Marshall Thundering Herd College Football Pregame Quote, 11/16/2021

One, I’d like to recognize this weekend in Conference USA we are remembering Russ Anderson for the work that he has done for Conference USA. They have a ceremony or acknowledgement going on across the conference. We will be taking part in that and appreciating Russ for all he’s done, acknowledging him and his family this weekend.

You guys were at the game. As I said after the game, we didn’t execute well enough to beat a championship team and we watched the film, the exact same thing. There were a lot of positives that we can learn from. I thought our kids fought hard, I thought we played a championship team down to the end. But this is not horseshoes or hand grenades, so you don’t get points for being close. Our kids were disappointed. That game meant a lot not only to our team, but our family, our community. Again, I think we can learn a lot from what we watched, yesterday. We picked our heads up, corrected the mistakes. Moving on to Charlotte, another tough opponent. Coach [Will]Healy has done a phenomenal job down there with his ball club. They’re playing really good football. Their quarterback is scrappy as all can be, makes some really good throws, makes some unorthodox off-balance throws. His receivers do a really good job of fighting back for the ball or running past the defensive back if needed. They run the ball well.

And defensively, they do a lot ‚Äì they do a lot of different looks, a lot of different pressures, and it’s going to cause us some issues as far as communicating, we’ll have to be on top of those things. Obviously, they are in position here in Conference USA to at least contend for this side. We’re excited, we started yesterday, we had a lot of things to clean up from the last game. I told the guys, ‘You know, we lost four games and there’s something we can learn from all four that will help us move forward. And we still have an opportunity this weekend to show our growth.’ No we don’t like to lose but to me if you learn something in loses that can help you win down the road it’ll be good. The last three that we lost, we learned a lot, which helped propel us into a win streak by correcting those things. I told the guys that in the ECU game, we learned that we have to be able to finish. In the App State game we learned that penalties, turnovers, missed tackles, missed assignments can kill you. In the Middle Tennessee state game, I think we all know the ball is the program and if you turn it over multiple times you’re going to have issues. And in this game we learned that we have to be able to execute consistently. When we executed consistently we moved the ball and stopped them on defense. When we didn’t we gave up big plays on defense and obviously being one for 12 on third down is definitely not executing consistently. So, if we put it all together moving forward, we have a chance to do some really good things. So with that, we’ll open it up for questions.‚Äù

On Charlotte’s running back corps:

Yeah, I think they have a system, which means they do a really good job of complimenting the run game with RPO and the play-action pass. What that causes is ‚Äì it causes a lot of stress on your defense because you have to be able to play the run obviously, so your linebackers have to be in the right gaps and the right leverage but off of that the quarterback does a really good job at getting the ball up and out on the RPOs. You know, and their running the glances and the slants behind guys so you kind have to be able to defend both. Now, your defensive backs have to keep their eyes in multiple spots which is a lot of stress. I think their running backs do a really good job at getting downhill and they’re physical. They understand the scheme, so they understand, ‘Hey, I have to bend back on inside zone, or I get keep front side door or this an RPO so my tempo has to be a little bit better.’ So I think they have a system, they run their system well. They do a really good job with the screens, running back screens. Again, getting the running back involved. So, it’s going to come down to we have to execute consistently. We have to be in our gaps, we have to have our eyes in the right place, eye discipline is going to be big this week and we have to tackle well. That’s one thing that they’ve done, either the running back has broken some tackles and made some really long runs, or they’ve RPO’d or threw the ball down the field and broken some tackles and extended plays. So, we’ll have to learn from the four and do all of those things ‚Äì tackle well, close the gaps, accountability, and eye discipline in order to have success.

On if the mindset is similar to FAU in terms of containing the offense:

I think they’re a little bit different. I think [Chris] Reynolds probably throws a little bit more after he takes off running, he has a mindset of ‘I’m still looking to throw’. FAU was a little more ‘I’m going to look down field for the big shot or take off,’ so a little bit different. But similar responsibilities as far as rush lane integrity, you have to make sure you cage the guy. I think Reynolds does a little more once he’s out the pocket, he still gives you the threat to throw and not just throw down the field ‚Äì you know, he’ll throw in the flat, dump it off. Which, to me is a quarterback that understands where his players are, where they should be and even when I scramble, I need to get my eyes to be able to still deliver.