Old Dominion Monarchs College Football Pregame Quote, 10/04/2021

Obviously, it was a tough loss. We didn’t play well enough in the first quarter there. We dug ourselves a 17-point deficit which is a hard thing to overcome. We’ve got to play better than that in the early going. My job as the head coach is to unlock each of these young men’s potential, and we found a way to do that especially in the third quarter. Just need to find a way to do that in the first quarter.

To that note, what do you think the last two games has pretty much been a similar pattern of slow starts and then you guys find something, and the second half is completely different. What did you see in this past one that you think were the biggest reason for that? You said in the Buffalo game it was more execution. Is it kind of along the same lines for this one from an execution standpoint?

We’ve firmly established ourselves as a team that’s going to be able to run the football and we didn’t run the football as well in this game, especially in the first half as we had in previous games. That’s something that we’ve got to correct. The thing I told our guys is we can’t wait until something good happens until we start to believe that we belong out there. I think individually we all believe that we belong out there, we need to collectively believe that as well. I think that’s the one thing. I did not love our energy early in the game. That’s something that’s on me I’ve got to get that corrected. I thought our focus was there. I thought we were into the game and that sort of thing I didn’t think that was an issue. I didn’t particularly love our energy on the sideline and all those sorts of things I thought that could have been better.

Are these minor adjustments or major adjustments you have to make from your perspective?

It’s been needed, so its major right. I never understood the term minor surgery. If someone is cutting you open its major. If it was minor, it wouldn’t require surgery. I think that all adjustments are major because they all lead to major things. There is nothing that’s minor, there are no small details they’re all big. We’ve got to make sure we’re focused on all those sorts of things. Now do they require program altering adjustments? No. I do not think that. I do not think that they are things where we’ve got to go back to the drawing board. Just things we’ve got to take sure I’m finding the right buttons to push at the right times to get us to maximize our potential.

Ricky I think at one time I heard you say that Charles Huff is one of your best friends in the world. I assume you guys met at Vanderbilt?

Great person. He’s probably one of my best friends because we don’t need to talk a whole lot for us to be friends. I’m not great on keeping up with people. If you’re a person who requires me to speak to you twice a week or whatever in order for us to maintain our ties, it’s probably not going to work out. He’s a person who we can not talk for a couple weeks, even a month and then we talk and it’s like we haven’t missed a beat. Obviously, proud of what he’s already been able to accomplish in his career, he’s earned everything he’s had. I’m going to cheer for him every week of the year except this one. Obviously, he’s going to be the same way. Little things like sometimes those type of rivalries, like a rivalry with your brother sometimes those are the most fierce ones.

I know you’re all on the same staff, you’re on staff with a lot of guys but what gravitated you to him?

To be very honest, one of the things I learned from Coach Franklin was to hire good people. I have a lot of friends from those staffs because he hired a lot of good people. There are a lot of guys on those staffs that we went through a lot of different things together, from our time at Vanderbilt to our time at Penn State. I think that those shared bonds are one of the things. I have a lot of respect for how open and honest he is. He’s a terrific recruiter, I learned a lot from him in that standpoint. In terms of our friendship, I always knew that he was somebody I could talk to. He would be able to tell me when I was being an idiot, which is a good quality for a friend to have.

Ricky you’ve had some issues on special teams and you’ve also blocked four punts. How would you describe special teams overall?

I think it’s a little bit like the rest of our team. Some extreme bright spots and some low points that need to get corrected. I think it’s a little bit like how we are on offense and defense as well. I think we need to continue to accentuate those positives. Somebody told me the other day we’re tied for the lead in the country with blocked kicks (with Coastal Carolina), which means a lot to me because at Kansas State I learned that’s how you can really change games. That was a hallmark in Coach Snyder and obviously in this part of the country. It was a hallmark at Virginia Tech for a long time. I know you can change games and change seasons on special teams, and I think our kids believe in their ability to make an impact there. What we need to focus on is eliminating some of those penalties that we had which we did a much better job in this last game.

What are the things you need to do to get Marshall in a game on the road?

They’ve got a very good offense; I think they’re fourth in the country in yards per game right now. They obviously have a new head coach, but their offensive coordinator is the same that it was last year. Their quarterback has now been in this system for a couple of years now, and he’s playing well. He’s got a great running back and a great crew of wide receivers and their doing a nice job of being an explosive offense. Defensively they create some chaos. They are very high up in the country and in the league in sacks and also TFL’s and they’re causing some turnovers. So, where they may be down in some other categories, they’re making up for it, their very opportunistic. We’ve got to take care of the football, we’ve got to be able to be where we’re supposed to be on defense in terms of defending the pass game, which we’ve done pretty well all year. I know we’ve got to create some pressure up front and get to the quarterback they’ve also protected the quarterback well, so we’ve got to find a way to affect the quarterback because that’s the way we’ll create some turnovers.

Coach Marshall is 2-3. You look at that on its face and say, ‚ÄúOh losing record‚Äù but then when you look at the games they had, they lost by four to East Carolina, by one to Appalachian State, they lost by six in their last game in Middle Tennessee. They say you are what your record says what you are, but really what kind of team is this? Is it a team with a losing record or is it a team that’s that close to being 5-0?

I think they’re a good football team and they proved that last year. They had a lot of guys return to that team; they have a very good football team. They’ve had a tough time in some close games, they also played very well against a Navy team that everybody in the country has a lot of respect for. I think its one of these things that’s going to be a great test for us. I’d like to think our record doesn’t indicate who we are either. It’s probably one of those things where we both wish our records were a little bit different, a play here a play there and it probably is and we’re probably talking about a little bit of a different match up this week; but the fact of the matter is that is what our record is. That’s why football is such a great game because it does take all 60 minutes and I think both these teams right now are a product of that. Both looking to put together a 60-minute game and see where it goes from there.

Ricky can you talk a little bit about Zack and what he’s brought to this team and maybe a little bit about his character? You helped recruit him at Penn State.

I did. I was the tight ends coach when he originally committed … Zack’s a great kid obviously he’s very talented physically, everyone sees his height but he’s also incredibly fast. Its hard to get that sort of size and speed combination. He’s really worked on his blocking and has been very effective at it. Coach Mines has done a great job with helping him with that. He’s been a great weapon for us but really our tight ends in general have been a nice weapon for us. Not only on offense but those guys have been making a major impact on special teams as well. I told somebody the other day I think we might have the best special teams playing tight ends in the country if you look at what their doing on punt team, punt block, kickoff return, even on kickoff coverage. It’s rare to have tight ends on kickoff coverage. Our tight ends have been a major part of our team and their going to continue to be. I warned everybody that we were going to throw the ball more to our tight ends than maybe they have in the past around here. Those guys continue to be a major weapon for us, and we need to continue to find ways to get them the ball because they’ve proved to be very effective and reliable.

Ricky not that your guys didn’t believe it already but how much did Saturday reinforce the fact that you can compete in this league?

Our guys definitely believe that. I think that’s why it hurt so much after the game for some of the guys. They knew that first half or first quarter they let one slip through their fingers a little bit. We let one slip through our fingers a little bit. Not that UTEP didn’t play well on their end, because they did. Coach Dimel had a great game plan of what he wanted to do to control the tempo of that game and we allowed him to do that. We can’t allow teams to do that. Our guys definitely feel like we can win every game when we step out there, especially in this league. That’s one of the reasons why that one hurt so bad. We’ve got to make sure we practice well this week. I thought we responded yesterday; we had a different Sunday than we normally have. We still got out there and I think our guys responded really well to it. I can usually tell with slight little cues of where we are as a team, and I thought based off yesterday we are in a good spot. I thought I might be pulling and prodding and those sorts of things, and I certainly was not. Mentally we were in a good place.

There was an article in “The Athletic” over the weekend and the author basically interviewed a bunch of high school coaches all over the state and talked about recruiting. They spoke of you extremely high, saying how much you were attacking the state and how much you are making a grand effort. How much does winning the state in recruiting mean to you?

I think winning the state is very important because it’s a very talented state. There’s a lot of really good football players. We’ve got to make sure we get the ones that fit us from a cultural standpoint but also an athletic standpoint. This region is very important to us, for a number of different reasons. One of them is budget. Its expensive to go around the country and recruit guys. Then, are those players better than the ones you can get right here. You’ll certainly have more information on the guys that you have right here. Obviously, I appreciate everything that was said about our program. I think its more of a reflection on our assistant coaches and the job their doing than what I’m doing. I actually think I need to do more. I think I need to continue to do more in terms of that aspect with high school coaches and I’m glad that I’m able to actually get down to the high schools now. I’m going to continue to do that. I think that’s important to be at games I think it’s good for our community and the state as a whole that one of the state universities is at games and showing that high school football in the state of Virginia is important to us. I would say on the other hand, I’ve been at big schools. I’ve been at Kansas State, I’ve been at Penn State, those big state schools. The big state school never recruits the state well enough. In the history of football. That’s just the way it is. I don’t care where you are, no one has ever been satisfied with how many players the big state school takes from their state. I have a lot of respect for coaches and how they go about their business. We’re going to continue to recruit this state and we’re going to continue to get great players from this state and their going to be a core part of our team. A big part of that is making sure that we get accurate information from high school coaches and that’s relationships.

To that point, how important is it to you, they say that they see you around a lot. How valuable is that personal touch showing yourself, talking to these coaches 1 on 1, giving them the time, speaking, and going to recruits homes, how important is that to you and how valuable is that to you?

I’d like to think I’m better in person than on the phone. I suck on the phone. I’m just not very good on the phone and never have been. I’m probably even worst at text messages. Sarcasm doesn’t come across very well in text messages and I tend to rely on that for most of my humor so I’m sure I’m misinterpreted more often than I should be. Being able to get out personally is going to be really important to us. As much as I can I’ll be at games, and once we get to the winter I’ll be at high school basketball games because a lot of our guys do that. I want to be in the community as much as possible. I don’t mean just the Hampton Roads and the 757, I want to be up in Richmond. We need to continue to do a better job in Northern Virginia. There are some great football players and that has been proven out in Western Virginia. They’re a little bit more scattered but they’re out there. We have some on our team and we need to make sure that we continue to find those guys. Its one of those things where we have to continue to go the whole state because this could be an advantage for us. Not only with our scholarship players, we’ve got some darn good walk-on players in the past and they end up earning scholarships and things like that. I learned in my time at Kansas State that can be a major factor. Jordy Nelson was a walk-on. When I was at Kansas State, we had four All-Big 12 players and all four of them were walk-ons.

Ricky I think this was your first plane trip with the team. How did it go logistically and what was different about it?

Logistically, I think Tim Kovacs and the rest of our staff did an unbelievable job with setting it up. There were some issues coming back, we had some plane issues coming back. Anybody who’s flown a lot, there are mechanical issues on planes. That’s just the way it is. I personally want them to solve all mechanical issues before we take off. You tell me that you think something is fixed, I would like for you to be sure it’s fixed before we take off. I still don’t understand how planes fly. I understand the physics of it, but I don’t really. I can’t even get a paper airplane to fly so I don’t really understand how to do this sort of thing. So I want everything to be fine. I didn’t hear anybody panicking. I’m not all the way back there with the guys, but there was nobody clutching their rosery or anything while they were on the plane. Felt good about that. Guys were fine. Most of them slept. I got up and looked around, most of them were sleeping. I thought overall they reacted very well to it. On Sunday I gave guys more time off than they would normally have. I gave them some time to make sure they got home. Coaches included we needed to make sure we came back refreshed. That’s why Sunday was a little different.