University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Charles Huff Weekly Press Conference – The Arkansas State Game
11/4/2025 2:59:00 PM | Football
HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Southern Miss head football coach Charles Huff met with members of the media on Tuesday, Nov. 4, ahead of the Golden Eagles game against Arkansas State on Saturday. Huff discussed the team's bye week preparations and discussed the Arkansas State game.
Southern Miss (6-2, 4-0 Sun Belt) takes on Arkansas State (5-4, 4-1 Sun Belt) on Saturday, Nov. 8, at 11 a.m. The game will be broadcast to a national audience on ESPNU with Lowell Galindo (PxP), Aaron Murray (Color) and Lauren Sisler (Reporter) on the call. Fans can join Voice of the Golden Eagles John Cox, analyst Lee Roberts and reporter Jason Baker on an affiliate of the Southern Miss Sports Network with the pregame show starting at 9:30 a.m.
Here is what Huff said to the media:
Opening Statement...
"Well, I appreciate everybody being here today. Obviously, a big day for us, getting back on the practice field for an unbelievable challenge coming up this weekend down in Jonesboro. Got a chance in the bye week to really address some issues, clean some things up, get some recruiting done, get ahead on some of our opponents that are upcoming. Make some fundamental program adjustments that we kind of had mapped out back in the summer, and now we got to get prepared for a good Arkansas State football team. They're playing extremely well, arguably the hottest team in the conference right now, on the four-game win streak, doing a really good job of finding ways to have gritty wins. I truly believe good teams find ways to win games; bad teams find ways to lose them. Over the last month, Arkansas State has done a really good job of finding ways to win games. Coach Butch Jones does a phenomenal job. You can see the culture. You can see the process that they have, how they go about it. I think they play extremely hard on both sides of the ball. I think their quarterback is arguably the best quarterback in the conference. I can't rate ours because obviously I'm a little bit biased, but the kid's dangerous. He can make all the throws. Obviously, he can activate his legs. I think he's taken a step in growth from last year to this year, or from when he was a freshman and we played him at the other place, he's not just pulling the ball down to run now he's pulling it down and keeping his eyes downfield, which creates another set of issues. I think their O-line does a really good job of finishing blocks. Probably the best group of receivers as a core that we've faced all year. Offensively, they stress you with different formations, they play with tempo. You've always got to have a quarterback player with eyes on the quarterback, probably two quarterback players because of his ability, which takes guys out of coverage or out of your run fits, or they have dual responsibilities. They got a run fit and a quarterback responsibility, which is extremely tough defensively. Their defensive line probably plays as hard as any group we've seen. They play with a high motor, a lot of effort the back end, and they stress you with a lot of different coverages. I think they're doing a really good job of mixing up different looks to formations. So, it's going to be a challenge. I expect a really hostile environment. Their fans do a really good job of supporting. So, I expect the 11 o'clock kickoff to be rocking down there in their stadium. I've never been there, but I've heard it's one of the nicer stadiums and setups in the conference. They've done a really good job over the history of their time in this league of improving facilities and improving their profile. So, it's going to be a challenge for us, by no means are we overlooking them. Truly, the word appropriate fear comes into play, probably for the head coach. Here is a little bit more of true fear when you watch these guys play, even when you watch games in the beginning of the season, when they were battling the schedule of P4 teams and those types of teams. They were in the games, and one or two plays here didn't go their way. The last four games, those plays have gone their way, but they've never been out of a game. They've never been blown out, if that makes sense. Arkansas is probably the biggest score differential that they've had, even against Iowa State. They're in the game, they're competing couple plays here or there, even games where they get behind, Texas State, Georgia, Southern, Kennesaw State, even though they lost that game, they battled back at the very end. So, they're definitely a scary team. We've got a lot of work to do to focus on what we can control and how we play. It starts with how we prepare. I thought we had a really good day yesterday, even over the break. You know, our leaders had guys watching film. Braylon, Chris Jones, those guys are in the group text, making sure guys are watching the game, even though we were off that week when they came in Sunday, they came in with a really good knowledge base, a little bit farther ahead than some of our opponents. So, we've got to continue to prepare the rest of this week, and then we got to go play really well. Doesn't matter, how much attention you put on the team if you don't go out and execute so our players are fully understanding what we're walking into. We have got to finish this week off the right way."
Q: You've alluded to it already. Coach Jones, had their bye week almost just from what I've been able to read. You just reevaluated everything. Really. Got it dialed in. Can you point to anything that you saw that maybe they did differently?
"I don't know how they were doing things at the beginning. I do know, when you look at your schedule and you got some P4 opponents, it changes how you kind of install. You got to try and run things that you think are going to give you a chance, which may not be your base. You look at what we did against Mississippi State compared to what we're doing now, it's different. I think again, in today's college football, depending on how you go through camp, we put a lot of time into getting to know guys, getting the culture right, depending on how you do that depends on how quickly guys gel. Depending on how you do that, you get an idea of, from a coach's perspective, who is this guy? Some of the guys that you don't know, or you don't get until maybe June. Well, who is this guy? You know, when he's not getting the reps that he wanted to or when he's not having success, or when something goes on at home, I think that takes time. We've been in a really good situation. Obviously, we know a lot of our guys, so that helps the guys that we didn't know. It allowed me to focus a little bit more on those guys particularly because we had kind of already had a knowledge base of a good group of guys. That doesn't mean that group that we know still doesn't need to be coached, developed, all those things, but you can put a little bit more intentional work on getting to know some of the new guys. I think that takes time. I think what has happened is the mistakes or the things that didn't go well for them earlier in the season are going well for them now, and momentum is real. Once you can see it, their confidence is high. They're playing with a lot more, kids call it swagger, whatever you want to say, it's really confidence. They're playing with a lot more confidence now, knowing that, hey, we can win these games regardless of what happens, first play, second play, third play. And you can see that as you watch, you know the film, as the game goes on. There are some moments there where there's a lot of teams that would pack it in because of the score. This team doesn't do that; they actually get more dangerous as the game goes on. So, it's going to be a challenge."
Q: Is it easier for the defense to prepare for quarterback [Jaylen] Raynor because they see Braylon Braxton practice, obviously, Raynor not live, but you know, they have the same similar skill, running, passing, etc.?
"It's difficult because, again, getting the person on the ground is the tough part, right? If we went out there and played two hand touch, we'd be okay. I mean, we may be able to get one hand on the guy, but when you got to get the guy on the ground, that that's the tough part. And then getting him on the ground at full speed space, understanding all the situational things that go with it, that's what makes it tough. As far as you know, playing coverage of the routes or rushing, you know that that's not as difficult as actually getting the guy on the ground, that's the tough part. And it changes how you approach a guy when you know he has the ability to make you miss, when you know he has the ability to pull it and run, when you know he has the ability to pull it, run, still make a throw, that makes it tough. So you could say yeah, when Braylon takes off in practice, we know how to run to a running quarterback, but I don't know if we went live, if we'd get Braylon on the ground every time. I mean, those are the things that a little bit more difficult to kind of carry into a game. The actual playing, the plays, yeah, we can cover the routes. We can be in the right spots, but actually getting people on the ground is the tough part, you know. And when you have a guy that that is that electric, like Raynor is, getting him on the ground is tough because not only do you have to rush from a pass perspective with really good discipline, you got to be ready once I reach the ear of the quarterback. If I ain't to him, I've got to retrace. Well, when I retrace, is he making a throw? Is he stepping up, is he checking it down? Is he throwing the ball? Whatever it may be, it just makes it more difficult when you actually have to get a person on the ground. Tackling in space is probably the hardest thing to do in football, next to blocking in space. That's why special teams is such a difficult thing to do. You got a guy running full speed out here, I've got to block him in space, it's hard to tackle it here. In space that's really hard, especially as athletic as Raynor".
Q: What do you think the team improved on the most?
"I thought we did a really good job. We had kind of mapped it out: when you look at the bye weeks we've had, we've had one every three four weeks. So, we've wanted to add a little bit of something to our offense, defensive, special teams each time we got a bye week, because you get a little bit more time to slow down the teaching. You're not cross-teaching where you're teaching something new and a new game plan. So I thought they did a really good job of absorbing the new, because it's really just a another step off of what we're doing, I thought they did a really good job of managing how we manage the reps, the ones who still need to get their reps, but how we got the twos involved that can become a distraction. If you're used to taking 100 reps and you're only taking 80, you know, you could mentally get distant. But I thought they stayed locked into what we were trying to do. Then I thought we did a really good job of our preliminary pre-scouts on some of the teams, right? It's hard to get ready for a game when you know you don't have a game, but the mental disposition to understand that the time that we had we had to use the right way. I thought they handled that well."
Q: Arkansas State defensively last week, they were really creating a lot of pressure, you know. What did you notice? You know? And how do you prepare for their defensive line?
"Yeah, I thought, again, they made some really good plays schematically, but I don't know. They got nine sacks. I don't know the exact number, but a good bit of those were effort sacks. I mean, they were just out-working the opponent. It wasn't always a perfect twist or call, it was just some guys who had a relentless mindset of getting to the quarterback. And that's the part that's that's tough. You can scheme up and block a scheme, block a twist, block a slant, block a blitz. But when a guy makes up his mind that "I'm getting to the quarterback", that difficult to say, "this is how we're going to stop it". It takes the other guy on the other side saying that "I've got an unbelievable determination not to let you get to the quarterback", so I thought they did a really good job with their effort. I thought they did a really good job of having discipline in their rush. They weren't just running up the field. They had discipline in the rush lanes, and then their unbelievable desire or relentless pursuit to get to the quarterback, it seemed as if they got one, they got two, they got three, and they got four. That's the part that makes them dangerous."
Q: They [Arkansas State] quickly made Troy one-dimensional and then feasted on the QB, can you talk about the importance and the plan to stay balanced?
"I think you've got to have a plan. If they can take something completely away, they can really hone in on the other, and I think that's a little bit of what happened with Troy. They were able to do a really good job of stopping the run. Which, put Troy in some positions to have to throw, and they were able to take advantage of that. So, we've got to do a really good job of staying balanced. And that doesn't necessarily mean 50-50 but that means staying ahead of the sticks, putting yourself in advantageous situations, being able to stay out of third longs, you know, be able to run the ball with efficiency, meaning when we need to run it, we can run it. Not saying that every run is going to go for 80 yards, but understanding that the run balance keeps linebackers from either dropping or keeps linebackers from just flying downhill. It keeps D-lineman from just past rushing. So that balance on offense is going to be key."
Q: Do you expect Jeffery Pittman to be back this week?
"He was really good. The pitch counts are about balanced. You know, now from all three of those guys. Jaylin Carter even helped out a little bit with that in the game. So I feel good about that, that'll help the run game. Hopefully we can block these guys and get some; we're going to need all of them. And that was kind of the reason we were kind of saying, let's be pitch count cautious here. We've got a bye week coming up, and then we've got a stretch here that we don't get another break. So, we need to make sure that we've been blessed. I think it's a combination of the good Lord takes care of you. I think our nutrition and strength conditioning program is phenomenal. You know, knock on wood, we've been moderately healthy which gives us a chance to continue to rotate guys, which gives us a chance to have variety in what we do. You know, it's not like, hey, this guy's out, this guy's out so we've got to do this. So that's a big piece of what we're hoping the next couple of weeks will allow us to do, which can give us some advantage down the road."
Q: Braylon last year was a real run weapon for you guys with the designed run stuff. He hasn't had to do that so much here or not so much, you talked about adding some things, things get tougher, as you go games get bigger, he's obviously a weapon in that regard, just maybe expound on that thought a little bit.
"Yeah, there's a lot. There's some offensive things that we've got to do, and you've got to, kind of; do you run him against Mississippi State and run the risk of the next eight, nine, 10, games, being in a different situation? Do you run him early in the season if you don't have to? Or do you run him as you get close to crunch time? Those are decisions you've got to make. Defensively, there's some things that we've been adding to the defense. Well, when do you spring them out? Some of that is situational based. Some of that is opponent based. There's some things that we had to do last week that we don't have to do this week because of the personnel and formations and type of offense that is going against. Special teams wise, we haven't run trick plays on special teams yet. We've been repping them since August. When do you spring them out? I think all that goes into and that's what the bye week was really about, you know? What have we been doing that we can prime up to be ready? What have we been waiting on to prime up to be ready? A big thing, I'm probably like the paranoid Lieutenant, we changed all our signals, you know, over the bye week, not because I don't think they're Spygate, or I don't think the guy from Michigan is working for Butch [Jones], although Butch did work at Central Michigan, I just think at some point when you're good people have to find ways to, you know, attack you. So obviously you can't switch signals in the middle of a week when you're trying to install and get game plan ready. So, we were able to go a full week with these new signals, you know, a new signal operation. I think that's a big piece of it. Is it because we're playing Arkansas State? No, it's because we had a bye week midway through the year, and you've got to check your own oil, right? We did a huge self-scout. There are some formations that we line up to the exact same every time. We can't do that anymore. There are some formations on offense that we line up in and we're 90% this, or 90% that, well, we can't do that anymore. That's just common sense. So a little bit of what you're getting to now. Do we use it all this week, or is it something down the road that that will be, you know, you have to wait till 11 o'clock on Saturday to see that. But all of that, how much do you run Braylon? When do you call the trick plays? When do you change your tendencies? When do you change your signals? Did it make sense to change them in the first bye week? No, we had three, four games on film. So you're changing them to change them again. Does it make sense too? At this point we've got some guys who have played limited reps, who've done a really good job, how much more do they get when you start rotating guys? You know, being healthy is a positive. You can rotate some more guys, having a group of running backs, where their pitch counts are similar means now we don't have to watch, man [Jeffery] Pittman's at 31 you know, that's a lot. He's hot though you can't take him out, you know. Now we can kind of roll the dice and play him as they come. So, there's a lot of things that in this next part of the season we've been priming for that we got to use at the right time, if that makes sense."
Q: You've mentioned in that past that at times defensive line can be a little bit undisciplined. As the weeks have gone on, off a bye week how do you feel like they've improved on that or if they have?
"Yeah, I think every week it's a new challenge. There's different ways when you talk about run, run gap accountability depending on the type of front you're playing, depending on type of team you're playing, do you want to be an up-field defense? You want to be a gap control defense? Do you want to keep the backers free? Do you want to, you know, tie the backers down. I think over the course of the season, our guys have been able to adapt well. I think this is going to be a completely new challenge. I don't think we've faced any quarterback anywhere near where [Jaylen] Raynor is, from a complete threat. We've had some guys that could throw it I thought [Blake] Shapen could throw it well. The guy from, I believe it was Jacksonville State, had some mobility, but putting the two together where they can beat you with your arm and their legs and the mental piece. I mean, he gets the ball up and out quick. That means he knows where it should be going early. It's not a; he's not holding on to it. He has not been sacked a lot, which means he's fully understanding that, hey, I've got a time clock in my head. I've got to go to one to two to three. Get out of here. One to two to three, step up, check it down. This play is dead to the right, so I've got to go to the left. You can see that in his kind of progression throughout games. So, our D-line is going to have to do a great job of kind of adapting for this week, because it's a little bit different."
Q: Offensive line, despite the fact a lot of new guys, guys that have never really played together, it seems like they've become pretty much a good unit. What have you seen there and what do you attribute that to?
"Yeah well, one to them, because they've put a lot of work in. They work really hard, Coach Coughlin, Coach Gibbs. I mean, they work at it. I think two, we've been able to stay moderately healthy so we've been able to keep guys in their bus seats. The more continuity you have with that unit, the more consistency you should have. And then I think again, we've got some older, mature guys, and they've been able to self-assess, what do I need to do to get ready to practice? What do I need to do to get ready to meet? What do I need to do to get ready to play? And then there's a high accountability level in that room, like no one wants to be the guy that gets Braylon hit. No one wants to be the guy that gives up a negative play. So, a lot of testament to them, they've done a really good job, and they're developing, they're getting better, more and more consistent. And then finally, I think Blake [Anderson]'s done a really good job of, okay, this is what we can do, you know? We're going to ask them to do what they can do and minimize their deficiencies, and I think that's really helped them. It's helped build some confidence, and hopefully that can continue on Saturday afternoon."
Q: How do you feel how Jack Murley has grown since the time he came in?
"When you look back, you know that word development is, it's fickle, right? I mean, it's you say it, and people think it means four years; you say it, and you know when they're going to develop. I think he's a perfect example of it. I mean he came in, new to the game, was here a month, obviously in camp, got here middle of camp, first couple weeks of the season. You know, he's starting to get a little bit of a rhythm, first time in a game, and all of a sudden he's got a setback. Then he's gone for two weeks, and it takes him a week to get back. And now you're starting to see a little consistency show up. You know, he's been able to down some punts inside the five, which are huge. He's been able to give us some kick variety with the different types of kicks he can do. And he started to develop some confidence he's starting to tell us, hey, I want to hit this kick, or how I get in the wind this way. But I think that's what development is about. And the tough part, especially at specialists, is you've got to do it in a game. You know, you can go over on the putting green and you can putt like Tiger but when there's a million people watching at home, and you're at Augusta, that putter shakes a little bit so you've got to get in a game to actually do it. And I think that's what's helped him really come on these last couple weeks, he's been a huge asset to us, flipping the field when we need to, pinning teams deep when we need to. It's given us the ability to relieve Jack, I mean, excuse me, Reed [Harradine] from some punting and kicking duties, which I think he has improved because of it, and overall, our special teams is playing a lot more consistent. You're going to be explosive on special team when you've got explosive returners, that's what it's going to be. And then typically, at this point in the season, if you do have explosive returners, you probably don't get too many chances, right? Teams are going to kick away from you, whatever it may be. But when you have consistent kickers, punters, snappers, you should see consistency in your special teams, and we're starting to see that. Thanks guys. We appreciate you guys. Look forward to seeing you guys down in Jonesboro this weekend."
Southern Miss (6-2, 4-0 Sun Belt) takes on Arkansas State (5-4, 4-1 Sun Belt) on Saturday, Nov. 8, at 11 a.m. The game will be broadcast to a national audience on ESPNU with Lowell Galindo (PxP), Aaron Murray (Color) and Lauren Sisler (Reporter) on the call. Fans can join Voice of the Golden Eagles John Cox, analyst Lee Roberts and reporter Jason Baker on an affiliate of the Southern Miss Sports Network with the pregame show starting at 9:30 a.m.
Here is what Huff said to the media:
Opening Statement...
"Well, I appreciate everybody being here today. Obviously, a big day for us, getting back on the practice field for an unbelievable challenge coming up this weekend down in Jonesboro. Got a chance in the bye week to really address some issues, clean some things up, get some recruiting done, get ahead on some of our opponents that are upcoming. Make some fundamental program adjustments that we kind of had mapped out back in the summer, and now we got to get prepared for a good Arkansas State football team. They're playing extremely well, arguably the hottest team in the conference right now, on the four-game win streak, doing a really good job of finding ways to have gritty wins. I truly believe good teams find ways to win games; bad teams find ways to lose them. Over the last month, Arkansas State has done a really good job of finding ways to win games. Coach Butch Jones does a phenomenal job. You can see the culture. You can see the process that they have, how they go about it. I think they play extremely hard on both sides of the ball. I think their quarterback is arguably the best quarterback in the conference. I can't rate ours because obviously I'm a little bit biased, but the kid's dangerous. He can make all the throws. Obviously, he can activate his legs. I think he's taken a step in growth from last year to this year, or from when he was a freshman and we played him at the other place, he's not just pulling the ball down to run now he's pulling it down and keeping his eyes downfield, which creates another set of issues. I think their O-line does a really good job of finishing blocks. Probably the best group of receivers as a core that we've faced all year. Offensively, they stress you with different formations, they play with tempo. You've always got to have a quarterback player with eyes on the quarterback, probably two quarterback players because of his ability, which takes guys out of coverage or out of your run fits, or they have dual responsibilities. They got a run fit and a quarterback responsibility, which is extremely tough defensively. Their defensive line probably plays as hard as any group we've seen. They play with a high motor, a lot of effort the back end, and they stress you with a lot of different coverages. I think they're doing a really good job of mixing up different looks to formations. So, it's going to be a challenge. I expect a really hostile environment. Their fans do a really good job of supporting. So, I expect the 11 o'clock kickoff to be rocking down there in their stadium. I've never been there, but I've heard it's one of the nicer stadiums and setups in the conference. They've done a really good job over the history of their time in this league of improving facilities and improving their profile. So, it's going to be a challenge for us, by no means are we overlooking them. Truly, the word appropriate fear comes into play, probably for the head coach. Here is a little bit more of true fear when you watch these guys play, even when you watch games in the beginning of the season, when they were battling the schedule of P4 teams and those types of teams. They were in the games, and one or two plays here didn't go their way. The last four games, those plays have gone their way, but they've never been out of a game. They've never been blown out, if that makes sense. Arkansas is probably the biggest score differential that they've had, even against Iowa State. They're in the game, they're competing couple plays here or there, even games where they get behind, Texas State, Georgia, Southern, Kennesaw State, even though they lost that game, they battled back at the very end. So, they're definitely a scary team. We've got a lot of work to do to focus on what we can control and how we play. It starts with how we prepare. I thought we had a really good day yesterday, even over the break. You know, our leaders had guys watching film. Braylon, Chris Jones, those guys are in the group text, making sure guys are watching the game, even though we were off that week when they came in Sunday, they came in with a really good knowledge base, a little bit farther ahead than some of our opponents. So, we've got to continue to prepare the rest of this week, and then we got to go play really well. Doesn't matter, how much attention you put on the team if you don't go out and execute so our players are fully understanding what we're walking into. We have got to finish this week off the right way."
Q: You've alluded to it already. Coach Jones, had their bye week almost just from what I've been able to read. You just reevaluated everything. Really. Got it dialed in. Can you point to anything that you saw that maybe they did differently?
"I don't know how they were doing things at the beginning. I do know, when you look at your schedule and you got some P4 opponents, it changes how you kind of install. You got to try and run things that you think are going to give you a chance, which may not be your base. You look at what we did against Mississippi State compared to what we're doing now, it's different. I think again, in today's college football, depending on how you go through camp, we put a lot of time into getting to know guys, getting the culture right, depending on how you do that depends on how quickly guys gel. Depending on how you do that, you get an idea of, from a coach's perspective, who is this guy? Some of the guys that you don't know, or you don't get until maybe June. Well, who is this guy? You know, when he's not getting the reps that he wanted to or when he's not having success, or when something goes on at home, I think that takes time. We've been in a really good situation. Obviously, we know a lot of our guys, so that helps the guys that we didn't know. It allowed me to focus a little bit more on those guys particularly because we had kind of already had a knowledge base of a good group of guys. That doesn't mean that group that we know still doesn't need to be coached, developed, all those things, but you can put a little bit more intentional work on getting to know some of the new guys. I think that takes time. I think what has happened is the mistakes or the things that didn't go well for them earlier in the season are going well for them now, and momentum is real. Once you can see it, their confidence is high. They're playing with a lot more, kids call it swagger, whatever you want to say, it's really confidence. They're playing with a lot more confidence now, knowing that, hey, we can win these games regardless of what happens, first play, second play, third play. And you can see that as you watch, you know the film, as the game goes on. There are some moments there where there's a lot of teams that would pack it in because of the score. This team doesn't do that; they actually get more dangerous as the game goes on. So, it's going to be a challenge."
Q: Is it easier for the defense to prepare for quarterback [Jaylen] Raynor because they see Braylon Braxton practice, obviously, Raynor not live, but you know, they have the same similar skill, running, passing, etc.?
"It's difficult because, again, getting the person on the ground is the tough part, right? If we went out there and played two hand touch, we'd be okay. I mean, we may be able to get one hand on the guy, but when you got to get the guy on the ground, that that's the tough part. And then getting him on the ground at full speed space, understanding all the situational things that go with it, that's what makes it tough. As far as you know, playing coverage of the routes or rushing, you know that that's not as difficult as actually getting the guy on the ground, that's the tough part. And it changes how you approach a guy when you know he has the ability to make you miss, when you know he has the ability to pull it and run, when you know he has the ability to pull it, run, still make a throw, that makes it tough. So you could say yeah, when Braylon takes off in practice, we know how to run to a running quarterback, but I don't know if we went live, if we'd get Braylon on the ground every time. I mean, those are the things that a little bit more difficult to kind of carry into a game. The actual playing, the plays, yeah, we can cover the routes. We can be in the right spots, but actually getting people on the ground is the tough part, you know. And when you have a guy that that is that electric, like Raynor is, getting him on the ground is tough because not only do you have to rush from a pass perspective with really good discipline, you got to be ready once I reach the ear of the quarterback. If I ain't to him, I've got to retrace. Well, when I retrace, is he making a throw? Is he stepping up, is he checking it down? Is he throwing the ball? Whatever it may be, it just makes it more difficult when you actually have to get a person on the ground. Tackling in space is probably the hardest thing to do in football, next to blocking in space. That's why special teams is such a difficult thing to do. You got a guy running full speed out here, I've got to block him in space, it's hard to tackle it here. In space that's really hard, especially as athletic as Raynor".
Q: What do you think the team improved on the most?
"I thought we did a really good job. We had kind of mapped it out: when you look at the bye weeks we've had, we've had one every three four weeks. So, we've wanted to add a little bit of something to our offense, defensive, special teams each time we got a bye week, because you get a little bit more time to slow down the teaching. You're not cross-teaching where you're teaching something new and a new game plan. So I thought they did a really good job of absorbing the new, because it's really just a another step off of what we're doing, I thought they did a really good job of managing how we manage the reps, the ones who still need to get their reps, but how we got the twos involved that can become a distraction. If you're used to taking 100 reps and you're only taking 80, you know, you could mentally get distant. But I thought they stayed locked into what we were trying to do. Then I thought we did a really good job of our preliminary pre-scouts on some of the teams, right? It's hard to get ready for a game when you know you don't have a game, but the mental disposition to understand that the time that we had we had to use the right way. I thought they handled that well."
Q: Arkansas State defensively last week, they were really creating a lot of pressure, you know. What did you notice? You know? And how do you prepare for their defensive line?
"Yeah, I thought, again, they made some really good plays schematically, but I don't know. They got nine sacks. I don't know the exact number, but a good bit of those were effort sacks. I mean, they were just out-working the opponent. It wasn't always a perfect twist or call, it was just some guys who had a relentless mindset of getting to the quarterback. And that's the part that's that's tough. You can scheme up and block a scheme, block a twist, block a slant, block a blitz. But when a guy makes up his mind that "I'm getting to the quarterback", that difficult to say, "this is how we're going to stop it". It takes the other guy on the other side saying that "I've got an unbelievable determination not to let you get to the quarterback", so I thought they did a really good job with their effort. I thought they did a really good job of having discipline in their rush. They weren't just running up the field. They had discipline in the rush lanes, and then their unbelievable desire or relentless pursuit to get to the quarterback, it seemed as if they got one, they got two, they got three, and they got four. That's the part that makes them dangerous."
Q: They [Arkansas State] quickly made Troy one-dimensional and then feasted on the QB, can you talk about the importance and the plan to stay balanced?
"I think you've got to have a plan. If they can take something completely away, they can really hone in on the other, and I think that's a little bit of what happened with Troy. They were able to do a really good job of stopping the run. Which, put Troy in some positions to have to throw, and they were able to take advantage of that. So, we've got to do a really good job of staying balanced. And that doesn't necessarily mean 50-50 but that means staying ahead of the sticks, putting yourself in advantageous situations, being able to stay out of third longs, you know, be able to run the ball with efficiency, meaning when we need to run it, we can run it. Not saying that every run is going to go for 80 yards, but understanding that the run balance keeps linebackers from either dropping or keeps linebackers from just flying downhill. It keeps D-lineman from just past rushing. So that balance on offense is going to be key."
Q: Do you expect Jeffery Pittman to be back this week?
"He was really good. The pitch counts are about balanced. You know, now from all three of those guys. Jaylin Carter even helped out a little bit with that in the game. So I feel good about that, that'll help the run game. Hopefully we can block these guys and get some; we're going to need all of them. And that was kind of the reason we were kind of saying, let's be pitch count cautious here. We've got a bye week coming up, and then we've got a stretch here that we don't get another break. So, we need to make sure that we've been blessed. I think it's a combination of the good Lord takes care of you. I think our nutrition and strength conditioning program is phenomenal. You know, knock on wood, we've been moderately healthy which gives us a chance to continue to rotate guys, which gives us a chance to have variety in what we do. You know, it's not like, hey, this guy's out, this guy's out so we've got to do this. So that's a big piece of what we're hoping the next couple of weeks will allow us to do, which can give us some advantage down the road."
Q: Braylon last year was a real run weapon for you guys with the designed run stuff. He hasn't had to do that so much here or not so much, you talked about adding some things, things get tougher, as you go games get bigger, he's obviously a weapon in that regard, just maybe expound on that thought a little bit.
"Yeah, there's a lot. There's some offensive things that we've got to do, and you've got to, kind of; do you run him against Mississippi State and run the risk of the next eight, nine, 10, games, being in a different situation? Do you run him early in the season if you don't have to? Or do you run him as you get close to crunch time? Those are decisions you've got to make. Defensively, there's some things that we've been adding to the defense. Well, when do you spring them out? Some of that is situational based. Some of that is opponent based. There's some things that we had to do last week that we don't have to do this week because of the personnel and formations and type of offense that is going against. Special teams wise, we haven't run trick plays on special teams yet. We've been repping them since August. When do you spring them out? I think all that goes into and that's what the bye week was really about, you know? What have we been doing that we can prime up to be ready? What have we been waiting on to prime up to be ready? A big thing, I'm probably like the paranoid Lieutenant, we changed all our signals, you know, over the bye week, not because I don't think they're Spygate, or I don't think the guy from Michigan is working for Butch [Jones], although Butch did work at Central Michigan, I just think at some point when you're good people have to find ways to, you know, attack you. So obviously you can't switch signals in the middle of a week when you're trying to install and get game plan ready. So, we were able to go a full week with these new signals, you know, a new signal operation. I think that's a big piece of it. Is it because we're playing Arkansas State? No, it's because we had a bye week midway through the year, and you've got to check your own oil, right? We did a huge self-scout. There are some formations that we line up to the exact same every time. We can't do that anymore. There are some formations on offense that we line up in and we're 90% this, or 90% that, well, we can't do that anymore. That's just common sense. So a little bit of what you're getting to now. Do we use it all this week, or is it something down the road that that will be, you know, you have to wait till 11 o'clock on Saturday to see that. But all of that, how much do you run Braylon? When do you call the trick plays? When do you change your tendencies? When do you change your signals? Did it make sense to change them in the first bye week? No, we had three, four games on film. So you're changing them to change them again. Does it make sense too? At this point we've got some guys who have played limited reps, who've done a really good job, how much more do they get when you start rotating guys? You know, being healthy is a positive. You can rotate some more guys, having a group of running backs, where their pitch counts are similar means now we don't have to watch, man [Jeffery] Pittman's at 31 you know, that's a lot. He's hot though you can't take him out, you know. Now we can kind of roll the dice and play him as they come. So, there's a lot of things that in this next part of the season we've been priming for that we got to use at the right time, if that makes sense."
Q: You've mentioned in that past that at times defensive line can be a little bit undisciplined. As the weeks have gone on, off a bye week how do you feel like they've improved on that or if they have?
"Yeah, I think every week it's a new challenge. There's different ways when you talk about run, run gap accountability depending on the type of front you're playing, depending on type of team you're playing, do you want to be an up-field defense? You want to be a gap control defense? Do you want to keep the backers free? Do you want to, you know, tie the backers down. I think over the course of the season, our guys have been able to adapt well. I think this is going to be a completely new challenge. I don't think we've faced any quarterback anywhere near where [Jaylen] Raynor is, from a complete threat. We've had some guys that could throw it I thought [Blake] Shapen could throw it well. The guy from, I believe it was Jacksonville State, had some mobility, but putting the two together where they can beat you with your arm and their legs and the mental piece. I mean, he gets the ball up and out quick. That means he knows where it should be going early. It's not a; he's not holding on to it. He has not been sacked a lot, which means he's fully understanding that, hey, I've got a time clock in my head. I've got to go to one to two to three. Get out of here. One to two to three, step up, check it down. This play is dead to the right, so I've got to go to the left. You can see that in his kind of progression throughout games. So, our D-line is going to have to do a great job of kind of adapting for this week, because it's a little bit different."
Q: Offensive line, despite the fact a lot of new guys, guys that have never really played together, it seems like they've become pretty much a good unit. What have you seen there and what do you attribute that to?
"Yeah well, one to them, because they've put a lot of work in. They work really hard, Coach Coughlin, Coach Gibbs. I mean, they work at it. I think two, we've been able to stay moderately healthy so we've been able to keep guys in their bus seats. The more continuity you have with that unit, the more consistency you should have. And then I think again, we've got some older, mature guys, and they've been able to self-assess, what do I need to do to get ready to practice? What do I need to do to get ready to meet? What do I need to do to get ready to play? And then there's a high accountability level in that room, like no one wants to be the guy that gets Braylon hit. No one wants to be the guy that gives up a negative play. So, a lot of testament to them, they've done a really good job, and they're developing, they're getting better, more and more consistent. And then finally, I think Blake [Anderson]'s done a really good job of, okay, this is what we can do, you know? We're going to ask them to do what they can do and minimize their deficiencies, and I think that's really helped them. It's helped build some confidence, and hopefully that can continue on Saturday afternoon."
Q: How do you feel how Jack Murley has grown since the time he came in?
"When you look back, you know that word development is, it's fickle, right? I mean, it's you say it, and people think it means four years; you say it, and you know when they're going to develop. I think he's a perfect example of it. I mean he came in, new to the game, was here a month, obviously in camp, got here middle of camp, first couple weeks of the season. You know, he's starting to get a little bit of a rhythm, first time in a game, and all of a sudden he's got a setback. Then he's gone for two weeks, and it takes him a week to get back. And now you're starting to see a little consistency show up. You know, he's been able to down some punts inside the five, which are huge. He's been able to give us some kick variety with the different types of kicks he can do. And he started to develop some confidence he's starting to tell us, hey, I want to hit this kick, or how I get in the wind this way. But I think that's what development is about. And the tough part, especially at specialists, is you've got to do it in a game. You know, you can go over on the putting green and you can putt like Tiger but when there's a million people watching at home, and you're at Augusta, that putter shakes a little bit so you've got to get in a game to actually do it. And I think that's what's helped him really come on these last couple weeks, he's been a huge asset to us, flipping the field when we need to, pinning teams deep when we need to. It's given us the ability to relieve Jack, I mean, excuse me, Reed [Harradine] from some punting and kicking duties, which I think he has improved because of it, and overall, our special teams is playing a lot more consistent. You're going to be explosive on special team when you've got explosive returners, that's what it's going to be. And then typically, at this point in the season, if you do have explosive returners, you probably don't get too many chances, right? Teams are going to kick away from you, whatever it may be. But when you have consistent kickers, punters, snappers, you should see consistency in your special teams, and we're starting to see that. Thanks guys. We appreciate you guys. Look forward to seeing you guys down in Jonesboro this weekend."
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