Charlotte 49ers College Football Pregame Quote, 09/06/2022

 It’s been a gradual process to get back to where you feel you can move forward, while still looking back and learning lessons on what happened on Friday night. No rest for the weary, we have an amazing opportunity for our program this week with hosting a Big Ten school in Maryland. A really good football team which finished hot a year ago. Got really good players and are very well coached. Mike Locksley has done a very good job and to host them in our place is a big deal. We’re excited about the challenge; our guys are responding each and every day. I feel good about the leadership, but also know the amount of investment in time that its going to take to get this right. I feel there is a light at the end of the tunnel and I think this is going to work out the way we want it to. It’s taking longer than I would like, and patience with a sense of urgency is being preached not only to myself, but to the rest of the group. Proud of our guys, we have a great group and we just have to come together and keep fighting if we want to make this a special year.

On how the defense improves going forward:

Some consistency in the backend, make routine plays. If the ball is in the air go attack the football, don’t wait on them to catch it or hope that you can make a tackle. Our tackling has to be better. Making the extra step and making sure we get guy on the ground has to improve. I though during Week one our front seven play was good, but I did not think it was as good this past week, and I know these guys are capable of better. We have talked a lot about Markees [Watts] and Amir [Siddiq] and those two guys having the types of games where they are disruptive is what we are expecting out of them. It hasn’t happened the first couple of weeks, but I know it will happen. It’s a group effort, and I think we all have something we can improve on drastically.

On the message he gives to players on not focusing on too much during games:

To me the message for us is just be present. Don’t think about what’s written on twitter or in an article. I know where we are, and I know how it looks and what you’re hearing. Just worry about how you can get better or how this football team can get to where it wants to be by the end of the season. Sometimes we try to force things to happen or we put pressure on ourselves because we want a certain result. Don’t be comfortable or protect yourself right now. This is tough, this is challenging. This is what is going to help you grow as a dad or as a husband. This is adversity, not near as much adversity as you may go through in life but it is still a great lesson. Tough people will last, and guys like Grant Dubose are tough people. That is why we will improve because we have guys that are tough and will help us get to a success we envision for ourselves.

On QB Xavier Williams’ performance against William & Mary:

Every time you watch practice, Xavier Williams is always trying to get better. Whether he’s getting the rep or watching behind Chris Reynolds he’s always trying to improve. He’s a freshman, but he does not act like it. He’s got an unbelievable process in how he gets ready. So, when his number was called I knew he would be ready. That’s something I need to talk more to the team about. How Xavier’s number was called and because of the way he prepares he was ready to compete.