University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Jay Hopson Media Conference (Sept. 19)
9/19/2016 12:00:00 AM | Football
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -
Southern Miss football coach Jay Hopson spoke to a gathering of local media Monday afternoon in his weekly news conference at the Jim and Thomas Duff Athletic Center.
Hopson reviewed this past week’s game against Troy and previewed its upcoming Conference USA opener at UTEP this Saturday. Game time is set for 7 p.m., CT from the Sun Bowl in El Paso. The game can be heard on the Southern Miss IMG Sports Network as well as watched for free through CampusInsiders.com.
Here is Coach Hopson’s comments:
Opening Statement:
“Tough loss, but I’m proud of the guys’ effort. We fought back and gave ourselves a chance to win at the end, but too many mistakes. We had the fumbled snap, fumbled a kickoff return. It was a couple of minus field turnovers and we have to do a better job of protecting the football and tackling. We’ve got to clean it up.”
On how the team responded on Sunday and Monday:
“This loss is like anything else. You have to treat it the same. We hit the field today and have to correct it. You have to get over a loss, that’s the reality of football, but you’ve got to learn from it. That’s what we’ve got to do. You can’t turn the ball over and win games. I thought we played hard. As a coach you’re always proud of this fight and this team isn’t going to quit, doesn’t matter the score or situation. They’re going to fight to the end. We know we have to protect the ball and tackle.”
On moving on to a conference road game after a loss:
“You’re getting to the conference [play] now. We have one non-conference game left, but from here on out it’s basically a conference schedule. So, understand that all your goals and everything go through your conference. We’ve got to be ready. To a degree this is the start of a new season.”
On what coached has learned about his team in these three games:
“They’ll play till the end and they’ll fight. We don’t go out there and want to turn the ball over, but those things happen sometimes and that’s what we have to correct. We have to work on our fundamentals, ball security, tackling and those things. This football team is going to fight to the end and as a coach that makes you proud. Always put the loss on me. It’s always my fault, but I’ll take that loss any day if the team fights hard for 60 minutes.”
On the loss being a result of the environment or the lack of focus:
“As a coach you always take the blame for all of it. We’ve got to execute better. We could sit here for 10 hours [and talk about] a fumble, a snap or anything else. It’s not anything anybody does intentionally, sometimes it just happens. We’ve just got to practice, get better and make sure it doesn’t happen again. That’s the one thing I love to see is after all that adversity. I told them at halftime, ‘Just about everything that could go wrong to a football team has gone wrong and we’re only down seven.’ We came back and got the score right after with Ito [Smith]’s good run. I thought we were back in this thing then we had another turnover. We’ve got to bounce back and clean it up.”
On the focus level of the team before the game due to the weather:
“You can’t make excuses on it. They had to deal with the same thing that we had to. Both teams played in the same conditions. I thought they just handled it better, I felt. We had some miscues, missed executions, but that’s part of football. What we have to do from that is live and learn. We have to learn from it and get better this week.”
On an early season loss turning into a wake-up call:
“You hope so. That’s what you’re counting on as a football team. Sometimes the errors or mistakes you make are amplified in a loss. When you win you can cruise through it, sometimes. [Mistakes] become evident when you look at them in losses. You learn a lot more in your defeats. Our job as a football team is to get better.”
On embracing the challenge of coming off of a loss:
“It defines who you are. It’s our challenge. Adversity strikes us all.”
On the team’s frame of mind after the loss:
We didn’t practice yesterday, but this bunch is a fighting bunch. That’s what I’ve learned about them. They’re fighters. They’re competitors. They’re going to go to war. I thought effort and fight, all that stuff, was of a winning effort. We knew Troy was a good football team. They’re don’t play Clemson down to the wire if they’re not a good football team. Mistakes occur and they happened to us. We had our fair share of them. We almost found a way to overcome it, but those are thing we’ve got to clean up.”
On preparing for UTEP:
“They’re a good football team. They run the ball well. They mix it up though and give you a lot of different looks. Defensively, they are physical and they fly around. The biggest thing is we’re on the road in conference [play]. I worry about us more than anything. We’ve got to make sure we’re taking care of our business and being precise in what we do.”
On if anyone was injured after the game:
“We came away pretty healthy. You always have a few bumps and bruises, but nothing that anyone is out.”
On UTEP’s running back:
“He’s got speed, power. He’s a really good back.”
On the fake punt play against Troy:
“Coach Wozniak did a good job designing the fake. It was wide open. We didn’t get it and that’s always one of those deals where I’m never going to apologize for playing to win, like the onside kick with Kentucky. That’s just who I am. We felt like it was there, and looking back on film it was, we just didn’t get it. It’s never a good thing when you don’t get it. A block here or there and we might go 40 yards to the house. I’d do it again. If I felt like it’d help us win I’m going to do it. I don’t care if it’s going for two. We went for fourth and one on the 30 that lead to the touchdown on about the 40. We've got to execute. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't."
