Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders College Football Pregame Quote, 11/15/2021

Thanks for everybody for being on here this morning. We’re excited about this game. Old Dominion is a much improved football team, you know, they’ve won their last three games. An impressive win over a very good and talented Florida Atlantic this past weekend. They’re playing really well in every phase of the game. They blocked two kicks last week, returned a blocked field goal 80 yards for a touchdown, blocked an extra point, scored defensively with two safeties and scored 30 points. So, this is a good football team coming in here, much improved. Their quarterback, [I’ve] been impressed with him. He’s done a good job at protecting the ball. The running backs are good, they’ve got big tight ends and a very special outside receiver that can make plays in space. Their offensive line is ‚Äì they got a bunch of guys that played a bunch of ball upfront. A very good offensive football team with really good players. Defensively, the same thing. Man, they’re playing really well defensively. They don’t give up a lot of big plays, you know, they haven’t created a lot of turnovers but they’re not given up a bunch of plays. It’s a good defense, very good upfront. Linebackers can run, secondary is gonna challenge us ‚Äì going to mix up their coverages in man and zone. It’s a good football team. I’m not exactly sure because I haven’t looked at all the stats yet, but I think they lead the country in blocked kicks. So, they’re really good in the kicking game. They’ve got a really good field goal kicker. He missed a long field goal, 55 or 56, at the buzzer in regulation where they beat Marshall, a couple yards short. Really good in the kicking game and just a really good football team. They’re going to come in here with a lot of confidence. They’ve got a lot that they’re still playing for [and] if they win out, they’re going to get in a bowl game. We know they’re going to give their best effort and I hope they know, they’ll be getting our best effort also ‚Äì you know because we’re both fighting for the same things. But looking forward to this game and I’ll open it up to you guys.

On if ODU playing well late has anything to do with full offseason:

I’m not there, so, I don’t know. When you don’t play for a whole year and I don’t know what they were able to do this past spring, if they had spring practice or not, I think they did but I don’t know. As an athlete of any sport, if you take that much time off, it takes a little time to get back fundamentally and to get in a rhythm. You know, they have a new coaching staff ‚Äì Ricky coming in and they weren’t able to coach and everything. So, I’m sure that’s part of it, I don’t know that for fact. But I would say that you’re right that, that has played a part in them getting better down the stretch.

On the senior class:

Nothing but respect, nothing but appreciation and nothing but love for these guys. Some of them have been here for five years, you know, some of them have been here a couple years. I don’t know off the top of my head but I think every one of them has had some physical adversity that they had to overcome from an injury standpoint ‚Äì so I appreciate the sacrifices that they made for this program. All of them have graduated or will graduate here this semester, so I respect and appreciate that. These guys, you know, like any senior class when they come in as young men, 18-19 year old young men, now they’re leaving as 22-23 year old men. To see their growth, their maturity, the relationship that I have with all of them ‚Äì I can’t thank them enough for what they mean to me, for what they’ve meant to this program. I love every one of them, I appreciate every one of them and they’re leaving here in a month but our relationship will continue the rest of my life. I’ll always follow them, they know that. I’ll do anything for these guys, the rest of my life, because I’ve seen what they’ve sacrificed, I’ve seen how hard they’ve worked, I’ve seen how they’ve matured and they’re grown men ready to take on this world now. I’m just very appreciative of everything they’ve done.