University of Massachusets Athletics
Don Brown's Weekly CAA Teleconference
September 15, 2008 | Football
Sept. 15, 2008
AMHERST, Mass. -
On the James Madison game last weekend:
For the third game in a row we got behind, it's never a good place to be and we've been able to dig our way out of a hole in the first two but we just weren't able to overcome the deficit. We threw the ball pretty well, Liam had 339 yards throwing, and Victor Cruz had 262 receiving yards. I thought the difference in the game was the Rodney Landers played a perfect game, he made all the right reads and he rushed for 200 plus yards.
There were two possibilities for turnovers and with us coming out with no turnovers I thought we needed to turn the ball over to turn them over to get where we wanted to be. The ball was on the ground twice but unfortunately we weren't able to recover either one. We just weren't able to get any kind of rhythm; we closed the deficit twice to seven, but they were able to respond in both situations.
It wasn't a good game for us in special teams. We gave up over 200 return yards and obviously McGee is a big part of that. But Landers played a solid football game with no turnovers. He made all the right decisions and we just need to play better. I thought offensively we played well. But in special teams and defense, you need to win two of the three phases of the game and we didn't do that.
On facing Texas Tech:
No question about it, Graham Harrell is an excellent quarterback. He was a great feel for what Coach Leach wants to do in the throwing and running game. Obviously they are led by their marquee receiver Michael Crabtree. They're a Top-15 BCS team, so we have our hands full and we're going to have to play our best game to date to even give ourselves a chance.
On transition from run defense to pass defense:
There's a big difference, Holy Cross is pretty similar in their approach. But just dealing with the athletes, the timing of the throw game and shifting gears. This will be our fourth game this week, and it's been a complete shift in every game we've played. So the bottom line is that it isn't an easy transition and especially dealing with the quality of the athletes. If you get too wrapped up in the passing game, their running backs are excellent speed guys with great quickness. Shannon Woods and Baron Batch are excellent players. They'll slip in there and hurt you with the zone schemes if you just completely defend one side of the ball. So they will keep you honest with the run game.
On the emotional readiness of the team:
The guys responded really good. The bottom line is that we're 2-1. We know the task that we have at hand. We need to improve and focus on execution, which I didn't think we did a good job on the defensive side of the ball. And all that emotional stuff goes out the window after about the first five plays. You have to rely on execution, which is really where our focus needs to be.
On the play of the offensive line and the status of Sean Calicchio:
Sean has a sprained ankle, and we're going to have to play it out and see how it goes. He was limping a lot yesterday, so we'll just have to wait and see as we get through Monday. John Ihne stepped in there for him, I don't think he graded out tremendously well, but we were able to run our offense and function with him in there. He's an example of a guy that knows the system and stepped in and did a solid job, and good teams have to have guys step in and play well and I thought the offensive line played well against a good James Madison defense. We did give up two sacks, but they were at the end of the game.
On motivating the team for Texas Tech:
Well we certainly have to get them excited about playing in a great environment but I think a lot of that will take care of itself. When we get down there Saturday and go through our walkthrough in the stadium, I'm sure that will get the guys juiced. We've responded well to these challenges in the past. We played Boston College fairly well a year ago, 24-14, and they were a Top-10 team in the country when we played them. Our guys are excited, and our season is not over. So we need to focus on bouncing back and improvement and execution. Those are the things that get you to the next week is making sure that you're focused and trying to get better at what you do.
On getting off to a good start and forcing turnovers:
Harrell's an excellent quarterback. He knows where to go with the ball and will take his deep shots. He's poised and gets away from the rush well. Graham's just and excellent quarterback, so when you have those opportunities, you have to make them count. Those kinds of scenarios are game breakers and that's the difference between victory and defeat.
On Mike Leach's offense:
Everybody seems to be running forms of the spread; Coach really emphasizes the pass piece. And his guys really have an understanding of what they're doing. Their offensive line blocks out the sun. They're big, strong guys who know what they're doing. So we need to be at our best because you can't be single purposed against them. You have to have a full arsenal because they're going to have answers and we need to be able to move on and adjust.
