Ohio Bobcats College Football Pregame Quote, 11/30/2020

On redshirt freshman quarterback Kurtis Rourke’s injury:

He’s around, and we’ll see how it all plays out. Tomorrow we’ll have the ability to talk a little bit more thoroughly on where he’s at.

On comfort level with redshirt senior quarterback Armani Rogers:

He’s not been in our system as long as most quarterbacks that have been second or third team quarterbacks in our system. But, in saying that, he’s a very bright guy. He’s picked up things very quickly. Very competitive guy. The players really care for him. I think you could see on his long touchdown run on the option play how excited his teammates were for him. A lot of, lot of pluses for Armani. We expect him to step in if need be as a starter or coming off the bench to play great football. It’s at a point in time where those flashes are starting to show some consistency, which is good. We haven’t had a chance to develop his passing game as much as we would like, and when I say that, I mean throws that are happening in ballgames. He hasn’t gotten a lot of those, but he’s gotten a ton of them in practice. He’s a very good thrower, so we think that all can be displayed when it comes time for him to be in a ballgame again.

On redshirt senior quarterback Armani Rogers’ grasp of the offense’s concepts:

He’s done really a great job of it. It’s never simple to play the quarterback position with almost any team. Obviously, there’s some complexity that goes into developing a complete passing game, a complete running game, if you’re using audibles and checks. Those all enter the picture. Making sure he has a good grasp of terminology of what we’re calling coverages and how those all work with plays that we run. So, he’s come a long way in a very, very short period of time, so really pleased with that aspect of his game.

On how Buffalo is using junior running back Jaret Patterson:

I think they used him quite extensively last year. He may have been banged up going into our game a little bit, which limited maybe some of his carries. They also had some really top-of-the-line receivers, so they were maybe distributing the ball a little bit more than what they seem to be doing right now. And so, that has certainly added to his carries. They’re not overly complicated with what they’re doing with him in the running game, but the things that they’re doing they do really, really well. Outside zone, stretch, whatever you want to call it, is something that they run very, very well. He’s that type of runner where he can see holes, cut back. He’s got great vision and sees things coming from all different angles and is able to react to them. Then he’s got a real legitimate burst. So, he’s deserving of all the accolades that he’s getting.

On what Kent State did against Buffalo that was successful in the first half of last Saturday’s game:

Well, you know, Kent State has a very experienced quarterback, and so obviously, that experience came in handy and the throwing game came in handy. They kept them pretty honest with the ability to perform at a pretty high level in both those areas because of the talent that Kent State has. In the end, Buffalo did a good job of containing that and getting it done. You look at Kent State, they’re a very explosive football team from the offensive end of it. It was a great job all the way around by Buffalo. You don’t win that game and separate yourself by that kind of margin without having some special things happen for you. They have those kind of guys that can make those special things happen.

On the potential of the defense to be at full strength heading into the Buffalo game:

We’re really not going to be at full strength, but we’re closer to being at full strength than we have been, you’re right in saying that. And so, that’s always encouraging. That gives us not only a few starters coming back, but that also gives us some depth, which you usually need on the defensive end of it. Our guys have really risen to the occasion. On the defensive side of it, if you look at it, what they got accomplished these last two games I think has been somewhat special because of all the adjustments that they had to make in order to make it work because of limitations to our roster going into those games. We didn’t really fully recover from the Miami situation, but we recovered enough to where we were able to play the game. Guys are still trickling back. That’s promising, and that’s certainly what you’re after. You feel a little more comfortable about having a few more guys on the field that we’ve missed.

On redshirt freshman placekicker Tristian Vandenberg’s performance against Bowling Green:

It was great to see him bounce back. You saw signs of it during the time between this last ballgame and the previous one to where you felt comfortable, and I think he felt much more comfortable with his rhythm on his kicking. We shortened his stride a little bit. He’s such a long-legged, long-limbed guy that he was separating himself from the ball quite a bit, and that’s just that much more distance to have to do everything perfectly. So, we shortened those steps off a little bit, and he seems get in a better rhythm, and he stated that he’s more comfortable with that. So, I think that’s helped, and just the game experience helps. It’s not always going to be perfect when it comes to a kicker, and so all the experience you get – some good, some bad ‚Äì kind of makes you into the kicker that you are. I like the progress that he’s made since the last ballgame.

On the stress of travel to Central Michigan and the benefit of playing three-straight games at home:

That was a really long trip, and I thought our guys handled it well. No excuses in terms of the length of the trip and how that all works on a road game where you’re on a bus for a little over seven hours and then coming following the game and you get in at 5 or 6 or 7 in the morning and then they’ve got school. It’s just a tough routine, and our guys have handled it real well. It’s easier to play at home, obviously than travel that kind of distance. That’s right on the edge of flying. In normal times, we would’ve maybe had one flight this year, and that would’ve been it. It would have made things certainly easier, but that’s the way it goes. Everybody in the MAC is doing the same thing. They’re traveling whatever distance they need to travel to make it work. They’re on buses. For some guys, that’s not bad traveling. They’re able to sleep the majority of the time. It depends upon the individual, I guess.

On if seeing Buffalo junior running back Jaret Patterson motivates the defense:

No, they set out to play great football every week. You can’t just try to piece together a driving force to play better football. There’s a lot of things that go into playing great football, and you better get all those bases covered. Now, obviously, it is a challenge to them, and our guys have always accepted challenges well, so, you know there’s a little bit of that, that goes into it. You don’t play a great running back, a great quarterback, a great receiver, without there being a challenge there for the guys that are playing on the other side of the ball. But, you know, there’s a lot of other things that go into winning football games, and I think our guys are able to piece together the whole package.

On where he’s seen the most growth from his team this season:

I think special teams has been really steady and really good. I think we’re special at special teams in most categories, and we’re getting better in the others. I think our defense has really improved quite extensively. Some of that has been because of a few guys getting back, but it also has been because we’ve had to make adjustments and make good adjustments because of guys missing. Our staff has done that, our players have adapted to that and played very, very well. That’s really a pat on the back to those guys. And then offensively, I think we’ve started to show really what we can be all about as an offensive football team in terms of putting points on the board. We had some explosiveness in runs. Didn’t have what you would call explosiveness in the passing game, but we didn’t throw much. And so, that certainly limits some of that explosiveness if you don’t put the ball in the air some. It’s what it is. I think our guys have adjusted to what we’re doing. They’re coming a long way, so I think the progress of both offense and defense, and special teams. We need to just have it be consistent and improve in just an area or two.

On the difference between having 18 days to prepare for Bowling Green as opposed to six for Buffalo:

Just the amount of time that the players are drive with hard practices on the football field. You can’t have that whole time be taken up when you’re missing a game there by hardcore, driven football practices. You’ve got to be able to have lighter practices at times, breaks at times. Those all got to be timed out well. It also gives you a chance maybe to get a few guys that are injured healed up a little bit, the ones that don’t have serious injuries. And so, you know, there’s a lot of that that goes into play. You’ve got make sure you focus all your time on the upcoming game. But, in saying that, when you have an extended period of time, you can get an early start on your next opponent, whoever that is. You don’t want to find yourself working your coaches to death and working your players to death during that period and have them just breathing heavy when it comes time to kick off the game. You’ve got to be smart in your preparation.

On balancing hard practices and light practices:

We take it day-by-day, and the reason for that is you’re just not sure of guys coming back. Sometimes you’ll have more scout team guys to where you’ll be able to get a good luck from your scout team guys so you want to get a lot of team work in. Maybe you’re a football team that needs drill work to get better at tackling or blocking and those kind of things. And so, we try to have a fairly good mixture of the drill work to make sure that our guys don’t lose the edge on the critical things in football, blocking and tackling. But, you’ve still got to function as a team in all those units so you still get your amount of team work that is needed. When it comes to when to take days off and how to make that work, you know, you try to plan ahead a little bit so that guys know what they’re doing on weekends and how that’s all going to come into play. But, you don’t want to get too far down the road because things change pretty quickly in this game. If you get out there and your team looks tired, it doesn’t make sense to go with the three-day hard and two-day off, or easy. You just adjust it day-by-day. We get our strength coach involved in it, Dak Notestine, in making those kind of decisions. We also get John Bowman and Ryan Bohn with our department downstairs in terms of the medical aspect of the game. When we get together, we all come up with how we want to practice during an extended period of time off.

On senior running back De’Montre Tuggle being named to the weekly Paul Hornung Award Honor Roll:

De’Montre is a legitimate running back. You’re going to see two of the better running backs around on the field come Saturday. That’s pretty special. You don’t see that all the time in the MAC, but those guys can play anywhere. That is, to us, very, very special.

On redshirt junior running back/kicker returner Julian Ross being named MAC East Division Special Teams Player of the Week:

Julian and the Special Teams Player of the Week, a great honor. I think it showed Julian’s speed, showed his talents on those kick returns. We’d like to get more snaps, we’d like to get Julian some more reps to show what he can do as a running back because it’s been difficult with him in terms of his injuries and how he’s been banged up at times to have him healed and get a lot of reps and ready to go without other guys all of a sudden squeezing ahead of him because of being on the field. He’s been a great leader and accepted all of it so well. We want to try to let him show what he can get done on the offensive side of it, also.”

On redshirt sophomore cornerback Justin Birchette:

Well, when you get a guy who is really good at the corner spot, you’re not necessarily going to get the interceptions because of a couple things. One, sometimes they don’t throw to that guy a lot if you’ve got a great corner on him. And the other things is, you’re not playing center field where you can see a ball thrown and break on the ball. You’re having to play a man most of the time until that ball gets there, and then you’ve got to try to bat the ball or play defense then. And so, you know, that’s a lot different ballgame than playing a safety and roaming in deep middle or having half of the field and seeing the quarterback release the ball and knowing where he’s looking and getting a jump on it. You don’t get any of that at the corner spot. So those guys generally don’t get the interceptions that these safeties do. But if you’ve got a really good one, and he’s covering his guy out there, the ball’s not going to be thrown there all that much either, which means he’s not going to have a lot of opportunities to get the ball when it is in the air. A corner’s got one of those jobs where he’s got to play great football and not worry about interceptions but making sure you’ve got your guy covered and you’re able to go up and battle for those 50-50 balls, and, if nothing else, get them knocked down rather than letting a great receiver makes catches, and Justin’s done a great job of that.

On players who have been unsung heroes:

There’s a ton of guys that don’t get the headlines on our team, and that’s just like every other team. (Redshirt freshman defensive tackle) Jeremiah Burton rose to where he was a special player for us this season, really had great development. (Redshirt junior) Isiah Cox, his ability as a receiver is showing. We haven’t been able to get the ball to him much, but, you know, it’s really showing that he’s a special receiver. There’s all kind of examples usually in the offensive line. If you look at our tight ends, they don’t get a lot of pats on the back, but they do a lot of heavy work. They’re catching the football. We’re targeting them some, and they’re getting the ball thrown to them. And so, there’s just a bunch of guys who don’t get all the pats on the back, except from us, as coaches, for the job that they do.

On game planning and strategizing:

I don’t know that it’s fun. It’s work, a huge time commitment to get things to where you’re going to give your team their best shot on the football field. You know, I think as a coach you love the game, and that’s part of the game, developing strategy and placing guys on the football field where they need to be and making adjustments where they need to be and figuring out how much blitzing this week versus playing straight. And so, a lot of that comes into play and a lot of time that gets consumed before you make those decisions. Our guys put in the work, and they’re smart coaches, and I’m sure they enjoy piecing together some of that stuff, though, too, to where that’s always part of the game. And so, if you want to call it fun for them, I’m okay with that.

On taking experience from previous games and using it to their advantage against Buffalo:

I think any time you have challenging games, that prepares you better. If you have games that are somewhat of a blowout and you’re getting a lot of other guys to play, there’s a real advantage to that and a plus to that. But the challenges that you face coming down the stretch to win a ballgame, those can be vital to you when you try to carry them on over to future games.

On plans for Senior Day pregame festivities:

There are some, and I’m just not aware of what the athletic department is doing at this point in time for Senior Day. I will get into that a little further in the week, but right now, all our time is spent on Buffalo. They’ll do a good job with Senior Week. In bringing that up, it’s a great group of seniors. Tremendous leadership. So, we’ll be glad to honor them, that’s for sure.

On if the game against Buffalo feels like a divisional championship:

There’s a lot riding on this game, I don’t think there’s any question about that. Anybody that knows football or is associated with either team would, I’m sure, admit that. But, in saying that, it’s a game that, for the most part, you prepare like every other game. There’s so much work that’s got to get done, and it’s got to get done in a manner that gives your team the best chance to win, regardless if you’re talking about coaches or players. But, obviously, there’s great meaning behind a game that can determine who has the edge in going to the MAC Championship, or at least gets a chance play another week and not having been taken out of the MAC Championship.