Marshall University Athletics
Quotes from Doc Holliday's Oct. 7 Press Conference
10/7/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
Game Notes vs. Middle Tennessee
Opening statement:
Captains for the game this Saturday are Chris Jasperse and Devon Johnson on offense and Ra'Shawde Myers and Neville Hewitt on defense. I have great respect for Middle Tennessee's football program. Coach Stockstill has done a great job. He has been extremely successful there. They are a very physical team that is extremely well coached in all three phases. It is going to be a great challenge for us. They have three great running backs. They have a quarterback, (Austin) Grammer, is doing a tremendous job running that offense and they have a defense that flies around, (T.T.) Barber, he's everywhere on defense. It's all about our preparation and for us to be able to play well on Saturday, you have to do a great job starting today, tomorrow, and throughout the week and then we will be prepared to go out and play on Saturday. That's where we are. We have a good football team coming in here on Saturday. We expect to have a great crowd to show and I know the kids are looking forward to it.
On the physicality of Middle Tennessee:
A year ago, they were extremely physical. They were more physical than we were a year ago. We couldn't stop the run. We couldn't get off the field on third down. We didn't have a whole lot of success at getting them stopped. So there is no doubt that it is going to be a great challenge for us again this year. You look at those three backs, with (Jordan) Parker, (Shane) Tucker, and (Reggie) Whatley. We didn't play against Tucker last year. He is bigger than the rest of them, extremely physical and they have that three-headed monster back there at tailback. The offensive line is extremely physical and they play extremely hard. It's going to be a great challenge for us. There's no doubt that a year ago they did more than go toe to toe with us, they beat us physically. They are a good football team. They have won. They have been to four or five straight bowls. Then you go to the one year they were changing conferences, but they still won eight games that year. They have had a lot of success. Stockstill does a tremendous job coaching them. They have really good players. It's going to be a heck of a ball game. I know we are going to have to be extremely physical to hang in there and have a chance.
On Middle Tennessee's offense:
The thing about Grammer is that he can throw the ball extremely well but he runs better than the quarterback that they had a year ago. They have a lot of designated quarterback runs for him. He does a good job on the perimeter and he can beat you with his feet. It sounds like a broken record every time I get up here it seems like. Last week, we were talking about Heinicke being able to step up and beat you with his feet, and now we are saying the same thing about Grammer. Grammer is little bit more physical than Heinicke is and he is a little bit bigger and stronger, but then again he can make throws and you better contain him because if not he will create a lot of problems for you. He runs a lot with the football. If you look at his runs they are different than it was with Heinicke. They have some designated runs in their offense for him where they are actually designed for him to keep the football. They do a great job. Stockstill does a great job of taking advantage of his skill set.
On last year's game against Middle Tennessee:
We just didn't get them stopped. We also didn't get off the field on third down like I mentioned earlier. You have to be able to get off the field on third down and you have to be able to stop them and we didn't do either one a year ago. We worked hard in the offseason and we worked hard in the spring and we have worked hard every day this week of stopping. We are very similar running the ball offensively. We got that power aspect in our game, too, which they ran a bunch year ago. We are a little bit similar as our runs go and our kids have seen that. Hopefully, we will do a better job at getting them stopped this year. I think from that point on we played pretty well, with the exception of the championship game. I think, after that game our kids grew up a little bit. It was a tough loss. They were a better team that particular day and they were a better football team than what we were. We lost the game because of it. Our kids took it personal and from that point on we have been a solid football team. I think we learned from and we grew from it. We will actually have a chance on Saturday to see how much we have grown up because it will be a great challenge again on Saturday.
On Middle Tennessee's depth at running back:
Well, they play four backs and they play number five (Jeremiah Bryson) in there too. They play four of them just like we play three. Those other three play a lot more than number five does. They have the ability to go four deep. They do a good job. One (Shane Tucker) and six (Jordan Parker) are extremely big physical backs. Of course, Whatley, had a field day against us a year ago. He is really good in space but he can also break tackles and he's a heck of a kick-off return, too.
On Marshall's offensive balance:
That's what our offense is based on. You take what the defense gives you. Cato has done a tremendous job. He is extremely unselfish and could care less about his stats. What he cares about is winning the football game. I think he only had two miscues on Saturday and it is like that every week. He's almost perfect as far as making the right decisions and getting us in the right checks. I can't say enough about what Bill Legg has done with him in coaching him up. It's going to be critical that he has him prepared this week, because this will be the best defense we've seen up to this point.
On Marshall's turnovers:
Anytime we talk about the plan to win, the second thing we always talk about is taking care of the ball. You get in a tight critical game, and turnovers can make the difference in whether or not you win or lose. We have to do a great job of making sure we take care of the ball. We work on that every week. Cato had a couple of them, but there was the instance of the replay and I'm not sure if that was complete or not. But regardless of how they happened, you can't turn it over. Receivers have to catch the ball, Cato has to take care of it, and the running backs have to take care of the football. You get in a critical game and you turn it over a couple of times and you're going to lose. Part of being a great defense is when that happens, you go in there and you get them stopped. Our defense has done a great job of getting that done.
On guarding against taking things for granted:
It's the leadership on the football team. We talk about that from day 1. We talk about the expectations, but there is a responsibility that you have to go to work every day. I think that's what this team has done. Whether they are freshman or seniors, they've done a great job of holding each other accountable. They don't get complacent. You can't stay the same, you either get better or you get worse. This football team has gone out there every day and gotten better. My job as a head coach is to make sure that happens by the way we practice during the week, and our leadership has to do the same thing.
On the production from Remi Watson:
Remi's gone in and played extremely well. If you guys have seen practice, he's been practicing extremely well too. There's a correlation between how well you practice and how you play the game. The guys that don't practice very well, sit on the sidelines and watch. This football team has done a good job on getting that done during the week. Their mental preparation starts on Friday and goes all the way up until their foot hits the ball at 12 o'clock on Saturday. That has to continue and I'm sure it will.
On Marshall's secondary:
We have some pretty good players, and Chuck Heater does a tremendous job of coaching technique and fundamentals. It goes back to practice. They're practicing against pretty good wideouts. We go good on good with the best possible receivers we can get in practice. We try to get our best possible players going against them on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so that the game speed carries over into the game.
On facing man-press defense:
I coached wide receivers for a long time and the hardest thing I had to transition to was when we played against a team that played man press, especially when you haven't practiced against a defense like that all year. Our guys see that every day and that's the hardest thing you have to go up against. Then when you get into a game and you get cushion that is pretty easy to react to. Middle Tennessee is going to play a lot of man press. They are very similar to what we are. But our guys are not going to be surprised or unprepared to go against it, because they go against it every day in practice. Same with Middle Tennessee and their receivers. Since they go against it every day, when they get up against our guys, it isn't going to be something they haven't seen. When you play that defensively, it helps your receivers be prepared to go up against it, rather than using scout team players that have never played man. I think it helps us both offensively and defensively.
On the importance of winning 1-on-1 battles at the outside receiver position:
You saw our offense a year ago, and we struggled because we couldn't do that. We have to continue to be able to do that, because when it does, it opens a lot of other things. When you can't cover outside one on one, you have to pull a safety over and it opens up the run game. Like you saw on Saturday, we were able to run the football because they played a lot of high safeties, trying to overlap our outside guys. It opens up a lot of things. We have the ability to be a total offense, like Middle Tennessee does as well. It will be a great challenge for our defense to see if we can match up and not only stop the run, but also be able to win outside one on one against their wideouts.
