Mike Clowney Opening Statement: We go to South Carolina three trips this year. We've been to Limestone, then we have this week with Newberry, and we'll go back down a couple weeks from now for Erskine. As far as going down to travel to play Newberry, it's always a fun game and a cool environment. It's always a place that's exciting to play. I think for us the big thing that we're doing is we're looking forward to getting back on the field today and continuing to work, grow, develop and continuing to get better and pushing the needle forward.
Q1: It feels like the SAC this year is full of quality defenses and full of teams that can play ball control. Newberry fits into that mold. They're top-three in the league and top-25 in the country in total defense. They're one of six schools that possesses the ball longer than 31 minutes a game in the league. Is this just the way that football is trending in the SAC this year?
It really is. When you look at scores across the board, they are relatively low, and when you turn the film on, guys are doing a really good job playing defense. I think the game has trended a little bit more towards the defensive side of the ball with some of the rule changes. I've been a defensive guy for a long time, and that was something we always argued about, how the rules are so in favor of offense. I think things are kind of trending to where defensive guys have a little bit more of an opportunity. Looking at Newberry, they're a good defensive football team. They're really big up front, and their linebackers are really active and run well. They've got good athletes in the secondary. The big thing for us is we just kind of continue to work on getting off the ball, working to find that movement, and consistently hitting holes when we get them. Then, we have to capitalize on the situations that we can provide ourselves.
Q2: I felt like your team took some steps in the right direction against the Lenoir-Rhyne. How do you continue that with potentially the results showing up on the scoreboard against the Wolves?
That's where we talked about a week before, we were crossing midfield and getting in scoring position and really killing ourselves with penalties. Two weeks ago, we were able to push the ball a little bit closer down in there and get it down inside the five, a little bit closer. Being able to cross the goal line is naturally that next step, so hopefully that's something that we can work to get done this week.
Q3: Brayden Phillips has taken the reins over at quarterback for the Wolves. You saw him a little bit last year as Newberry had to go three guys deep in the game here. What sticks out to you about his skill set now that he's had a year to develop and grow?
You can just see that he's a lot more commanding of the offense. He's the starter now, so you can see that he's gotten a lot more reps at doing things. So, naturally he's done a good job of picking up and understanding what they're doing and being able to execute it.
Q4: Defensively, it feels like Newberry always is just one of those teams in the league that if you want to point something that they're going to be good at, it's their defense. Why is that, year-in and year-out?
Yeah, they always have big, athletic defensive linemen. If you're going to beat Newberry, you've got to win some of those battles up front. They do a really good job up front of controlling gaps and running to the football.
Q5: Jaylen Myers did a pretty good for your crew for three quarters before suffering an eye-poke. What's the game plan for him moving forward?
I think the big thing for him is just continuing to develop. Sometimes you hate using that word, but we talked about him coming in later in the summer, and he's kind of finally picked things up. Then, we've got to make sure we give him a good plan to be able to use the people around him. He's got to continue the work to distribute the football well and the run game. It's just him continuing to get more reps to be able to get that feel.
Q6: Julius Cobbs continued to be the surprise in the receiving corps. Anytime you're talking about a nearly 100-yard game for Carson-Newman football, that's a pretty high-water mark. Came up a yard short of that against the Bears. I can't remember the last time that Carson-Newman football started a game with a three-wide receiver set and one running back in back-to-back games, and yet he seems to be part of the reason that that's happened.
I mean Julius has done a really good job for us at slot. It's the same thing, him just continuing to learn and push his needle forward too. I think it's something that's been good for us and has been good for him. We basically pray that he is able to continue that growth throughout the week. He's worked really hard to get in position to be able to help the football team.
Q7: You and I talked about it during the show about possessions being magnified. I've gone back eight years at this point, and so far through four weeks, you've had two games that have been 10-possession games. There have been years where you only have one 10-possession ball game. How do you strategize around that reality that the rule changes are consistently removing about two possessions a game?
We sat around and talked about that as a staff, you know, the fact that now there's enough data to show that's the reality. I think it's important. The snaps and opportunities that you get early in the football game are important. To be able to capitalize on them, I think is important, and to try to, even before then, play the game with the lead. I think it's important, so those are the things that you look at. Then, the other little things, those are results of going out, knowing what to do, executing, and putting the ball across the goal line.
