Mike Clowney Opening Statement: Homecoming is going to be fun seeing everybody here. I think we will have a good crowd here. I've talked to a lot of people that plan on coming and showing up. As a coach, you don't get to spend as much time with them as you'd like to, but I just look forward to seeing and being able to talk to a lot of different people here this weekend. Transitioning from the family part of it to the football part of it, the big thing about homecoming is just trying to find a way to win the football game. Emory & Henry has got a really good football team, and they've done really well this year comparatively across the board. I think they are at 500 right now. It'll be a good football game and a good challenge. The key for us, and the things that we talked about all last week and coming into this week, is us controlling our own performance and showing up prepared and ready to work.
Q1: The thing that sticks out to you about Emory & Henry is one, they are still reclassifying to Division II, so they aren't in the national rankings, but defensively they've had 21 turnovers forced. If they were in the national rankings, they'd be second in the country. What do they do to create so much chaos on defense, coming off a seven-turnover game against Tusculum?
Number one, they run to the football. They've got a good plan, and they take chances defensively. I think they do a good job of that. That's where you talk about their transition, and they've brought over a bunch of transfer guys that have played at bigger schools. I think that's given them a chance to be competitive pretty quickly at this level. It'll be a good challenge, so we just have to make sure we do a good job of holding onto the football.
Q2: Curt Newsome, their head coach, is an Emory & Henry alum. You're a Carson-Newman alum. You all are the only two alumni coaches within the South Atlantic Conference. How special is it to go against somebody who matriculated through the program as an alum of Carson-Newman?
That was one thing that was interesting when I was talking to him before the game last year. We were able to have a conversation about his tenure as a student-athlete there and coming back and really kind of retiring there in this job. We talked about how much it meant to him to be back at the place he played, and I know that's something that is special for me, to be at a place that you love and you care about. It brings a little bit of a different element, I think, to what you do every day.
Q3: Internally, you've started to generate a bit of a pass rush the past three weeks. It's been three straight weeks with five sacks, and you've had a sack in every game this season. The last time that happened was in 2019. Five sacks in three straight weeks hasn't happened for as long as we've kept record. How has this development come about against pretty good teams with good quarterbacks and good lines?
Coach Jamison has done a really good job with our defensive line, and Coach Atchley has been helping him. That kind of builds into this whole thing, from a unit standpoint, because those guys have come here and stayed here, and now they are starting to reap the reward of the things they've learned the last couple of years. The other part that we've talked about is that we have some really good kids on the backend and the secondary which will buy them a little bit of additional time trying to get there. So, we'll challenge them again to get off the ball fast, and we'll challenge the guys who cover to give us a chance to get the quarterback on the ground.
Q4: You've shuffled your defensive line. David Alexander is playing, I think, at his third position but has settled into that role. Jacorey Long is playing his third position and has settled in as well. How did that impact and sway things?
It's wild. We talk about it every week, just from an offensive line standpoint because you can see the impact they have on your quarterback and your running backs. We've kind of done the same thing defensive line wise. We've had a couple guys who were injured and another guy that's just out right now, and those guys have that family mentality, and they jump in and fill in where it's needed. It comes back to some coaching too. They do a good job of coaching the entire scheme as opposed to just a position so that when we do have to move guys around, they have a little bit better concept. It's like last week, moving Major Williams in that nickel spot for two weeks, and Kendall Williams has played in there. The way that those guys have approached the coaching part of it, teaching those guys the entire defense and how those things fit together, gives us a better feel for being able to do that. I think Mekhi Brown played mostly inside last week. It's fun watching that part of it happen for those guys defensively.
Q5: I think any football team wants to improve week-in and week-out. While the results haven't shown on the scoreboard, it's clear that this team is growing. How do you translate that growth to results on the scoreboard?
We talked about that yesterday. I showed them the clip from the Mike Clowney show where we talked about what those steps and stages look like. At the end of the day, it's from the shoulders up. It's a mindset. I think from a talent standpoint, we have guys that are good enough to win every football game we play. We've been in all of them but two and shown that we have the ability to be competitive. We just did a devotion about closing the door versus just being close. It's time for us to close the door.
Q6: Emory & Henry might be challenging Carson-Newman for the most injuries a team has had to battle. It feels like they've had to use a different quarterback every week. Charles Mutter, who had been hurt, was back in action against Tusculum on Saturday. What sticks out to you about his skill set?
I think they are all really good. You can just see his level of understanding about what they are doing. They do a lot with the run-pass option where he is kind of reading stuff on the run, and he's able to do that late and make good decisions with the football.
Q7: You bring up the RPO. Have you seen anything close to what Emory & Henry does this season?
No, not the way that they do it. They hang it in there so long that they try to force you to make a decision. We have to make sure that we know what to do, so that we don't have any indecision on what we are doing.
Q8: The reigning defensive player of the week is Chendrick Cann, one of Emory & Henry's defensive backs. It's not too often that a defensive back makes 18 tackles in a game. What is he doing to put himself in position to make that many plays?
He plays fearless. He just runs to the football. That's what I tell our kids all the time, if you run every play to the football, you'll wind up looking at that stat sheet at the end of the game feeling pretty comfortable about it.
Q9: Tyree Nelson, coming off the first 100-yard rushing performance of the year. It feels like with your running backs, somebody does something really good each week, but it's never the same guy. Do you take that? Would you rather it be that somebody's going to rush for 100 yards every week or you have a different 100-yard rusher every week?
As a coach today, I'd love to know who that guy will be so I can know what it looks like and make decisions. The thing that the group has been able to do is be competitive. It's interesting each week to figure out which one carries the mantle for us.
