Marshall University Athletics
Coach Holliday's Weekly Press Conference Transcript
9/28/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 28, 2010
Doc Holliday Press Conference
Marshall at Southern Miss
Opening Statement:
Southern Miss will be a great challenge. It will be a great atmosphere. Southern Miss is an excellent team. They have nine starters back on defense that held Louisiana Tech to 47 rushing yards a week ago and last year held Marshall to 26 total yards rushing. Defensively, all four of their defensive front is back, three of their linebackers and two guys in the secondary. They are very athletic, they base out of a four down look, they play man free and they get after you. So it will be a great challenge for our offense. For them offensively, everything starts with Austin Davis. He didn't play a year ago, but he has been their starter. He played five games last season prior to getting hurt. He manages the game very well and he can beat you with his feet. He will present some problems for us. He makes very little mistakes. He can throw it and he can run it. Everyone has seen DeAndre Brown, he is an unbelievable athlete. He didn't play a week ago and I don't know what his status is, so maybe you guys can find that out for us, but when he is on the field, he is a guy who can make a play. He is probably a first round draft pick. Tracy Lampley is a guy who isn't on the two-deep but probably makes more plays than anybody. They play him at tailback and a wide-out. They throw a lot of screens to him and in space so he can make plays. It is going to be challenge for us. It is going to be a great atmosphere. It is a conference game so it is important that we play very well. It is important that we have a great week of preparation which started on Sunday and continues today tomorrow and Wednesday, then it is important we have three days of great mental preparation to be ready for this game.
On the health of the offensive line:
It changes every day, unfortunately. Landis Provancha, we are not sure yet, but he has a chance I think. We have four or five guys in there that poor Billy Legg keeps rotating them around, and all of them will be in there at some point. C.J. Wood looks like he may have a chance to play which is good and hopefully Provancha can go too.
On Jonnie Jones:
He is probably another week away. He had a knee type deal but should be back in a week. That being said, Aikens should be back this week which will give us a boost.
On Alex Schooler:
Schooler has done a nice job. I just wish we could have some continuity on the line. It just seems like every time we get five guys in there playing well it seems like someone gets bumped up and we have to change it around. But Schooler is going to be ok. He is going to have a great career here. He has done some good things. But it is tough to see where we are. We will have more answers by the end of Wednesday's practice. It is tough to go out and play when you have not practiced on Tuesday or Wednesday, so we should have a better idea by the end of practice Wednesday where we stand with the offensive line.
On Marshall winning at Southern Miss two years ago
Mario Harvey have talked to the team about that they have gone in there and won. And it was a heck of a win for them. Anytime you can go on the road and beat a team like Southern Miss, who is one of the two or three best teams in our conference, that is a great win and that is going to help us this Saturday night.
On the Southern Miss offensive tempo:
Where they get you is with their tempo. They do a great job of making it hard for you to substitute on defense. Their tight end is very athletic and not only will be an on-the-line tight end, but he will flex out and be a wide out too. You have to get the personnel in the game that you want to play with. What happens to you, with the officials, if the offense doesn't substitute, they don't have to stand over the ball and hold it. For you to try to get different personnel in defensively, if there is not a substitution offensively, they don't have to wait for you, so it makes it difficult to match with. So you have to make sure you have the personnel on the field that you want. That's what the up tempo offense does for you.
On the play of the Marshall corner backs:
For two freshmen to go in there and play the way they played, I thought they played very well. I liked their confidence. I thought they went in there and played very hard. The one play that everyone though Pac (Monterius Lovett) got beat on, he should have had safety help. Darryl Roberts was in position to make a couple of plays and he covered very well. I am proud of those kids and I thought they played very well. They will continue to get better as the season goes on.
On playing a lot of young players:
I want to win now. There is no question that it is going to help down the road, but they are going to help us win now because they have to. If they are our best players, they are going to play. I don't care what class they are. The guys who perform the best at practice are going to play on Saturday's. Brandon Sparrow, another freshman, defensive lineman he has gone in and played well for us at times. He is going to be a nice player.
On the running game:
When you become one dimensional it becomes hard. But one thing I thought we did a good job of last Saturday is that we didn't turn the ball over. If you don't turn the ball over you have a chance to win every game. We are not a good enough team to turn the ball over and expect to win. I thought Billy Legg and our offensive staff did a good job of continuing to try and run the ball. I thought Billy was patient and stuck with it, and it will help us in the long run.
On road focus:
I think you can throw the Ohio State out the window. They have beat everyone they have played by 40 and I think they will continue to do so and by the end of the year be one of the best teams in the nation. I think our kids played extremely hard against Ohio State. They didn't play smart at times, but I don't think focus was an issue. The Bowling Green game was a disappointment. I thought we had a great week of preparation, but for whatever reason we just didn't play up to our standards. But we don't change our preparation for home games or road games. All the preparation takes place here prior to getting on that plane. It is just important that our kids come out and are totally ready to play because if they don't, we are not going to beat anyone. We have to bring our A game every week. I thought for our two home games we played as hard as we could have.
On the MU special teams:
And our special teams meetings you always put up your goals. There are a lot more Marshall helmets up there this week. I think Case Whitehead has done a great job for us. You look at his average and his net punts, but he has done a great job pinning them down inside there 10 yard line. He has done a great job with that. I think I punt team was good, I think our kickoff team was better, we had a better average last game. We are making progress on special teams. We have to make strides in our extra point kicking because its going to be big if we don't.
On Antavious Wilson and Aaron Dobson:
They both have done very well. They are good players. They work extremely hard in practice. I think I have mentioned before, Demetrius Evans needs to play more. We have to get some other guys in the game. Wilson and Dobson are playing 70 to 80 snaps a game and they have to be able to go win the game for us in the fourth quarter. Unfortunately those two guys are playing too much because they have to for us to win. Evans needs to go in and make some plays, we need him in there more. Courtney Edmonson went in last week and had a few catches for us to spell Wilson for a couple of plays and that helped.
On Brian Anderson and the vertical passing game:
Anytime you get off to a quick start it helps you mentally. And it has helped him. In both of our home games we got out of the box pretty quick and it helps to settle down the quarterback. Tony Petersen has done a nice job with him. We have to help him. He has made good decisions. He hasn't had any turnovers in the two home games, so we have to do that on the road.
On the atmosphere:
I think you just have to go play. You know you have a good team when your kids are excited about going on the road and shutting up the fans. When I was winning championships with Florida, our kids loved to go out the road. That was part of the deal. They loved doing that, and the coaches lived doing that. That is what we are trying to do here. Are we there yet? No. But we are working towards that and we just want our guys to have confidence on the road.
On finishing games:
I was reading George O'Leary's quote after the Kansas State game. His kids were saying the same thing. "We have to finish, we have to finish." UAB, I'm sure, after the Tennessee loss, they were saying "We have to finish." But for me, it is all about the players. It is a player driven game. When you have players that can finish, it is a whole lot easier. That's why recruiting is important and so is personnel. When you have better players, it is easier to finish.
Every week as coaches, you go out of your mind trying to find ways to motivate kids. You lay awake at night thinking about what you can do better to have your team prepared. We show them the negative deal of why they didn't, and then we show them everything positive at the end. But we have a 60 minute clock and if we play our butts off those issues won't happen. And I guess it worked last week because we won.
