JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Heading into the third straight road trip for the Eagles, Carson-Newman head coach Mike Clowney addressed the media before a Saturday matchup against the Catawba College Catawba Indians.
Clowney Opening Statement: That's one thing that has been unfortunate for Catawba as they've been off the last two weeks. Our prayers go out as we pray that all their student-athletes, faculty, staff are safe going through this whole pandemic. We're looking forward to getting back on the field again. That's one thing in the situation that we've been in and one thing we love is playing football. In order to get better at it, there's one word that comes to my mind which is persistent. Our theme, for me, this week is being persistent. We're going to go out and continue to work, keeping swinging the bat and get keeping better. Keep doing the right things, the right way, for the right reason and then get ready to head into this game on the road. You ask about Catawba but this whole thing is still all about us and getting better. We haven't seen Catawba in two weeks but before their pause, they're 3-0 and playing really well on defense. They have a lot of guys that run well and run to the ball on defense. Offensively, they're super multiple that they can give you problems with all the things they do and combining it all together.
Q1 There is some historical significance to this matchup with the coaches on the sidelines as for the first time in league history, not only two SAC Hall of Fame coaches but two African American head coaches go up against each other. What does this significance mean to you?
As for the Hall of Fame part, they won't let either of us be out there on the field playing for the team. That part is just Curtis is a competitive person and I know that as well as am I. You don't get into this situation without being competitive. That's one of the things you want to see in both teams is that competitive nature and the drive to be the very best that you can be. As for two African American coaches coaching against each other, that one is one I struggle with, I'll be honest with you. We are both that and it is a great situation that we're both in. We've both had opportunities to coach teams and coach the teams where we played. Both are programs that you really care for and love, but at the end of the day, it is about kids and us helping them grow to be the best people that they can be, regardless of what color they are.
Q2 You'll have to defend one of the best running QBs in not only the league, but nation in Ken Avent, averaging nine yards a carry. Despite the two-week pause, he's still the fourth leading rusher in the league. What challenges does he provide under center?
You know, in all these games, the quarterback has been the challenge. We talk about it every week, even with our quarterback situation. Having a guy there who can hold the ball and run pulls another guy away from the defense. We now know that we have to always have someone there who is ready and available for the quarterback. It gives other guys an opportunity to make plays. Avent has done a really good job of reading things and the opportunities he takes to run the football are results of the good decisions he can make.
Q3 It seems like you made some changes offensively against Barton and it was something you were willing to die with. How do you braid out that change and that step in the process?
There's a lot of stuff that appear when we first start talking about where we want to be on offense. The option has always been a big part of who we are. I'm an option football coach and I love the option. I think it forces the defense to play assignment football when you have dive, quarterback, and you have pitch. With that being said, there's always a spot to put your players and coaches in positions to do what they can do well. One big thing we want to look at is what can our guys do and be really good at it. Like Coach Guillermo played at Clemson and is a good football coach, but he's never coached an option offense before. He understands the zone stuff. We talk about a lot of players being young, but some of our coaches are young too. We are kind of coaching one another through a lot of those situations as we put this thing together.
Q4 You have two of the best linebackers, at least in terms of tackles. What are you seeing from guys like Rondrow Peebles and Alonzo Houston that are helping lead your defense when youthful mistakes happen on the back end?
Anytime you're in a situation where you want to have some pieces there and you don't feel like you have to worry about. Not having to worry about if will Rondrow and Alonzo show up today, we're pretty confident that they are going to get there and give us the best effort they have each and every Saturday. We threw Daniel Dixon-Brooks in that mix and he was able to get back out there. However, Alonzo and Rondrow just give you that piece of mind that we don't have to sit there and stress if they will show up for the game. They're going to play, but we still have to do a good job of coaching them and teaching them as they grow. Just knowing that overall we don't have to really look for them.
Q5 What we saw from LaMarcus on the weekend was signs of some early brilliance along with some young quarterback mistakes as he made his first career start. How do you shape the message to him that what he is now is not what he will be the rest of his career?
We do a devotion with our coaches and this morning we kept talking about the word persistence. Like Disney, how many times were they turned down? A lot of times and the big message we had was in life, it's not always instant success. A lot of times we learn more, in the message I heard was, success through your failures. A lot of times we have to go do things and try things. We talk about the offense and how we want to go do some things. If you don't go do things and try things to experiment with them, at no point are you ever going to grow. For us, it's about that persistence and continuing to go work and see what works for this football team. With LaMarcus, we go and put the gameplan together: what are things that he can do and what are the things we put him in that allow him to be successful but also allow him to be challenged and grow? All that is important as we put this picture together for not only him but for us in general.
Q6 Obviously a results-driven business but this league has had some wacky things happen thus far but there is a lot of season left. What is your message to the team when "we haven't had a lead yet this season but there is still a lot of season so we can feel good when it comes to November if we play our brand of football?"
That is the thing, every weekend is a toss-up outside of just what we have had going on. We go into a game against West Georgia and expect to win the game, and all of a sudden you don't win it. Then, Wingate, same thing but you feel like you're a little bit closer and you're getting better but you don't pull that one off. You go to Wise and it was super frustrating as they weren't even in the top 25 or even top 10. You end up losing to Wise and turn around to beat Lenoir-Rhyne. It's just one of those things that we can't control any of that. All that stuff that happens outside of our game, we have absolutely no control over. The people we have control over is ourselves. The message for us is let's continue to get better at what we do. Let's continue to be persistent. Let's continue to push forward.
Q7 You have a very young team, both players and coaches. You have a lot of offensive coaches in their first years here as they try to learn about each other as coaches. How much does that impact what you are trying to get accomplished on the field come Saturdays?
That's where we go back and talk about the overall process. Like coaching with coach Sparks, his big thing when we always hired coaches was you hire the right people and eventually, you get in a position to get the other things done that you need to get done. If you hire the right guy to coach the offensive line and you need him to learn the option, eventually he'll learn the option but that's the big part of it. There is a growing curve there, not just with the players but also with the coaches. Even from a relationship standpoint, coach Sparks had a staff that was here for some 30 years together. I was able to inject myself into that staff once I quit playing. Now with a new staff, it is super critical that we talk about everything. We pull every idea together, even over the headsets in the game. There are still so many ideas that we still have this melting pot that we work on putting together who we are.
Q8 Obviously winless right now. For your team to win a game, what does that look like?
It looks like us going out, and us executing. We put some plays up on Monday to show that this is what next level looks like for us to create an opportunity to win. A lot of those plays were like Troy Dendy with the extra effort plays. Plays that were in the game disappointing, but you can pull out something that is encouraging. We go into a situation to win the game but we throw an interception. However, we pull off that clip three guys that were absolutely busting it to go make the tackle. You got Nick Root, Cody Sullivan, and Mendez Jean-Baptiste all just took over wide open to go get the guy tackled because we're still starting to understand "we get him tackled, we stop them, and we get the ball back and still have a chance." If we let him go score, it will make it even more difficult.
A couple of blocks, second effort. We're sitting there late in the game and there's a 3rd and 2. The running back is sitting on the chains at the two yards. Finally, Christian Bass comes and we push him forward for another two. We take that out of the official's hand and don't have to worry about where the spot is going to be anymore. We move the ball past the chains. Now for us, them being able to gather that picture and start pulling this thing together and start doing this on a more repetitive basis. It goes beyond just doing your job, the first thing you have to do is do your job but then you have to go do what you were created to do. If it's a running back, I'm going to hit the gap and once I get to the second level, God gave me this talent and I'm going to go score. Those are the things we're working on now and getting to that next level to gain that edge and have the scoreboard be more in our favor.
Q9 How important are the life lessons coming from this time where you're facing some adversity as teaching points to your team?
It's hard to see what's going on when you're in the middle of a storm. So what you have to do is continue to fight and continue to find a way to survive the storm until you fight your way out of it. Once you fight your way out of the storm, that is when you're able to go back and see that "man that was tough, but…". I think the "but" is where we are right now. "But" we came back, we fought our way to win football games. "But" we kind of settled down and really didn't do anything. Right now, we have to define what our "but" is going to be. We're in the middle of a storm and we're fighting our tails off. We have to continue to find a way to gain success until it shows up on the scoreboard.
Q10 Troy Dendy had a coming out party for his sophomore season against the Barton Bulldogs as he ran with a bit of an edge. Did you see anything in practice leading up to the game that might have tipped you off that he would do so?
With Troy, you know it's there and you've seen it, even going back to the Bowie State game in the playoffs during 2019. What happens a lot of times is when you have success early, you can kind of get into a lull. I always said as a player that my worst season was my sophomore season because everything I was doing, I had already done it as a freshman and there was nothing new. Troy, coming off his freshman campaign, in his true sophomore season is defining who he wants to be as a back and how he wants to be remembered. He always talks about "what can I do to be better than Antonio Wimbush?" He got popped pretty good in the game, but I think he learned a lesson in that failure. You take that same run, get your pads down, and it's another three or four yards. He comes back instantly after taking coaching and he puts his pads down, and shortly after he breaks the run down the sidelines and gets face-masked but doesn't fall down.
Q11 Catawba is yet another team pretty committed to running the football. A little bit more balanced between Jyrea Martin, Daniel Parker, and Ken Avent. What do they do that is similar to what you saw from Barton and Wingate? What is different?
Most of those guys are from the same tree. Catawba has established themselves a little bit like we are in the guys they've hired where there when Bennett was there. Chip was the head coach at Catawba and all of a sudden, it transitions between him and Curtis. That is their mantra and who they are, running downhill with a two tight end zone. They do a lot more in terms of mixing up the formation right now than they have in the past, but Catawba is going to continue being Catawba. They'll run downhill and we have to be prepared to do what we need to do.
Q12 Defensively it has been tough to move the football against the Indians, especially on the ground. Seems like they are returning to the defensive intensity of the past. How are they doing it?
Same thing in they went through a period like where we are right now. They had younger guys and guys who were hurt. Now, those guys are juniors and playing a lot better. They've transitioned from struggling in 2019 to where they are right now, sitting at 3-0 despite missing two games that could have gone either way. They've gotten guys into position and they understand where to be and so they're playing better.
