Weekly Press Luncheon Quotes
November 05, 2007 | Football
Nov. 5, 2007
GREENVILLE, N.C. - East Carolina University Head Football Coach Skip Holtz addressed members of the media prior to this week's game against Marshall. The following are selected comments:
Opening Comments:
"It's always nice to win. You are always grateful to get any win on the road this late in the season. We talked about how we responded off a loss against NC State, coming back and playing one of our better games against UAB. We then saw if we were mature enough to handle going on the road after a win. I was really proud of the way we responded to the challenge. Obviously when you win there are a lot of positives. What was positive is that we ran for over 400 yards and scored 56 points. It is a real tribute to Coach Shankweiler and Coach Fitch and the job they are doing with that offense. So many of our younger players such as Dwayne Harris and Jamar Bryant are starting to develop. I was so pleased with the running game. Chris Johnson continues to be committed and seems like a man on a mission right now. He has put his best foot forward each and every week. He has been physical, tough and durable and that has helped him break tackles in order to make some things happen. It's hard to find anything negative when you rush for 300 yards on 20 carries.
"I was really pleased with the rush defense. We came into the season returning pretty much everyone on our defensive line two-deep and it seems like we are finally healthy up front. We lost a couple players on the defensive line in the Southern Miss game like [Jeremy] Chambliss, [Pierre] Bell and [Quentin] Cotton but they are healthy again. We only gave up about two yards per carry against Memphis.
"At the same time there are also some concerns. Anytime you have concerns as a coach, you have to sit down and evaluate what you are doing and what you are asking your players to do whether it's scheme or personnel isues. One area of concern right now is obviously the pass defense as we gave up about 420 yards. This might sound crazy, but I think for 75 plays our defense played really well. After we broke it down, we found that in 75 plays we gave up 138 yards but in 15 plays we gave up 350. We have to eliminate the big play and I don't think it is so broken that we can't fix it. Our defense did not go out there getting creased play in and play out. Whenever you put a lot of points up like we did, you force the other team to throw almost every down and to go for it on fourth down. We were good on the first three downs but we can't allow teams to succeed on fourth and eight. It is a wasted opportunity to get the defense off the field and finish the game. We need to look at some things in the secondary personnel-wise as we get down to the final games of the regular season.
"On the offensive side of the ball, I was really disappointed with the passing game. I don't think we are throwing, catching, reading or protecting the ball the way we need to in order to be productive. We are completing under 50 percent of our passes and I think our lack of consistency was exposed against NC State. When we had to throw the ball coming from behind, we just didn't make the plays that we needed to. Some of it can be attributed to inexperienced quarterbacks who haven't played a lot or young receivers but I don't think it is just one aspect of the passing game that is struggling. Our pass protection has to improve and our guys just have to be more patient. The receivers need to adjust to a poorly thrown ball and they also need to avoid the drops when the ball is accurate. I am just really concerned about the passing offense and defense as we get into the last part of the season.
"Injury-wise, we were really hard-hit on defense. Brandon Setzer had an MRI on his knee. Nick Johnson got hurt on the third play that he was in the game and also had an MRI on his knee. Chris Mattocks is also struggling with his knee. I don't know how long those guys will be out. Leon Best has an ankle injury and he fought through the game with it. Whenever you have an ankle injury, it is always worse two or three days after you do it. I thought he showed a lot of heart by going back in the game and pushing through the pain but I think he is being penalized now for doing so. Danny Muhwezi broke his leg so he will definitely be out. Even though Johnson and Muhwezi aren't starters, they play on our special teams and the dirty dozen. Now we either have to take our threes and put them on special teams or ask your starters to do a little bit of double-duty. We will look at the depth chart and see if we need to move some guys around."
On Marshall:
"When you look at Marshall, I think they are a much better football team than their record indicates. Everyone wanted to look at NC State and say they were a 1-5 football team but they were one of the better teams that came in here this season. [Marshall] scares me because we are playing on the road and Marshall is an extremely tough place to play. I don't quite know exactly what their record is at home but when we went up there two years ago, they were 108-5 at home. We need to look past that record and look at the football team that we are going to play. As a young football team, we will really need to maintain our focus. Marshall doesn't have the chance to go to a bowl game but they will motivate themselves to play the role of spoiler against the number one team in the East. Coach Snyder is an excellent football coach.
"Offensively, they are very big up front. Right now, their offense rotates around the quarterback. [Morris] is an excellent player. He didn't play against us last year and it was the only game he missed that season. He is their leading rusher and is throwing for almost 300 yards per game which concerns me with how we played in Memphis. I think he has a great target in Cody Slate and he utilizes a bunch of different formations. Slate is an all-conference player who can run extremely well which creates confusion with some of the motion things they run. They try to get him out on the wheel route and matched up with a linebacker.
"On defense, their strength is their physical linebackers. I have been really impressed with [Maurice] Kitchens and Josh Johnson. Johnson was supposed to go to Georgia or South Carolina but ended up at Marshall. All of their linebackers are about 250 pounds across the board and they run extremely fast. I think [Byron] Tanker is a real athletic guy up front who is big and strong with a lot of quickness. Their free safety is a six foot, 190 pound guy that roams the middle of the field well. This will be a heck of a challenge for us this weekend."
On Marshall's Struggles This Season:
"We have looked at some things on film and all I see is them playing toe-to-toe with everyone on their schedule. One of their biggest problems right now is their turnovers. They are -14 in the turnover battle and have only gained five. They have lost some close football games but have also played some really good teams in Miami, Cincinnati and West Virginia. When you watch their film and evaluate them athletically, they are not a 1-8 football team. If you fall into the trap of only looking at their record, you will leave with your foot sticking out of your ear. I am concerned about this game."
On Moving Players Around In The Secondary:
"We have been rolling a lot of players into different positions. What is frustrating right now is some of the mistakes that we are making. I understand that we struggled early in the year because of inexperience but what is starting to bother me now is that it is not a talent issue but an issue of guys doing the fundamental things the right way. You have ten guys that are doing what they are supposed to; staying square, jamming and redirecting but then you have one guy that lunges at the receiver and gets beat. When you play against senior quarterbacks like we have, they expose you. It's not like we had a bunch of blown coverage's but really we had a lot of fundamental busts. We had our defensive unit meeting last night and I told them that I wanted to find guys that would do it the right way. I am not asking anyone to jump higher or be faster or stronger but just to play in the system. We gave up two big plays playing man coverage and trying to blitz and on both plays we were outside. I will play the people that are going to do it right, whether they be freshman, sophomores, juniors or seniors. It obviously hurt a bit when we lost Best and Mattocks. J.J. Milbrook saw his first real time back there and made some mistakes so hopefully he will get better at it. The thing that is encouraging is that they are correctable mistakes. We just need to get through to our players how important it is to play within the system."
On Chris Johnson:
"I have great respect for Chris Johnson, not because he can run a 4.2 or carry the ball 1,000 yards, but because of the attitude that he has had. So many times as a senior it is easy to come in and coast through trying not to get hurt but he hasn't missed a beat. He comes into the weight room after getting beat up on Saturday and doesn't ask to get out of anything. He has been a leader and is one of the hardest working players on the field. He hasn't developed a big head and I just think he has been a great leader for this team."
