Marshall University Athletics
Photo by: Eric Espada
Quotes/Notes/Video from Doc Holliday's Nov. 19 Press Conference
11/20/2019 8:45:00 AM | Football
Kickoff is 3:30 p.m. Saturday
Opening statement:
Captains for this week will be Brenden Knox and Armani Levias, which will be Armani's first time. On defense, we'll have Tavante Beckett and Chris Jackson. As we always say, anytime you go on the road, you have to take your toughness and leadership. This will be no different. We're playing a team that is fighting to get bowl eligible. It's important that we're prepared and ready to go play.
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On Charlotte quarterback Chris Reynolds:
Reynolds isn't a very big guy but makes a lot of plays. He makes a bunch of throws. He's rushed over 100 times so, other than (Benny) Lemay, he's their number one rusher, especially since Lemay's been hurt. Whether Lemay plays or not, I have no clue, but since then, Reynolds has run the ball even more. They ask him to do a lot more. He's very productive at whatever he does.
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On Charlotte's defense/personnel:
They have two defensive ends as good as anyone in the league. If (Alex) Highsmith isn't leading the league in sacks (he is), he has to be close. (Markees Watts) is also a tremendous player. You just look at them from top to bottom, (Marshall defensive coordinator) Brad (Lambert) won five games there a year ago. They have a lot of seniors and juniors who are playing a lot of good football for them.
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On playing in Saturday's atmosphere at Charlotte:
I don't there's any question that, when you walk into a stadium, there's some excitement, some buzz. That's what you play this game for. There is going to be that, I assume. We'll have a lot of people there too, probably 2 or 3,000. I've gotten so many calls for tickets this week, sort of like a home game. Our kids will look forward to playing in front of a crowd.
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On Marshall's coaches (specifically, the ones who have ties to Charlotte) and players preparing for this game:
These guys are all professionals. They do this for a living. At the end of the day, they are all excellent coaches who are only concerned about preparing this football team to be the best it can be on Saturday, and we'll have to be. We're going to have to be our best us to win this football game. We'll do a great job preparing, just like we do every week and get ready to go play. The thing I like about this team is that it's a mature group, for the most part. We've handled a lot of distractions. I thought we handled last week really well. Anytime you get into the middle of November and you have a couple of games left with everything still out there (goals that you would like to achieve), every game is a big game. They're all big, which they've been for a while and will be from here on out. I like what I see out of our players. They're locked in and they go to work every day. This week can't be any different.
Â
On Marshall's five-game winning streak:
Winning's fun. Losing (stinks). When you win five straight, the food tastes better, practice is a lot easier. That's what you play the game for, to find a way to go win. When you win, you should be having fun.
Â
On whether or not he expected Obi Obialo to perform the way he did on Saturday:
Yeah! (laughs). Obi's a tremendous player. We missed Obi. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I expected him to have the kind of game that he had. He's a talented guy that I'm glad to have back out there now.
Â
On Tavante Beckett/the team:
He's another guy that just likes to play. He's (second) in the league in tackles. He's all over the field and plays extremely hard. This is going to be a big game for us, in more ways than one. Our guys are going to have to play with the same emotion and energy that they played with last week or we'll get beat.
Â
On Marshall's linebackers:
All three of those guys (Beckett, Omari Cobb, Tyler Brown) have been really productive. We've asked a lot out of them because we're young behind them. Those guys have had to play a lot of snaps and it's important that they're productive on Saturday.
Â
More on Beckett:
I think the important thing was that, last year, he found out how much he missed football, how important it was to him. When you have to sit out, you come back and you have a little different attitude about you. He hadn't played in a while and just likes to play the game. I say all the time, if I can find a player who loves football, and it's important to him, I can fix everything else. They have to be tough, too. He's fun to watch and I think you see him continue to grow every week, in terms of his confidence and understanding our scheme, defensively.
Captains for this week will be Brenden Knox and Armani Levias, which will be Armani's first time. On defense, we'll have Tavante Beckett and Chris Jackson. As we always say, anytime you go on the road, you have to take your toughness and leadership. This will be no different. We're playing a team that is fighting to get bowl eligible. It's important that we're prepared and ready to go play.
Â
On Charlotte quarterback Chris Reynolds:
Reynolds isn't a very big guy but makes a lot of plays. He makes a bunch of throws. He's rushed over 100 times so, other than (Benny) Lemay, he's their number one rusher, especially since Lemay's been hurt. Whether Lemay plays or not, I have no clue, but since then, Reynolds has run the ball even more. They ask him to do a lot more. He's very productive at whatever he does.
Â
On Charlotte's defense/personnel:
They have two defensive ends as good as anyone in the league. If (Alex) Highsmith isn't leading the league in sacks (he is), he has to be close. (Markees Watts) is also a tremendous player. You just look at them from top to bottom, (Marshall defensive coordinator) Brad (Lambert) won five games there a year ago. They have a lot of seniors and juniors who are playing a lot of good football for them.
Â
On playing in Saturday's atmosphere at Charlotte:
I don't there's any question that, when you walk into a stadium, there's some excitement, some buzz. That's what you play this game for. There is going to be that, I assume. We'll have a lot of people there too, probably 2 or 3,000. I've gotten so many calls for tickets this week, sort of like a home game. Our kids will look forward to playing in front of a crowd.
Â
On Marshall's coaches (specifically, the ones who have ties to Charlotte) and players preparing for this game:
These guys are all professionals. They do this for a living. At the end of the day, they are all excellent coaches who are only concerned about preparing this football team to be the best it can be on Saturday, and we'll have to be. We're going to have to be our best us to win this football game. We'll do a great job preparing, just like we do every week and get ready to go play. The thing I like about this team is that it's a mature group, for the most part. We've handled a lot of distractions. I thought we handled last week really well. Anytime you get into the middle of November and you have a couple of games left with everything still out there (goals that you would like to achieve), every game is a big game. They're all big, which they've been for a while and will be from here on out. I like what I see out of our players. They're locked in and they go to work every day. This week can't be any different.
Â
On Marshall's five-game winning streak:
Winning's fun. Losing (stinks). When you win five straight, the food tastes better, practice is a lot easier. That's what you play the game for, to find a way to go win. When you win, you should be having fun.
Â
On whether or not he expected Obi Obialo to perform the way he did on Saturday:
Yeah! (laughs). Obi's a tremendous player. We missed Obi. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I expected him to have the kind of game that he had. He's a talented guy that I'm glad to have back out there now.
Â
On Tavante Beckett/the team:
He's another guy that just likes to play. He's (second) in the league in tackles. He's all over the field and plays extremely hard. This is going to be a big game for us, in more ways than one. Our guys are going to have to play with the same emotion and energy that they played with last week or we'll get beat.
Â
On Marshall's linebackers:
All three of those guys (Beckett, Omari Cobb, Tyler Brown) have been really productive. We've asked a lot out of them because we're young behind them. Those guys have had to play a lot of snaps and it's important that they're productive on Saturday.
Â
More on Beckett:
I think the important thing was that, last year, he found out how much he missed football, how important it was to him. When you have to sit out, you come back and you have a little different attitude about you. He hadn't played in a while and just likes to play the game. I say all the time, if I can find a player who loves football, and it's important to him, I can fix everything else. They have to be tough, too. He's fun to watch and I think you see him continue to grow every week, in terms of his confidence and understanding our scheme, defensively.
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