University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss vs Marshall Postgame Quotes
11/8/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
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Head Coach Todd Monken Quotes
On the fast start... It was great. Outstanding. We had a plan that if we scored early we were going to onside kick until they recovered it. If we would have gotten that other one, we would have kicked another one after we scored. We are not good enough in one given area to compete against a team like that. Coaching, playing. Not good enough. We don't capitalize on anything yet as a team. Momentum is a powerful thing. We had plenty of opportunities in this game. It is crazy how the score ended up when you think about all the different opportunities. You are up 14-0 and you get another onside kick and a player that is on our side who has no opportunity of recovering it is offsides. That is coaching. That is poor. Then to constantly give them the ball at midfield or closer to an offense like that from kickoff cover to not getting a first down to a bad point. And not being able to score, whether it is right at the end of the half or to start the second half. It is a short week. It only counts as one. We know that we are not there yet. As I told the team, I am not discouraged. I am actually encouraged. I really am. We have the right guys. We just have to do it better. We are capable of so much more.
On not converting a fourth and inches... There is really not much to talk about. You are on your own 30 yardline and you fumble a sneak and you don't get it. You have a chance to gain whatever momentum it is and not give it to them and get an inch. Obviously, we didn't get the inch so it was a poor decision.
Marshall didn't appear to have many explosive plays... They had them at the end. Their explosive plays came at the end. The long run and a couple of times (Rakeem Cato) pulled it and ran with it, which he is capable of. That is where it came. That is when they are going to come. They are going to come when he breaks down or when the game gets to a point where you are just a hair from an energy standpoint from or a detail standpoint. You are just not as dialed in as you were before. It turns a little bit. It doesn't take long against a really good team to get to that way. We didn't play the turnover game or the field position game well enough. We ran the ball well enough. I am proud of our guys that way. We ran the ball well enough and took care of the ball up until the second half.
On the running game... We did a nice job of blocking it. I don't think they were convinced we would run it so our guys did a good job. I thought our backs ran hard.
Southern Miss Player Quotes
Senior DB Emmanuel Johnson
On Rakeem Cato... "I have been playing (against him) for four years; he is a great guy. Athletic ability is one of his biggest keys that he has. He doesn't always have to stay in the pocket, although he does get time, When he doesn't get time, he has the ability to step outside of the pocket and still make a play - on the run or look downfield and still make a play while he is running. You have to be a very disciplined team to play against him. The guys down the field have to stay with their man if he does break the pocket. You still have to have someone to contain him. You have to give him props."
On Coach Monken saying that he was more encouraged than discouraged after the game... "It's the truth, We have a good program. The fact that you put stuff together all week and you run it over and over again and you think you got it. And then you make that critical mistake in the game. It hurts deep inside, because you know you prepared so much for it all week. It is nothing schematically that we are doing wrong, Our focus needs to be tighter than it is."
Freshman RB Ito Smith Did you think you would have had as much of an impact coming into this game... "In practice throughout the week I got the ball a lot, so I figured I would get the ball a lot in the game. That is what we (typically) do. If you play a lot in practice, you (usually) get the ball a lot in the game."
On what he attributes his success in the contest... "The offensive line just did a great job. The coaches did a nice job scheme-wise, The offensive line - it was all them."
On scoring your first career touchdown... "I felt pretty good. I was happy. I wanted to come back out and get another one."
Quotes From Marshall Coach Doc Holliday
Opening Statement: "Well, It was evident that we had a little adversity early on but we were able to do a great job with that on-side kick. We came back from that and played well throughout the rest of the game.
On Team Bouncing Back From 14-0 hole: "It's what these kids do. They get upset when faced with adversity but they decide to not get rattled and just play. Offensively, he didn't turn the ball over. He took care of the ball. That was important.
On Southern Miss attempting back-to-back onside kicks in the first quarter: "I was surprised by the on-side kick because you don't normally do that. Bottom line we should have made the play. They did a tremendous job of executing that..giving them credit. But you have got to make that play.
On holding out running back Devon Johnson: Devon probably could've played, but I watched him during warm-ups and didn't like his body language. But I was pleased with the way that our guys went out there and played."
On play of backup running back Remi Watson: "It was great to see Remi make the plays to numbers on the board. He's a big physical guy and it's nice to see him make plays.
On the improvements he's seen from Southern Miss in the last year: Todd has done a tremendous thing with this USM team. They are definitely not the team we played last year. You have to look at their defensive front, as mentioned before, we had a hard time against them. But we were able to figure it out in the second half.
