University of Massachusets Athletics
CAA Weekly Teleconference
September 22, 2008 | Football
Sept. 22, 2008
AMHERST, Mass. - On Monday, UMass head football coach Don Brown, held his weekly CAA teleconfernece. He spoke about last weeks game about Texas Tech, how the minutemen will use there bye week and what he expects from Deleware.
About the Texas Tech Game last weekend:
It was a fast pace game, considering Texas Tech's unique talent on both sides, as well as in their kicking game. Early on, we fell behind 14-0, and they ran a slant. Jeremy Miles, our safety, knocked the ball out, and we picked it up running it 53 yards for a touchdown. On the ensuing kickoff, the other team fumbled and we recovered, but after going to replay, we lost the recovery. This was very disappointing, especially after I watched the tape this morning. I certainly did not see what they did. The reality was though that Texas Tech got the ball 14-7, and they threw it over the middle, hitting our strong safety right between the numbers. This gave us a chance for an interception. Two plays later, however, our opponents called a Phantom Face Mask, leaving us in a difficult situation to continue battling. In the first half we had two opportunities for interceptions, and we dropped them both. Obviously, we struggled on offense for the majority of the first half. Even though our guys played hard and did a good job, we couldn't get out of our own ways. Despite the score, they did a great job competing. I believe we did a decent job on Michael Crabtree, who had five catches for sixty yards, as well as Graham Harrells, Texas Tech's quarterback. These guys are both Heisman Trophy candidates, and clearly the real deal. There were a lot of things in that football game that I think we could take away fromand feel good about; our special teams, against their talent, was vastly improved. Eric Morris was an outstanding kick returner, and we held him to three returns for 29 yards, and our kick off return coverage was much better. There were absolutely some things we did better, and it's understandable that we were up against tough competition. Texas Tech is a different breed; they have four skilled guards at receiver, and their entire defense can fly. But there are some good things we learned, especially since we played against a variety of guys. Korrey Davis, our young freshman tailback, carried it 15 times for 54 yards. Victor Cruz again played well, with five catches for 54 yards, and again, our special teams significantly improved.
On having two weeks off:
We have eight games left that determine our fate. Our first on the doctorate is Delaware. They are an excellent football team, next couple days we are going to review where we are at, and then try to get a jump on Delaware. Also the guys that need to get healthy need to get healthy, and they guys who need to get better need to get better. So we are going to use it as an improvement week in the early phases and then start to get ready for Delaware preparation as we move towards Thursday. We need to improve in several areas, blocking, and tackling, zone blocking, matching gaps, one on one technique in terms of coverage, and running routes in all phases, and just a lot of fundamentals in football that you just don't have as much time to work on in a regular week. Try to take our guys back and work on creating turnover circuits and tackling circuits, and those kinds of things that get you better on defense ball security on offense, two-minute drill, all the little things that you need to go over to get you ready for the final eight week push.
Is this bye week coming at a right time?:
We have played three straight road games, we have gone to JMU which is a charter, we've gone to Texas Tech which we didn't get back till six in the morning, so in terms of the fatigue factor, we have played two very good teams on a back to back bases, so in terms of that it comes in a good time. And it gives us a chance to kind of access and see what we are doing right and wrong. Obviously we have to take some huge steps to put our selves in position here....to get ready for a very good Delaware team.
On having number one and two in the same league with JMU and Richmond:
Obviously they are playing good football, and it bodes well for the top of our league that's for sure, both of those teams were in the playoffs a year ago and have a good shot at repeating as long as they continue to stay healthy and move forward. So it's a good thing for the league, whenever you have a lot of teams like the five we had last year shows a lot of positive and overall strength from top to bottom.
