Marshall Thundering Herd College Football Pregame Quote, 10/14/2019

Captains for this week will be Omari Cobb and Tavante Beckett on defense and on offense, we have Will Ulmer and Brenden Knox. When you go on the road, you have to take your toughness and leadership and we’ll have to do a great job with both of those things. As you know, we have a quick week. Last night was a Monday for us and today is a ‘Tuesday’ practice. Any time you play FAU or FIU or any south Florida team, you know they’re surrounded by great athletes. They have a bunch of guys who can run, catch and tackle in space and do all of those things. It will be a great challenge for us and I know we have a lot of Florida guys who are looking forward to going down and playing that game. We’re looking forward to having a great week of preparation.

On FAU quarterback Chris Robison:

He’s done a good job throwing the ball and they’ll sometimes bring another quarterback in for run situations. You can see he’s (Robison) matured. He was a freshman a year ago, as our guy was (Isaiah Green). You don’t see (Devin) Singetary out there or the other back (Kerrith Whyte, Jr.), but you do see some really talented young players that they have there. The left tackle (Brandon Walton) is an all-conference player as well as their center (Junior Diaz) so they have good players up front. He’s a year older and more comfortable in Lane’s (Kiffin) system and is doing a good job running the offense.

On facing another mobile quarterback:

This won’t be the first time we’ve dealt with it. Just about every game we’ve played, we’ve had to deal with that type of quarterback. You have to be able to control the quarterback because they have a quarterback run game incorporated into their offensive system. Our guys have had to deal with that all year and we’ll continue to prepare for FAU in the same manner.

On FAU’s multi-tight end offensive attack:

FAU is a little similar to us in that they’ll play three tight ends. One guy (Harrison Bryant) is first-team all-conference and a good player. They’ll play just two receivers at times, whether that’s because of injuries or just what they want to do. They have talented tight ends and are in ’12 personnel’ (two tight ends) a little more than they have been in the past. Our (defensive) guys have gone up against that all camp and in practice because they’ve seen us do that.

On Darius Hodge:

We saw what we think he’s capable of doing. He’s an explosive young kid who is very athletic and does a good job of rushing the passer. We just have to get back-to-back games like that out of him. We’re going to need that kind of play out of him to get pressure (on Robison). The thing about Darius that he gives you is that he can also run you down. He’s athletic enough, that if a guy breaks contain, he can go out and get him, as you saw against Old Dominion on the one sack near their sideline. He’s going to have to do the same thing this week.

On adjustments needed due to this game being played on a Friday:

We have a set schedule. You have certain things you do to prepare every day. As I mentioned, yesterday was a ‚ÄúMonday‚Äù for us and we got that in last night. Then they’ll come back tonight and go a little later than normal because of class situations. Then it’s back to normal as we go through the week.

On playing in Florida:

Number one, it’s a conference game. We have a lot of Florida guys. Any time they have the opportunity to go home to play in front of their friends and family, they like doing that. I’m sure they’re excited to get down there. Since I’ve started in this business, we’ve always recruited Florida. I like those kids. They like football and they’re tough. There are some awfully good players down there and Marshall has always had athletes from Florida. Everywhere I’ve been, we’ve had guys from the state of Florida that have helped us win games.

On Sheldon Evans:

I really like Sheldon Evans. He has that ‘it’ factor and is our kick returner now as well. He’s just a good football player who is deceptive. He runs with more power and is more elusive than you think he is. When you hand him the ball, you look up and he has gained yards. If you’re a running back, that’s the important thing. The combination of him and (Brenden) Knox have helped us. It was good see those two backs and the offensive line take that game over on those final two drives.

On Brenden Knox’s praise of Sheldon Evans’ contributions in the run game:

That’s Brenden Knox. That’s the kind of kid he is and why he’s been a captain multiple times. That’s why he’s as good a kid as he is a player. He and Sheldon feed off each other. You have a chance to have a (great) team when you have kids that have that type of attitude.

On Isaiah Green’s run-pass option skills/Marshall offense and defense:

He’s taking what they give him. He’s seeing it and people are taking away certain things. When you run the (run-pass option), at some point, the quarterback has to keep it. He’s done a job of doing that. I sat here last week and said we have to do two things offensively: take care of the ball and score in the red zone. I was more proud of him than anything in that we had zero turnovers. We were 3-for-3 in the red zone, other than the one we kneeled at the end of the game. If we can just keep doing that offensively, then the points take care of themselves. Defensively, we have to find a way to create more turnovers. We’ll work hard to get that done.

On Marshall’s approach to the Conference USA race:

They’re (Marshall’s players) smart guys ‚Ķ they know what’s out there. I don’t want them to think about anything other than finding a way to win one more game. Let’s forget about all of that other stuff. Let’s prepare, get on a plane to FAU and try to be 1-0 again. Just go prepare every week and winning takes care of itself. But you’re right, in this conference, every week is important and is a championship game, so to speak. Our kids just have to focus on learning from what we did last week and getting better. If we can do that every week, then at the end, we’ll look up and see where we are. We can’t get ahead of ourselves. We have to worry about FAU and finding a way to win that game.

On what Marshall has to do to win on the road:

Play better. Take care of the ball. Score in the red zone. All three of those things.