Middle Tennesee State University Athletics
Quotes from today's football press conference
10/30/2017 2:20:00 PM | Football
Middle Tennessee Football Press Conference Quotes
Head Coach Rick Stockstill
Opening Statement:
"Appreciate everybody being here. I hope you all had a great weekend. Looking forward to this week against UTEP. We had two really good practices last week during our open date and a good workout yesterday. I think this team is really hungry and anxious to play this game this weekend. Obviously, UTEP has struggled this year, they haven't won a game. But if you turn on the film, those guys play extremely hard. They made a coaching change, they've got Mike Price in there now who's been in this business a long time; a former head coach there as well. They're playing with a great deal of passion. They'll play hard, and we'll get their best effort, I can promise you that.
So, they do a lot of different things on defense, they're going to bring a lot of different pressures from us out of their odd-man front. Their back-end, their secondary is good, their corners are long. They present a lot of problems up front with the different blitzes and different schemes that they run.
Offensively, I think with the coaching change, they're still trying to find their identity a little bit. I think they're going to hang their hat on trying to run the ball and come in here and try and make this a physical game. They will try to shorten the game with their running attack, so we've got to be really good both offensively as well as defensively of getting off the field and staying on the field.
Their kicking game is sound. They've got good returners. They've had a couple kick returns for touchdowns, and one punt return was called back against Western Kentucky. But their returners are really good. So we've got to be sound in all three phases. I say it all the time, but we've got to worry about ourselves. And go out there and play a good game in all three phases."
On using the bye-week to get healthy:
"Well, I don't know if we got all the way healthy as we still have a lot of bumps and bruises. I do think it was good mentally to get away for a few days. We met last Sunday and then we practiced Tuesday and Wednesday, and then as coaches we were on the road Thursday, Friday and Saturday recruiting. So I think it was good for our players to get away from football for a little bit. It's been a long year, from training camp through eight games of the season. So I think we came back yesterday, not only physically fresh but mentally fresher than when we left."
On if he prefers bye-week earlier in the season or later:
"It's always hard to say. If you don't have injuries and you're in a pretty good rhythm, you'd like to have it a little bit later, because it doesn't break up your rhythm and your continuity of how you're doing things. If you've got a bunch of people hurt, you'd like to have it a little bit earlier to give them a chance, another week - really two weeks, to get healthy to play the remainder of the season. The last few years, we've had later open dates. It's been in the six, seven or eight week part of the season. So, it's been a little bit later in the year for us the last few years."
On the significance of honoring the Armed Forces this week:
"I think anytime that we can honor the men and women that have served this country, to allow us the freedoms that we have and to do what we want to do as athletes and coaches, I think it's always a great opportunity to honor those men and women. Because the sacrifices they make not only individually for themselves, but the sacrifices their families make and a lot of times they make the ultimate sacrifice by giving up their life. And they do it for others, they're not doing it for themselves. They're doing it for us, the people outside their family. So I have a ton of respect for those men and women. Like I said, anytime we can honor them, with as little as that is, a football game, to me that's a great opportunity to give them the recognition and appreciation they deserve and they deserve a lot more than just dedicating a football game to them.
We've had past players that have either been in the service themselves or family members have been in the service. I think we've got a couple of guys on the team this year that have family members in the service, so it's a great opportunity for them also."
On the status of Brent Stockstill:
"You know, it's still a little early in the week right now. He's getting an MRI later this week. So we'll know his status later as this week progresses. We just don't know yet. He practiced the week of Marshall, he threw back-to-back days for the first time and then he threw back-to-back days last week during the open date so that was the first time he had done that since he got hurt. So he's progressing but we're not going to know until we get the results of the MRI later this week."
On the possibility of redshirting Brent:
"He and I have talked about it, he wants to win and he wants to play. And he's said if I can play these last five games, I'll do it. If I can't play until the last game, that's what I want to do. He wants to help this team anyway he can. So the redshirt deal is out there but it's not going to happen. He's more concerned about this team than himself."
On team's goals with five games left:
"We haven't reassessed them. A lot of our goals are still attainable. And it's a great opportunity for us, you can't win five games this Saturday, you can only win one. And that's got to be our mindset, that we're going to go out there and play to do whatever we can in preparation this week to get ready to play UTEP to find a way to get a win. This team has done a good job of blocking out the outside noise, and there is no noise on the inside and that shows the resiliency and the toughness of this team. So I'm confident this team will go out and play really well this weekend."
On the status of Richie James:
"Yeah you know, it looks like he is probably going to be out. I don't see him playing this week. And that's just being honest with you, I don't think he's going to play this week. We'll re-assess him this week and see how he is moving forward."
On avoiding looking too far forward this season:
"We can't overlook anybody. We're not good enough to overlook anybody. And that's what I told our team Sunday, we won three games and they haven't won any. So it doesn't matter, you can look at records of anybody in any conference you play, anybody can beat anybody. This is a very even conference, you've got to play really well every Saturday to have a chance to win no matter who you play. So I can promise you this team is hungry and they're not overlooking UTEP just because of their record."
On the challenges of playing against an interim coach:
"Nothing really different. Just like anything else, you have to be ready to play. You have to prepare yourself mentally as well as physically. And then you have to go out and execute on Saturday. And that's the bottom line, you have to make sure individually you're ready to play and as coaches we have to make sure our team is ready to play. We don't look at, hey you're playing this team and they're whoever, yeah let's get jacked up to play and then this team hasn't won a game let's just throw our hat out there and we're going to win. It doesn't work that way so you have to prepare yourself individually and collectively as a team."
Safety Jovante Moffatt:
On what he's seen from UTEP on tape:
"Yeah we've had a chance (to study them). They're a big running team, they're going to try and catch the DBs slipping every now and then, trying to get behind coverage. Whether or not, we just have to tackle and play football."
On preparing for different quarterbacks:
"Really just knowing tendencies, depending on whether a certain quarterback wants to run or if they throw more with a different quarterback. Just knowing tendencies of what they're going to do when a certain quarterback comes into the game."
On focusing on the task at hand against a winless team:
"Just focusing on us and ignoring the noise. I know that Coach Shaffer is keeping us locked in and just making sure that we're ready to do our assignments and keeping our focus."
On maintaining goals throughout the season:
"Really just staying focused is all I can say. Coming off the bye-week I feel like we're mentally ready, taking a couple of days off I think it's actually going to help us going into this week."
On trying to replicate success on defense from wins this season:
"Just being good up front. Tackling, that's going to be big. As far as just executing, we've had missed assignments here and there and that's going to be the difference in each and every game that we play."
Head Coach Rick Stockstill
Opening Statement:
"Appreciate everybody being here. I hope you all had a great weekend. Looking forward to this week against UTEP. We had two really good practices last week during our open date and a good workout yesterday. I think this team is really hungry and anxious to play this game this weekend. Obviously, UTEP has struggled this year, they haven't won a game. But if you turn on the film, those guys play extremely hard. They made a coaching change, they've got Mike Price in there now who's been in this business a long time; a former head coach there as well. They're playing with a great deal of passion. They'll play hard, and we'll get their best effort, I can promise you that.
So, they do a lot of different things on defense, they're going to bring a lot of different pressures from us out of their odd-man front. Their back-end, their secondary is good, their corners are long. They present a lot of problems up front with the different blitzes and different schemes that they run.
Offensively, I think with the coaching change, they're still trying to find their identity a little bit. I think they're going to hang their hat on trying to run the ball and come in here and try and make this a physical game. They will try to shorten the game with their running attack, so we've got to be really good both offensively as well as defensively of getting off the field and staying on the field.
Their kicking game is sound. They've got good returners. They've had a couple kick returns for touchdowns, and one punt return was called back against Western Kentucky. But their returners are really good. So we've got to be sound in all three phases. I say it all the time, but we've got to worry about ourselves. And go out there and play a good game in all three phases."
On using the bye-week to get healthy:
"Well, I don't know if we got all the way healthy as we still have a lot of bumps and bruises. I do think it was good mentally to get away for a few days. We met last Sunday and then we practiced Tuesday and Wednesday, and then as coaches we were on the road Thursday, Friday and Saturday recruiting. So I think it was good for our players to get away from football for a little bit. It's been a long year, from training camp through eight games of the season. So I think we came back yesterday, not only physically fresh but mentally fresher than when we left."
On if he prefers bye-week earlier in the season or later:
"It's always hard to say. If you don't have injuries and you're in a pretty good rhythm, you'd like to have it a little bit later, because it doesn't break up your rhythm and your continuity of how you're doing things. If you've got a bunch of people hurt, you'd like to have it a little bit earlier to give them a chance, another week - really two weeks, to get healthy to play the remainder of the season. The last few years, we've had later open dates. It's been in the six, seven or eight week part of the season. So, it's been a little bit later in the year for us the last few years."
On the significance of honoring the Armed Forces this week:
"I think anytime that we can honor the men and women that have served this country, to allow us the freedoms that we have and to do what we want to do as athletes and coaches, I think it's always a great opportunity to honor those men and women. Because the sacrifices they make not only individually for themselves, but the sacrifices their families make and a lot of times they make the ultimate sacrifice by giving up their life. And they do it for others, they're not doing it for themselves. They're doing it for us, the people outside their family. So I have a ton of respect for those men and women. Like I said, anytime we can honor them, with as little as that is, a football game, to me that's a great opportunity to give them the recognition and appreciation they deserve and they deserve a lot more than just dedicating a football game to them.
We've had past players that have either been in the service themselves or family members have been in the service. I think we've got a couple of guys on the team this year that have family members in the service, so it's a great opportunity for them also."
On the status of Brent Stockstill:
"You know, it's still a little early in the week right now. He's getting an MRI later this week. So we'll know his status later as this week progresses. We just don't know yet. He practiced the week of Marshall, he threw back-to-back days for the first time and then he threw back-to-back days last week during the open date so that was the first time he had done that since he got hurt. So he's progressing but we're not going to know until we get the results of the MRI later this week."
On the possibility of redshirting Brent:
"He and I have talked about it, he wants to win and he wants to play. And he's said if I can play these last five games, I'll do it. If I can't play until the last game, that's what I want to do. He wants to help this team anyway he can. So the redshirt deal is out there but it's not going to happen. He's more concerned about this team than himself."
On team's goals with five games left:
"We haven't reassessed them. A lot of our goals are still attainable. And it's a great opportunity for us, you can't win five games this Saturday, you can only win one. And that's got to be our mindset, that we're going to go out there and play to do whatever we can in preparation this week to get ready to play UTEP to find a way to get a win. This team has done a good job of blocking out the outside noise, and there is no noise on the inside and that shows the resiliency and the toughness of this team. So I'm confident this team will go out and play really well this weekend."
On the status of Richie James:
"Yeah you know, it looks like he is probably going to be out. I don't see him playing this week. And that's just being honest with you, I don't think he's going to play this week. We'll re-assess him this week and see how he is moving forward."
On avoiding looking too far forward this season:
"We can't overlook anybody. We're not good enough to overlook anybody. And that's what I told our team Sunday, we won three games and they haven't won any. So it doesn't matter, you can look at records of anybody in any conference you play, anybody can beat anybody. This is a very even conference, you've got to play really well every Saturday to have a chance to win no matter who you play. So I can promise you this team is hungry and they're not overlooking UTEP just because of their record."
On the challenges of playing against an interim coach:
"Nothing really different. Just like anything else, you have to be ready to play. You have to prepare yourself mentally as well as physically. And then you have to go out and execute on Saturday. And that's the bottom line, you have to make sure individually you're ready to play and as coaches we have to make sure our team is ready to play. We don't look at, hey you're playing this team and they're whoever, yeah let's get jacked up to play and then this team hasn't won a game let's just throw our hat out there and we're going to win. It doesn't work that way so you have to prepare yourself individually and collectively as a team."
Safety Jovante Moffatt:
On what he's seen from UTEP on tape:
"Yeah we've had a chance (to study them). They're a big running team, they're going to try and catch the DBs slipping every now and then, trying to get behind coverage. Whether or not, we just have to tackle and play football."
On preparing for different quarterbacks:
"Really just knowing tendencies, depending on whether a certain quarterback wants to run or if they throw more with a different quarterback. Just knowing tendencies of what they're going to do when a certain quarterback comes into the game."
On focusing on the task at hand against a winless team:
"Just focusing on us and ignoring the noise. I know that Coach Shaffer is keeping us locked in and just making sure that we're ready to do our assignments and keeping our focus."
On maintaining goals throughout the season:
"Really just staying focused is all I can say. Coming off the bye-week I feel like we're mentally ready, taking a couple of days off I think it's actually going to help us going into this week."
On trying to replicate success on defense from wins this season:
"Just being good up front. Tackling, that's going to be big. As far as just executing, we've had missed assignments here and there and that's going to be the difference in each and every game that we play."
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