Quotes from Tuesday's Press Conference
9/16/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
Head Coach Randy Edsall
Opening Statement:
"I'm looking forward to heading up to Syracuse this weekend. We are playing a 2-0 football team that is coming off of a big win over Central Michigan. We are going up to a place where it is tough to play and hopefully we can put together the consistency that we need in all three phases. I think that's the biggest thing I am waiting for us to do. I don't think we've had a game where we've hit on all three cylinders and all three phases. I know it's going to come. The guys are working really hard to get to that point. I do think we will go up there and play well."
On the plays he submitted to the Big Ten for official review:
"I submitted about 13. [On the game winning field-goal], he moved. I have not gotten any responses back yet, but I've sent in 13. It was a false start, but that didn't lose us the game."
On Syracuse's passing attack:
"Terrel Hunt, their quarterback, played very well last game. He's a dual-threat guy. He runs the ball and their zone-read well. He can throw the short passes well, the bubbles and the timing routes well. I've been very impressed with him. What we have to do is play good, sound, fundamental football, and execute our assignments and their no-huddle offense. I think they are [one of only four] teams in FBS who hasn't given up a sack yet. That will be a challenge for us."
On Syracuse's running game:
"Prince-Tyson Gulley is quick and can make people miss. He took one 60 or 70 yards against Villanova and [Adonis Ameen-Moore] is somebody who is a big powerful guy. They have the ability to run and throw the ball. They pounded us pretty good last year with the run game. They had 242 yards rushing. We just have to make sure we play good, sound, fundamental football and tackle well."
On the play of Maryland's defense:
"It goes back to the basics. If you do the basics the right way, that would have been taken care of. There are some things that we can do too to make sure we put the guys in the best possible position that we can. It is just a matter of executing and being confident in what we are doing. When you have the ability to make the plays, then we have to make them. We had some opportunities to make some plays and we didn't either come up with the ball or knock the ball down. It's eye discipline sometimes on a few things, or guys securing the right gap. It's just basic, sound, fundamental football. It is no more than that. We have to get better at believing in what we see and going out and executing and being confident in what you are doing and take care of business. The one thing is with South Florida, there were some dropped balls there. We had some things there that we had to work on. We have to get everyone to take care of their responsibility and get everyone flying to the football. I don't want to hear about injuries or any of that stuff. Whoever is in the game, we are confident that they can do the job. It just gets down to doing your job, taking care of your responsibilities, and having everybody playing in a team defense. If you do that, when the plays come to you, you have to be able to get off blocks and be able to go up and get the ball. You have to play with the right leverage. One time [against West Virginia] we had a double on the guy and he ran right through the double because our eyes were not where they are supposed to be. If we put our eyes where they are supposed to be, we have the guy covered and he doesn't beat us and they most likely don't even throw that ball. It's just little things like that."
On preparing for Syracuse's run game:
"They run the same things. Regardless of the back, it gets down to fundamentals. If you take the proper angle and when you go to tackle the guy, you keep your head up, run your feet and go through the guy rather than trying to arm tackle -- the best way to prepare for anybody is knowing what they do and going out there and practicing it. You have to keep working on the fundamentals, technique and just playing hard and running to the football."
On defensive back William Likely's play this season:
"He hasn't exceeded anybody's expectations. He's doing the things he's capable of doing, and I don't want to understate it, but it doesn't surprise me that he's playing at such a high level because of the way he prepares and how he works. That's the difference. You guys don't get to see it on a daily basis, like we do, but when you take a guy like Will, it's not surprising that he's playing as well as he's playing. The amount of time and effort that he puts into it in terms of studying film and going out on the practice field and working hard each and every snap. It doesn't matter if it's on DB or punt returner. He's all over me because he wants to be back there on kick return. He has a lot of pride, that's the other thing. That's what separates him from a lot of these guys. He doesn't want to get beat, and if he does, he's going to figure out why he got beat and go back and make sure it doesn't happen again. He isn't going to hang his head, he is going to come back and do more. He hasn't exceeded my expectations, because he is doing the things that I know he's capable of doing because of the work he puts in.
“Another guy like that is Brad Craddock. It's not surprising that Brad is having the kind of year that he is having. It's easy as a coach to be able to watch young men that you are going to be able to tell how well they are going to play because of how much effort they put into it and how they conduct themselves and how much pride they have. They understand that what they put on film, that's their resume. Some guys have more pride than others when it comes to that. Those are the challenges that you have as parents, as coaches, as mentors and as teachers. You try to get everybody up there, but every kid is different. Will is special and a guy like Brad Craddock is special."
On the challenges of playing in the Carrier Dome:
"No, the field's still the same. I mean yeah it gets noisy in there, it gets loud. That's the thing, it's not air conditioned. Hopefully in this time of year it won't be hot. It's amazing, it's the Carrier Dome but it's not air-conditioned. But, it's one of those things that yeah it's compacted, it can get loud, but it's our job to make sure it doesn't get loud. But the field is still 120 x 53 1/3."
On the changes to the offensive line on the two-deep:
"Only five guys played against West Virginia. It was because of Evan [Mulrooney] because the other guys didn't even play. Evan [Mulrooney] came back, so he moved into the two-deep. But we didn't move anybody out of the starting offensive line."
On the evaluation of the offensive line through the first three games:
"The thing about it is, I said it here when I first started. We have to get more consistent in everything we do. Offense, defense, and special teams, everybody. If we do that, we'll be fine. Nobody is going to play the perfect game. Those guys are out there busting their hump to get things done. Sometimes, you know, everybody wants to take a look at sacks sometimes with offensive lineman. Well sometimes it's not the offensive line, sometimes it's the running back. So, our offensive line is doing a good job and they'll continue to do a good job and they'll continue to get better."
On the play of the special teams unit:
"I think our kickoff coverage is always aided by the fact that we got a lot of touchbacks. Brad [Craddock] has already had more touchbacks this year so far as he's had in his career. But the one thing that was good was that we gave up that one long kick return the other day and got the foolish penalty tacked onto it when they hit us with that. But then we made the adjustment and we did that. Again, the big thing with our kickoff coverage is that I don't want to have our guys get into a lull or a comfort zone thinking that Brad is going to kick it out of the end zone every time. You know, they think he is going to kick it out so maybe they don't run as hard as they should every time. They can't take it for granted that he is going kick it out, they have to go hard every time. We've done well there. Again, Nate [Renfro] has to get more consistent with his hang time and punts. Then again, when we get the opportunity to pin them back inside of the 20 [yard line] we want to put them down there instead of kicking the ball into the end zone, which maybe makes it look like it's a 50-yard punt instead of a 40-yard punt. Then we can make them go 90 yards instead of 80 yards. We still have to work on that, but Nate's working hard. On the punt team, we had a mistake there because of fundamentals and technique, and they blocked it. It wasn't scheme, we just had a young man, a couple guys that just didn't execute the technique. If they just executed the technique that would've never happened. Those are the things we just have to continue to get better at."
On if Saturday's game was defensive lineman Darius Kilgo's best:
"I thought Darius played well. I think it helps that we have Keith [Bowers] alternating, it keeps both of those guys fresh. He did a good job of blocking the field goal, but I think Darius can always play better. Take that, build on it, and play better this week."
On the development of the tight ends:
"Again, we don't call plays to target somebody. We call plays that we feel that the quarterback is going to go through a read and sometimes the read will take him to the tight end. Our tight ends are involved in the passing game, we don't max protect that much. We send them out and depending on what the defense does that's who the ball is going to go to. Andrew [Isaacs] is getting better in every game that he plays. He's still a young guy but he's getting more reps and the more reps he gets the better he'll be. I think we'll be fine at tight end. I think Derrick [Hayward] is coming along, we see some more things out of him at practice, he's getting more opportunities on special teams. But again, we're not just going to say we're going to call a play just to the tight end because if they take the tight end out of the play it's got to go somewhere else. When we call plays we call them because we think they can work on the concept that if the first read is open you take it based on the coverage. Everything you do in the passing game is based on the coverage in terms of who the ball is going to go to."
On returning to his alma mater Syracuse:
"It's business usual. The first time when I went up there as an assistant at Boston College was special. But once you do it one time, and then I've been back as a head coach at Connecticut. It's just old packing, so to speak. I value and appreciate the time that I spent there as a student, four years, and then as a coach for 11. I met my wife there so that was good, actually really good I should say. I had a lot of good memories and times there. When I was there we were successful, I had a chance to play in Archbold Stadium and can still remember coach [Frank] Maloney giving a talk before the game and there was a laboratory of animals right above us. Some dogs started barking and everything else and he was getting fired up to go play. I remember the last game we played there against Navy and when they were going to tear it down and put the Carrier Dome just one square foot off of where the playing surface was. I just remember coming off the field there and a bunch of us had our helmets on and we locked arms and we kind of ran through people as they were coming on the field to get everything they could possibly get. And then having the opportunity to coach there, Frank gave me that opportunity and we had some successful years there. I've got nothing but great memories of Syracuse. My daughter was born there, just nothing but great memories. You go back and see some faces that were there when I was there but we're going up there to win a football game and that's first and foremost. We've got to concentrate on that and get it done."
On the performance of the offense this season:
"We've moved the ball, we've scored points, and we've just shot ourselves in the foot. That's the thing that we have to correct. Whether it's turnovers or whether it's penalties and getting behind the chains, or not having the opportunity to finish some things by not converting third downs. Those are the things, we've done them in spurts, but we haven't put them together for a full game. That's what we want to continue to do, we hurt ourselves when we don't do those things. But again, there's been big plays and points scored. There's been a lot of good things. But again, what we have to do is just be more consistent and more efficient for 60 minutes."
On the progress of linebacker Yannik Cudjoe-Virgil:
"He looks good. He practiced this morning so we'll find out Saturday where he is and where all these other guys are. We'll make determinations once we get through all these practices and we talk to our doctors to see where they are. But yeah, he practiced this morning.”
-Maryland-
