Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders College Football Pregame Quote, 08/26/2019

We’ve got a huge challenge ahead of us playing Michigan, the No. 7 team in the country right now in all the preseason rankings. They’re coming off a 10-win season, and they’ve done a really good job. The history and tradition of Michigan speaks for itself. I’m really proud of our team and how they approached camp and finished camp Saturday. I thought we had a really productive camp, and I like the focus our team has. We’re looking forward to getting started here.

On facing a new opposing offensive coordinator (Josh Gattis) in week one:

He’s a really good coach. He’s been at Alabama the last couple years and is coming into a program that has a lot of good players. He’s got an experienced quarterback, an experienced offensive line and receivers that can run, so I’m sure he’ll implement what Coach Harbaugh wants and believes in. We’ll study a little what Alabama did, but we’ll mostly focus on the players they’ve got returning at Michigan.

On the Michigan defense:

They can run. They do a lot of man coverage. They’ll challenge our receivers, they’ll press us and they’ll play a lot of man. Their defensive line and linebackers have two returning starters there that have played a bunch of snaps. They’re fast, big, ginormous on both sides of the ball, so it comes down to doing our job fundamentally and being in good position mentally. If we do that, we’ll have a chance to compete. If we get away from our fundamentals and not execute, then their athleticism and size will take advantage of any mistakes we make.

On playing in front of a big crowd under the lights at Michigan: 

We play three of these games every year. We’ve been in front of 70, 80, 90, 100,000 before. It’ll be a new experience for this team, but a lot of our players played in that 2015 Alabama game when they had 100,000 at Alabama. We know we’re going to play a really good team, but we’re not going to walk in there in awe of them. Once the game starts, the field is 100 yards long and 53 1/3 yards wide, and you try to block out all the noise from the 100,000 people and just play football. We’ll get out there and compete, but we’ve got to understand that those 100,000 people aren’t going to be playing, and we’ve got to block out that noise.

On playing the top teams in the country: 

It’s an opportunity for us to go compete against the so-called best players in the country. They’re full of four and five stars, and it’s an opportunity for our team to go out there and compete. We’re not going to bow down to anybody. Last year, we played three SEC teams, and we schedule like that every year. It’s different in basketball. In basketball, they like to play those tough teams early in the year to get ready for tournament play. It’s different in football because we don’t play as many games. You can go 0-25 in basketball and win your [conference] tournament and you get in the [NCAA] tournament. In football, you’ve got to win a certain amount of games to get into the tournament, which is the bowl season. I look at it a little differently than what basketball does. It’s an opportunity for us to compete against one of the best programs, a top-seven team in the country. We’ll see how we stack up. We’ll try and make improvements each week as the season goes along, but this is a good test for us. We’re not going to go in there and be in awe or intimidated. We’re going to roll up our sleeves, compete for 60 minutes and see what happens.

On finally approaching the first game of the year: 

We’re guaranteed 12 games. Hopefully we can play in 14 ‚Äî that’s our goal. You’ve got to take advantage of every opportunity you get, because these guys put in an awful lot of work to only get to play 14 days out of the year. I’m anxious to watch our team play. I’m proud of them. Game week is always an exciting time. You’d rather be preparing for a game than just preparing for spring practice or 25 days of practice in August. This is what you play for. These guys are excited and anxious to play, and I know they’ll be ready to play.

On not knowing Michigan’s two-deep depth chart:

We haven’t made any final decisions yet ‚Äî we don’t have a two-deep, either. We don’t have to decide who’s going to start at left guard or right guard or quarterback or middle linebacker ‚Ķ until Saturday. They didn’t release theirs, so we’re not going to release ours. Like I said, I like our team and where we’re at.

On the impact of college football on the Stockstill family: 

This is my 37th year as a college coach after five years as a player, so for 42 years of my life I’ve been involved in college football. We’ve been married 29 years, so Sara’s been involved in college football for 29 years. Brent played in it and is now coaching in it. It’s my passion, and I’m fortunate to be in this profession. I cherish it, and I’m appreciative of the opportunities I’ve had in this profession. I love college football, and my family loves college football. I’m very appreciative and honored to be able to be in this profession for 42 years now.