Southern Miss Golden Eagles College Football Pregame Quote, 11/01/2021

Had a great Monday night tonight. We’re not going to practice on Tuesday because of the NCAA legislation with Tuesday being a civic duty day, and we talked about that with our kids. We explained to them what an important day that is and what an unbelievable right it is to be able to vote and how important it is. We had a great night tonight, though. Great energy, these kids continue to improve. Really seeing some really good improvement in some leadership skills for some of our guys like Jason Brownlee -he’s coming along as a leader, the way he practices and works every day. We’re seeing some young guys improve daily, so another good night for us.

On the run game early in the Middle Tennessee game:

It was the best game our O-line has played. Had 17 first downs in the first half, which is an unbelievable number. We didn’t have any negative runs in this game. We ran the ball extremely efficiently. A lot of the sacks [given up] in the game were not the O-line’s fault, again. A few of them were late in the first half in the two-minute drill situation. We had a guy give up one and then on the Hail Mary, they blitzed us and went Cover Zero. That was as much on me, we were outnumbered. We just have to continue to keep working and playing right there, but we took major strides with a lot of our young O-linemen right there.

On the scoop and score play:

Jake [Lange] was hot and couldn’t get it out, and he knows that and that’s on him. He was heartbroken by it, he knows he should’ve gotten it out, we had Dajon[Richard]wide open on a hitch. They checked Cover Zero, we motioned to empty, pretty basic football. I’ve got to do a better job of coaching right there, that was not an O-line issue at all. The O-line did a phenomenal job of squeezing it down, blocking the five most dangerous. Had good pass protection for most of the night, we really did. We played enough to win up front. We just had some breakdowns in other areas where we have to do better.

On the procedure issues:

That’s embarrassing, that’s humiliating, that’s on me. We got it cleaned up the week before and it’s strictly on our center. Coker [Wright] knows that, he’s got to fix it. Everybody’s moving on the snap count. We keep it real simple right there. Coker’s got to snap it. He knows that, he’s got to fix it if he’s going to play center here. He’s a really good center, but he’s got to fix that issue if he’s going to play center here.

On North Texas:

Really talented team that’s improving. A lot like us, they had lost six in a row and found a way to win at Rice. They have some talented guys that continue to get better. They give you some problems defensively. Their D-coordinator, Phil Bennett, is a long-time great football coach, a great man, got a lot of respect for him.