Mike Clowney Opening Statement: Thinking about the Saints, they are a really good football team. We had a competitive game here with them last year, and I think it finished in double overtime. You look at where they finished from their last season and being able to go play in the playoffs, they are a good football team. I think you can make the misconception of looking at their record right now, but they played two really good football teams, and they have played both of them really close. They're athletic up front and on both sides of the ball. Their guys on the back end can run. They've got Tre Stewart, an All-Conference running back for them, that returns this year. So, overall, it's just a really good football team. It will be a good task for our team this week.
Q1: An interesting start to your schedule between, you played VUL and ETSU. How do you grade Carson-Newman against two opponents that are pretty divergent from where your own program is?
I think it has been good for us because you've got one game where we pretty much dominated the game the entire time. When you play those games, sometimes if your opponent's not on the same level as you then you can kind of get away with doing some things that aren't always completely sound. Then, you flip the script, and you go play, I say a team that is a little bit bigger than you or a level above you, and you don't get away with as much of that stuff. So, the little things that you do become a lot more critical. The details and your coaching really kind of kicks in at that point in time. We were able to go see that on film, and it gives us a good measuring stick as far as where we're at and the things that we need to do to get better. Now the challenge is being able to go out and put those things into practice this game.
Q2: You touched on Limestone being a very dangerous 0-2 team that was just outside of the top-25 in the preseason poll. They put up 480 yards of offense on West Georgia where they couldn't always find the end zone, but it feels like they are close. How do you prevent them from closing that gap against your own team which has shown some pretty staunch defense through two games.
It's about continuing to take that next step for us, and I think we've got to continue to go and be persistent on getting better and on eliminating some of the mistakes that we made to where we can kind of get some tackling stuff cleaned up. But I think the big thing for us, especially from a defense standpoint, is that the effort has been there. Then, we'll flip on the other side of the ball and it goes into that same thing where you have one game where you score decent and another game where you don't score at all. We've got to be able to go execute a little bit better and clean some things up upfront and then be able to attack and hit holes the way we need to
Q3: You touched on him earlier; Tre Stewart put up a buck 80 on you a year ago. He is one of the best running backs in a back-heavy uh league. What separates him from others in this conference?
His change of speed. I mean he's the guy that can go to zero to 100 really fast. He does a good job of seeing things, and when he sees a gap, he hits it. He's got good enough speed to run away from people, so you have to make sure you do a good job of keeping him hemmed up early.
Q4: They've had issues at quarterback. They had Dustin Noller coming into the season, but he went down with an injury in the opening week against West Georgia. Cal Endicott was serviceable against West Alabama and passed for 260 yards. You could see one or the other. How are they similar and how are they different in what they do?
Noller's been there, and he's been in quarterback for a long time. He's just a really good athlete and good quarterback. He throws the ball well. He has a really good threatening run. The other kid didn't run as well, but he's 6'4 and has no problem throwing the ball over top of people. So, when you watch the video, they've got a running back that's capable of running, and then they still have a quarterback that's capable of putting the ball down field, so they don't have a quarterback problem.
Q5: Defensively, they gave up some yards last season and really aren't this season. What do you see that's different about the Saints' defense this year?
They're doing a couple things different that they didn't do. I know last year with Coach Furrey, they were fairly new coming in, so they've expanded a lot of what they're doing from last year. Then, the effort of their kids, I mean, they do a good job of running to the football.
Q6: Internally for your club's special teams, that was the ugly part of the ETSU game Saturday. What has the process been like this week to correct those miscues on punt return and really both sides of the punting?
The big thing, number one, you've got to diagnose the problem. Then, the thing that you identify is there is just a guy here or there that's not handling the responsibility the way they need to. So, then you've got two options; that guy's got to do it better or you've got to change that guy. That's the thing that we're looking at. The number one goal is to continue to work to push for those guys that we have in there and involved and to continue to work to get better. A lot of times we've got some guys there that didn't play as much on offense and defense, and then other times it's about challenging some of those guys that play a little bit more. They may have to go play special teams, and that's the first defensive play when we talk about punt team. So, we've got to accept that challenge to make sure that we don't continue to put ourselves in bad field position.
Q7: Jake Cottle started to show up late in his freshman season, but if I were a betting man, I would have him leading the league in sacks through the first two weeks of this season. What's he doing to get into the backfield frequently and perfectly?
Jake played a good little bit last year and did a good job for us in spots and areas. If I had to use a word to describe his Improvement, it's consistency. He's getting to the point now where he does it more than he did it a year ago, and I think a lot of that is a testament to just being in position to do it more. You learn more, and you become a little bit more, I hate using the word comfortable, but confident I guess is a better word. That is what's going on, and that confidence is allowing him to be able to make more plays.
Q8: I find it fascinating that the new part of your defense this year was and is the linebacking corps, and I guess it says something to the consistency of the other areas that you can plug in a Cottle and you plug in a Christian Hicks and those guys are doing exactly what an Alonzo Houston did last year. Is there truth in that, that this is just the system working and that Hicks, Storm Livesay, and Jake Cottle are the next pieces to be plugged in here?
I think when I first started, the thing was looking for that consistency, and the big key to that is keeping guys in the program to where you aren't completely starting over. Hopefully at any point in time, even though a guy leaves, you've got someone in the program that's been here for a year or two, and when it's their time, they're ready to go. It's hard for kids this day and time to be patient like that, but that's just how life, I want to say football works, but life in general works. The thing that you do is you plan, you prepare, and you put your time in. Every now and then, there's a kid that can come in and play his first year in college football, but if any of us do a good job, it shouldn't happen. So, those guys have been here, and they've worked their tails off while they're here, and now they get to just kind of plug themselves into the equation without us losing a whole lot. I think the defensive coaches have done a great job of coaching and preparing them and getting them ready. Coach Slade as a coordinator, and Coach Brock as the linebacker coach, I think they've both done a good job of prepping those guys. I think another side of it that is real pleasing to me is just the defense in general continuing the work to take ownership over themselves. It is something that I think is a big part of that. Because of their relationships with one another, it's important for those guys to come in and function well.
Q9: You talk about guys playing early, and it has happened offensively. Cam Ferguson gets a start against FCS ETSU. A running back, Xzavier McKinney. I can't think of the last time a true freshman started on the offensive line. I might have to go way back to Kevin Day in the late 2010s to find a guy starting that early in his career. It doesn't feel like it's out of necessity with those two. What have they done to put themselves so frequently into the fray so early.
I think our older guys have done a good job of helping those guys make transitions. When you look at Xavier coming in as an offensive lineman, he came in early and was able to kind of learn a little bit more of what's happening. We had one or two older guys that didn't come in, and so like it gave him a little bit of an advantage to be able to come in and compete right now because we were kind of doing a couple things a little bit different offensively. So, he kind of got ahead of the curve a little bit there, and then when you look at Cam Ferguson, he came in the summer too. He just worked and competed. Unfortunately on his side, we had a couple guys that had some injuries. But the thing that he did was just show up to work every day so that we didn't have a drop-off. Same thing with our offensive coaches. Coach Ray, the offensive line coach, Coach Weaver as a running back coach, and Coach McKeethan were all just finding the things that they can do. Pushing them every day and trying to find that consistency from them is giving those guys a chance to play.
Q10: Taking it back to some darker times during COVID, you were off and on trying to get together. How much does that really underscore the value of that voluntary prep time in the summer?
It's all about reps. When you talk about this game, it's all about reps. The more you can do something, the better you get at it, and that's where we even talk to our kids all the time about finding ways to steal reps. When they come to your office like "hey coach, I want more reps", in my mind as a player, you have an opportunity to get every rep we take if you just decide to engage in that rep. If I go hang out with my friends, I'm not going to get it. So, I think that's one thing that you see those guys being able to do is learn to engage in those reps. Our older guys will get to the point where they understand that a little bit better, and it's always better coming from their peers. When we say something and their peers say it, then it becomes important. When it's not important to them, especially for a young kid, it becomes a little bit less important because they're normally not as focused as your senior players are anyway.
Q11: Anything else?
Nope. I'm just looking forward to a good game on Saturday.
