Marshall Thundering Herd College Football Pregame Quote, 10/12/2021

Obviously, really big challenge this week, excited for the opportunity. I haven’t played in these midweek type games probably since I was with Western Michigan, many moons ago. So this is exciting, you get to adapt your schedule a little bit, you get a chance to refocus. It’s really good, I’d say a really good North Texas opponent that we are facing. It seems like every team we’re about to face is starting to get really good as we face them. I don’t know if that’s coincidence or the coach in me. They did a really good job against Missouri last week. Their offense is starting to come together. I think, their new quarterback, they had a quarterback get injured, the quarterback they have coming in ‚ÄìI think, they found some continuity and flow with their system for him. Defensively, I think these guys run to the ball. This is probably one of the fastest teams that we play as far as team speed. They do a really good job on defense running to the ball, they’re aggressive up front. So, it’s going to be a challenge.

Ultimately, it’s going to come down to us being able to consistently execute, I know it sounds like ‘coach speak’ but, every game we had success in goes back to successfully executing. Every game that we struggled in, every drive goes back to some kind of drive killer whether that’s a penalty, whether that’s a turnover, whether that’s a bad fit on defense or whether that’s a missed tackle.

Obviously, this past game, a win is a win. I will take it, any day. I’m probably as stressed out as I’ve ever been for 60 minutes, but I will take the win. No, I don’t think we can play like that and continue to win by any means. But I do think how we won the game says a lot about this program and where we are going. We won the game as a team. I told those guys before we left the locker room, ‘We got into this as a team and we were going to have to get out of it as a team.’ A couple players came up to me after the game and said, ‘Coach, we’re making progress because last year a lot of guys would have quit or a lot of guys would’ve checked out mentally.’ That’s encouraging as a coach but that won’t happen on my team. I don’t believe in that. I believe in fighting until the end. But I do think, especially for you guys that have seen the evolution of this team, the way we continue to fight, it says a lot. It says a lot about the players, says a lot about the coaches, a lot about the progress [that] we’re making.

Obviously, the turnovers have continued to be an issue, the discipline, the foolish penalties, probably two major penalties that take points off the board, Cory McCoy does a phenomenal job with the interception. One of our team rules when you get an interception is to go down the near sideline. Why do you do that? You do that to avoid crack backs, everybody knows where you’re going and has a chance to block for you. When you cut back across like high school, you’re kind of playing against 21 other guys, because no one knows where you’re going. He went back across the field, he did not score and was frustrated that he did not score ‚Äî spikes the ball because he did not score. And now instead of having the ball on the four yard line, inside the five where our goal line offense has been really good this year, we get the ball on the 16 and only get three points out of that drive. We throw a bubble screen on third and six to [Sheldon] Evans. Evans comes down the sideline and gets the first and gets us to the five. We get a holding call, miscommunication between the two receivers on who was blocking the slot defender. One thought they were going to pin him and didn’t, got a tug on the jersey, another turnover. Some of the interceptions, we got to continue to be better, Cory Gammage just happened to slip on the play, obviously receiver falls down and throws right into the hands of the safety and then miscommunication. Willie Johnson, decides to go outside the guy on the post instead of inside crossing his face. So again, just the discipline, discipline in our route running, discipline in our throws. Some of those throws, we just have to be mindful, and we can’t just assume it’s going to happen. We have to make sure we see it happens and progress through. Again, program philosophy, ‘I got to get down the near sideline,’ down the near sideline probably gets in the end zone. And again, I can’t allow an emotional outburst to happen in the middle of a play or at the end of a play that hurts the team.

All the things we talked about, I thought our energy was better. I challenged the guys after the Middle Tennessee game, I didn’t think our energy was great. So, I thought our energy was better, it was better all practice week. But I also thought we lost focus on details and I think that’s what ultimately put us in the position that we were in. But I did and when I walked into our huddle, one of the things we talk about in this program is ‘Focus on the things you need to do to get the things you want. Don’t focus on the results.’ That’s what I tell them all the time. Don’t think about winning because when you think about winning as soon as something goes wrong all the times you didn’t win comes back into your mind. So we don’t think about winning, think about doing the things you need to do to get the results you want. What is that? Protecting the football, lining up the right way, not jumping offsides, being in the right gap, wrapping up on the tackle, running your feet ‚Äìall the things you need to do to get the results. So on the last drive, I went into the offense and said, ‘Whatever else happened today, none of that matters. Let’s focus on what we need to do to get the ball in the end zone on this drive. Whether you fell down, you shouldn’t have fell down, you went across face, you didn’t go across face, you should’ve thrown it‚Äînone of that matters. The only thing that matters is focusing on what we need to do to get the ball in the end zone on this drive. And we were able to do it. Grant[Wells]made some really big plays. On a huge third-and-six, [Rasheen] Ali makes a great block on a blitz, Grant steps up. We been working on a scramble drill at practice last week because we thought we’ve missed some opportunities on scramble plays. He stepped up, scrambled a little bit and found Shaheed[Ahmed] on the sidelines. Huge third-and-six play, which the very next play ended up being the touchdown to Willie. So, I think we’re making progress. Is it as fast as I would want it? No. Is it as fast as anyone would want it? No. Are we making progress? Yes. Do I see some positives? Yes. Do I see some things we need to clean up? Absolutely. So with that, I’ll open it up to questions.

On drive-killers and tempo:

Yeah, and I talked to the offensive staff about it and I think that we’ve gotten a little bit cautious as coaches. It’s hard when you’re saying, ‘Ok, what play can we call where we won’t fumble and we won’t throw an interception?’ It’s hard, you know, and we’re trying to put the guys in the best position. It’s hard to play with tempo when you jump offsides and it’s first-and-15. Now, you’re trying to get the guys to manage the situation rather than just ripping off plays. Earlier in the season we didn’t have the drive killers, so we were ‚Äì Navy first play we had 40 yards, yeah we can play tempo. We had a good rhythm. But as coaches, when you don’t have that rhythm it’s our responsibility to try to get the guys at least in a comfortable executing position. We’ve probably been a little cautious. I wouldn’t say drastically, but we’ve been a little cautious. As coaches, when you call a play and you’re saying please don’t fumble, it’s tough. And when you’re calling a play and saying please don’t throw an interception, please don’t have a tipped ball, please don’t fall down on the route, it’s tough. How do we work through that? I think that we have to get a little better at first down efficiency because usually if you can get good yardage on first down, it kind of helps everything get started. We’ve got to be a little more selective on the amount of guys we’re playing, rotating and when, and how to try to keep a little bit of the rhythm. I would agree with that. Our play count probably went down. I think the rain, probably had a little to do with that, you’re not going to run as many plays. But I think over the last few weeks, you’re probably right. But you’re trying to say, ‘What play can we call here where everything is going to go right,’ which that’s tough to do. Does that make sense? But as a coach, you don’t want to put your players in a bad position, so you’re trying to put your players in the best possible position. And I don’t think you can do that. I don’t think I can ask Tim Cramsey or Lance [Guidry] to call the perfect play. It’s not realistic. The players have got to execute, we have to put them in the best possible position. You can’t call a play and say well, ‘What can we call where he won’t fumble,’ that’s unrealistic. ‘What play are we going to call where a guy won’t miss a tackle,’ that’s unrealistic, but I think as humans, as coaches, we’ve tried to manage the situations we’ve been in and probably have been a little bit slower process than we’d want to be in. If that makes sense.

On Grant Wells’ last two plays and the offense:

I think, they got confidence, I think they have that. What we don’t have right now on offense is rhythm, that’s what we’re missing. You think about it, the play we hit Willie[Johnson]on ‚Äìthat’s a big play. The big post, but it gets called back because they say the guard is off the ball, so that play gets called back. Again, no rhythm. When we have rhythm, I think, we move the ball with consistency. Our issues come when we don’t have rhythm. We get a false start, we get a guy not on the line, we get a guy covering up a guy, we throw the ball to Cory and they call the push off. I think issue has not been confidence but it’s been rhythm. I think on that last drive if you look at it, we had rhythm. He [Grant] stepped up and found Shadeed [Ahmed]. The very next play, stepped up and threw it to Willie ‚Äìrhythm. When you run an up-tempo offense, rhythm is what you need to keep the ball rolling. Middle Tennessee, we’re rolling, we’re rolling, turnover. There’s no rhythm. When you can get a rhythm and you can eliminate the drive killers, I think we have a chance at really getting it rolling.