Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
MT vs. FIU presser
10/2/2017 12:46:00 PM | Football
Kickoff at Floyd Stadium is 2 PM
Middle Tennessee Football Press Conference Quotes
Head Coach Rick Stockstill
Opening statement:
"Thanks for everybody being here. I'd really like to start off just by offering my condolences to the families of people that were affected in Vegas this morning. It's a terrible tragedy. It's a sad world we live in right now. So my thoughts and prayers are with those families.
"Moving on now to FIU this week. They're 3-1. They had a game canceled early in the year because of the hurricane, against Indiana. They're 2-0 in the conference, so they're in first place and they've won three straight. So they're coming in here with a lot of momentum, a lot of confidence I would assume. It was a tight ball game last year, we won 42-35. I expect another close ball game with this game here this weekend. They've got nine starters returning off of last year's defense, I think it's six on offense. Their quarterback, Alex McGough, has played really really good. He's very consistent. You can see a lot of improvement that he's made over the last couple of years of playing. They are doing a really good job of controlling the football, not beating themselves. Then defensively, they're fast and all over the place. This is going to be a great challenge for us. We've got to put last week's game behind us and move forward and get ready for this one."
On how to slow down the multiple running back system of FIU:
"You know, we've been pretty good against the run up until last week. We've done pretty good in the previous four games we've played. I thought we had done a nice job. Obviously we didn't do a very good job last Saturday. So we've got to improve on that, we've got to get back to fundamentals. They broke some tackles, we missed some tackles. Their backs were really good last week. We've got to do a better job of maintaining gap integrity. We've got to do a better job of tackling in space. Again, I have no doubt we can do better than that this week, but FIU's got a good running attack."
On how to improve the turnover ratio:
"That's always hard. You talk as an offensive coach about ball security, about when you carry the ball and touch the ball to not put it in harm's way. If you are running the ball, make sure you've got it protected. If you've got it protected, you're carrying it the proper way, then you're probably not going to turn the ball over and you're probably not going to fumble. And the guys who we've played have done a good job. They're quarterback hasn't put the ball in harm's way, he hasn't forced balls in there. So that's how turnovers usually happen by lack of fundamentals carrying the ball or making poor decisions throwing the football. So I think our defense, we're attacking, we're relentless. There's not been a lot of opportunities where we've missed getting turnovers. We haven't dropped interceptions. We had one that we dropped, I think it was against Vanderbilt that we had a chance to get. You've got to give the offenses credit for how they protected the ball. Offensively, we've just done a terrible, terrible job protecting the football."
On what the coaching staff can do to help quarterback John Urzua limit turnovers:
"Well we've got to continue to coach and he's got to realize that the things he's doing, he's got to stop doing. You can't roll out and throw across the grain. That may happen every once in a while, but most of the time when you do that, bad things happen. That was one of the interceptions there at FAU. John's just got to do a better job. He's got to understand that there's nothing more important than the next down. Sometimes as a quarterback, you've got to realize that this plays over. I'm going to throw it away or I'm going to eat it and live for the next down because we can't keep turning the ball over as much as we're doing right now and have a chance to win. There's three possessions that we lost, that we gave FAU. So we've got to do a much better job of protecting the ball because that's how you win, that's how you lose. You go through every college game and every NFL game probably and the team that wins the turnover battle is the team that's probably going to win. We've stunk it up here so far, but we've got to get it better, we've got it corrected. That starts with me, I've got to get it corrected."
On the health status of defensive end Walter Brady and cornerback Mike Minter:
"We'll find out more this week. Mike got hurt in Friday's practice. He wasn't able to go Saturday and wasn't able to practice yesterday. We'll know more Tuesday and see if he can go. Same with Walter, he hasn't been cleared to go yet."
On where the leadership comes from defensively with Brady and Minter potentially out:
"D.J. Sanders, Malik Manciel, Javonte Moffat, Darius Harris, J.J. (Jamal Jones). We've got plenty of good leadership over there."
On the health status of quarterback Brent Stockstill:
"Probably the same answer I've been giving you. I'm hopeful, but I don't know right now. I'll be glad when he can, but I don't have any answer for you right now on he or Richie (James). I think they are still a way's away."
On what Rick Stockstill has to see from Brent Stockstill and Richie James in order to let them play Saturday:
"'I can go'. I trust them. As soon as they say that, I'm good. We won't put them out there unless they are healthy enough to compete and play."
On if Brent has said "I can go":
"Yeah, but I don't trust him. He said that a long time ago. You've got to get out there and show that you can do it."
On if Brent Stockstill is frustrated being sidelined with another injury:
"Absolutely, you hate it as much as anybody. As an athlete, the amount of work and preparation that you put in to the season, especially what he does, and then to have that taken away, yeah it's frustrating. He knows, and we all know, that we need him out there. He can help us, just like Richie, we need him out there. When you don't have your two best players, it's frustrating and their both frustrated."
On how long it takes everybody to get rolling on both sides of the ball with Urzua commanding the offense now.
"Well I don't think us playing bad on defense against FAU had anything to do with John other than the turnovers we had. But when the defense went out there, now they have to step up and play. John just has to play better. He did some good things, he's just got to eliminate the turnovers. If he does that we're not having this conversation. He did a lot of good things but the turnovers just killed us, killed us. He's got to eliminate those. Had he not turned the ball over as much as he did or has, we'd be saying he's playing pretty good. But that's not all of the equation so he's got to protect the ball better."
On what Rick Stockstill has seen from McGough on film thus far:
"He's doing a great job of running their offense. He's not turning the ball over, I think he's thrown three interceptions. He's distributing the ball to the right guys. I don't know what he's doing at the line of scrimmage, so I don't know how much he's changing their offense. But he's doing a good job of managing that offense and putting them in a position to win. They were down a bunch against Charlotte last week and they came back and won, they were down the week before against Rice and they came back and won. So, he's been in some close games, their three wins have been close and he's engineered wins for them. So, he's done a nice job."
On if Rick Stockstill normally sees his players more hype on homecoming week:
"Not really, I've always said I think homecoming is for the fraternities and sororities to build their floats, and for alumni to come back in and all that. Guys will have family come in (for the game) and everything. But there's not any added incentive or motivation to play well because it's homecoming, we've got to play well this week because we're a game behind and we have to catch up."
On if Rick Stockstill was a Homecoming King in high school:
"What strikes you there? (laughter) Thank goodness they didn't have homecoming king when I was in high school because I don't think I'd have won it anyway. Next question!"
On what the mood of the team is right now after an up and down start to the season:
"That's a really good question. I really think we have a great locker room and I think we have a great mindset. We've got great leadership on this team and even though the guys we've got hurt, they leadership they're providing and displaying is been fun for me to watch. We're a close knit team and I really feel that we're a resilient team. I told them yesterday that we stubbed our toe Saturday, we didn't break our foot. We've still got seven games left, seven conference games left. There's a lot of games left to play and they're not crowning the conference champ tomorrow. So I still think we're a confident team even though we haven't shown a lot of reasons to be confident offensively because we're not scoring many points, we're turning the ball over and we've got guys out. But I really think this team believes in itself and believes we can accomplish a lot of great things. We lost one game so I really feel good about this team in where we are at from a mindset right now."
On what Rick Stockstill has learned from his team the past couple of weeks:
"I think you can always find out a little bit more about the character of your team when you have adversity. When everything is going smooth and everybody is happy and smiling, it's easy then, anybody can do it. When you're faced with difficult situations though, and you look at that game last Saturday, you turn on film, we played incredibly hard. We didn't play incredibly good, but we played with great effort. We tried, we worked and we didn't quit. And we finished the game out. If we didn't have a strong team, or a strong character team, you're not going to do that. You're going to fold your tent in the fourth quarter and shut it down. They didn't do that and I've got a lot of respect for this team. I know we'll bounce back, I really do. You learn from each game, whether you win or lose, you learn from it. And there was plenty to learn from that FAU game so I think you learn something, that this team is resilient. We got beat by Vandy, we bounced back at Syracuse. We lost to Minnesota, we bounced back against Bowling Green. We lost here at FAU now let's bounce back and play a little more consistently than what we have been."
Head Coach Rick Stockstill
Opening statement:
"Thanks for everybody being here. I'd really like to start off just by offering my condolences to the families of people that were affected in Vegas this morning. It's a terrible tragedy. It's a sad world we live in right now. So my thoughts and prayers are with those families.
"Moving on now to FIU this week. They're 3-1. They had a game canceled early in the year because of the hurricane, against Indiana. They're 2-0 in the conference, so they're in first place and they've won three straight. So they're coming in here with a lot of momentum, a lot of confidence I would assume. It was a tight ball game last year, we won 42-35. I expect another close ball game with this game here this weekend. They've got nine starters returning off of last year's defense, I think it's six on offense. Their quarterback, Alex McGough, has played really really good. He's very consistent. You can see a lot of improvement that he's made over the last couple of years of playing. They are doing a really good job of controlling the football, not beating themselves. Then defensively, they're fast and all over the place. This is going to be a great challenge for us. We've got to put last week's game behind us and move forward and get ready for this one."
On how to slow down the multiple running back system of FIU:
"You know, we've been pretty good against the run up until last week. We've done pretty good in the previous four games we've played. I thought we had done a nice job. Obviously we didn't do a very good job last Saturday. So we've got to improve on that, we've got to get back to fundamentals. They broke some tackles, we missed some tackles. Their backs were really good last week. We've got to do a better job of maintaining gap integrity. We've got to do a better job of tackling in space. Again, I have no doubt we can do better than that this week, but FIU's got a good running attack."
On how to improve the turnover ratio:
"That's always hard. You talk as an offensive coach about ball security, about when you carry the ball and touch the ball to not put it in harm's way. If you are running the ball, make sure you've got it protected. If you've got it protected, you're carrying it the proper way, then you're probably not going to turn the ball over and you're probably not going to fumble. And the guys who we've played have done a good job. They're quarterback hasn't put the ball in harm's way, he hasn't forced balls in there. So that's how turnovers usually happen by lack of fundamentals carrying the ball or making poor decisions throwing the football. So I think our defense, we're attacking, we're relentless. There's not been a lot of opportunities where we've missed getting turnovers. We haven't dropped interceptions. We had one that we dropped, I think it was against Vanderbilt that we had a chance to get. You've got to give the offenses credit for how they protected the ball. Offensively, we've just done a terrible, terrible job protecting the football."
On what the coaching staff can do to help quarterback John Urzua limit turnovers:
"Well we've got to continue to coach and he's got to realize that the things he's doing, he's got to stop doing. You can't roll out and throw across the grain. That may happen every once in a while, but most of the time when you do that, bad things happen. That was one of the interceptions there at FAU. John's just got to do a better job. He's got to understand that there's nothing more important than the next down. Sometimes as a quarterback, you've got to realize that this plays over. I'm going to throw it away or I'm going to eat it and live for the next down because we can't keep turning the ball over as much as we're doing right now and have a chance to win. There's three possessions that we lost, that we gave FAU. So we've got to do a much better job of protecting the ball because that's how you win, that's how you lose. You go through every college game and every NFL game probably and the team that wins the turnover battle is the team that's probably going to win. We've stunk it up here so far, but we've got to get it better, we've got it corrected. That starts with me, I've got to get it corrected."
On the health status of defensive end Walter Brady and cornerback Mike Minter:
"We'll find out more this week. Mike got hurt in Friday's practice. He wasn't able to go Saturday and wasn't able to practice yesterday. We'll know more Tuesday and see if he can go. Same with Walter, he hasn't been cleared to go yet."
On where the leadership comes from defensively with Brady and Minter potentially out:
"D.J. Sanders, Malik Manciel, Javonte Moffat, Darius Harris, J.J. (Jamal Jones). We've got plenty of good leadership over there."
On the health status of quarterback Brent Stockstill:
"Probably the same answer I've been giving you. I'm hopeful, but I don't know right now. I'll be glad when he can, but I don't have any answer for you right now on he or Richie (James). I think they are still a way's away."
On what Rick Stockstill has to see from Brent Stockstill and Richie James in order to let them play Saturday:
"'I can go'. I trust them. As soon as they say that, I'm good. We won't put them out there unless they are healthy enough to compete and play."
On if Brent has said "I can go":
"Yeah, but I don't trust him. He said that a long time ago. You've got to get out there and show that you can do it."
On if Brent Stockstill is frustrated being sidelined with another injury:
"Absolutely, you hate it as much as anybody. As an athlete, the amount of work and preparation that you put in to the season, especially what he does, and then to have that taken away, yeah it's frustrating. He knows, and we all know, that we need him out there. He can help us, just like Richie, we need him out there. When you don't have your two best players, it's frustrating and their both frustrated."
On how long it takes everybody to get rolling on both sides of the ball with Urzua commanding the offense now.
"Well I don't think us playing bad on defense against FAU had anything to do with John other than the turnovers we had. But when the defense went out there, now they have to step up and play. John just has to play better. He did some good things, he's just got to eliminate the turnovers. If he does that we're not having this conversation. He did a lot of good things but the turnovers just killed us, killed us. He's got to eliminate those. Had he not turned the ball over as much as he did or has, we'd be saying he's playing pretty good. But that's not all of the equation so he's got to protect the ball better."
On what Rick Stockstill has seen from McGough on film thus far:
"He's doing a great job of running their offense. He's not turning the ball over, I think he's thrown three interceptions. He's distributing the ball to the right guys. I don't know what he's doing at the line of scrimmage, so I don't know how much he's changing their offense. But he's doing a good job of managing that offense and putting them in a position to win. They were down a bunch against Charlotte last week and they came back and won, they were down the week before against Rice and they came back and won. So, he's been in some close games, their three wins have been close and he's engineered wins for them. So, he's done a nice job."
On if Rick Stockstill normally sees his players more hype on homecoming week:
"Not really, I've always said I think homecoming is for the fraternities and sororities to build their floats, and for alumni to come back in and all that. Guys will have family come in (for the game) and everything. But there's not any added incentive or motivation to play well because it's homecoming, we've got to play well this week because we're a game behind and we have to catch up."
On if Rick Stockstill was a Homecoming King in high school:
"What strikes you there? (laughter) Thank goodness they didn't have homecoming king when I was in high school because I don't think I'd have won it anyway. Next question!"
On what the mood of the team is right now after an up and down start to the season:
"That's a really good question. I really think we have a great locker room and I think we have a great mindset. We've got great leadership on this team and even though the guys we've got hurt, they leadership they're providing and displaying is been fun for me to watch. We're a close knit team and I really feel that we're a resilient team. I told them yesterday that we stubbed our toe Saturday, we didn't break our foot. We've still got seven games left, seven conference games left. There's a lot of games left to play and they're not crowning the conference champ tomorrow. So I still think we're a confident team even though we haven't shown a lot of reasons to be confident offensively because we're not scoring many points, we're turning the ball over and we've got guys out. But I really think this team believes in itself and believes we can accomplish a lot of great things. We lost one game so I really feel good about this team in where we are at from a mindset right now."
On what Rick Stockstill has learned from his team the past couple of weeks:
"I think you can always find out a little bit more about the character of your team when you have adversity. When everything is going smooth and everybody is happy and smiling, it's easy then, anybody can do it. When you're faced with difficult situations though, and you look at that game last Saturday, you turn on film, we played incredibly hard. We didn't play incredibly good, but we played with great effort. We tried, we worked and we didn't quit. And we finished the game out. If we didn't have a strong team, or a strong character team, you're not going to do that. You're going to fold your tent in the fourth quarter and shut it down. They didn't do that and I've got a lot of respect for this team. I know we'll bounce back, I really do. You learn from each game, whether you win or lose, you learn from it. And there was plenty to learn from that FAU game so I think you learn something, that this team is resilient. We got beat by Vandy, we bounced back at Syracuse. We lost to Minnesota, we bounced back against Bowling Green. We lost here at FAU now let's bounce back and play a little more consistently than what we have been."
Players Mentioned
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