Mike Clowney Opening Statement: When you put a schedule together, one of the biggest things I've always been taught as a player growing up, as a coach going through, you want to put yourself in situations where you challenge yourself out the gate to kind of figure out exactly where you are. It's one thing that I knew after last year, but I think for us as a program, we're still talking about what does that picture look like to get us back to the point where we can get ourselves in national contention. So, I think we get an opportunity out of the gate to go play at team that's rated number nine in the country and a couple of polls, and I think the lowest their rated right now is 12. They had a good run in the playoffs last year, so I think it's a good test for us out of the gate to figure out where we are and what we need to do going into the rest of the season.
Q1 Thinking about West Georgia, I guess this speaks very well to the quality of quarterback play in the Gulf South. Harrison Frost isn't an All-Conference selection, but when you have Austin Reed at West Florida and Ivory Durham at Valdosta State. Frost completed 10 straight passes against you, started 12 of 14 last year, more than 300 yards. What sticks out to you about him and his capabilities?
I think the biggest thing for them in our game last year was efficiency. That's where you talk about completing 10 straight passes. We were giving them some things, and he did a great job of taking advantage of it, getting the ball in other guys hands to give them an opportunity to make plays. That's kind of what their offense is designed around.
Q2 You look at your own team and there's a lot that's, personnel wise, similar to last year, but there's a lot that is brand spanking new. Yet, you still have a degree of veteran depth because you're so transfer heavy this year. How do you like how this team has meshed together through this fall training?
The biggest thing about this team is we talked about yesterday, not every day has been perfect, but the thing you see is the heart. Every day they show up to work. They show up working to get better, and they compete with one another in a way that helps us get better and doesn't tear us apart. So, it's been fun watching this team grow, and its going to be fun watching them get into a game and get someone else to see exactly where we are.
Q3 You don't want to compare apples to oranges too much, but is there anything that you feel is different from last year, at least in terms of their make-up?
The people, for one, I mean the people are different. I think a couple of the guys that played last year, we're kind of looking at again from a secondary standpoint. Looking at really any of those guys that played in the game last year, that was their first time stepping on a college football field in that game against West Georgia. Some of them went through season play, and we have one or two that wind up getting hurt and having to redshirt, but at least they've been on the field before. So, we're excited about seeing how they come out and compete.
Q4 Does the growth remind you at all of what took place 2016-2017 where Desmond Fairell, Darius Williams, and that crew was kind of baptized by fire in 2016, but the fruits paid off over the next three years.
That's one thing we talked about a lot last year was that it was so similar to that group to where, us trying to work from a recruiting standpoint, are trying to get out of that phase. It wasn't just then. A couple times we've run this cycle to where we empty the barrel and then all of sudden we kind of go back and regroup. So, I think that there are a lot of comparisons there in the secondary like where you talked about, but you kind of see that in these guys with Jalen Anderson, Kendall Williams, and Callum Clements. You know, it's the exact same make-up.
Q5 West Georgia very much running back by committee last year, and the one that you probably know the most about, Mosley, isn't listed as a two-deep but he's still on the team. How do you prepare for who's touching the ball in the backfield for the Wolves?
I think the biggest thing is for us to be sound up front, be gap savvy, and go make tackles. It really doesn't matter who's there if we fill gaps the right way, and we're solid and fundamental as far as tackling, we'll be where we need to be.
Q6 Number two defense in the Gulf South last year for the Wolves. What sticks out to you about that?
They had a lot of experience last year. They were super competitive. When you watch them on film, you didn't see them make a lot of mistakes, and when you don't make mistakes on defense you give yourself a chance to win because you force the other team to continue to snap the football. You don't give up big plays.
Q7 Because you're still so new, and maybe a little bit more experienced than you were last year because of the transfers, but you are still so new, how do you measure success outside of wins and losses for this team?
I think it'll be the effort, and it'll be how well did we execute. Do we go execute and make plays the way we need to? There's a bunch of different things that I think you look at when you're developing a football team. You know, normally if you do those things the right way, you win the game, so that's kind of the culminating part. How well do we come back from whatever mistakes we do have and lock in and fix those mistakes going into the next game each week? Do we use those mistakes to build us or do we allow them to destroy us?
Q8 Your team last year's turnover problem. Multiple giveaways, each of the last nine weeks of the season, eight weeks of the season. Did you make it an emphasis point, or was it like, new year, we're not worrying about it so we don't cause it to happen?
I think you have to make it an emphasis point. The biggest key in winning football games is taking care of the football. When you look at where we were last year and you ask what'll be one of the reasons you really struggle, it's that we didn't take care of the football. There are a couple things we did in the spring game. We altered the scoring system to kind of accentuate that this is how a turnover really hurts you. Then when you go back and take away those turnover points in that spring game, most of the points put on the board were a direct result of turnovers. So, Coach Weaver has done a great job of emphasizing that. He's been turnover coach. Coach Turner did that when he was here before, but Coach Weaver has done a great job the last couple of weeks making sure we are conscious of how we carry the football.
Q9 Defensively for the Wolves, Marzavion Dix has been there for a minute. He was All-Gulf South Defensive Lineman. Their coaches call him the leader. What sticks out to you about him on tape?
You can see the leadership on tape. He's a guy that the other guys on defense gravitate to. It's obvious when you watch them on film that he's the guy that kind of makes them tick. Because of that experience and that leadership, those are the things that help you come into the season ranked in the top 10.
Q10 Road openers are a bit of a collector's item for Carson-Newman football over the last decade. This is the second time in ten years that you've started away from Burke-Tarr. Anything to that? Does it take some pressure off that you're not opening up to home fans, or is it just let's go play some football?
Let's go play football. I haven't thought about it one bit. We've got a big game in front of us, and we're going to go compete.
