TITANS HEAD COACH KEN WHISENHUNT PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT - September 16, 2015
(on if the defense is prepared for both Johnny Manziel and Josh McCown)
Yeah, I think that's what you do. There will be somebody in there taking snaps, so it's really not a concern. You look at what they do and try to defend that. They've obviously got almost a whole game with Johnny (Manziel) playing, so there's a little bit of some of the things that they've done. But it really doesn't matter. It's more about playing our scheme and doing a good job of that.
(on how hard it is to replicate the way Johnny Manziel makes plays off-schedule by running in practice)*
It's hard, difficult to replicate it. The way a game goes, obviously it's at a different speed. But you have to do that. I think awareness is a big part of it. We've got to be disciplined in our rush lanes, also in our contain, responsibilities, all those kinds of things that when you play a quarterback that has mobility like him. You work on some things and hopefully it gets you prepared.
(on who is playing the role of Johnny Manziel in practice)
We don't really, we just rotate the guys.
(on how he decides how to use Zach Mettenberger and Charlie Whitehurst in practice)
We try to get them reps. Obviously, Zach (Mettenberger) gets a few more, just because he's the primary backup. But we still try to keep Charlie (Whitehurst) involved because you know how it was last year. We had a lot of different quarterbacks play.
(on how he responds to expectations after Marcus Mariota's start last Sunday)
We haven't talked about it. We won a game in Tampa this week, we expected to go down there and win, and we moved on. I'm happy for our fans. They deserve for us to play a little better. But I've said all along, we've got to build up equity with our fans. We've got to show them that we can do this more than once a year, so that's what our focus is.
(on if the attention Marcus Mariota received during his success in college has helped him deal with the attention he's received over the last few days )
I can't imagine that he didn't get more attention than winning one game in his career in college. I don't think this even compares to that, winning the Heisman. So he's fine. I don't think it's a big deal to him.
(on how the Cleveland defense is fundamentally different than Tampa Bay's)
They give you multiple looks. They've got multiple personnel packages; mix their fronts and their coverages. Tampa did that too. They weren't all cover-2 like everybody portrayed it to be. You're going to see that every week. No matter what you think a defense is going to run, you're going to see different schemes. But they do a lot of different things, they're a challenge to prepare for.
(on if the way the team ran the ball on Sunday was encouraging, aside from Marcus Mariota's performance)
It's one game. We've got to continue with that. I think we've got to run it even better than we did. We've got to continue to work on that and hopefully have some production out of that area.
(on if he said anything to Terrance West about going back to Cleveland and if he will be more fired up for Sunday's game)
I really don't know if he will be. I haven't been around Terrance (West) enough to know if that's how he'll be. To be honest with you, I didn't even really think about it. You get so much into the week that you're in. So until we got into preparing for Cleveland I didn't even really think about it. But we did talk about it, so I'm sure that it's important to him. He worked hard today.
(on if he buys into the belief that teams improve the most between Week One and Week Two)
We've got a lot to improve on, that's for sure. There are a couple things that we're trying to do better. That's really what we're trying to do. We're trying to get better each week. I don't know that I've that before. If people believe that, they could, I guess. I don't know.
(on what he expects from Cleveland as they come off a bad loss in Week One)
It's a season opener for them. Well, a home opener, not a season opener. The fans will be there, they will be excited. They lost the first game. It's one game out of 15 left. They'll be fired up; we'll get their best shot regardless. That's what the NFL is.
(on playing the second straight team in their home opener)
There's not a lot we can do about it. It's tough, there's no question. It's hard enough to start with two games on the road, but to do it against home openers is not easy. You're going to get the best shot from the team and from their fans. But maybe that will make us a little bit tougher. Maybe that will pay off for us somewhere.
(on last year's fourth-and-1 play during the game against Cleveland and how Taylor Lewan has said the offensive line needs to be tougher)
If you think back specifically to that fourth-and-1, we'd lost Craig Stevens. We were playing with Chase Coffman who is not the same blocker as Craig. So the play that we ran there wasn't what we had schemed for. I don't know how much a matter of toughness really was involved with that, but speaking to what you said that Taylor (Lewan) has said, I agree. We've got to be a tougher football team. We're working on that. I think camp was a good indication. Those guys really worked hard. There were moments in the first game that we showed pretty good toughness, running the ball and playing defense, so we've got something to build on hopefully.
(on Cleveland's kicker Travis Coons who spent 2014 Training Camp with the Titans)
Well, technically he made our team last year. I mean, for a couple of days. I thought he did a nice job for us. Had we not gotten Ryan (Succop), he would have been our kicker last year. So, good for him.
