Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders College Football Pregame Quote, 10/25/2021

Southern Miss coming off an open date, you know, they’re one-and-six but it’s a very deceptive one-and-six. This team is really talented. You look at them statistically, especially defensively, they’re really good and they’re up there in a lot of statistical categories. They’re athletic, they’re fast, they can run, they’ve dealt with some injuries this year in some critical positions and I assume that they’ve got some guys healthy this week or last week coming in here. This is a great example of a team, that you better not look at their record and assume something because this a very capable team. They’re talented on both sides of the ball [and] just had a tough stretch here the last few weeks but this is a really good football team. We better be ready to play because they’re really talented.

On the impact of a stretch of home games (conference play):

Did you go to UConn? You were at UConn, weren’t you Sam? How was eating that steak at 9:30 at night? It’s stuff like that ‚Äìthat people don’t understand how hard traveling is. You know, it’s getting on the buses, getting on planes, new hotels all that stuff that plays a part on the wear and tear of your body. Five of these first seven being on the road, it wasn’t a lot of fun. We like playing at home. We’d rather play at home, obviously. We like to play in front of our fans and in front of our people. Glad, our three of the next five are at home. It’s always better playing home than on the road but I’m proud of how ourteam handled last Thursday and Friday the game. But not having a bus show up, planes canceledand getting there at nine o’clock at night is just a testament to our team ‚Äìthe mental toughness they showed throughout that week.

On if a focus on simplifying the run game will continue:

Probably a little bit of both, you know, as you game plan for your next opponent you always look at what’s going to be successful, what can’t and you’re going to emphasize that. We’ll go into each week and see what gives us the best opportunity to win first, what gives us the best opportunity to move the ball and be successful offensively.