Old Dominion Monarchs College Football Pregame Quote, 09/27/2021

We’ve got to find a way to finish that game off. The second half showed the potential that this team has when we execute the right way. The first half showed what any football team is going to be when we don’t execute the right way. We’ve got to focus on fixing those things that affected that first half: ball security, pre-snap and post-snap penalties, and things of that nature. That second half showed what we can do.

How is Nick’s confidence?

Nick’s a guy whose been through a lot in his career. He’s missed kicks before and he’s bounced back and done very well. So his confidence level is the same. That’s one of the reasons I have a lot of respect for that kid. He’s earned the right to have confidence after a missed kick. He’ll be ready to go in this one.

What did you learn about your team in that second half? The way they came back.

I learned that when we execute, we can be a good football team and I think that’s the most important thing that I learned. I also learned that they have the ability and showed it, to go to a 1-0 mentality, good and bad. They were able to move on from the good plays, they were able to move on from the bad plays. I think that’s a really critical piece, so I was happy about that.

Poise seemed to be the one thing that stood out to me when I saw that second half. They listened to whatever you said in the second half and said okay let’s do this.

At halftime and after the game I talked to them about believing in themselves, they’ve earned the right to have that belief in themselves and I need them to believe in themselves as much as I believe in them. That confidence is something that’s earned over daily battles in practice and things like that. I thought that they showed a lot more belief in that overall process and also their own abilities in that second half.

You said Saturday night you told them to believe in themselves as much as you believe in them. Mack said that you calmed them down, is that really all that happened? It was such a difference in the team, is there anything else that happened?

Nope. Everyone asks about all these different schematics and changes we made and things like that. We didn’t execute well enough in the first half for them to have any idea what our plan was. We didn’t need to make any schematic changes because if I’m their coach I would’ve had a hard time deciphering what exactly we were trying to get done. We were able to stick with the plan and the thing I told our coaches was don’t worry about what happened in the first half. Get everybody to understand what’s going to happen next. That was the key. Sometimes you go through life, and you’ve been through these things before. I don’t like to talk about my playing days too much mainly because ‚Ķ I’m the opposite. Most people as they get farther away from their playing days, they think they were better. They look back on it with fond memories. As I get farther away from mine, I think I stunk. We were losing to Harvard 28-0 at halftime, came back and won 29-28. I think maybe because I’ve been through it before ‚Ķ There was another one we should’ve finished, Brown we were 42-7 at halftime and we lost a close one there too. I think because I’ve been through it before I think I was able to understand what it takes to get through those sorts of things. Its why I said that I was upset at the end of the game because I should have anticipated that was going to happen, I’ve seen it happen before.

There was no taunting on that play it was just kids celebrating. Do you think they should have thrown the flag?

I think it’s the rule. I think you can’t do it and I think it’s the rule. So I think they should throw it. I don’t remember twenty-three guys being on the field goal block team on the next play. If they were I hope a penalty would’ve been thrown then. There certainly were more than 11guys out on the field right after it was missed. I know that the yellow hat drew attention to it but there were guys in yellow jerseys all the way out to the numbers right after it. I just don’t see the difference. I want things officiated because that was the rule and I agree with that rule. It’s an emotional game and we let our emotions get the best of us in that situation.

Have you had a chance to watch back that play that was almost a safety but wasn’t called a safety?

Yeah, it wasn’t a safety. I didn’t think it was a safety on the field. Where I was questioning is the kid fumbled it and then recovered it. Bounced right back up into his chest. Now, his momentum stopped, and I agree with that. He got it over. If you’ve coached football for any length of time, you know they are very hesitant to call a safety. They know how big a play ‚Ķ and I agree with that call. I thought that was well officiated all the way around on that play.

What did you see in your guy’s body language/attitude when they came in and started a new week? Did they look back at that one and realize what they can do? Was there still any type of hangover from how close they were? What were they like?

We came in yesterday, on Sunday. I thought we had our best Sunday practice of the year. I didn’t think there was a hangover I thought there was a focus. It wasn’t jovial by any stretch of the imagination, but it wasn’t somber either. It was a laser focus on the job at hand. The practice itself was very good. The effort was excellent. The buy in to the drills we were doing, we did a drill that we’ve only done one other time before. I thought they executed that drill very well. I was very pleased yesterday with our mentality at practice. I’ve seen guys around the facility today, there’s been a renewed focus. I wouldn’t say its anything other than that.

How do you approach now the Conference USA season? Do you look at is as a reset? You’re 0-0 and we still get a chance to chase the conference title. Do you look at it as let’s pick up where we left off in that second half? How do you look at that?

I think it’s hard to talk about season long goals and then also be a team that talks about going 1-0. That kind of just goes against each other. But I’d be na√Øve to think that our teams season goal, in the back of their head and they probably speak on it with each other is to win a conference championship. Because I think every team in the country has that goal. Is there any team in the country that goes, ‚ÄúAlright if we can just get fifth place in the conference.‚Äù No one says that. That’s absurd. If they do, I don’t want to coach them. I think our mentality of going 1-0 is an automatic reset. That’s what I think does help. We talk about going 1-0 and we get to go 1-0 this week. It happens to be a conference game, happens to be in a different time zone, happens to be in a different state and all those sorts of things. Its about going 1-0. Our players never leave the Tarmac, to the hotel, to the stadium. Whether we’re playing in El Paso, playing in New York City, playing in Huntington it doesn’t matter. They just want comfy beds and good apple crisp for dinner. I mean what are we talking about right now? That’s one of the things that sometimes gets a little bit blown out of proportion by people.

What do you know about UTEP at this point? In the little time that you’ve had a chance to see them.

I’ve watched quite a bit of tape. I know that Dana Dimel, their head coach, is a great man and a great football coach because I coached with him at Kansas State. I know at his core he wants to run the football and create leverage points and things like that. To be able to run the ball and then take shots down the field. They have a strong-armed quarterback, and they have a very good wide receiver in number six and number two is also a good player and one of their team leaders, another wideout. It’s going to be a big challenge for us on that side of the ball. Then on the other side of the ball, they’ve been playing good defense in getting people to third down and their third down plan has been very aggressive, and it’s been working for them. We have to find a way to be affective on third down and we have to stay out of as many third and long situations as we possibly can so we can do what we’re best at and keep our advantage on that end.

Ricky I’m sure you’d like the record to be better in non-conference, but given how little everybody knew about this team, how does it stack up to your expectations?

I didn’t have any. I know you guys are probably sick of me saying stupid answers like this, but I didn’t have any record expectations. I have expectations of how I wanted to see us playing football. The type of team I wanted to see in terms of physical and relentless attitude. Running to the football on defense, tackling well. On offense executing the plays at a consistent level and things like that. I think my expectations were closest to being met there in the second half of that game. Even more so than the Hampton game. I think that’s the standard, that’s what I expect to see. One thing I think that probably was overlooked in that game was how well we tackled in this past game. We tackled extremely well which is good because we spent quite a bit of time working on it last week. You hate to see when you work on something so much and it not transfer to the game. To see that transfer to the game I was extremely pleased with that.

Do you feel better about this team with a one-point loss opposed to what it could’ve been going into a game like UTEP? Or does that really matter.

I feel better because we executed, and I know we can. I feel better because I believed in this team, I believed in the players on this team, and I believe they can do exactly what they did in that second half. I believed that the entire season. I believed that going into our first game, believed it going into our second, our third, and I’m going to believe it going into however many games they allow us to play this year. I was happy that our better week of practice translated to a better effort on the field. Just like I told the guys yesterday it wasn’t a perfect week at practice, it certainly wasn’t a perfect game. We’ve got a great start, gave ourselves a chance to have a better week of practice this week because we had a better Sunday than we had the week before. That’s what I want to continue to see this week.

Do you think that the second half bolstered the team’s confidence in themselves and belief in themselves?

I think that the second half bolstered their belief in the process. Bolstered their belief in what I’m asking them to do, what the other coaches are asking them to do, and what they’re asking each other to do. I think that’s what the second half did. We have a lot of induvial kids that maybe have belief in their own abilities, but maybe they question is this guy next to me going to do his job. I think in the second half they started to see that this guy next to me can and will do his job, which allows me to do mine, which allows the guy next to me to do his. I think that’s the things that the second half showed.