Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders College Football Pregame Quote, 09/02/2019

I’m excited to get this week started. I have a lot of respect for Rod Reed, his staff, his team, his program and what he’s done there. This is a team that’s coming off a nice win against Mississippi Valley State last week. They put up good numbers on both sides of the ball. They’re a really good football team coming in, really in all three phases. Their placekicker [Antonio Zita] kicked four field goals, they threw for 300 yards and limited Mississippi Valley State to under 300 yards of total offense. They’ve got really good skill players; they’re a dynamic team. We know the importance of this game. It’s a rivalry back to the OVC days, so I know our fans and their fans will be excited about this game. Hopefully it’s a great turnout for our team.

On the importance of the running game:

We knew it was going to be difficult to run the ball a lot against Michigan because they stack the box and force you to throw the ball. They played a little bit more zone coverage than we expected coming in. Early they played some man coverage, but they played zone towards the end of the game. It’s imperative no matter who you play to be able to run the ball. It gives you a heck of a lot better chance to win the game if you can run the ball. I was proud of our offensive line ‚Äî especially the first group ‚Äî and how they played against Michigan. Obviously, everybody has to improve and clean up some mistakes that we made, but it’ll be critical that we run the ball a little better than we did last week. We’re not going to force it if Tennessee State’s going to overload the box and make you throw. If they’re going to play coverage and we have a better chance to run the ball, we’re going to do that. We’re going to do whatever it takes to win the game.

On TSU wide receiver Chris Rowland:

He’s a really good athlete. He caught 11 balls for 172 yards, he had some nice returns, he ran the ball a couple times. He’s a very dynamic player. I remember him in high school. His brother played here. I’ve been around him for a long time, and he’s a really good athlete. He’s caught over 100 balls in his career at Tennessee State. He’s definitely a guy we’ve got to be concerned with, but at the same time, they’ve got a lot of other good players around him as well.

On the history of the rivalry vs. TSU:

We met yesterday and didn’t really talk about it ‚Äî that was more to clean up the Michigan game. We talked about Tennessee State, too. We know what this game means to us and what it means to them. It’s going to be a great ballgame. As the week progresses, they’ll see it and they’ll read it. I’ll talk about the old OVC days, that this used to be a really big rivalry that hasn’t been played in a long time. That doesn’t determine how you play. We never played Michigan before, but we prepared for them. There’s been some history with Tennessee State in the past, but this is the next game. This is the most important game on our schedule, and that’s how we’ll approach it.

On the play of the offensive line:

I thought those guys did a nice job. They competed, they didn’t back down, they didn’t flinch. We won some battles, and Michigan won some battles. I’ll say that next Monday as well. I was really proud of our guys, their effort, their toughness, their competitive spirit they played with. They did a nice job. When you look at our running stats, they weren’t really impressive, but that’s not a true indication of our offensive line or our quarterback or our backs. [Michigan] just outnumbered the box, and when teams do that it makes it tough to win. We knew that going in, but I was proud of our offensive line.

On the play of punter Kyle Ulbrich:

There was good and bad. He had a nice 51-yard punt. We downed one at the 10 or 11. He kicked another one that we would’ve liked to keep inside the 20, but he kicked it in the end zone. That last punt, Russ Heitt, our snapper, was hurt, so we put in a guy that’s never snapped the ball in college to snap it at the 1-yard line. I probably did a bad job of talking to Kyle. I said ‚ÄòHey, you’ve got to catch that thing and get it out of there,’ because I was worried about the snap. We got a great snap, and he probably just rushed the kick, but that was more my fault. There were some nice kicks, but then there were others he’s got to kick better.

On the play of quarterback Asher O’Hara:

I thought he did a nice job. He did a lot of good things, and he did some things you can’t do at that position. He did a nice job. The moment wasn’t too big for him. Not to dissect every play, but he did a lot of good things and there are some thing you can’t do. We’ve got to get better; he’s got to get better and make some better decisions. For the most part, I was really pleased, and I thought he did a nice job.

On the effort of O’Hara on every play:

You could say that about our left tackle, our safety, our right guard, everybody. We play hard. We play the game the way it’s supposed to be played. We play hard and with relentless effort. I’m proud of our whole team and how hard we played. Asher’s a good competitor. He competes, and that’s what you want at that position. I thought for his first start, he did a lot of good things.

On the playing time of quarterback Chase Cunningham this week:

You’re going into a game and you’re not sure how your quarterback is going to play because you’ve never seen him play. We’ll continue to use both of those guys. At this stage, where we are at that position, I think you’ll see that more every week moving forward.

On the benefit to playing Michigan and learning about the team:

I knew our team going in, that we wouldn’t back down. I knew we’d play hard. I knew we would compete. I knew we’d play our tails off. If we had played out here in the parking lot on Saturday at 6 p.m., I would’ve known the same thing. I know what kind of team we’ve got. I know what kind of men we’ve got in that locker room and how important football is to them. I like the identity of our team.

On the play of the defense on Saturday:

At times we played really well, but at other times we’ve got to play better. Michigan had seven scoring drives, and four of them started on the plus-39 or closer. Whether it was because of a fumble or punt return, they had us backed up. Twice we kicked out of our own end zone, and they got good field position on that. On the three drives started on the negative side of the 50, they got two field goals and a touchdown, so I thought our defense did a good job. The goal line stand: here’s ‚ÄòMighty’ Michigan and ‚ÄòLittle’ Middle Tennessee, and we stuffed their tail. That was a great testament to our defense’s character and toughness. We did a lot of good things, but we’ve got to get better. Same thing on the offense. We weren’t consistent enough in the long run. In the kicking game we did some good things but weren’t good enough. There’s still enough room that we can improve on, and that’s our objective this week: to correct our mistakes and continue to get better. This will be our fifth week of practice, and there’s a lot of things we can improve individually and collectively as a team. Our objective this week is to get better and find a way to win this game this weekend.

On Sara’s, his wife’s, ability to watch games coached by both Rick and Brent Stockstill:

As a parent, to see your child do something is always fun. It’s Brent’s first game coaching. Her and Missy Brock flew up to Michigan Thursday and drove over Saturday to see the game then came back to see her old husband and his game. She had a really good day and had a lot of fun. I wish she could’ve been 2-0 or at least 1-1. It was a great experience for her to see her son coach the first game of his career.

On getting to talk with Brent Stockstill after his first game coaching:

I talked to Brent last night. We texted after his game and then after our game on the bus. We didn’t really talk until late last night. He said [Ohio State was] big and fast, but after the first quarter they held their own. They even outscored them in the last three quarters. For us, we go toe-to-toe with [Michigan]. It was 13-7 in the second quarter of our game. Florida Atlantic is a good football team, and we played against two similar teams.

On guarding against a letdown after a loss:

We talked to them about that yesterday and kind of alluded to it this morning that who you play should never determine how you play. You’ve got to prepare for Tennessee State this week just like you did last week for Michigan. Next week when we play Duke, we’ve got to prepare for Duke just like we prepare for Tennessee State. Who you play doesn’t determine the level of your preparation. It doesn’t determine your energy, enthusiasm or level of excitement to play the game. Once you start differentiating that over playing Michigan and now an FCS team, that’s when you get beat. I trust this team, and I know there will be no letdown mentally from a preparation standpoint. We’re not going to allow that as a coaching staff, and they’re not going to allow that in the locker room within themselves. I’ve got no concerns about how we’re going to prepare and approach this game. There’s no other game that we play that’s more important than this one. I know that’s coach-speak, and I know everybody says that, but you only get 13 opportunities, and we’re going to take advantage of every one of them.