University of Massachusets Athletics
Coach Don Brown's Weekly CAA Teleconference
November 04, 2008 | Football
Nov. 4, 2008
UMass Head Football Coach Don Brown had his weekly CAA teleconference on Monday. Brown discussed last week's 49-0 win over Rhode Island and looked forward to this weekend's home matchup with Maine. Kickoff is scheduled for 12 p.m.
Coach Brown on UMass' defensive effort against Rhode Island:
Over the last five games, we settled down and got them to play with some consistency there. Our first four games, we gave up 44 points a game. The last five games, we've given up 13 points per game. Our yards have gone down by more than half, so I think we're just starting to figure out who the guys are, who we can count on, and who we can trust to run the schemes the right way. It culminated with a really solid effort on Saturday. Once again, Josh Jennings had a couple of big plays: two interceptions, one for a touchdown. I thought Eric Dickson and Shane Viveiros, who we've injected into our packages, certainly gave us some big plays. Both of them had sacks and chased the quarterback around a little bit. We've been banged up in the defensive front four and I thought Kyle Harrington did a good job playing nicked up. Mike Hanson probably had his best game up front, and Darnel DeLaire continues to be solid. We've got to piece that part of it together. We played really well there; obviously it was a big day for Liam Coen in his last trip to Rhode Island. He was 15-for-17 with two drops and just played tremendously all day long.
On Coen's Performance:
He's been less than 100%. He had a little arm situation a couple weeks back, but he's certainly not let it bother him. His focus is tremendous. We scored in our first five offensive drives. He was just immense; he made every throw he had to make. Obviously, Tony Nelson had another solid day. His numbers don't reflect anything special, but two touchdowns, 12 carries for 66 yards. Liam made all the throws and once again Victor Cruz had over 100 yards receiving, and Jeremy Horne was right there with him for four catches for 86. Coen is such a solid leader. All he cares about is winning. He just continues to have great focus and great understanding of what we're trying to get done.
On Texas Tech's last-second win over top-ranked Texas:
I don't know about taking a measure of satisfaction [on the win], because that was a long day at the old rock pile. They're pretty good. Harrell is unbelievable. Crabtree certainly showed his stuff. I felt pretty good that we held Crabtree to five catches for 60 yards and they didn't have big throws downfield. Their offensive line blocks out the sun; they have two great running backs, Eric Morris along with Crabtree, Leong, and Britton, their unbelievable receivers. They're the best team I've ever competed against, but I don't know if that's saying much. Bottom line is I think they're a very, very solid team in all phases. Their defense played really well with the exception of two big pass plays.
On whether or not he is rooting for Texas Tech to win the National Championship:
I like them. They're a good football team and I root for good football teams. The thing I like too is that Coach Leach has the ability to run the ball and give them some balance when he needs to. They're playing really good defense too; that's been their Achilles heel in the past. I'm not sure if that's an issue at this point in time. Obviously when we look at the schedule we've played to this point, we certainly don't feel like we've played against any slouches.
Putting Saturday's game vs. Maine into postseason perspective:
I think if you make your expectations too vague, sometimes you can lose focus on what's important. We're focused on a very, very good Maine football team that's playing really well in all three phases. In reality, I'd like to think that in our league and what's shaking up around the country, that 8-4 for either one of these teams might be considered for postseason play. But you certainly want to keep away from that. Bottom line is you just have to focus on what's in front of you and that's playing a good Maine team, who is playing really well at this point in time. We're playing about as well as we can play the last couple weeks. The focus has just been on playing one game at a time and look up on it the last week and make your case [for the postseason].
On UMass' increase in sacks after recording eight on Saturday:
The week before URI (against Bryant), we had another good day in terms of sacks (four). We chased Delaware around really well and held them to around 100 yards throwing. We actually chased Richmond around and held them to 90. I think it's been building over the last few weeks; we were able to finish on Saturday. I was really happy with the way Corey Davis and Ray Goodwin both played as they had to fill in for Sean Smalls. Again, those guys have been playing in packages, so I wasn't concerned that they wouldn't be able to handle the load until they actually did it. You want to see it get done first. In reality, I think it's been building for us over the last few weeks and we just were able to finish on Saturday for whatever reason.
Previewing Maine's personnel:
I think Coach Cosgrove has always done a good job of taking his personnel and trying to make the most of it and playing to their strengths. They're playing a physical brand of football. They can get on the perimeter with their backs and run the football extremely well. Michael Brusko is doing similar things: he's running the quarterback, he's getting out on the perimeter. They're featuring him on some of the option stuff. On defense, it's a very typical Maine team, a very solid structure. Jovan Belcher up front is playing at an extremely high level. I like Shaun Watson. Their secondary is playing solid as well. Again, just a very solid football team that has found its style on offense and playing very competitive defense. They give themselves a chance to win on a week-to-week basis.
