Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders College Football Pregame Quote, 09/23/2019

We’re coming off an open weekend; we practiced a couple days last week and started game preparation yesterday. Obviously, Iowa is a very talented team. They’re very well-coached. I have a lot of respect for them and their program. They’re 14th in the country now, and they’re a good football team. They’re obviously a really big, strong, physical football team. We’re going to try and establish the run coming in and then take some shots downfield in play action. Their defense is big and physical up front, and they’re talented on the back end, and they’re really sound in the kicking game. We’ve got a great challenge ahead of us, and a great opportunity ahead of us, one that we’re looking forward to. When you play on the road ‚Äî when you play in away games ‚Äî you’ve got to bring your toughness. We’ve got to be a level ahead of their toughness because they’re a tough, physical football team.

On responding to a few days off in the bye week:

‚ÄúI’m sure it was good for them both physically and mentally. I didn’t think we practiced as sharp as we needed to yesterday. We looked like we hadn’t practiced in a few days, so we’ll have to be better tomorrow when we get back at it. I’m sure it was a welcome break for them both mentally and physically because they’ve been going since August 1st.

On containing Iowa defensive end A.J. Epenesa:

‚Äú[A.J. Epenesa] is a good player. We’ve played a bunch of good players so far this year. It comes down to being fundamentally sound in what you’re doing in your protection and blocking. He’s going to make plays, and we’ll have our time when we make plays. He’s a good football player. We have a plan. When you face good players and good teams, it usually comes down to execution and fundamentals, and that’s what we’re going to have to rely on this week.

On Iowa Head Coach Kirk Ferentz:

‚ÄúI don’t know [Ferentz] personally, but I have a ton of respect for him and how he runs his program. Every year, his team is right there in the mix of things. To be able to stay there as long as he has is a testament to his character and the integrity of the team, how they play, how hard they play. I have a lot of respect for him, and I’m looking forward to meeting him and talking to him before the game because I do respect coaches like him.

On similarities between himself and Iowa’s Coach Ferentz:

‚ÄúI hope when people play us or watch us play that they say some of the same things, that our team plays hard, they play with great effort, they’re smart, they do things the right way on and off the field. I would like to think that we do, and I’m really proud of what we’ve accomplished in my time being here. It’s a credit to our players and our coaching staff, and I would hope people say similar things.

On applying pressure to Iowa quarterback Nate Stanley:

‚ÄúIt’s hard. When you look at how fast quarterbacks get the ball out now, especially who we’ve played these first three games, the ball comes out fast, and it’s hard to get there. Affecting the quarterback is sometimes just as important as getting a sack. They’ve got a really good offensive line; they do a really good job of max-protect and keeping another guy in there to protect. It’s going to be hard to get there, but when we do get an opportunity, we’ve got to take advantage of it. At the same time, if we can get close and make him a little bit uncomfortable, where he’s not sitting back there where he’s got time to pass the ball. Our guys will play hard, I have no doubt about that.‚Äù

Redshirt Senior Safety Jovante Moffatt

On how the MT defense plans to slow down the Iowa offense:

‚ÄúLike Coach [Stockstill] said, they run the ball pretty hard. Reed [Blankenship] and I, and the rest of the back ends, are going to have to do a good job tackling with physical running backs like that. We’ll also need to put pressure on the quarterback as well; he’s done well back there this year. We’ll try to get some pressure on him and make him force some throws and make some plays.‚Äù

On how the defense has improved after the loss to Duke:

‚ÄúReally, we just worked on ourselves. As far as the Duke game, they came out throwing the ball pretty well, the quarterback did well, and he hit a lot of spots and got the ball out quick. Going into this week, we imagine it will be a lot more downhill running until we can stop the run. They’re going to run on us till we show that we can stop it. I think we need to force a lot of third down situations and make them pass it out of those situations.‚Äù

On what he did over his off week and if he watched any college football:

‚ÄúThat’s all I did. I sat in the house probably all day Saturday and watched all the games, even Sunday I watched as much as I could before we came in for practice. It was good having those days off going into this next game.‚Äù

On making Iowa quarterback Nate Stanley uncomfortable throughout the game:

‚ÄúCoach [Stockstill] said we’ll be aggressive, so we’ll try and blitz to get some pressure from the outside. They have a lot bigger guys on their offensive line, so we’ve got to get those guys moving laterally. Whatever Coach [Shafer] comes up with will be a good plan, and we’ll be ready to attack it.‚Äù

On Iowa’s traditionally good tight ends and what issues they might give the MT secondary:

‚ÄúFor safeties, it’s a big key. The first day Reed [Blankenship] and I came in, we were like, ‘Man, those tight ends are really good.’ Of course, like you said, they had two good ones last year and they replaced them with more this year. The guys they have are pretty athletic, they’re more like receivers. They can also block as well, so they do a lot of things with tight ends and involve them in the passing and run game. We’re going to have to key in on those guys and they will be a part of their overall success.