University of Massachusets Athletics
Coach Don Brown's Weekly Teleconference
October 09, 2007 | Football
Oct. 9, 2007
AMHERST, Mass. - Don Brown Weekly Teleconference (10/8/07)
On how the team used the bye week: "We certainly tried to take steps to move forward. We worked a lot on the timing phases of the football game, special teams, and passing game. We banged it around a little bit with the guys that were truly healthy and tried to get some of our young players involved, in terms of getting them up to speed. Sometimes you don't get to coach those guys because they spend so much time on scout teams on game weeks. It gave us a chance to get those guys involved a little bit and spend some time coaching them. The second half of the year is going to present some challenges. We have guys that are on the brink of playing important roles. We spent a lot of time trying to get those guys up to speed."
On what players are on the brink of making an impact: "I look at Reshaude Goodwin, who is starting to get some playing time for us, who got to camp late. We got him a lot of work this week and he played a lot in the Boston College game. He and Spencer Ridenhour, our strong safety who hasn't been getting a lot of time, but I see him having a bigger role as we move forward. Victor Cruz, a wide receiver, is going to get some substantial playing time as we move forward. Those three guys primarily."
On Liam Coen's injury: "He was full-go later in the week for us. He practiced full-go yesterday. Obviously, we were very careful with him early last week but really feel good about where's at right now."
On possibility of getting Brad Listorti back soon: "We're certainly hoping to. Brad is day-to-day right now. We're trying to be smart with the young man. When you're coming back from a back injury that's the best way. So right now he's day-to-day."
On Villanova: "Well we certainly saw a hot quarterback last week. Antwon Young played extremely well. I think he was 20 of 26. He developed a nice rapport with Matt Sherry, their outstanding tight end, who is making big play after big play. He had a 100 yards receiving. I like their receivers, led by Atkinson, a junior, who also gave them some versatility by throwing a touchdown pass. Brandyn Harvey, the sophomore, Anton Ridley, a senior, those guys can give you something. Matt Dicken had a solid game at tailback. Babbaro, the redshirt freshman, also played extremely well. They got a lot of guys into the act. I think their offensive line is starting to gel and come together. You heard Coach Talley earlier allude to the fact that they took advantage of some field position, which they did, but they also played extremely well on the offensive side of the ball."
On where the team stands at this point of the season: "I don't think we have come nearly as close to being as good a football team as we can be. The penalty thing is obviously an issue. We went to Boston College and had 17 and look at Bowling Green and they had 12 last week against Boston College. So maybe that's just a tough place to go play as far as officiating. That was after we made a fairly solid recovery and played well against Maine. I think our execution on both sides has been really solid at times, but I feel we have played only one 60 minute football game. Really that is the goal, to execute and play fanatical for 60 minutes. That's really our goal."
On the offensive line: "Our offensive line has come along nicely. We've played a number of guys. At left tackle we've played Vladimir Ducasse, who's a true sophomore and Ben Coblyn, a transfer from B.U. as a basketball player, has certainly helped us as well. He's a big fella. He's 6-8, 295. Matt Austin has solidified us at the offensive line, which has allowed us to keep Nick Diana, our All-Conference guard, at that position. Chris Hopkins has battled injury but found a way to stay on the field at the other guard position. Sean Calicchio has played very well at right tackle. We certainly feel very solid about those guys. We did move Matt Stolte over from defense to offense this year. He's been a pleasant surprise and has played valuable minutes as well."
On the defensive backfield: "We're playing number of guys right now, with the leader at the corner position being Sean Smalls. He's a big corner with life, speed, and is talented. Courtney Robinson is solidifying us at the other corner position. Corey Davis and Reshaude Goodwin are also getting playing time there as well. Mike Meggett has played extremely well at rover. Jeromy Miles and Brian Ellis have shared time at free safety. With the number of packages we run those guys are all getting a lot of minutes and playing a lot of football. I thought those guys stood up well against Matt Ryan and the B.C. receivers. They were 24 of 42 against us for around 203 yards. So when you look at that and what Ryan is doing against everybody else, you feel like your guys are starting to come together. We've seen an awful lot of throws so far. We have played Towson in league. Maine didn't throw the ball all that much but Holy Cross was throwing the ball extremely well. We saw a number of throws from them, and Colgate as well. I think we're starting to get our sea legs and I feel pretty good about how the secondary has been functioning."
On recent success of league in playoffs: "If you're going to be a good team in our league on a year-in year-out basis, you need to play well on the road and you need to be able to hold serve at home. You are playing against good teams each week. We don't have two or three teams at the top of the ladder, then some bottom-dwellers, and couple teams that are hit or miss in the middle. I think when look at who should win each week it doesn't matter. You need to play well when you're at home and the teams that can muster a championship run can play well on the road. It's just general schedule of playing eight games against eight conference opponents and you know each week you are going to be tested. If you make through that to the playoff structure, your guys have great demeanor and they know how to compete on a week-to-week basis."
On working on reducing penalties: "I think you try to be really particular about your take-offs and your blitz period. The thing when you look at our penalties, it hasn't been unsportsmanlike or those kind of things. They haven't been discipline issues. They have been more effort, energy issues. I think the crowd at B.C. certainly bothered our young left tackle, especially in the student section. He had three penalties himself. So part of it is the venue and the environment. Part of it is also that you want your guys to play with effort and energy and there is such a thin line there. If you look at Florida a year ago in the Bowl Subdivision, they were second in the country in penalties. Part of that is when you have aggressive guys that are competing 100 miles an hour, you are going to have a little bit of that. But you'd certainly rather be in the scenario like up at Maine when we only had four."
