Charlotte 49ers College Football Pregame Quote, 11/23/2021

Obviously, a big week for us and [we’ve] got a lot of things to fix after last Saturday. Excited about the opportunity. It’s probably the first time, and the only time, I’ve got beat on Saturday and talked to a team about how fired up I am about the next opportunity. That’s how I felt the entire time. It’s a big week, you know, expectations and playing in games that mean something at the end of November means something to us and playing in a bowl game is really important to us. Winning a bowl game is really important to us. Regardless of what happens this weekend, it’s not the end of it. You know, we want to win bowl games and to get that opportunity, we have to win this week. So win or go home situation, playoff type situation as we continue to build this thing you expect to play in games like this. I mean playing in conference championships ‚Äì you win this and you play in conference championships, you win the conference championships, you get into a New Year’s 6 game, whatever it maybe. So, let’s practice what that pressure is like, these guys are ready to handle it, they’ve been phenomenal at bouncing back. We know that we didn’t play well enough to win on Saturday and have been inconsistent the entire year ‚Äì But what do we do now? I’m very proud of them, I know that we have to play better in all three phases and I expect us to do that. We play a really good football team ‚Äì a hot football team and I think Ricky [Rahne] does a really good job. Again, another guy like Charles Huff and they worked together at Vanderbilt, Penn State, some of those places. So, I’ve known both of them for a while. Excellent football coach, calls plays, brilliant offensive mind and, I think really, as you’ve seen their success, it’s those guys really understanding what Ricky wants to do and how he wants them to do it. They made a change in quarterback about halfway through the year and the redshirt freshman has won four in a row. I think they play hard, they have really good personnel, and it’s a beautiful stadium and a great place to play football. Should be a perfect day on Saturday and we got to play our best. Very excited about this week and about how our guys have prepared thus far.

On lessons learned from the 2019 Bahamas Bowl:

I didn’t prepare our football team very well in 2019 and this week is totally different because we’re on a schedule and we don’t have recruiting in between it. I say that it’s like playing in a bowl game in that it’s more like a playoff game than a bowl game in that you win or go home. It’s a one game mentality, to go 1-0this week is extremely important. I would say much more of a put everything that you have in one week and prepare harder than you’ve ever prepared, practice more efficiently and execute better, practice harder with more passion, energy, enthusiasm and positivity than you ever have, set a new standard. I told our football team [that] our goal for the entire year is to play our best football week 12. Well the way we played the last couple weeks, we should be able to do that. I expect based on what the guys have put into that it will show up on Saturday. It’s more a playoff probably than a bowl-type atmosphere. But we can call it whatever bowl game you want. Whatever Ricky wants to call it ‚Äì We’ll call it the ‘Muscles Bowl’, the ‘Oyster Bowl’, whatever you want to call it, we’ll make up whatever name you want.

On the challenges of playing Old Dominion:

I think they’re well balanced. Hayden Wolffis a six-foot-five, 220 pound quarterback. I think he can see the field really well, he’s got a strong arm, he puts a good zip on the ball, he’s confident in the pocket. I think his backs help him, they’re really good players, they run the ball extremely well, they’re really good up front ‚Äì they’ll cover you up and push the line of scrimmage. They’ve got a six-foot-eight tight end, Zack Kuntz, redshirt sophomore at248 pounds that transferred from Penn State. Ricky’s known him for a long time and he’s a mismatch in the slot, there’s no question about it. Their receivers are really talented, especially [Ali] Jennings is a really good player ‚Äì six-foot-two, 200 pounds, can push the field vertical, has great hands, really good body control. So they have really good weapons and I think the Wolff, he’s been extremely accurate, he’s kept the ball out of danger situations, he’s been able to push the ball down the field, he’s made really good checks and he’s been able to extend plays too. He’ll be a really good player in this league for a long time. Ricky has had a lot of experience coaching quarterbacks and he’s got another really good one.