Cincinnati Bearcats College Football Pregame Quote, 10/10/2023

Had a few days off now and we ready to get back on the field and play. The team is well rested now and last week I thought guys did a great job coming out and working. There were a couple of things we were trying to get better at. You’re back from the off week and always looking and seeing things that you’re a little deficient at and we certainly worked on those things. We also scrimmaged the young guys for three days last week and got some good work out of them as well, which is fun. It’s always good to see those guys and see the progression that they’re making. We’re excited to get back at it. Playing a home game in front of our crowd is always awesome. Our 15th consecutive sellout, which is great. It’s Homecoming, so there’s always a lot of festivities surrounding with that, but I’m sure we’ll have some guys that have come back. It will be good to see, some of them I haven’t met, several that I’ll be able to meet so that’ll be great. Another conference game, you look every week and see how even this league is and how many teams can win. It just shows that you have to make the least number of mistakes, I think it’s usually the ones ended up winning. I told our team Sunday that five teams that won this weekend created 13 turnovers compared to two and I think that’s a huge difference. Obviously, if you take care of the football, you have a chance to win. You go back to our last game; the same stat was true. We had the muffed punt and, in the pick six, they didn’t have any turnovers. I think that’s obviously a huge thing. You look at us offensively and defensively. I mean, total defense, we’re number two in the Big 12. We’re 12th in the country in total offense, we’re doing some good things, offensively and defensively. You got to score more and hold them to last but I think it comes down to taking care of the ball and creating those turnovers defensively. I think that’s obviously a huge thing that we have to do better at and those are things that we tried to work on this past week. Iowa State has won two games in the Big 12 by doing a lot of great things. I think Coach [Matt] Campbell and his staff have done some good stuff. They have a young team playing a lot of young players, including the quarterback. The way they’ve won is that what I just talked about is making the teams make mistakes and then not making their own mistakes. They have only given up three sacks this year, which is really good. They haven’t lost a fumble this year. That’s how you win and they’re doing some really good things with that. Defensively, they [Iowa State], have finished top three in defense in the Big 12 in the last six years. So, they’re always good and have been good on defense. It is a unique defense, a little bit different than what a lot of teams play. Basically, out of a three down, they’ll drop eight a lot and then do a number of things. They are basically playing five defensive backs back there and doing a really nice job defensively. It’s a great challenge again for us but glad we’re playing here in our stadium.

On Iowa State’s offensive improvement over the last couple of games:

I think the quarterback’s starting to get settled in. I thought he played well against Oklahoma State. He sat in the pocket and threw some nice touchdown passes and had some big plays in the passing game. I think they want to run the football and they are going to do some things offensively to get some unbalance, shifts, motions and all the things to try to mess up defenses and then run the ball. Their quarterback has done a really nice job of finding their receivers and making some big plays. I think that’s given them a great chance and they have won a few games that way. Even in the Oklahoma game, it was a 21-20 game with six minutes to go in the first half and it kind of got away a little bit there. I still think they’re a team that plays with a lot of pride and they play hard. They’re getting better offensively so it gives them a chance to win.

On knowing Matt Campbell from their time at Toledo together:

Yeah, that was a fun staff. There are four head coaches off that offensive staff and a lot of good guys that have done a lot of great things in the coaching profession, but I’ve enjoyed my time there working with Matt and the other guys as well. I don’t know if it helps; I’m just familiar with him and I’m familiar with how he runs his program and how they are coached there. We have a lot of respect for him. They’ve been really good at Iowa State over the years. They’ve taken a lot of players that maybe people didn’t want coming out of high school and they turned them into great players. So, their development’s really good. [Brock] Purdy, who is with the San Francisco 49ers, is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL right now and he played at Iowa State and did some great things when he was there. Now they have another kid who’s very similar, who’s a freshman, very young, but making a lot of some similar type decisions and type throws. I have a lot of respect for Matt [Campbell] and how they run their program.

On which young guys stood out during the scrimmage:

Barry Jackson is a guy we saw at the EKU game; hadn’t played since then. He got some action during our scrimmage this past week. I think he scored a couple of times. Whenever he touches the ball, he’s good. He’s very electric. [Michael] Mussari is another receiver that has been great for our scout teams and for our defense. He’s a guy that I think he scored a couple of touchdowns during the scrimmage as well. [Stephan] Byrd, running back, I think he did some really nice things and even to the point where we may end up traveling him and could possibly see some action in the game. I thought he did some really nice things. I think our defense has a lot of young guys and several different ones I thought made some plays out there but, I think more than anything it was the receivers that I thought that we’re doing some nice things out there in those three days that we scrimmaged.

On ISU defensive back Jeremiah Cooper:

He’s very athletic. He has good hips, he can run. They’re an aggressive secondary. They are a physical secondary; they’re going to mix it up with the receivers. There’s a lot of tight throws, it’s not like where you have some big windows. They’re tight throwers and are on their guys pretty heavily. He did it against Oklahoma, it was a nice little pivot route by [Drake] Stoops and he undercut it and picked it off. He’s got nice anticipation and a way of scheme. Their safeties have an opportunity to get interceptions the way they rotate their safeties and roll their coverages. I think number four [Justin Harrington] is the guy you’re mentioning, and then number 17 [Jaquaize Pettaway] is another guy who’s made some great plays in the run game and the pass game and it’s their scheme, they do a nice job with that.

On what the team did during the bye week:

The most fun thing was the young guy scrimmage, which to me is great for team bonding because our guys that had been traveling and playing, they’re all right there being like cheerleaders. They’re right behind the offense and defense and after every play, guys are going up and dapping them up, chest bumping and all that. It’s only for about 10 or 15 minutes but it was awesome. Matter of fact, Sunday we came out of practice and a couple of the old guys went, ‚ÄòCoach, are we going to do the young guy scrimmage again today?’ They love it, so to me that part has been fun. More than anything we use it as a time to rest and recover. Our guys were in the training room and the weight room just doing a lot of rehab and things to get their bodies healthy. We had a few meals together as a team last week but I think more than anything that the bonding and the fun part at practice was during the young guy scrimmage at the end.

Point of emphases from bye week:

We don’t have explosive running backs. That’s a big stat. I go back to my offenses over the last 10 or 12 years, we’ve had a running back that can go 80 yards. Our guys will get you to first down, but we’ve seen it this year where we break out for 30- or 40-yard runs and then we’re getting tackled. I think that’s one reason why you don’t have the 60- or 70-yard play. We’ve had some opportunities in the in the passing game, I can recall at least four that we didn’t connect. Whether we get hit, the quarterback gets hit, or we overthrow it, or something goes wrong within the play. I think that’s been the difference in the big plays and if you get a couple of those, we certainly be able to sit here a little bit differently right now. I think we’re close to hitting some of those, hopefully this week we’ll be able to hit those. You’re just one step off, there’s a small little window to make those plays happen and hopefully we’ll be able to get those.

On the timeliness of the bye week:

Yeah, I think it’s a good time. I think the middle of the season whether it is after the fifth game or six games, right around there is probably the best time to have it. I think we were banged up a little bit last week and we’re getting some guys back and they’re feeling better. You’re still going to have some dings and bruises at this point in the season, it’s hard to get completely healed up. I think we’re as healthy as you can be at this point in the season. After a week off you renew your mind as well. And the mental part of that. I think it also helps and so hopefully that will go. I think we’ll be flying around today. I thought Sunday was really good and so I think we’re where we needed to be this time of year as far as health goes.

On the message to the team after the BYU game:

I think through the bye week with any deficiency that we had; we scouted the whole team. We have some deficiencies we need to get better at. We’ve given up some big plays, particularly third downs and long; we need to get better at that and not giving up those first downs. Obviously, offensively, it’s short yardage and in the red zone and that is what we worked on in the bye week. Hopefully we have a better plan as we head through the second half of the season. Taking care of the football and creating turnovers are the two things that we have to do a better job of. As I mentioned earlier, this is the big difference when you’re playing very competitive teams and on a weekly basis. It comes down to those few mistakes and so the team that makes the least has the best chance to win so we must be better.

On what adjustments he made at App State and how that shaped him as a coach:

I think during that time, it was hard, anytime you are not getting the victories. I think a lot of times, at the end of the day, the wins and losses are what everybody cares about. If we make the field goal against Miami (OH), we beat them. We played pretty good in that game, but you beat them if you make that field goal, we didn’t. So now, people tend to think the sky is falling. The message was back then, and it still is now, continue to do the things that we’re doing. We’re doing some really good stuff, and we were back then. We just couldn’t get over the hump. Once you realize that if we made a few more plays in a game, that’s the difference. You don’t have to overhaul and do all this crazy stuff. We’ve done it, we’ve done a lot of really good things. We just must continue to do the things we’ve been doing and fine tune and get better each and every week. I think that’s what we’re doing. I think at the end of the day, certain players must step up and be able to make more plays. Who are those guys? I look back at that time at App State and there were some guys that ended up stepping up and starting to make the team gain more confidence. And then you go on a row, you know, and you feel like nobody can beat you. It’s just continuing to work and continuing to believe in what we’re doing, and hard work will pay off.

On being the only team to hold Oklahoma to only 20 points:

It just says that we can compete, and we can play at the Big 12 level. We can compete with some of the best teams in the country. I don’t know where Oklahoma is ranked right now, but it’s probably pretty high. When you go out there and go toe to toe with those guys, only few plays here and there, it could have been a different game. So again, we’re not that far off. We have to continue to do the things we’re doing. Continue to fine tune in all three phases and find a way to make one or two more plays in every game. We’re sitting here and want to win some games. There’s no question.

On Chamon Metayer’s importance to the offense:

I think he’s continued to get better and better. He’s not even scratched the surface of where he can be. He could be one of the better tight ends in this league. He has the size, he has the hands, the speed. So, it’s good to see him make plays. I think that gives him some confidence, to know that he can do this and say, ‚Äòlet me continue to work hard on my game.’ We can certainly utilize him. He’s a guy that puts pressure on the defense because of the matchup problems that happens with them. He’s a 6-5, 248lb guy that can move. We’re finding ways that we can get him the ball and produce. I love the fact that he caught two touchdowns. That’s the thing that we’ve been striving to do, obviously to score. If we can utilize him and get down in the red zone, he is going to be a weapon for us to move forward.

On the priority of bringing in an explosive running back:

Well, we have five or six on scholarship already. You just can’t get overloaded in one position. Not to say I don’t believe in our guys. We’re top 12 in the country in rushing so they’re doing something right. I just spoke on the big plays, the 60- or 70-yard plays. I’ll take 25‚Äì30-yard runs, and those guys are running hard. You’d never question that. We felt that those guys could come and help us win and they have done a great job.

On what he looks for while recruiting:

You can’t have all 175lb dudes that can fly down the field. You need to have some guys with size and strength as well. So, you want some different tools in the toolbox. You want to be able to have a little variety and that goes for receivers, running backs and your tight ends. Sometimes your tight ends are great blockers, sometimes they’re very good at stretching the field in the throw game. So, to me, you want to have a little bit of utility players in a lot of different areas so that if you need to dial somebody up to top off, you better have a speed guy. If you want a good guy underneath, you better have a guy that has great hands and good spatial awareness. There are a lot of different things that you’re looking at when you’re going out recruiting.