Final Head Coaches Press Conference before the game - 12/30/2010

Miami Coach Jeff Stoutland and Notre Dame Coach Brian Kelly meet up for the final time before the 77th Hyundai Sun Bowl Game.  Stoutland announces starting QB. 

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     Miami interim head coach Jeff Stoutland

Opening statement

To the Sun Bowl committee and the nice people in El Paso, the University of Miami football family would like to thank you for all that you’ve done for us. From the minute we got off that plane we just feel like family. And that’s really what the University of Miami is all about.

Getting close to kickoff

As coach (Brian) Kelly said, ‘we’re getting close to game time now’. So we’ve kind of got to snap out of it, that bowl environment, and get right mentally. We did that first thing this morning.

On Major Harris

I had a chance to coach at Syracuse twice. He was their quarterback. I believe it was 1986; we were playing at West Virginia.

You’re talking about the great all-time players that ever played college football, and I was there to see it, I witnessed it.

On quarterback situation

All week long I’ve been asked, over and over, about the quarterback situation. We have made a decision on that. Jacory Harris will start the game. He will be our starting quarterback. I just feel like he puts us in the best position to win a football game. So we’ve talked to both players, this morning, about that. Stephen Morris is available to play if need be. He got dinged (ankle injury) a little bit here in practice this week. Unfortunate, it was kind of a crazy thing that happened. He’s a lot better and we’re happy for that.

After all the team has been through over the last month, what would it mean to win this game?

Well, I think that just puts a little more incentive into it. As coaches you want to win every game you play, that’s the mission. I think for the players and coaches, this group that’s here, it’s the last time everybody is going to be together. There’s a little more incentive.

Coach, do you plan on playing both quarterbacks (Jacory Harris and Stephen Morris)?

Jacory will start the game, like I said. If needed, Stephen will be available.

How were you able to keep everyone together?

As coaches, most of us played college football, high school football. A lot of us were captains. Whenever you’re put in a situation where it might not be the most comfortable, it might be big challenge there asking, you kind of reach inside a little deeper. I said it back home, ‘There’s a Superman inside all of us’.

The one thing we did, from Day 1, was we worked on academics. We wanted every single player to be eligible for the bowl game. … We did that, and we accomplished that. Then we moved onto the next phase, where we started practice. I told them, ‘Listen, we’re all in this together. It’s the only chance we have.’ I give the coaches on our staff, the assistant coaches and the players a thank you from the bottom of my heart because we had no incidents, we had nobody splintering from the team. To me that’s just a sign of guys caring for each other.

What is the status of running back Mike James?

He just left Chicago. He’ll be here at 1:15.

Will Stephen (Morris) be able to participate completely in Thursday’s walkthrough?

I believe so. He’s way, way ahead of where we thought he would be.