VIDEO: Mike Turner Press Conference

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. - Coach Mike Turner spoke with the media Tuesday ahead of Carson-Newman's contest against Tusculum.

Opening statement

"You know, you come to this time of a football season and we've got 20-plus kids that are going to be seniors and graduating and that's (an) awesome number right there. We're very, very proud of them. You also know that the majority of those kids have been a part of the football program for four years or five years, they've all had contributions to this program, so we certainly want to have a great time in celebrating their final home regular-season game. And then you're playing Tusculum, which is a great challenge to us – that's a rivalry game. We know that they're a very talented football team, you don't look at 5-5, you look at talent, you look at ability, and they're a very capable football team."

On Tusculum's four-game winning streak

"It says a lot about Jerry (Odom, head coach) and his staff of preparing them and getting them ready and believing, you win five games in a row in this league or any league and that's a great accomplishment. So they're a very talented football team."

On what the senior class has meant to Turner

"When you're around a group of young men for four or five years and you are the daddy in residence and you learn to love those kids and care about them deeply and you want great things to happen in their lives. You want them to be very successful in (being) a great football player but you want them academically to be successful, to graduate, which they are. But the most important thing is you want them to be a better man for being here and being a part of this program. So all those kids have impacted this program in many and I hope this program has impacted their lives forever."

On how fun the situation is to battle for postseason play

"I think it's exciting for our kids. To be playing the third week of November and it counts and it's your last regular season game and you know where you are sitting in the regional rankings and you know you got to get the job done. You should be about a mission, by having a great week of practice this week in preparation for Tusculum, but also being single-minded on Saturday."

On what Turner learned about quarterback Tyler Thackerson against Limestone

"I know Tyler Thackerson is a winner. He's been a part of this team now for three years. Got quite a bit of playing time last year. I think every kid out there has the most confidence in him, and he is a guy that is a rally guy. He's gets those kids to rally around him. We made a couple mistakes out there, but they overcame those and came back strong and I think that's a great stepping stone, a growing step for Tyler."

On what Turner hopes the team took away from the win at Limestone

"I think you got to learn. We went through a lot of step by step yesterday in the team meeting. Who we were in the first quarter, who we were in the second quarter, third quarter and the fourth quarter. The majority of that is about maintaining your focus. You can't go like we did in the first quarter and the first part of the second quarter and be an offense that's effective, a defense that's effective, a kicking game that's highly effective and if you don't lose that focus you continue to roll in that way. If you get distracted by some things going on around you outside there, then you end up in a battle. That's what happened to us Saturday."

On what Tusculum does in the running attack with running back Jordon Shippy

"They proved that last year. They took that last drive and went 75 yards without throwing the football, and we know they are a zone and a split zone type of team. We know he's a very talented running back, he's got very capable offensive lineman in front of him and it's going to require the defense to attack the line of scrimmage but you've got to maintain your gap integrity. You can't get washed out of your gap and the linebackers got to know where to fill at."

On how critical it is to force the Tusculum offense to pass

"Every week the object of the defense, number one, is to stop them from running the football. No matter what the kind of offense is, you better stop them from running the football and force them into that situation and they're talented in throwing the football as well. Last year in that game, we gave up 21 points in the kicking game, we had a kid who corralled up there on the sideline, would turn him loose for a kickoff return, we had a snap that went through or over the head of the punter, we've got a punt blocked. That's 21 points in a game that, in those kinds of games, that's a big difference."

On what has changed from the beginning of the year to now

"Continued to grow up, continued to work on maturity, you know it's a process. There's a fall camp that you work on physicality and mentality and those kinds of things, it's a continuing process about growing up, learning how to handle myself like a man, learning how to respond to adversity, knowing that there is accountability. So, all those things are a part of that process and you hope when a young man goes out of this program that he knows that he's got a background, he's got a basis for that in his life. If that's there, then the decisions that he makes are between him and the good Lord."

On what makes the Tusculum defense so stout

"They're solid physically. This will be a physical football game, there's no doubt about it. Physically up front and at the linebacker position, they're solid and they attack downhill on you. In the secondary, they just proved themselves in the secondary this last Saturday in what they did against Mars Hill. They're a very talented defense, no question about it."

On what the matchup will be like between C-N receivers and Tusculum cornerback Dee Alford

"It's a matchup like they were to go up against Craig Rucker. I think a smart move is you match up people like that. Our job is to move those cats around where they're not all standing in the same place and using motion to get them freed up from any kind of press coverage and continue to get the ball in the hands of playmakers."

On senior week speeches

"It's a very special time. It's a part of the goodbye. It's a part of reflecting on memories that they've had in this program, it's reflecting on their close friends and one of the things we tell all the kids that come in the first year is to find four or five guys that you really are familiar with, that you feel like are good for you in your growing up process and it's amazing that every kid that will get up will have those four or five guys that have been to close to him, that have made a difference in his life, that have helped him through some hard times, some tough times. It's a meaningful event and we'll start tonight with five or six of them and go right through the rest of the week and probably end our chapel service on Saturday and have some of those guys speak there also."

On what Troy Dendy has done in his freshman year to play into the rotation

"One thing is he's got himself healthy. He had had some nagging injuries when he came here to start with, our training staff and he himself has been loyal to continuing to get rehab. But Troy is an exciting and dynamic young man. He's got the great explosion on that first step that you want to have and finds that other gear when he gets in the open."

On how much Antonio Wimbush has meant to the program

"Personally, what we talked about in looking at him as your own son and watching how he has grown and matured and the difference he has made in other people and the difference he makes for other players. He's a very unselfish young man, but I sure have liked the gleam in his eye the last two or three weeks running the football and he gets that feeling, you know what I mean? He gets that feeling about himself when you keep getting him the ball regularly."