kind of already done a lot of film study on them. It's not like you have more film that you have to really engulf yourself in, so it'll be familiar. One of your games that you're going to study is yourself, so there are a lot of positives about doing that, a lot of familiarity, especially when it's a common opponent in your division like Jacksonville. I think there are more pluses than negatives, yes.
(on if there are any negatives to playing Jacksonville twice in three weeks)
Not that come to mind, no.
(on if there is a reward to this short turnaround)
Well, they'll get some time. I'm going to give the players and coaches some time this weekend. Having the bye after the third game, it's a good time to have a Thursday night game and give them some rest, get away. It's been a busy couple of weeks with this game, but they'll get a chance to get home, some of the players and the coaches, and get away, and then we'll come back in here on Monday morning.
(on if there is an added sense of urgency as this is a division game and the AFC South is still open)
There are a lot of games left. You look at what Houston's done and some of these other teams, we're all kind of right still there this time of the year. It's not by any means that we're out of the picture for this division, and our guys know that. They know where we sit, we've just got to win this one before we can worry about anything else.
(on if David Cobb will play on Thursday)
He could. We got him more reps today. Again, that will be a game-time decision, but there's a better chance this week than there was last week, and that's based on Dexter (McCluster).
(on if Thursday Night Football is good for the league)
It's a tough week. It is physical on players, it's hard to recover from Sunday games, there's no question about it. It's hard on coaches to prepare. Really last week, the coaches were here getting ready for this game as well. It's hard to get ready for a week away and concentrate at the game you've got at hand, so there's a little bit of juggling to do with it. But it's difficult for everybody.
(on a short week throwing off the normal routine)
It throws off a lot, but I'm trying to keep these guys fresh. Even tonight, I'm going to give the coaches, they've had a couple pretty good days, I'm going to give them some rest so we're fresh when we step on the field on Thursday. It's different, but everybody goes through it. There is no advantage for one team or another, it's tough on everybody.
(on if he has more positive memories from his time as head coach in Jacksonville than negative ones)
Yeah, I do. I think I said it in my initial press conference. I was very proud of my experience there and I wish I had more time, but a lot of good things, a lot of good memories.
(on Byron Bell's dance moves at practice while music was playing during the stretch period)
Well first of all, I thought I was going to have to get a trainer for him, and second was oxygen. I knew he had to need oxygen like he would in game, because that was the most I've ever seen him move that fast. But it was fun, I think it was good for the team to come out here. Everybody was dancing, must have been the right songs. But it was good, it was good for them.
