Marshall University Athletics
Transcript of Mark Snyder's Weekly Press Conference
9/15/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 15, 2009
Coach if you would open it up with a few words on Bowling Green?
They played Missouri very, very well. They beat a very, very good Troy State team to open the season and played Missouri all the way down to the wire. Dave Clawson has done a good job there. It looks like that they've taken on his personality offense-wise pretty quickly...a lot faster than maybe you would think they would. They are very efficient in what they do. Bowling Green has got some good playmakers. Freddy Barns is their guy on offense, number seven, is their go to guy. The back is a low to the ground kind of runner, he's got great balance, good speed and the quarterback reminds me a lot of the kid from Southern Illinois. Physically he looks like he throws and moves like him. You move to the defensive side of the ball and they play tremendous pass coverage. They are a little undersized on defense, but they can move. They do a lot of movement to try and confuse you and they play pretty good pass coverage. Special teams are very, very sound. We're looking forward to playing them and having a night game here at the Joan. It is back to our MAC days and it should be fun.
What were your thoughts after looking at the whole body of work at Virginia Tech?Did you see the effort and intensity that you wanted or what have you seen?
Well, on the offensive side of the ball I was pleased when we came out in the second half with a twelve play drive, ten play drive, kind of like we did the first week. We need to start a little faster on offense at the beginning of the game. It's not what they're doing, it's what we're doing. I felt like we corrected our kickoff with Craig. He did a great job. We felt good about his pooch kicks, kicking it out when we ask him to kick it out, and he's yet to miss an extra point or field goal this season. We're excited about that, we're happy with that. Defensively, we were very, very poor. We were not getting lined up, were not executing, and were not playing fast. It was a bad day to have a bad game against a good team that came off a loss to Alabama. They came out snorting and we came out sniffling.
What message are you trying to give your team this week and how are you going to give it?
The message has already been given. We're on to Bowling Green now. Trust me, the message was given Sunday night. I'm going down with them today and the rest of this week and I'm going to spend a lot more time on the defensive side of the ball. Obviously being a defensive coach I was very disappointed. I know Bo Pelini and that film is out at Nebraska right now, it does not make me feel very good that that film is out there. So I will spend a lot of my time with the defense this week. It is all correctable. We have to be careful what we are asking them to do, make sure we are not asking them to do too much, because we do have some talent. And we have to let that talent play and that's what we're going to do this week.
One of the players said yesterday that some of the guys who were mobile, so fluent on defense ...even one guy not getting where he's supposed to be can throw the defense off and they felt like when they watched the film that was happening and it wasn't the same guy all the time.
That is correct and again it goes back to what I said. We have got to make sure that everyone knows what they are doing. It takes all 11 people, especially they way we're lined up schematically. Because all it takes is one guy not in his gap and you see what happens. When you have a good back and a good offensive line, you get exposed.
What is the biggest disappointment so far in two games? The defensive line was thought to be a strength and it has been pushed around a little bit.
Not just them. We can't just point a finger at them, because it's the linebackers too and our safeties as well.
How is the atmosphere compare in a day game and a night game?
Well, I think the fans have more time to tailgate and the atmosphere is just a little more festive. Night games, I don't care where they are across the country, they just seem to be a little bit more festive. Usually there is a lot more tailgating going on.
Was it good to have Darius Marshall back in the line-up last week?
Yeah it was, very much so. It was good to get DeQuan (Bembry) back too.
Do you feel like this quarterback is better than the two you already faced?
He is a lot like the guy at Southern Illinois. He runs the offense very efficiently. Not real, real fleet of foot but enough to have some escapability. He runs their offense pretty well and you can tell that he's an older guy. And their doing some things with him that there's not a whole lot of risk in what their asking him to do and that's why his completion percentage is so good right now.
What's kind of threat is receiver Freddy Barnes?
He's an ex-quarterback and he's the racehorse guy when they get in the wildcat formation. He is a guy that we looked at here when we first got here. I think he's a little bit faster than people think, watching him on film.
We know they run a spread or hurry up offense, what does that force you to do defensively?
Well we gotta get lined up. That's why we talked about simplifying. Virginia Tech shocked us a bit. They came out with some hurry, hurry on us and that's just not their M.O. After every big play they had they ran a power into the boundary. That's good coaching and we didn't overcome it.
You see that a lot more now even in the NFL, it seems like, don't you?
No question. You know you're going to get it from the spread teams and you know its coming. But conventional, what I call typical Big 10 power teams like a Virginia Tech, that was a nice move on their part. They came out smart after that loss to Alabama. I'm just going to say they came out and played their game. Not a good day for us to not have a good game.
Obviously you have to work on opponents, but is this week more about getting your guys back to where they need to be?
I think there is some of that and there's going to have to be both. We're going to be working on them and ourselves.
Talk about their passing game and their approach?
They are multiple on offense. They'll go anywhere from empty to two tights, to two-wide, or one back. The ball is out of his hand quick. A lot of short intermediate routes, a lot of jailbreak screens and they take shots down the field to keep you honest and they have got a guy to do it with in number seven.
What about Bowling Green overall?
This is a very veteran football team. They inherited a good football team and credit him (Coach Clawson). They are running it pretty good right now.
What did you see for the first three quarters against Missouri?
Well Missouri turned the ball over. They had two special teams turnovers. That allowed Bowling Green to get points on the board. Missouri is a throwing team, their an empty spread throwing team and I did say that they (BGSU) do play a good pass defense, so it was a good matchup with the turnovers. You know football is about matchups and it was a good matchup for them.
A fan called in yesterday wanting to know about Albert McClellan on special teams, was he getting run down, did it limit his effectiveness on the defensive side?
It does some, but Albert was sick. I don't think we were wearing him out. He just did not feel well.
What is your message to your team going into a night game this weekend?
Life is 10 percent what happens to you, 90 percent how you react to it. We were in the same situation last year guys. We played a 1-AA team and we went to Wisconsin and got spanked. We came back and got on a run. We beat Memphis and we beat Southern Miss. We have just got to make sure we come back with the same attitude and once we get on that run we have got to stay on that run and there's the message right there. This is a good football team. Now we have to go play like we are capable of playing and to date we have not done that.
The way they (BGSU) play, you almost consider this the start of conference play? I do, I do. I absolutely do. They are very Conference USA-like, on the west side (C-USA West Division).
Is this a very important game for you?
They are all important. I'll let you guys talk about that stuff. We're going to take it one game at a time. We're not gonna get too high, we're not gonna get too low. It's a long season and we've only played two games. We're worried about Bowling Green right now.
Assess Brian Anderson's performance last week, and what he needs to do.
Good and bad. We just talked about this at the quarterback club meeting just a few minutes ago. DeQuan Bembry made a tremendous play and their corners had about four tremendous plays. If they don't have those tremendous plays, then Brian has a pretty decent game because Cody is catching the ball and running down the sideline twice. Chuck Walker gets the first down once. Antavious gets the first down once to keep these drives alive and their defensive backs made great plays, just like ours did in the end zone. I may have a different spin on it had those plays not happened. He did not play his best game. He played a lot better against Southern Illinois. But he didn't play terrible.
How was his protection?
Protection is what I was proud of, let me tell you. That was my biggest concern coming into the game. If you told me that we were going to be able to block their front and we had 100 yards rushing at half time, I'd say we're in that football game. That just goes to show you how good that team is.
Bowling Green's defense, do you see some Shannon Morrison (co-defensive coordinator) in that defense?
Yeah, I sure do. It's safeties that he coaches. He's back into his comfort zone with what he's done in his past. Like I said, they are a bit undersized on defense but they run around well and try to create confusion with all their movements upfront.
