Marshall Thundering Herd College Football Pregame Quote, 11/05/2019

Anytime you have an open date this late in the season, of course, that gives you the opportunity to get out and recruit. It was great for us, having that game in Houston, that our coaches could fly out from there and go directly to where they were recruiting. They’ll all get back here late tonight or early tomorrow and we’ll get ready to get back to practice tomorrow evening. You also have to focus on getting guys as healthy. For the most part, we are. We also have to work to get better as a team in all three phases. We’ll focus on those two things this week and get rolling.

On the approach to the bye week:

We’ll meet on that when everyone gets back here tomorrow. Our guys have yesterday and today off and that’s ok because they need get away from us a little bit. Tomorrow will be a lighter practice. Normally, Thursday and Friday are a little heavier, padded practices but we’ll see where we are with that. I talked to (former MU offensive line coach) Alex Mirabal, who is now at Oregon. They have the same open date as us and we talked a little bit about what they’re doing as well.

On recruiting prior to the early signing period:

With this early signing date now, of course our goal is to be playing December 7, you have one week and then you have signing day with the bowl preparation and everything that goes along with that. You have to get out at some point. We were able to get out a little bit with the first bye and everyone is out this week, with the exception of Coach Cramsey. We may only be able to get on the road two or three days prior to signing day, which is kind’ve crazy but that’s the way it is right now. Everything has gotten really accelerated. That’s why you have to do so much in the spring and summer.

On the logistics of recruiting:

(Recruiting Coordinator/Safeties Coach) Mike Treier does a good job of heading that up (all of the logistics, relative to coaches recruiting this week). That started a month or so ago, about where we were going to go and those types of things. We have areas that we’re really targeting, some of that being junior college kids. We had that all planned out months in advance.

More on the bye:

Later on, (having the bye) helps you. We may get a couple of guys who haven’t played in a while back hopefully so we’ll see how that goes. We have a lot of guys who have played a lot of snaps up front (offensive line) that are sore. Sunday for us will be a Monday and that’s when we’ll really get started (with the players) on Louisiana Tech. Saturday, for the most part, will be off for them.

On Louisiana Tech/Rice, etc.:

They (Tech) are playing a quality opponent (North Texas), which is good for us to see. We’ll have a chance to get that tape and I’m sure our kids will be watching that game. Our kids are excited. We tell them all the time that you are remembered for what you do in November. We’re at a point in the second week of November where we have the opportunity to play for a championship, which is where we want to be. Our guys are locked in. We have a mature group. I felt like, going into that Rice game, that we had three pretty emotional games back to back to back, especially the Florida Atlantic game and how the Western Kentucky game ended. If you get an immature team, going on the road to play a Rice team that is 0-8 ‚Ķ you know, they went up against Louisiana Tech and should’ve beaten them. That game went into overtime and Louisiana Tech found a way to win. They had a seven-point game with Baylor. We knew it was going to be a fight in there. If you take an immature team into that environment ‚Ķ some of you guys were there, that’s a tough place to play. Sometimes, I don’t know if we realize how fortunate we are to have the fan base we do. Our people show up. Then you go into places like that and we have more people there than they do. That’s a tough environment to go play but I thought our kids handled it well. I thought the maturity on our team, with the leadership we have, handled it. I told our guys that, coming out of that game, we’d find out what our team was all about by the way we handled that game. I was proud of how we went in there and took care of business and got out of there with a win.

More on the bye:

You just have to keep working, get people healthy and get better. Starting tomorrow night, we have to get better as a team in all three phases. We have some young guys on special teams that have to get better. (Against Rice) We had a couple of penalties that we should never have. That’s technique, fundamentals and things that we’re coaching those guys so those things don’t occur. We have to continue to develop some young players that can help us in the kicking game so that we have a chance to win that phase as well.

On the contributions of Marshall’s true freshmen:

Cedrick Wilcox has played on special teams in the last two games. Amir Richardson is a guy that we keep working and travelling because, at some point, he’s going to play special teams for us. E.J. Jackson is another guy, as is Knowledge McDaniel. You work those guys all year because you can’t, all of a sudden, decide to put a guy in on punt block in Week 9 or 10 without having worked those techniques all year long. For example, Knowledge, Wilcox and Amir have been working on tackling with Treier. If you’re going to run down on kickoff, you have to be able to tackle someone and those guys are offensive players.

On Rice/Marshall’s offense/team:

I was disappointed (in the Rice game) that we had two early red zone opportunities and came away with three points. We have to score touchdowns there and we didn’t get that done. One of the things that I like about this team is how they complement each other. It’s easy to say, in the second half, let’s go out and run 30 more plays and don’t take a knee at the end of three or four more games and score 28 extra points. That all looks good on the stat sheet, but if I’m playing 30 more plays on offense ‚Ķ we’re a little thin at linebacker and safety ‚Ķ then all of a sudden I’m out there turning the ball over and I’m putting that defense back out there for another 30 snaps a game. Then I may not have those linebackers for the Louisiana Tech game. There are a lot of things that go into it. We’re focused on being the best team on the field. That’s what it takes ‚Ķ offense, defense and special teams. We had the number one offense in the country in 2012 and couldn’t stop anyone and got our (rear end) beaten. We ended up being (5-7). I’m not interested in that. I’m interested in winning games and being a good team. There are some things that go into decisions that are made that help us be the best team we can be and to win the football game. (The goal is) when we come down the stretch for these last three regular season games, that we’re playing with our best players (and not have them be injured).

On Tyler Brown/Marshall’s seniors:

What a great kid. You guys have heard me talk many times about seniors playing their best football. He’s one of them. That guy hardly ever comes off the field and plays on all of the special teams. He’s a tough, hard-nosed guy. We have a lot of guys like that. I heard what is probably the greatest compliment you can give a coach on Saturday. That’s where (Rice coach Mike Bloomgren) said that game was the first time all year that they had been ‚Äúout¬≠phsyicaled‚Äù. I felt better about that than anything in that game. I do think we take great pride in being a physical football team, both up front offensively and defensively. That’s a great compliment by him. Tyler Brown is one of those guys. (Brenden) Knox is one of those guys. We just have tough guys who like to play. That offensive line and defensive front are all guys who are tough and play hard. I like what this team is about. I like what Tyler Brown personifies. Omari Cobb is another guy who is playing his best football. The two corners (Chris Jackson and Kereon Merrell), who are playing well, are also seniors. Channing Hames, who is a senior up front, is playing really well. On offense, really the only two we have there are Levi Brown and Armani Levias. The rest of them are young guys. Armani is playing really well right now and so is Levi. If those seniors keep playing their best football and continue to bring these young guys along, we have a chance.

On the depth on the defensive front:

If (Darius) Hodge played the number of snaps a lot of people in this league play, he may be leading our league in sacks. Gosh, he plays 30 plays a game. Then you roll Koby Cumberlander and Sam Burton goes in there and plays well ‚Ķ and you have (Marquis Couch) and (Fermin) Silva. We have about six defensive ends who are rolling in there to help us and that’s a good thing. Jamare Edwards is really coming along up front and was nearly our defensive champion (against Rice). He replaces Channing (Hames) at times and then we have (Rodney) Croom rolling in there for (Milan) Lanier. We have a lot of young guys who are starting to play really well. We played 23 plays defensively in the first half (on Saturday). With that number of snaps, you just don’t get the wear and tear on these guys that you do when you have to play them 60, 70, 80 snaps per game. That will help us down the stretch here. Sam Burton, who is a (redshirt) freshman, is going to be a really good player. He’s the one who caught the sky-kick that helped us with that kickoff return (against Rice). He’s just a good football player. I’m sure all of these guys would like to play more, but they also like that feeling in the locker room after they’ve won the game. They’re an unselfish bunch and they’re playing well.