Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders College Football Pregame Quote, 09/30/2019

Opening up conference play this week, we’re excited to get started in that. I have a ton of respect for Marshall’s football program, Doc Holliday, his coaching staff and what they’ve done there since he’s been there. We know we’re playing a very talented team, a very well-coached team. They’re coming in off a tough one, and we’re coming in off a tough one. The respect that I have for Doc, his program, his players and how they play the game, the toughness they play with, I have a lot of respect for those guys. They’re quarterback has played really well. On their offensive line, they return all five starters from last year, so it’s a pretty good group up front. They have good skill guys; their receivers can run and make plays in space. They’re really talented on offense. Defensively, their front seven is going to be active ‚Äî they’re going to put pressure on the quarterback. They’re going to mix up coverages based on different situations that they’ll present themselves with. They’re always really good in the kicking game, and that’s not different this year. They lead the league in punt returns, they’re up there in kickoff returns as well, and their kick coverage is always good. We’ve got a tough challenge ahead of us, and we’re looking forward to it.

On switching over to conference play:

Conference play is always an exciting time. Three of these first four have been a top-10 team, a top-15 team, a top-25 team, so we’ve played a gauntlet of out-of-conference guys. I’d put Marshall up there with anybody that we’ve played this year ‚Äî that’s a good football team.

On what Marshall could do to give MT trouble:

It starts with we’ve got to stop the run. They’re averaging over 200 yards rushing a game, so that’s where it starts. Their quarterback is looking to pass first, but he can extend plays with his feet. He can get outside of the pocket and create some things in the run game off of pass plays, so we’ve got to be cognizant of him once he gets out of the pocket that we don’t lose sight of the receivers because he’ll throw it over the top. To me, that’s where it starts ‚Äî we’ve got to stop the run, limit the big play. We’ve been giving up too many big plays through these first four games. Offensively, we’ve got to find a way to establish the run. We’ve got to run the ball and be a little bit better throwing the ball. I said it after the game, it’s not so much Marshall coming up or whoever we play next. It’s about us. We’ve got to correct some things and get better at some of the things we’re doing.

On what Marshall does well defensively:

They’ve got good players, and that’s where it starts. Their front seven is good. They’re going to mix up their pressures, zone and man pressures. They’ve done a good job of holding Boise to 14, VMI to 17, it was 33-31 to Ohio and they gave up 52 in this last game against a really, really good Cincinnati team. They play hard. The big thing is they’ve got good players, and they put themselves in positions to make plays, and when they’re in that position, they make plays. They tackle good, and they don’t give up big plays. They give up 150 yards rushing ‚Äî 160, something like that ‚Äî so they’re not giving up a bunch of yardage on the ground.

On any changes with Brad Lambert now as defensive coordinator:

Maybe a little bit, but not drastic. They pressure about the same as they did last year; it might be a little less. They still change their front ‚Äî they’ll go from a three-man to four-man or four-man to three-man. You’re still getting those variations. Brad’s an excellent football coach. What he did at Charlotte as he built that program, to win five games last year and come within the last game of getting bowl eligible, the respect that I have for Brad is equal to Doc’s. They’ve changed a little bit, but not anything drastic.