Written by LSU Athletics
| Monday, 26 October 2009 14:30
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LSU News
BATON ROUGE -- On Monday, LSU head coach Les Miles addressed the media on Monday as his ninth-ranked team prepares to face in-state rival Tulane on Saturday night in Tiger Stadium.
Prior to Miles' appearance, LSU Heisman Trophy winner Billy Cannon took questions from the media about the 50th anniversary of his famous "Halloween Run" -- an 89-yard, game-winning punt return against Ole Miss on Oct. 31, 1959.
Les Miles Press Luncheon
October 26, 2009
FORMER LSU RB BILLY CANNON
Opening statement...
“When Herb Vincent and our sports information director asked me to come up here and speak for a short length of time, I told him I’d be that to because there are a lot of questions I’d like to ask you guys. They informed me, no, Billy, you don’t ask the questions. They ask you the questions. The only question I really have is, ‘What question could y’all possibly ask about that run that hasn’t already been asked? Is there anything that I ever left out or didn’t mention over the years?’
“We had a get together the other night over in Hammond and we did a fundraiser for Johnny Robinson’s Boys Home over in Monroe. Johnny was able to come down and be there with us, and the bad part was that he still looks better than all of us and he’s had some terrible health problems lately. We raised him about $10,000. It was great because we let all the old timers that played with us get up and talk. We gave them all a microphone. Someone who just happened to be in town was a guy who played against us for Ole Miss that night and later was the head coach at the University of Mississippi, Billy Brewer. We let Billy talk, and I thought we were going to have to assassinate him to get the microphone from him. He shed some insight from his side of the field that were funny and good natured.
“Johnny’s Home is a pet project of some of the guys. He has 47 boys who live with him up there. It started 30 years ago when he moved one kid in with him and his family and found his calling. When they leave his home at about 18 years of age, they’re nothing but gentlemen. When he would send a kid who had braces into this area, he would send them to me. I think there are two reasons he sent them to me. One, he knew I’d give them a little extra attention. And the other, he knew I wouldn’t send him a bill. He agrees to both of those statements. It’s been a project. He’s done some wonderful things with some wonderful kids. I don’t mean kids that are bad. I mean kids that have their mother and daddy move out of town and don’t tell them. He just does a wonderful job.
“Dave McCarty is going to have another show, in Lake Charles, before next season. We’ve done it twice for Johnny in Hammond at Shorty Rogers’ motel. The first time, we had to talk Shorty into doing it. We raised about $7500 for him. We did it again, and this time we raised almost $10,000. So if any of y’all are around Lake Charles next year, I hope you can come and join us. How much did we charge? $100, and you can get everything you can carry. You’ll probably hear some of the stories that you’ve always wanted to hear but that were unprintable at the time. I’d love to have you with us.
“The Ole Miss run 50 years ago... when we had all the guys there the other night, I asked them, ’50 years ago, how many of y’all thought we’d do anything that would last 50 years?’ Not one hand, not one word, not one peep out of any of them. We’re as surprised as everyone else is. I think every player is proud of their part in that run and in that preparation to play that game. Really, I don’t have anything new to add to it. The film is there. It speaks for itself, although the film may be turning a little yellow. I thought about sending it to Ted Turner, and I saw what he did to Jane Fonda, so I said, ‘No, we better keep our film.’”
On watching replays of the run while in Tiger Stadium...
“It’s fun. It’s really enjoyable. The thing that I enjoy about it is that I usually have some of my grandchildren with me, and to see the look on their faces, that it really happened. Now they hear about it from when they’re little, but to see it and be with those people, our LSU fanatic fans, and to see the look on their faces, is fantastic. It gives you a warm feeling. I made Herb (Vincent) promise that there would be no enactment, no re-enactment, because I’ve looked at my guys and I don’t think any of us could finish it. But we’ve enjoyed it very much over the years.”
On training methods during his high school years...
“Well, what you’ve forgotten is that we started the weightlifting program. We started it at Istrouma High School with Alvin Roy. He had been wanting to put it in at a high school on the team level for years and years. Baton Rouge High beat us handily, with Warren Rabb, Gus Kinchen, Don Norwood, and other future teammates. They were an excellent team. They beat us handily when I was a junior. We came back after Christmas and the big freight truck pulled up. Back then, they didn’t have the hydraulic lift gates in the back. We broke the boxes down, and we carried the weights out to the gym one at a time. I thought one of the greater stories of it was that we started lifting the day after Christmas break. We lifted until kickoff time the next year. We did eight basic lifts. It was just for strength. Alvin was there every afternoon, and during the summer we went to his gym and worked out at the school. It was a terrific change. It’s been enhanced and built and carried on, and we’re very proud of that. There was dentist, Dr. Ted Edwards, who practiced in Donaldsonville, and he was the scorekeeper for a baseball team out of Alexandria. They came down to play us in baseball. They parked in front of the gym and walked through the gym. He went through there and he said we he opened the door, the sweat and the heat hit him. There was a guy doing a bench press, and Dr. Edwards said there was more weight on one side of the bar than they had in the whole school at Alexandria. He said they were hollering, cheering each other on, and no wonder we won all our games. I think that was part of it. Every year, we’d have two or three kids lost to knee or shoulder injuries, and my senior year we lost nobody the entire year. We won every game, and we won the state championship.
On if athletes from the 1950s could compete in today’s game...
“Oh yes. Of course, one of the lawyers in town told me last week that not having any confidence was never part of my personality. I think I could play day before yesterday. If Max Fugler couldn’t play today, then there’s nobody out there that could play. He was the finest linebacker I ever played with or against, and I’ve played against some great ones. You could fool everybody in the press box, everybody on the bench, all the coaches, the rest of the players, but you didn’t fool Max. Max always came up with the football, and always made the tackles. He was just a phenomenal athlete in his time, and if it wasn’t for a bad knee, he’d probably still be playing.”
On his return as well as his fumble that led to the Ole Miss field goal...
“I was probably one of your better fumblers, too. The guy that made the tackle was a great tackler, unlike Jake Gibbs. I tell the story when I’m in Mississippi or around Jake that that was the only tackle he ever missed in his life. He punted the ball and then he had the last shot to tackle me. I made a terrific fake to the inside, continued to the outside, and ran through his tackle. What I don’t tell them is that it was the only tackle he ever attempted. They had never gotten to him before. He was quite an athlete. The fumble came at that point of the game where the ball was wet and slippery. I had it perfectly, and I got spun around. The ball went one way and I went the other. They picked up the ball. After Ole Miss couldn’t score a touchdown, their kicker Bobby Caillet kicked a field goal.”
On the quality of the 1959 LSU-Ole Miss game...
“It was a great ball game. If you ever get a couple of hours to watch the old film, it’s really fun to watch. The runaways and where you get blown out, you forget. Where every play can determine the outcome of the game, those are the ones you remember. You remember them vividly because if you didn’t give it everything you had against a Johnny Vaught team, you were going to get embarrassed, whether it was personally or as a group. We had made another goal line stand right before the half. If we hadn’t have held them there, at the end of the game when they were at our one-yard line, they could have kicked a field goal and won 9-7. It was a great game.”
On who made the goal line stop at the end of the game...
“Warren Rabb made the initial contact. I did a Bosworth. I jumped on the top and got my name called out. Warren was a good defensive back and a great quarterback until he broke his hand. He was a great competitor, a great leader and an excellent person.”
On the differences between the 1958 and 1959 teams...
“I thought it was our play selection. I thought we did things in 1958 because we were trying to be good and we were trying to score points. For instance, we were playing Duke and Duke was a good football team. I was sitting on the wing and they put in a post pattern to me. I ran the post and we scored on a long pass. We never saw that play again for the 18 months I was in school. I didn’t see that pattern again until I got to Houston. We did a lot of things. We had a toss play where the remaining back would do a toss to the weak side, and it was only called one time. We were playing Tulane in 1958, and we were up 55-0 in the final minute. I had to go back in to prevent us from burning someone’s redshirt. Coach Paul Dietzel said, “Go in there and run the ball up the middle, run out the clock and get this over with.’ So like a good soldier, I went in there and said, ‘Call that toss to me. Coach Dietzel said it. Run it to the left right now.’ Like a good quarterback, he called the play. I took the ball 35 or 40 yards for a touchdown. Tulane’s coach was out at midfield cursing Dietzel, who kept saying ‘I didn’t do it.’ There’s a guy in New Orleans who follows Dietzel around every time he’s in New Orleans and says, ‘I had binoculars out there and I saw you tell Cannon to do that!’ That’s a couple of examples of what we didn’t do in 1959. Our defense was so good. There were a lot of zeroes and not a lot of points scored that year. They knew if we played our game we’d get enough points to win the game. Most of the time, it worked.”
On if he actually scored a disputed touchdown in the 1959 loss to Tennessee...
“I swear to God, I’ll go to my grave believing I was across the goal line, looking down, and then got pushed back. And then the referee doing that, it made me sick. But we didn’t lose that game on the goal line.”
On why his run is so celebrated...
“I think it’s the time of the moment that makes a great play stand up. I think if we had been up two touchdowns, it wouldn’t have made any difference. But it was a lot of fun doing it.”
On if any LSU players have reminded him of himself...
“Oh yes – Tommy Casanova. He made All-America three years in a row for us. He was a great athlete. He would have made All-America four years in a row if freshmen were allowed to play. That’s how good he was. He practiced in spring practice one day, went through the whole scrimmage on a Saturday. He showered, ate supper, and then went to his room and started to study because he was pre-med, and an excellent student. A guy running the quarter-mile relay for the LSU track team pulled a hamstring. They went and got Tommy, he came down, got his uniform and shoes, and ran a leg on the quarter-mile relay team – on the winning quarter-mile relay team, which won the meet. He was such a great athlete.
LSU HEAD COACH LES MILES
Opening statement...
“What a joy to have Billy Cannon be a part of our football tradition and our school’s tradition. Fifty years ago this Saturday, he returns a punt against Ole Miss for one of the celebrated plays in college football. I can tell you our players understand the traditions that have been set here, and certainly Billy Cannon is a big part of that.
“I like the position that we’re in. I like the understanding that we take each opponent one at a time and go forward. All of our goals are there. Looking at the Auburn game, I felt like what we did in the open week was specifically to plan to practice and improve in certain areas, and I felt like offensively, we got into a nice rhythm. We threw the ball down the field. Some of the things that we worked on like specific coverages we saw come to bear in the game. I really felt like our quarterback (Jordan Jefferson) did a nice job running the game and managing the game. We’re a team with great wide receivers. If we can get the ball in their hands and if our quarterback can dish the ball to the playmakers, then we’re going to have a pretty good day. He was 21-of-31 for 242 yards and two touchdowns. Even in a situation where he’s trying to get rid of the ball and we get penalized for intentional grounding, that’s improvement. That’s a young quarterback who realizes that his reads have been exhausted. He turns to his (running) back. His back is tied up coming out of the backfield, so instead, he goes to throw it and throw it away. The instruction is to find a back or receiver to throw it away at, but again, it’s a positive step.
“It’s nice to see Russell Shepard get in there and get some carries. One thing about him is he waited for a nice long game before he got it in the end zone for the first time. I hope that’s the first of many. Our defense is getting better each week. There is a real pride there, an enjoyment or a spirit if you will, but that defense just wants to keep improving and play better than the teams they’re playing against. I was tickled. I’m the guy who wants everybody out of the game late in the game when the victory is salted away, and you don’t want to risk injury to starters except that the defense, with seconds to go on the clock, is on the perimeter fighting like heck to get in the game. I enjoyed Al Woods, Rahim Alem and that group on the sideline who said, ‘Are you kidding me? Get me on the field. We don’t want them to score.’ I think if that opponent had have run it, I don’t think they would have gotten in either, but I enjoy the development of that defense. They are certainly coming.
“We have not lost sight of the fact that we are still a long way away. What we need to accomplish – offense and defense – needs to continue, and improvement is the down payment on a great season. Our football team understands that. I think they looked at that game, and I think they realized that we have the potential to be a very explosive team. We have to build on that, do it more regularly and be more efficient at it. On special teams, I feel like we are a very good unit. I felt like our punter (Derek Helton) was certainly a little nicked to start the game, and his first kick aggravated that issue, so we had to go with Josh Jasper at punting, and certainly he did a very capable job. I think that health will return, but we have to be more consistent there. If we do that, our special teams are pretty strong. We lead the conference in covering kicks, and our pride unit seldom gives returns. With a good return team, both on the kickoff and punt team, we have advantages on special teams. Again, I like where we’re at.
“Harry Coleman was named the SEC Defensive Player of the Week with nine tackles, two sacks, two forced fumbles and just great effort. He is truly having a great senior campaign, and we enjoy his leadership. We certainly enjoy his play. Kelvin Sheppard also had a big day, and we gave both those guys Defensive MVPs for their efforts. On the offensive side, Jordan Jefferson and Terrance Toliver were the Offensive MVPs. Both guys were instrumental in that team’s success. As we go forward, Tulane is a very dangerous team. You take the records, and you throw that out. They’ve lost to two very good football teams – both Houston and BYU who are nationally-ranked – and they will play very good football against us. Bob Toledo is a tremendous coach. He does a great job preparing his team, and I think offensively, they are a very dangerous football team. They are averaging 328 yards of total offense and have played some very good defenses. On the offensive side, Andre Anderson, their tailback has six touchdowns and just under 700 yards. Their wide receiver, Jeremy Williams, has 660 yards, and they have very talented guys. They started a new quarterback against Southern Miss, Ryan Griffin, but he was very successful. He completed a lot of balls. I think they are very dangerous on offense.
“Defensively, they play fast and to the ball and work hard. They seldom miss tackles, so they are getting our attention. We understand that we must improve. We understand that we must play well against Tulane. No game is more important than the next one, especially an in-state rival that will prepare very well against us, and our football team understands that we made improvement against our last opponent. That kind of improvement must continue against the next opponent. The specific challenge of Tulane will help prepare us for the next games we play. There will be no want to look beyond that. We understand that our greatest ally at this point is time, to improve, do better and play strong and play dominant against our next opponent. Then we’ll look around and see where we are at.”
