Charlotte 49ers College Football Pregame Quote, 11/01/2022

Great game against Rice, we have already put that behind us and are moving on to Western Kentucky. This is a team that we haven’t beaten in my time here, so it is a great opportunity for us against a high-powered offense to show how our defense has grown. Also, continue to be able to build on what we did offensively this last week. We still have a lot to clean up, but we had a great day of practice today and we are looking forward to get ready to play on Saturday.

On message after the win and moving forward in the season:

Last week I told the team everyone is gong to be watching. They’re going to be watching how you handle this difficult transition and move on to the next challenge. Now their looking to see if it was a fluke, and I don’t think anyone in our locker room thought it was a fluke. I think we all thought the expectations were to beat Rice, and we are going to continue with those expectations each week. Obviously, these guys know that preparation is the most important part of it and our preparation was awesome last week. So that was the message; we have to move on and get ready for the next one, but enjoy that one. We played eight games up until that point and we only won one, so we plan on enjoying that one.

On getting the players mentally and physically ready:

I think the one thing these guys know about me is that they are going to get the same guy every day. Nothing ever changes for me. My goal is to win every rep, every play every time when we are on the field. I have never changed since the time I got here. When I was the Offensive line coach that’s the way I was and it’s not going to change when I am the head coach. I’m going to support these guys and I am going to push them, and hold the accountable. I’m going to make sure they understand the way we prepare is the way we will play, and that’s what happened last week. We prepared really well on both sides of the ball, and that’s exactly the way we played.

On the team’s effort:

I thought our defense played with tremendous confidence. They executed the game plan, and more importantly it was violently executed. These guys ran to the football well. For the offense, we protected the football. We didn’t have a turnover, and we got one. Any time you’re plus one in the turnover margin, you have should have an 80% chance to win the game. We protected the football and created big plays. We emphasized the run game to protect Chris [Reynolds], because you have to protect your quarterback and put him in great positions to make plays. Chris was key for us in how we were able to move the ball on offense. Our special teams were special.