University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Todd Monken Weekly Media Conference
9/22/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
Southern Miss Coach Todd Monken
Weekly Media Conference, Sept. 22, 2014
Rice Game
Opening statement...
"We open up this week with our first conference opponent against Rice. They're the defending Conference USA champs and David Bailiff has done a great job there of steadying the program and obviously building it. It's been a tough place to win but he has done a great job of recruiting and he's got a really good coaching staff. They play hard. You can watch them on film and they play hard, they play relentless. You're going to have to play good football to beat them. They don't turn it over unfortunately this year they haven't had a bunch of turnovers and that's hurt them. But one thing you see is a team that plays hard, plays for each other; they won a lot of close games last year which is a reflection of that. We anticipate them coming here playing their best trying to get their first win of the season. Hopefully, we'll be able to build on a little bit of the momentum that we've had here at home during the last two games and fight like heck for a victory Saturday night."
On a close game...
"We didn't have a lot of close games last year so it's hard to pull it out in the end when you're not playing as well. What it shows is we've had a number of instances in games where we've come up with big plays. Whether it's been a goal line stand at Mississippi State; whether it was Alcorn State where we get a fumble in the score zone; or last week when they're on the one-yard line and we push them back or then we strip and get a fumble. We've made some big plays and then at the end of the game, the blocked extra point. And really the onside kick where James Cox knocks it out of their guys hands, which is a real awareness play and knock it out of bounds. I just think when you're always talking about play 60 minutes and play until the end and play for each other. I think these moments help build what you're trying to build and you just play the next play and I think our guys did that."
Talking about momentum...
"There's nothing like winning. Winning cures a lot of things. It's a by-product of what you do on a daily basis and what you create, the culture you create, the players you recruit. Those things are true, but I thought I could see that during the spring and summer and fall camp that we were doing it better. Now what that led to? I don't know. I certainly know that we're doing it better. I'm doing it better, our staff is doing it better and our players are doing it better. So that's going to give you a chance. What we were three weeks ago is not the team we are today. We don't want to be the team we were this weekend that we were last week. Its every day how do I build and the teams that end up in the end playing for something, continue to get better. They didn't dwell on the losses and they didn't get too high over the wins. We're a team that is still working towards being what we want to be. Like I said after the game the other night, you don't have to be best team in the country, or the best team in your conference every Saturday you just have to be the best team on the field. Now, as we strive for this week. What is it that Rice does that poses problems for us? Offense, defense, and kicking game and then let's go attack it and put our players in positions to make plays and be consistent with what we did. There were times on Saturday we weren't on both sides of the ball, but we are getting better in those areas."
Missed field goals, touchdowns...
"We're never going to win with field goals. Bottom line is that's what hurt the team that we played. Forget whether they make them or didn't make them, you've got to score touchdowns. If you want to win games you have to score touchdowns. That's one of the five ways you win. We're going to do a better job of how we scheme things in the score zone and red zone, and how we go about of putting ourselves in positions to score touchdowns because that's really what it's all about."
Rice's defense...
"Stats are skewed because they have played Notre Dame, Texas A&M and Old Dominion with a senior quarterback who has played a number of years and is a really good player. So it's going to be really skewed when you play good players, you play good quarterbacks. They're going to expose you in a number of ways. Notre Dame, Texas A&M and Old Dominion have really good receivers so again, I don't look at it that way. Sure there are players you look at, there are schemes you look at but it still comes down to how we do it. You're going to get some opportunities to make plays and do we make those plays? And do we put our players in positions to make those plays? That's true with both sides. Whenever you break down a game, especially when it's an even opponent where you think that hey, we do some things well you don't get exposed as much. Again it's how do we do it better than they do it? That's really what it's going to come down to. How do we do things better, how do we run the ball, how do we protect, and how do we throw it better."
Game plans...
"Well, you want to be balanced. I do believe in trying to create explosive opportunities for your team. Its turnovers, its explosive plays, on both sides, its third down conversions, it's touchdowns in the red zones. If that's how you win, nothing about that says yards. So those are the statistics that you focus on. Okay, How do we not turn the ball over, how do we get explosive plays, and sometimes that can be tough. How do we get space players in the space? How do we run the football to set up some of those explosive plays, so we are capable of running the ball better, we should've run the ball better there were some things that we left on the table. Again that has to be a part of it. That has always been, when I've been a part of an offense, how do we find a way. I don't care if it was back when we were running power football with Les Miles or we were at Oklahoma state being spread. How do you create explosive plays for your offense, convert on third downs and score your touchdowns without turning it over."
Concerns...
"It doesn't concern me, It has taken me 25 years to not look too much into things like, hey they lost last week or they won last week, they've got guys banged up, I don't know the mentality of their team. I have no idea. Trust me, David Bailiff will have that team ready to go that's a prideful team. They're not going to all of a sudden say oh the woe is us. They're going to come out here ready to go. It's a divisional game. The reality is, what I can control is our team. What we do, starting tomorrow and then Wednesday, how we prepare and get our guys ready and making sure we come up with a great plan to attack them and that we play our best football and continue to play our best football. We have to expect that we're going to get a really good Rice team that's well-coached and I doubt we see anything but that. But that has nothing to do with us and how we prepare and how we're ready to go Saturday night. "
On the secondary...
They've got some experienced wide outs that are explosive that'll make explosive plays and a quarterback that can hurt you running and throwing so it's hard to say okay we're going to challenge the box and really load it up and not pay attention to guys who are capable of explosive plays. But, you're always trying to make a team one-dimensional. No matter what it is. You're trying to stop them at whatever it is. They really want to put you in run-pass conflicts. It's the fifth week in a row with a team that really wants to do that. They really want to spread you out and put you in run-pass conflict, run some play actions, they do a good job of looking at the sideline, getting themselves in the right play offensively. I think they do a really good job. And so our biggest thing is how do we create turnovers, how do we not give up explosive plays. That's one thing I thought we did Saturday night. I don't think they got a number of explosive passes that went over our head. There were a couple of runs that got out and a couple of throws that I thought. But I don't think we gave up the quick strike that just disheartens your team and turns over the score board. In the reality of it, there is more than just that as a team. Proven in the second half against ODU, when they threw it really well to get back in the game."
Mullens turnovers...
"Well Nick missed Tuesday of last week and then he only practiced half of Wednesday and then there were a number of things besides the turnovers that he wasn't as sharp. We probably had too many little things that we saw against Appalachian state that we were trying to do. The first turnover when we were backed up, he spent too much time looking down the middle of the field, got his eyes back to the corner and didn't see the corner. If he's going to spend time in the middle of the field, he's got to drop down to the H that's coming down underneath. He just hasn't done it enough. We have to analyze it and rep that play enough to when he gets in that situation he knows exactly where to go with the ball. That's all of us. The second one was a post-wheel combination - that one if anything was where he made up in his mind that's where he wanted to go. But again, we have to say have we repped that enough with Nick Mullens to where he understands what you're going to get in that formation. So everything we have to look at; did we put him in enough situations to where he's run that enough, to where he's comfortable with all the looks he can get? Nick has done a great job of not trying to turn it over. I don't anticipate this as something that's going to continue. I think we're going to get a full week out of him this week and I anticipate he'll play well."
Mullens now with almost a year of starting under his belt, would consider him an older player...
"No doubt. The thing that hurt us Saturday night was just a lack of practice. So there was just a little nuances, and I think he got a little dinged early on in the game and that kind of threw him off a little bit. So we have to do a good job of protecting him so he doesn't get hit so much and yet try to create explosive plays. He's intelligent, highly competitive, and mentally tough, he'll bounce back. He understands what happened and he's good at processing and moving forward. He's only going to get better. That was probably, over the stretch of nine games that was probably the first game where he knew some things were not as sharp as they have been. The better we play around him, the better he's going to play."
First two rushing touchdowns of the season...
"We've been close to having it. We had a foolish penalty against Alcorn State that stopped it, and then we played two really good teams that are hard to run the ball on. I don't overreact one way or another. You play Alabama and then you play MS State, you don't have a rushing touchdown, you can't over analyze it, then you play a couple other opponents. The bottom line is we have to find a way to run the ball, find a way to comfortably hand the ball off and score touchdowns with your running backs. So again, we're going to continue to have to be creative about how we do that. And we're going to have to do that this week against a good Rice front."
