Marshall Thundering Herd College Football Pregame Quote, 09/21/2021

Obviously coming off a very tough loss, things didn’t go our way. A lot of responsibility goes across the board. The one thing I think you guys will appreciate, as soon as I got into the locker room those guys said ‚ÄòCoach, it’s on us. ‘I said no, it’s not on you guys, it’s on all of us. We’ve got to be better, there’s things in that game that we learned a lot from. Not necessarily Monday morning quarterback, we shoulda, coulda, wouldas, but things that we talked about over, and over, and over that we’ve got to continue to get cleaned up. It’s nota quick fix, I don’t think anyone is out there intentionally trying to turn the ball over, or miss a tackle, or anything like that. But, it’s happening, so we’ve got to continue to work at it, [and] we’ve had a really good week of practice.

Again, hats off to ECU, I thought they played a phenomenal game. I told their coach at the middle of the field, I mean their guys made some real contested catches‚Äìour guys were in position and they caught the football. That’s what happens when you play really good teams. Obviously not the outcome we wanted, trust me, there’s no one that wants to win more than me. I did not go to sleep Saturday night, stayed in, got working right away on this next game. We’ve moved on ‚Äì like I said we’ve had a great week of practice, the guys came in with a really good mindset.

On Appalachian State:

This week, another challenge. I know you guys think I just say that, but this week is going to be another challenge. A phenomenal environment, phenomenal football team and a phenomenal football culture, is what I told the guys when we did our pre-scout. This program that we’re going to play has been a successful program for a long time. They’ve won for a while. One thing that they’ve done even when they’ve had coaching changes, they’re coaching changes stayed within the family, so the family stayed the same, so a lot of their systems stayed the same, a lot of their core values, a lot of the things they try to do on both sides of the ball stayed the same. Some guys moved away, came back, some guys moved up and got promoted, so they’ve done a really good job of that.

I think our guys will be prepared with obviously a quick turnaround, to go down there Thursday night in front of a national audience and get a chance to go execute. Our guys are up for the challenge, we’ve got a couple more days here to prepare, but we’re excited, real excited.

On keeping the group humble and focused before performing on a national stage:

I think it goes back to pointing out the things that we need to correct, and not just in the last game, but the entire year. Like I told them Monday, this turnover thing is becoming a habit. It’s not something that’s sporadically happening, and it’s not one person or one group, it’s something that’s happening across the board. So what does that mean? Well that means that everyone is focused on it until I have to focus on something else. Until Corey [Gammage], for example, focused on catching a tight-window throw by Grant [Marshall] and going to score, he didn’t think about, ‚Äòoh, I’ve got to protect the ball. ‘Now, I don’t think he went out there and thought ‚Äòyou know what, I’m not going to protect the ball. ‘Same thing with Grant ‚Äì I don’t think he’s thinking, ‚ÄòI’m going to throw this ball and it’s going to go off the receiver’s fingertips into Navy’s defensive back’s hands, ‘I don’t think he’s thinking that. What I’m saying is, what I’m talking to those guys about is although we are going into a national tv environment, all those things, that shouldn’t change the way you prepare or the way you plan to execute. What should change those things is[thinking],hey, I have three games of film, I have x amount of reps at receiver, I have x amount of reps at o-line. What do I need to do to get better, and what do I need to improve on the things that I’ve put on film.