Miles, Paterno Hold Final Press Conference

On New Year's Eve, LSU head coach Les Miles joined Penn State head coach Joe Paterno for the final formal press conference prior to the 2010 Capital One Bowl.
Listen to the press conference archive now, and check back at 7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. in Baton Rouge) for The Les Miles Show - Capital One Bowl Edition, live from the Renaissance Orlando SeaWorld.
Fans in Orlando are invited to the lobby area of the team hotel to watch the show live.
LSU Head Coach Les Miles
On the week in OrlandoFirst of all, the Capital One Bowl committee has done a great job hosting our team. The practice facilities have all been first-class. Our guys have really enjoyed being here. I tell you, our practice has gone well, and as with every bowl week, we look forward to playing the game.
On his success in bowl games and the secrets to that successHaving good teams. Having teams that want to play, who understand the opportunity to play well in their last game. We think we do some good things, but I don’t know that it’s any different, I don’t know that there’s any magic.
On the trend of college football players complaining about treatment from coachesIt’s always hard for me as a coach, to sit on the perimeter of issue and try to figure out what really went on. The specifics of a number of those spots seem unusual and difficult to explain, but I don’t know and it’s hard to be overly critical. I can tell you some things that we do and don’t do in our program that sound familiar. So like I said, it’s hard for me to be overly critical.
On the importance of this game to finish out the decade of success for LSUI always hesitate to put too much on a single game, but the opportunity to finish the season specifically with ten victories, to play a great team in Penn State, to get a victory and a bowl championship, and the opportunity to win our 100th game in the decade is certainly a very special spot in college football. That has not gone beyond our team’s view and certainly it is a part of the feel of this game.
On Penn State and his background in the Big TenI was at Michigan as an assistant coach when Penn State entered the Big Ten Conference. I remembered that they chose to put them initially to play Michigan, I don’t know initially that they had Ohio State on the schedule. I wondered how we got so lucky to have Penn state and those other guys didn’t. I’ve always felt like Penn State was a tremendous team and very well coached, and certainly a favorite of those Pennsylvania boys to go to school. There’s always been great competition with Penn State and all the Big Ten schools. They’re one of the elite teams in that conference by far, and Coach Paterno has done a great job, and he’s done it over time. It’s hard to use the world legend, but he certainly is an icon in coaching.
On what keeps him up at night about Penn StateThe first thing that’s keeping me up at night is Ben Miles (Coach’s youngest son) ... Other than that, it’s a quality, quality team that we’re playing. They have a very good defense, a very strong front seven. They’re very capable on the corners and the perimeter. [They have] an offense that can run it and throw it, a quarterback who can move his feet, just solid, quality special teams. Besides Ben, that’s what’s keeping me up at night.
On the Citrus Bowl field I don’t know the specifics of the field, certainly, and I’m sure that the groundspeople there are doing everything that they can to put that field in order for this game. Certainly you want no field to be directly a cause to injury, and you want it as fast-tracked as you can be. Without knowing exactly how that field’s gonna play and what it looks like today, it’s going to be hard for me to comment. I just couldn’t imagine that the bowl committee’s not working feverishly to put that field back into repair and give us the opportunity to play on a great turf. I guess I’ll be able to speak to it more pointedly on game day.