Louisville Cardinals College Football Pregame Quote, 09/09/2019

Alright, I appreciate everyone being here. You know I’m just excited to get back going to work this week after getting a nice win this weekend. I think after watching the tape, I think our kids played hard particularly the second half we came back out and really took care of business right from the start with the play right after halftime. Hawkins going up the sidelines for the big play kind of really set the tone for the rest of the night. You know, so we’re just excited to get that win, having for our guys and then you know we’re excited to get back going this week against Western Kentucky who we know who’s a good football team that looks improved to me you know, coming off I think was second year for coach and you know last year their record wasn’t great and it looks like they’re playing better this year. You know, they lost to Central Arkansas, which I think is a pretty good football team watching their film they have good talent and then go on the road and beat FIU this past weekend. So, we know we will get their best shot they’ll play extremely hard you know we have to have a great week of practice to go get another win.

How good is it to have Jordan Davis back?

Well he gives us some more depth at the tight end position. He’s got great size, you know great talent you know I would say he has not lived up to his talent since he’s been here. I think he’s got a lot of potential you know, hopefully he’ll reach that potential there’s times we’ve seen it in practice and you know you like wow, this guy can be really good because of the size his power his speed. He’s got good hands you know, and you know, we obviously love utilized audience, you know, 11-12 personnel type team so he’s going to give us some more signs there of the set edges. I think, you know, so we’re excited to have him back and I’m we’re certainly utilize him and get them in there and you know we’ll see you haven’t played this year so obviously we’ll see how he is toward game time but he’ll certainly get in the mix and play for us.

On how to the team looks so far is certain positions this season:

Yeah I think Ian’s kind of been our on the wall tight-end for us and has done a really good job. You know, we saw that in August camp. We saw how, you know that how it was one thing we didn’t know for sure. You know, he was a he lost a lot of weight when he was at Vanderbilt, but he’s come along and did a great job blocking for us. He’s still learning what we are trying to do offensively, but we’re doing better and better. I think (Justin) Ford has done a great job with the H-Back position for us. Were able to see him catch the football really both games that we played. He’s really good after the after catching the ball getting yards after the catch. I think that’s very been very impressive. You know, a couple of the touchdowns he had the other night were easy you know, kind of easy touchdowns for him, but he makes it look easy I mean we hopefully will continue to find ways to get Ford the ball I think he’s dynamic as a tight-end with the ball in his hands with the matchups with the linebackers I think he’s quicker faster than then the backers and unable to make play so you know i think you know then Isaac. Issac has been a guy who’s played both Wide and H for us and has done a good job but getting Jordan in the mix now so give us some more bodies there you know, keep those gaps fresh as we move on in the game.

Do you think it has helped to have Jordan Davis out?

Yeah, I think you know to allow these other guys to get more reps, more playing times to get more comfortable. Now I think it is going to be now we have to do that to Jordan. I think he’s more comfortable now within the offense. Because the first two weeks you know, games he didn’t really get many reps with us with the offense because we get those are the guys ready. So it’s kind of a mental for him, so he’s got to have a big week of practice and really implementing him into game plan of knowing what to do when to get out there because now those guys have experience I think you know it’s valuable to have a game experience and so you don’t have to knock the rust off early Jordan he gets in there because really comes down to speed of the game. You know, it’s hard to get those kind of looks in practice. It’s not as fast not the guys maybe not as strong as you’re going against and so we’ll get him in early this game and really implementing him into game plan of knowing what to do when to get out there because now those guys have experienced I think you know it’s valuable to have a game experience and so you don’t have to knock the rust off early Jordan he gets in there because really comes down to speed of the game. You know, it’s hard to get those kind of looks in practice. It’s not as fast not the guys maybe not as strong as you’re going against and so we’ll get him in early this game and really get a feel for it.

What he has seen with his team the last two weeks?

I like the way we’re playing and the energy we’re playing with. I like the fight we’re playing with, and I think that’s where it all starts. If you do that, you’ll continue to get better and better. I think we’ve improved from game one to game two. Defensively, the mental errors we’ve cut in half from the first game to the second game and that shows that we got the shutout the way we did, which was tremendous with how much they possessed the ball. Offensively, the same. We cut down mistakes. We had one turnover, which the receiver slipped on that on the fourth down play so we really could’ve converted that. I think overall a better performance. We got to continue to get better. There are a lot of things we have to get better on and work on. Our guys are continuing to get better every day, and that’s all we can ask for ‚Äì to get better every day. We’re trying to settle in for roles for everybody. Usually for the first three, four games you’re going to do that. There are guys who have to find their roles within the team and settle into those roles and then accept those roles. We’re still trying to settle that out and we’re getting close with that. And I’m talking more of your down-the-line guys, maybe trying to find them roles and special teams.

I saw the sign on the doors walking into the practice facilities today. How important is it to win those in-state matchups, for a win or for recruiting purposes?

Well I just want to take pride in the state of Kentucky. A lot of our guys are from, for our fans, and just for bragging rights in the state. You always want to take care of your state and take care of your home field. In this case, we’re on the road but we’re playing a team from our state, so there are a lot of our players who know a lot of their players. I think it’s just for bragging rights and is one more thing that should help motivate our players. Us as coaches try to find anything to motivate these guys, and it’s just one more thing we’re throwing into the mix this week: one more team from Kentucky.

Obviously the guys waited a long time for that win. What’s the process like for taking that energy and packaging it into the next game and for the rest of the season?

It’s good, because we did get a win, no question about it. But, win or lose, last week has nothing to do with this week. Win or lose, it’s a new week. Yesterday, we put that game to bed. Everything now is straight-focus on WKU. Our guys are on their off-day today, but a lot of them have already been over here watching the film from the opponent for this week. It really doesn’t matter what we did last week. We have to stay in the moment and do the best we can do today as far as getting our bodies ready for tomorrow’s practice so we can come out and have a great practice. All of our focus has to be on today and not worry about what we did in the past. It was just nice to celebrate on Saturday night and Sunday morning, but you have to put it away ‚Äì it has no bearing on this game here. We have to continue to get better; that’s where our focus will be this week.

Looking at WKU’s defense. Anything that you’ve seen through these past two games that you think will be beneficial to your offense?

I think as we look at their defense, I think they’re pretty aggressive. They’ve got two defensive ends and we faced a good one last week in #44 and two good ones in Notre Dame and that’s good preparation as we head into this game right here. I think they’ve been pretty sound defensively through two weeks. The first game they played, they gave up some passing yards. One of those plays was a tricky play, they let the receiver go down the field. I think we’ve got to get better at throwing the football. I know WKU is going to load the box up. They do that anyway, it’s just in the nature and style of their defense to bring safeties down. You’re going to have opportunities out wide. We’ve got to win. I sound like a broken record; I feel like I say this every week. But we have to win some of those battles on the outside. We’ve got to get the ball in the hands of those guys on the outside and they’ve got to make plays. We’re working hard at that, and we’ve got to be good at that. Next Saturday, that’ll be a critical part of the game offensively, is to be able to get the ball down the field in the pass game.

Early in the game you took several shots down the field, was that Eastern Kentucky driven or more of we need to establish that ourselves?

I think it was a little bit of both. First play of the game we take a shot down with Tutu and we get the Pass interference, with the safety grabbing him. I feel like that would have been a touchdown there without the safety grabbing him. That was intentional we want to take some shots. We know we got to be able to do that. We know teams are going to play up since we want to run the ball so their going to be loading it up. There are one on one matchups out there so we got to go win those and that’s going to be every week. This week will be no different and we must win those and start that right of the top there with EKU. We only hit a couple of the balls down field, but we got to be able to hit a lot more and get the ball downfield. We are decent in the intermediate and the short game but to stretch the defense and get them backing off we have to able to get those balls downfield.

Speaking of the one on battle, Justin Marshall won that one on one ball, so what have you seen from him and his progression?

I like Justin. He is one of the hardest practice players we have. He goes wide open all the time. He is still learning the new offense and learning where to line up, it may be just a split. If I need to be a yard outside the hash, we got to get that cleaned up, but he knows what he must do. He is good and made two great catches the other night. He is a hard guy to cover, he is big, strong powerful, fast, so hopefully we can continue to find ways to get him on the field and get him the ball. He is also a very good blocker; he has very good strength and he takes pride in blocking. So, we want to reward him for that and the way he blocks so we want to get him on the field more as the season goes on.

Obviously Jawon (Pass) played better in the second half so how do you take that and build on it as the season progresses?

We hopefully continue to build on that. I think one of the things Jawon (Pass) has done well in, is those run reads he has had to make because you know a lot of those little throws, he has made to the TE’s or whatever he is reading it out. He has done a really good job at that but needs to get better at those downfield throws and he knows that. Saturday night there was probably four down the field throws that we should have made better throws and give the receivers a little bit of a better chance. We had Dez (Dez Fitzpatrick) down in the endzone one time and we overthrew him. We had Seth down the middle of the field, and we overthrew him. We just got to hit those balls and at least give the receivers a chance and not overthrow them. There’s another time where we had Tutu (Atwell), we got a PI call on that one but there’s another chance we mussed to give him that ball. So, we just need to work on that in practice work on that timing and just dropping the ball down on top of the receivers.

You have only played one true freshman, so how do you decide who or when someone’s going to play?

We talk to our guys all the time about how we know once we get into the thick of the season how we are going to have guys dinged up and other guys are going to have to step up. It all starts in practice, how hard are you going to practice so how well are you going to get yourself prepared when your time comes and you’re going to be ready to play. We don’t have a ton of depth so you know when the times come it is going to be those inexperienced guys so we are going to keep trying to get them reps in practice and throughout the season we will be able to slide them in and get some experience for them. We don’t want to make wholesome changes out there but when you’re just putting one guy in amongst the other guys that already played a lot maybe they don’t stand out as bad. We will just play that by ear as we go throughout the season and see how it goes. Most of the guys right now aren’t freshman so maybe like you mentioned we have only played one or two of them.

Defensively, you rotated a ton of guys up front. After watching film, are you excited from what you saw from them?

Yeah, we want to be able to do that. We feel like if we can get that rotation defensively. We’re keeping those guys fresh. That’s one of the things we want to be as a team, that we chase the ball with relentless effort and we were able to do that the other night. Well really both games. The more guys that can play. The fresher you are. The harder you can go. You’re going to be able to win those second and fourth quarters, and those are the two quarters we have to be able to win. We have to be able to finish both halves. So, it’s exciting to see a lot of the guys playing. Probably playing a lot more on that side of the ball than we are on the offensive side of the ball but I think that will benefit us as we go on down the road toward conference play.

Through two games, are you comfortable with the rotations you have defensively?

Yeah, we are. We’ve played a lot of guys in the secondary. We’ve played a ton of linebackers. Last week Rodjay (Burns) didn’t practice most of the week and Quen (Head) got in there and played a lot. We played at least 4 inside linebackers, and then the rotation for d-line was really good. So, I think the more you gain experience with those guys the more the defense will start to gel and mesh a lot better. You’re playing a lot of guys, it will just benefit us a lot I think. We’re starting to get some guys who can make plays. Yeah know, they did a really good job of putting pressure on the quarterback. They had what, 5 sacks on Saturday. If we can continue to do that, keep them off the chains. It greatly benefits our defense.

On wanting to throw the ball deep. Talking about some misthrows and if it’s a confidence issue and next step:

Well it’s probably a little bit of both. It’s running great routes. It’s recognizing where I need to throw the ball and to which receiver because the other night, I mentioned earlier, there were times that I thought he could have thrown it to a different guy to where they were more open. And it’s just about giving them a chance. Timing. I think, in practice is hard because you throw deep balls in practice and you just run the receivers forever in practice. So, you only get so many opportunities with that. We’ve just got to take advantage of those opportunities and drop it in on them. When you overthrow them, I joke with the quarterbacks that we might as well just run the ball again. It’s a wasted play. You just overthrew everybody. If we hand the ball off, at least we have a chance to get a yard. You’re overthrowing them, you’re not giving them a chance. Because I think when you drop it on the receivers, a lot of good things can happen. You can get a P.I (Pass Interference) you can obviously catch the ball. Usually, not many negative things are going to happen cause the DB is trying to find out where the ball is, yeah know. He’s chasing the receiver. So, we have to be able to just drop it down on them. Just through practice and game experience, just getting a feel for it. I think we just have to work on it. We just have to continue getting better at it. I don’t think there is any magical formula. I just think we have to continue to practice it and try to get better at it.

What has been the reaction from recruits who have visited over the past two weeks and have been able to experience the games?

It’s been great. We had 4 official visits this weekend and they loved it. The families loved it, the recruits loved it. Two of the guys were already committed. I think the biggest thing we always tell them is that we want to always be consistent. Whenever they come here, whether they came a month ago, they came today, or they come a month from now. They’re going to get the same treatment. I think our staff does a great job of being who they are. We’re not trying to hide anything. We’re putting everything out in front. We’re very genuine with these recruits and we think the moms and dads of these recruits appreciate that. We’ve gotten great feedback. So, I think we’ll finish this class out with an outstanding class and some great players and number 1, great people. We’re getting some great characters in this class and that’s what we want more than anything. We obviously want great talent, but I just think that character wins a lot of football games. Maybe more so than talent.

Talking about Ramon Puryear being able to play going into next week into the push rush rotation:

We put him at D-line right off the bat. He’s been good man, he’s been a bright spot for our d-line. Yeah know, when he first gets out there you didn’t really know much about him and then all of the sudden he starts making plays and he gets more reps. Now, he’s really battling through the mix now. It’ll probably be that way throughout the whole season. He’s going to be a good player for us. He’s a hard worker. He really goes hard. He’s practiced with our defense, but he’s also practiced with our chase teams as well. Given us some good looks and goes really hard against our o-line. Our o-line gets mad at him sometimes because of hard he is going, but that’s what is making them better and it’s also getting him noticed. But, I’m excited for the future that he has here and as a player. He fits the mold because he’s quick, he’s strong, and he goes hard. I think that those attributes will do him well and be able to allow him to play for us. This year, we will see but it’s a great rule to have that four game rule where you are still able to redshirt. So, it’s awesome.