Coach Montgomery’s Weekly Press Conference Quotes

Press Conference

GREENVILLE, N.C. – Third-year ECU Head Football Coach Scottie Montgomery addressed members of the media on Monday prior to this Friday's road game at Cincinnati. The following are selected comments:

Opening Statement:
"First, it was great to get a big time win on Senior Night for our seniors. We had such great contributions from our seniors. Whether it be Nate Harvey, Garrett McGhin and Ray Tillman. Those guys just played extremely tough and hard all night. We don't have very many seniors on the field playing a lot of snaps, but the ones that we had in the game, we have to take our hat off to the way they played throughout the game. I thought Anthony Scott had major contributions throughout the game. All over the field, there were major contributions to our football team from our seniors. But the flipside of the coin is the way that our freshmen played. I looked at the tape. I don't like to talk about freshmen too much, but (Tyler) Snead had just a fantastic game. We had a lot of guys contributing for the first time and some guys contributing as true freshmen. Some of the names that come up, (Gerard) Stringer played really well. (Damel) Hickman played well. Leroy Henley, Xavier Smith, Blake Proehl, Peyton Winstead, Daniel Charles, Nolan (Johnson) and Myles (Berry). The reason why I bring these guys up is because after the game, a lot of our seniors were talking about the freshmen. They called on the freshmen, they called on the sophomores and juniors to come and help them have a complete Senior Day. So, I was glad we were able to support them in a major way.

"I'm going to go back and talk offensively a little bit. I thought we did a much better job running the football. I thought we were much more creative in the way that we ran the football and our guys did a good job. Holton Ahlers, the Conference's Offensive Player-of-the-Week, did a really good job throughout the game. It was one of those games where everything in his progressions was correct for the most part. His run game decisions were really good outside of two late opportunities to just hand the ball off. He ran it at the end which made it a little tough.

"Defensively, you have to say that we're anchored right now by Nate Harvey. He is in a record-setting mode, there's no question about it. He did a great job for us and for that, he's the Defensive Player-of-the-Week in our conference. So, we had the Offensive and Defensive Player-of-the-Weeks in the conference. That makes you feel good about guys playing well together. Special teams we continue to try to grow. I really like what we're seeing every week from Jake (Verity), who in my opinion, is definitely our Special Teams Player-of-the-Year if you had to say it right now. He's been off the charts and done a really good job."

On Cincinnati:
"We're going against a team that plays outstanding defense. I think there's only been two teams that have been able to get 400 yards on them and they've had to work for everything they get. This week is going to be about how we're going to have to get two, three, or four-yard gains. Keep the chains together and then when we get a chance to get a one-on-one opportunity, we're going to have to hit it. They do a really good job on the perimeter, playing one-on-one football. We have to know where our receivers are going to be. Our quarterback, I think, has done a really good job of putting the football where it's supposed to be, and our receivers have to do a better job of being exactly where they're supposed to be. We did a better job this past week. We have to continue that mode.

"Defensively, it all starts around their quarterback, No. 9 (Desmond Ridder) and the backfield behind him. Everything is going to come off the run for them. They have a 1,000-yard rusher and do a good job on the RPO and they also do a good job in the play-action pass. So, we've got to be able to stop the run once again. Once we adjusted our defense in the first and second quarter against UConn, we were definitely on and we played spectacular performance. We had a spectacular performance the rest of the game and that's what we've got to continue. Playing offense, defense, special teams at a high level."

On Holton Ahler's Progression:
"It's getting better and better. Every now and again, there has been a little bit of a light where he goes to another level. Some people don't have a chance to see it. Last week, even in his percentages, everybody was talking about his pass percentage, he jumped a huge level because he didn't take some of the shots. He didn't throw into bad man-to-man situations where they were dropping a robber down in there. Most freshmen quarterbacks can't help themselves but throw over the middle in some of those situations. He didn't do it. But you didn't see the production of numbers so that's a huge jump. It's about making sure his bad plays aren't awful plays and he did that.

"Last week, I thought that he did a much better job of anticipatory throws. The ball, I don't think a lot of people are talking about it right now, but the ball that he threw to Trevon Brown in the back of the end zone was his best throw yet as a college player. It was anticipatory. He worked the back-side safety by holding him off just long enough. He let the middle clear and then threw it right over the backer's head to the back of the end zone where the only person that could catch it was Trevon. So, we've seen a great progression from him. He's going to have to come out and prove it again this week. He's got some tough looks. They mix the fronts up. He's doing a good job of understanding fronts. He did a great job last week of directing the run game. He did a lot in the run game last week that we saw a lot of his progression."

On Injuries:
"Darius Pinnix will more than likely be out for the game with the ankle sprain. Ray Tillman will more than likely be out for the game. I'm going to say very likely that he's out for the game. He had a deep thigh contusion that required a little bit of an emergency surgery on Sunday morning. So that's something that has happened and he's right now still in the hospital. I'll say, as a senior, I have to commend what he was able to do in that situation where Aaron Ramseur we thought he may be able to get back for the game. Ray went in and played at a high level. I'm really proud of him and our prayers go out for him and to him. Ray and Darius are the ones that I'll say at this point in time will be out = with such a short week."

On Potentially Sitting Tyler Snead To Use A Redshirt:
"Probably a thought on the outside. That thought has not been as much on the inside because you almost have to fight him to have that conversation with him right now. Not playing in a game. I think that our freshmen have really rallied around the thought of it being for the seniors. Those are not the things that our coaches are thinking about at this point in time. I'm thinking about it always because I know who's played three (games), who's played two, who's played one. So, that's something that kind of runs on the outside of my mind when I leave the building, but inside the building, I'll lean on Snead and some of his teammates. Because he really thinks he's starting to put together a really good career. He doesn't want to put a stoppage in there anywhere. But at the same time, this is about trying to win as many games as we can with our seniors. I don't think that's even crossed his mind. To have that conversation with him, after the great conversation we had this morning. This morning, in the team meeting, I decided to tell the team that next year, moving forward, that Snead will be a full scholarship player."

On Improvement In Cincinnati's Defense:
"They're really good. I think that the one thing you'll see is multiple fronts. But they have the people, they have the personnel. A lot of their guys, if you look on the sheet, they're sophomores, they're juniors. I really like their defensive ends, No. 43 (Michael Pitts) and No. 51 (Kimoni Fitz). Little bit bigger than the guys we play with but play with the same mentality. They're tenacious getting to the quarterback and tackling the ball on the way there. I really like what they've done in their secondary. A lot of those guys haven't played a lot, but they're extremely talented. They have done a good job in their city area and moving out into the region in their recruiting, even before Coach (Fickell) was there. Now he's just extended it with some things that they can do in the offseason to recruit. They've done a good job defensively. They play really good defense by putting a lot of stress on you on the perimeter. They put a lot of stress on the quarterback because he's going to have to make some tight throws."

Players Mentioned

Holton Ahlers

Trevon Brown

Daniel Charles

Nate Harvey

Leroy Henley

Garrett McGhin

Darius Pinnix, Jr.

Blake Proehl

Aaron Ramseur

Anthony Scott

Xavier Smith

Tyler Snead

Ray Tillman

Peyton Winstead

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