University of Massachusets Athletics
Weekly Teleconference Quotes With Don Brown
October 05, 2004 | Football
Oct. 5, 2004
Question: Can you talk about your game on Saturday with Boston College and what your impressions were.
Brown: We went to Alumni Stadium and played a very good football team - well coached and extremely physical. They've got two potential first round picks on their defensive line in Mathias Kiwanuka and Tim Bulman. Will Blackmon is the real deal at the corner and freshman Brian Toal is playing a heck of a lot more. They are very, very good on defense. We had our hands full handling their front four. For us defensively, there were some positives. Shannon James played a tremendous game and was not awe struck by their ability. He had two interceptions and played well in the run game. We forced Peterson into three picks and had our hands on three other balls. Our red zone defense was pretty good as we held them to three field goals. And from the four-minute mark in the second quarter until late in the fourth quarter, we did a nice job getting the game under control. We battled our faces off - there's no question about that. You know obviously there offensive line is absolutely mammoth and we competed with them all day long. So, some good thing obviously from our end. You're never happy when you're in the 'L' column, but some things you can take away for sure.
Question: You mentioned the game Shannon James had to earn the defensive player of the week in the league. Who else on defense looked good for you?
Brown: Well, R.J. Cobbs one of our corners was involved in thirteen tackles. Tracy Belton who had one ball slip through his hands in the second quarter on a close play in the end zone that you know I'm sure he was disappointed about came back and made a big interception in the third quarter. He also had a pass break up in the game. Andy Blumenthal, one of our red shirt freshmen, battled and played hard up front all day long, as did Justin Schweighardt. So there were some good things defensively. Offensively, we weren't able to get on track against their defense at all and just couldn't run the ball consistently enough to keep them off our backs. Obviously, if you become one dimensional in a game like that, you've got some real issues.
Question: Talk about Tim Day's development this season thus far at quarterback.
Brown: Well, Timmy really came out of the blocks against Delaware State and performed like we expected him to setting a pass efficiency record for this school and then followed that up with a very solid Colgate game. Against Richmond he did not play poorly, you know we had a touchdown called back, and lost his security blanket a little bit when Jason Peebler was out for a couple of quarters. Obviously by his own admission he did not play great against Delaware, but I think they are extremely good on defense. He had his hands full this week against a very, very good Boston College defense. So we think he's hanging in there and anxious to get back in the league and anxious to see how he is going to perform this weekend.
Question: You've had the privilege of coaching Steve Baylark this season; you had the problem of defending him last year. What's been the big difference for you?
Brown: Well, I'm glad he's on my team - that's the biggest difference. You know Steve is a very good player, and we need him to play at a very, very high level. He had ninety-five yards rushing against Delaware two weeks ago and with a couple missed cuts, I think he could have increased that scenario by about fifty yards. So, if we're going to make a run at this thing, we need to get great play from Steve over the next six weeks. We're looking forward to seeing how he is going to step it up this week.
Question: Talking about people stepping it up, you mentioned after the game you are still trying to identify the guys you can trust. Is it getting easier to figure out who those guys are or is it just a process that has a ways to go?
Brown: We still got some ways to go, but the one thing about playing a great 'I-A' opponent is that you're weaknesses get exposed very quickly. I think we have a better handle on that. Obviously, we're still trying to develop chemistry and come together as a team. It's tough when you face adversity, but that's when you find out about people. We're still climbing through that process to see where we are at as a football team.
Question: What did you learn on Saturday in terms of what the biggest weakness you need to work on is?
Brown: We've got to get some balance on offense; there's no question about it. You know we're searching for that right now. We've had too many missed assignments out of our receiver corps, so we're trying to get some guys there that we can count on running the right routes so Timmy knows he's got somebody to throw the ball to. Along with that, just developing some continuity and some plays we can consistently run and have some success with. You know I think part of the process, when you go through struggles, is you try and put you're finger on something. But it's usually not a big thing, it's more of the little things coming together and having guys click as one. You have eleven players out there and you need them to function as one. But certainly assignment wise, we have got to be much, much clearer in that picture.
Question: What do you expect from James Madison?
Brown: They played very well last week against Villanova. Coach Matthews has got them running the ball consistently. Justin Riscotti is certainly giving them some nice balance on offense and is an efficient quarterback. He was 19-for-22 last week for 188 yards. He moves around and he can ad-lib. They have good balance going on offense, so we certainly have our hands full there. They run hard on defense, which is a trademark of Coach Matthews's group. They play a bit of a different style defensively, in the eight man front as opposed to the four-three in the past but still have the same effort and energy. We're expecting a heck of a challenge down in Virginia.
Question: In the last few years when you were at Northeastern you had a lot of success against the Dukes. What was the key to that and what do you expect this Saturday?
Brown: Well I'm not really sure what the keys were; we were able to just come out with a win, but it was always highly competitive. I need to have guys focused on executing on what we do both offensively and defensively. We need to be sharp in the kicking game. I think JMU is better on offense than they have been in the past as coach Matthews has spoken about. That gives their defense a little more time to have a seat and relax. Its much more of a balanced football team and when you are better on offense that helps you be better on defense.
