University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Todd Monken Weekly Media Conference
9/15/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
Southern Miss Coach Todd Monken
Weekly Media Conference, Sept. 15, 2014
Opening statement...
"Appalachian State is a vastly improved team from last year to now. You can see the last two or three ball games they played last year. Beating Georgia Southern where my cousin was at, soundly. The improvement that they have made, especially on the offensive side. The scheme that they run presents a number of problems. Coach Satterfield has done a great job. It is always tough coming in and taking over for a guy like Jerry Moore, who was there for so long. He is putting his stamp on the program. They are a much improved football team. We are going to have to play our best this weekend to give ourselves a chance to win. I am positive we will."
On Appalachian State having a bye week to prepare...
"The rest? I am not always sure how that effects (preparation). There have been times in my career where we have a bye week and for our players that's great, but then we come out sluggish. If you have the extra week and you are able to get guys back health wise, then it is always good from a health standpoint. This early in the year, I don't know. From a schematic standpoint, you have a chance to look and dissect. How do we want to do this? Formations. You get a chance to hone in on some special plays. We have to be dialed into anything from onside kicks to punt fakes to different types of punt rushes we haven't seen in the past. Formational-wise doing things a little bit differently. That is what you get out of a bye week. You get to work on a few things you don't have in a normal week. In the end, the high percentage of what they still do, just like us, with or without a bye week is what you believe in and will be the core of what you run offensively and defensively. If you change too much, then you didn't believe in what you ran previously. We have to be dialed in to what they do, what problems it creates for us and what do we do from there."
On Appalachian State offensively...
"They have two good young running backs, (Terrance) Upshaw and (Marcus) Cox. They are both powerful guys who are quick. Their quarterback is athletic. He really does a good job of decision making. They put you in run-pass conflicts. They are not going to beat you throwing the ball, quick gain. They are going to try and run it and pass it down the field. We have to do a great job of eliminating eye violations, putting them in passing situations and try to get after them. That is true with every team. They are going to pose the same problems we have had in all three games, starting with Mississippi State - an athletic quarterback - then Alcorn State and when (Blake) Sims was in for Alabama. We just have to do it better. We have to find a way to eliminate the explosive plays and make them go the distance."
On re-establishing the run against App State...
"I want to be balanced. Good football is balanced. The problem is it's hard to be balanced against someone who is that physical (in Alabama). We thought our best chance to move it was to let Nick (Mullens) throw it and give our guys a chance to make plays on the perimeter. Some of that was dictated by them. Some of the plays we made, one was a third-down play against man, one was a run play that we ran a go route and Nick threw it to him. It was part of a run play. A lot of people are doing that with runs with throws on the perimeter. Some of that was a creature of what they were doing. Some of it was plays we wanted to try to get it in there. How can we run different pass combinations to give ourselves a chance to get explosive plays? Some of the times we did. Obviously when we did, we gave ourselves a chance to score."
On what kind of problems does App State pose defensively...
"Defensively, they are different than our guys. Our guys are four down and they are three down front. They will kick down some and play their boundary outside backer which basically becomes four down. That is the only thing really, communication and the amount of reps you have against it. We have been able to go up a little bit against it with Alcorn. We worked on it in training camp. It is just communication. It isn't difficult. They are sound. They do a good job. They are well coached. They play hard. It is not difficult; it is just different. How do we communicate? Get on the right guys. That way we don't give up something to where we turn somebody loose and get a loss of yardage or a turnover based on a missed assignment."
On the improving communication of the offense...
"Nick got the ball out quickly. We have to shore up a few things up front with twists and different things they presented to us. We threw it a little bit more. If that is what we are going to do, we need to work it a little bit more during the week. We probably did a disservice to those guys, but as the game kept progressing, we thought it was the best way for us to move it. I thought they communicated better. We didn't pass things off as well as I would have liked. I thought we communicated better. I thought we communicated better when we wanted to go fast or when we wanted to do certain things. It is still about communication, doing it better than they do it and good football still wins. We didn't turn it over, which is a huge part of winning - for two games in a row - so we are on the right track. We have taken care of the ball. That is the biggest thing. How do we continue to do it better?"
On creating an identity of a team that doesn't turn the ball over...
"I don't know if they would view it like that. Going into a game, you are going to tell your team that you need to create turnovers. Part of that is disrupting. How do you effect the quarterback? Try to put yourself in a position to strip it from the ball carrier. I don't know what that means to the opponent. I know what it means for us. It is everything. It is giving yourself a chance. When you don't turn it over, you at least punt it and make them go the distance. You want the game to change in a hurry? Turn the ball over. We did that last year. That is why we ended up where we did last year - we turned it over. We had a hard time protecting the ball. We put ourselves in harm's way. Eliminating that is the key to everything we do."
On Appalachian State's program...
"If my memory recalls, they won three FCS National Championships. They beat Michigan Lloyd Carr's last year. It was a historic upset up there against a good Michigan team. They have had a storied tradition of winning. Now they have moved up to Division I FBS. You can see that in the quality of player that they are going to continue to get. We are going to have to play our best to win this week and I anticipate we will. We have been building. We have been better each week. The key guys have gotten better. We will have to play well this week."
On expectations on what he will see most from Appalachian State's passing game...
"It is all built in to how they run it. The eye violations and the run-pass conflicts they put you in. It all starts up front. They are good up front. They didn't look out of place against Michigan. They have five veterans on the line that have played together. The bottom line is if we put ourselves in situations where they are comfortable with their play calls then we will in a position where the safeties will be more involved and then you are susceptible to big plays. That is the way it is. The reality is how do we stop them and make them one dimensional. How do we get them to where we can stop or at least contain their run game. Make them throw it with conventional third down throws. Easier said than done, but it starts down front. It starts with us being able to get after them and being able to force throwing situations."
On the assessment of the first quarter of the season...
"It is hard to assess. There have been a couple of really good opponents that we have played who have a way of exposing your weaknesses. I do think that we have improved from top to bottom in what we want to do and how we want to do it. It has looked better in certain areas. We have to find a way to score touchdowns. We have attempted 10 field goals. That is embarrassing. There is no way we can be the football team we want to be if we don't figure out how to score in the red zone and the score zone. That is probably the biggest thing. That part of it has to improve. How do we do a better job of getting off the field on third downs and scoring touchdowns?"
On the play of the wide receivers...
"It was better last week. They are a developing group. Markese Triplett is probably our steadiest guy. He is our oldest guy. He has been here the longest. When you start talking about Casey Martin who has done a nice job and Kyle Foster, Mike Thomas. Those guys are all new. Then you have (Marquise) Ricard, D.J. (Thompson) and (James) Cox. They are all young guys. They are still guys that are trying to figure it out every day. They are getting better. It was nice last week to have guys have a chance to make plays on the perimeter. That builds confidence. You build in practice, but being able to do it in games against a quality opponent like Alabama builds confidence. It was great for our guys and I think it is a big boost for them."
