Quotes from Tuesday's Press Conference
9/23/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
Head Coach Randy Edsall
Opening Statement:
"The Big Ten opener is this week, excited for that opportunity. We go out and play a very fine Indiana team, one that is coming off of a very good victory over No. 18/19 Missouri, at Missouri, in Columbia. That is an outstanding win. That's a team that is playing with a lot of confidence and is playing very well. It plays an up-tempo style of offense that is faster than we've probably seen before from anybody. Tevin Coleman, the running back, is very good. He has 8.6 yards per carry I believe. We are going to have our work cut out for us defensively. They are a 3-4, 4-3 type team in that they get into different looks and pressure you to do things and create some problems. We have a tremendous challenge ahead of us and hopefully we will be ready to meet that challenge in Bloomington on Saturday.”
On tight end Andrew Isaacs' injury:
"I probably won't have any updates on the injury stuff until later in the week. To make sure, he has a follow up appointment on Wednesday just to see where we are and have a sit down with the doctor. He's going to have to have surgery and will miss the season. We will end up at the appropriate time applying for a medical redshirt for him because if you play in four games, and he won't play in anymore and he'll miss the rest of the season due to injury, he qualifies for that medical redshirt. Again, we won't know the exact surgery date until he meets with the doctors on Wednesday.”
On Indiana's up-tempo offense:
"They go very fast; faster than anybody we've seen play. They do a great job of running the football. One of the things we are going to have to do is control the run and make sure that we get lined up and be able to execute at a very quick pace. They get up, make a call, snap the ball, and go. They really don't allow you to substitute or do much substitution at all. They don't substitute, which makes it very hard. When they get over on their sideline they try to crank it out fast. What we have to do is prepare. We go against our own people and other people. What we have to do is make sure we get our players the best opportunity to be in a position to be able to make plays and make sure we streamline things to allow them to make the calls, lineup and play fast.
On defensive back William Likely's play this season:
"It seems like I say it every week, but nothing he does surprises me because of the way he prepares and how he goes about his business. All he wants to do is do things to help the team win. Whatever he has to do is what he wants to do. I'll say it probably every week, it doesn't surprise me that he plays the way he plays because of the way he prepares and how much of a competitor he is. He doesn't want the limelight or any of those things, he just wants to do his job and do it to the best of his ability. He came up and made a real good play for a tackle for loss early, and was basically doing his job on defense and the guy threw it to him and he made a great run down the sideline to avoid Terrel Hunt's tackle and take it for 88 yards. He is just playing with a lot of confidence and the reason he's playing with a lot of confidence is because he knows what he is doing and he goes out and practices it each and every day. The thing that I like, is that other guys see that. Other guys try to emulate how he works and how he practices, so to me, that's a bigger bonus for us, which as coaches and as a team, when you have an example like Will, when you have a guy who does it day in and day out, doing it consistently and doing it each and every practice.”
On Tevin Coleman and Indiana's running game:
"They play three guys, but he's (Tevin Coleman) very good. He can catch the ball and he runs the ball very well. He's a very good player. If you look at the stats that he has, they speak for themselves. When you watch him on film, he is a good running back. He's one that you have to tackle. He's very versatile. They use him running the ball, they use him catching screens, and he's just really good.”
On Indiana's quarterback and wide receiver play:
"I think their quarterback is really good. When you take a look, he's thrown only one interception, two touchdown passes and I think close to a 65 percent completion percentage. He has a really good grasp on what they are doing and I've been really impressed with him. Their wide outs, they are well coached. Kevin [Wilson] does a really good job and they put a lot of pressure.”
On the special teams ability to block kicks the last three weeks:
"The interesting thing is Darius [Kilgo] made a very good individual play [against West Virginia]. A lot of times when you block a PAT or a field goal, if everything is right, we should never get a PAT or field goal blocked. If we are executing, nobody should be able to come off the edge and if you're using good technique up front, they shouldn't be able to get a good push on you. Usually the only way you get it, is if the kicker kicks the ball low. Darius got some good push and the kicker may have kicked it a little low, but we blocked it. That's what you hope for.
“When it comes to punt blocks, we basically outnumbered [Syracuse] the other day. They gave us a setup that we looked at during the week on tape, and basically the two inside guys were both ineligible, so why cover ineligibles downfield, if they can't do anything. We ended up taking the guys that we had on them to say, 'Hey, if they aren't going to come down, then we are going to go block it and bring two extra guys that they can't account for.' They never made the adjustment. If you watch the film they have the one guy looking at the back of the personal protectors to bring him in, but they never brought him in, so we decided if they didn't do this, it would turn into a block. What happened was, we won the numbers game. [Against USF], Kenny's [Goins] pushed the guy back into him. Kenny gets credit for the block because Kenny pushed the guy right into him. The punt hit off his butt.
“That's usually what happens. It's usually a mistake by the other team that allows it to happen, but we are thankful for those mistakes and hope people continue to make those mistakes. You do things to try to overload one side or the other when you are trying to get a punt blocked. We didn't even have a block called, but because of the set they gave us, it turned into a block. Anytime you can block a punt and block a field goal, those are big momentum changers. We are thankful for it. Now that we've done it that, the kids believe in it a little bit more and practice it a little bit harder. The other thing that helps, is what Will [Likely] has done as a punt returner also creates an issue for the punt team. Now they are thinking they have to get down there because they have this No. 4 who can take it the distance. Now what happens is they don't spend as much time trying to block up front, which creates a soft spot, or an issue that gives us the advantage, all because of what Will has done back there. The same thing with our kickoff return team. They are playing with a lot of confidence. If you take a look at our averages there and what we've been able to do there. Now, we have to get that more with the kickoff coverage team and the punt team, to do a little better in terms of coverage, but again, our kids believe in special teams and Andre [Powell] does a good job. Again, we put as much emphasis on special teams as well do offense and defense.”
On the historical significance of Maryland's first Big Ten football game:
"I probably have to be careful how I answer that so I don't offend anybody. But it is, it's very significant and it's historic. But it's also the fifth game on the schedule for us. That's the thing that I want our kids to know. And I've told them: it is historic, it is a special moment because it is the first game; we want to go out and play well, and we know it's going to be difficult. But what we also have to understand is, it's still just another football game that we're playing in terms of that this one counts just as much as the other three have that we won. So, we have to take that perspective and understand that yes it is the first one, but we still have to focus and concentrate and do the same things that we've done in the previous games that we've played, and that's what we're trying to do. We do know that it's very important because it's the first Big Ten game that we're going to play in football, but we also understand that we have to treat this just like any other game. And I say that because we treat them all the same, you only get 12 of these. And if we don't treat them all the same then we're doing a disservice to ourselves, the university, our fans, everybody. So again, we want to have as much energy and enthusiasm during this week in practice as we've had before, or even more to continually get better with all those things each and every week. It'll be fun just like the other ones, but we do understand the historical significance of it."
On the progression of wide receiver Stefon Diggs:
"I told him the other day I was really proud of him. He went out, and you know I talked to him before the game during the week and told him what I thought he needed to continue to do and he went out there and did a good job. I'm proud of Stefon, it shows me that he cares, that he's coachable, and that he's a complete receiver. On Brandon's [Ross] touchdown, if it wasn't for him that doesn't go 90 yards. So I think that he understands now that he can be a big part of other people's success and our team's success that we have. He understands that we have other guys that can make plays and that he can help them make the plays. So yeah, I think that he is getting better; he's still not where he can be from that standpoint, but you see the improvement and you see the effort and intensity with which he's going about."
On the play of linebacker Yannik Cudjoe-Virgil and running back Brandon Ross against Syracuse:
"Well Cudjoe was a little bit rusty. One time, he didn't get underneath a kick out block. But the thing is, he just brings so much effort, intensity, and strength to the position. Also, just having a guy out there like that feeds the other guys. He'll be fine as he continues to go, there's just a couple things he missed on but he'll be better this week so we're happy that he's back out there. The thing with Brandon is we've all seen it; you guys have seen it, I've seen it, he's got the ability to make big plays. He's made big plays here, he's taken the ball the distance, and again, it's just one of those things, we're going to try to utilize him and all of our guys to the best of their ability to help us move the ball and be successful. He can catch the ball and it just puts another anxiety in the opposing defensive coordinators and defensive coaches that we have to play because of the things that he can do."
On defensive lineman Quinton Jefferson and the play of the defensive line:
“Quinton is doing fine. Anytime you get hurt you're disappointed, but the good thing for Quinton is that we will apply for a medical hardship for him as well because he only played in three games. Now, he'll have two years left, but we'll apply for that at the appropriate time. If there is a silver lining in the injury it's that he'll get two more years instead of one. But he's fine, he's prepared for the surgery on Friday. We'll support him and keep him involved with everything that he can do. He'll go to the meetings, and he's in with the guys and all that, but he's not out on the field or any of those things.
“I think the defensive line is one that we feel good about. We'll move Keith [Bowers] over to Quinton's spot to be backed up by Spencer [Myers] and then Darius [Kilgo] is backed up by David [Shaw] and Andre [Monroe] is backed up by Roman [Bragilo]. Malik [Jones] is sitting in on the meetings and learning the game plan and everything else. He doesn't get an opportunity to get reps on the game plan, but he gets reps down in the scout team and then when we go individual in the group stuff he gets the one-on-one pass rush. He's got to be ready to go. Kingsley [Opara] has got to be a guy to, we got him in meetings to learn things. He's only one or two plays away from playing. As I talked to our team this morning after practice, and I talked to them before practice, I said that every guy that travels, all 70 guys, have to be ready to play. Then the scout team guys at their positions, they have to work really hard because if we get injuries somebody else is going to get the opportunity to move up. Once they do, they have to go in there and do the job that's expected of them."
On the offensive line's play against Syracuse:
"I think we're getting better there. You score [31] points offensively, you have the yards that we had; I mean the first half was really good. In the second half, we just did some things, I mean we only had one three-and-out. We didn't try to play to keep it close or any of those things, we just didn't make some plays. They started blitzing a little bit more. A couple of times we got off the chains and that hurt us, and a couple times we had some things that we didn't feel went our way on a couple of third down situations. But again, we're just going to continue to get better with those guys up front and as everybody's working and the things that we're doing, we're going to be fine. What people are doing, people are loading up the box against us and forcing us to throw the ball. So we went out and we threw the ball and had good completions, good stats, and had a lot of yards throwing the football because people were trying to take the run away. It seems like people want to try to make us throw the ball to win. So guess what, we threw the ball and we won. So now we can throw the ball and get the guys out of the box like we did, that's going to open up the running lanes a little bit more."
On the defense making stops in the red zone:
"I wish we could stop them earlier. But again, the field gets condensed as you move down the field. The thing is, we've been able to make plays. Whether it's our guys thinking, 'Okay, we have to stiffen up here,' or whatever, we've had a tendency to make those plays. Hopefully, we don't have to continue to do that, we can stop them before, but I just think it's one of those things that when the plays over just go to the next play and play hard and see what happens. Do the things you're supposed to do. But again, the mentality of our defense is to keep them out of the end zone, don't let them score touchdowns. Like you said, we have to get better at some things defensively and we have to stop giving up too many big plays because that's the one thing that's hurting us. What we're doing is we're playing pretty good field position football. That helps because the longer the offense has to drive the more inclined they are to making a mistake. But again, I'd rather be able to get some of those three-and-outs and do those things and preserve the field position for our offense to be able to take over in better situations."
Linebacker Yannik Cudjoe-Virgil
On Indiana's offensive strength:
“Definitely their fast-paced offense. They're a hurry up-tempo team. Their running back is really good. This is a big challenge for our defense to stop the run and just make them one dimensional.”
On the toughest part of returning from injury:
“It's tough to go right back out there after missing four weeks of training. I just have to keep working hard and just hurry up and get back into things because you don't have a lot of room for error in a Big Ten schedule.”
On if it was harder to relearn technique or build up cardio after the injury:
“More the technique stuff. During the time I was out, I was able to do some cardio and stuff so that's not a factor so it's just a matter of getting back to the football stuff.”
On if he ever doubted himself after the injuries:
“The hardest part of sports is injuries. You really have to be mentally tough to be successful at this game because there are always going to be injuries. That's in the past and I just have to look forward to these eight games and possibly more games in the future. What's in the past is in the past.”
Linebacker L.A. Goree
On the first Big Ten game:
“The first Big Ten game is something my kids and their kids are going to ask me about. We as a team want to step up and prove we belong in this league.”
On playing in unfamiliar environments:
"We're not really stepping in the unknown because we watched film on these guys so we know what to expect. Going to the stadium, that could be an unknown, but we play out-of-conference games every year. I'd never been to USF. I don't think we'll have a problem adjusting to the atmosphere. We're not scared about stepping into the unknown.”
On staying focused through injuries:
“We know injuries are going to happen with every team. To keep that moral, our leaders have to step up and make sure that we're all on the same page. We can't let things go because if we let things go because if we let them go in practice, the same things are going to happen to us in the game.”
Running Back Brandon Ross
On running the ball against a stacked box:
“Sometimes you've just got to man up and do it anyway. The best team and the best lineman win up front. Especially on the short yardage downs. Sometimes you've just got to run it anyway even with a loaded box.”
On his 90-yard touchdown catch:
“It was just one of those plays where C.J. [Brown] had the option to hand if off or throw it to me based on how the linebackers were playing in or outside the box. I guess he saw they stayed in so he threw it to me. We did a great job blocking. I think it was Stefon [Diggs] and Marcus [Leak] on the outside and they threw two great blocks. All I had to do was just split it.”
On what he's seen from the rest of the Big Ten:
“I feel like they're all kind of competitive. I saw Penn State and Rutgers play a week back and they were competitive. I've been following some of Indiana's games and they've played pretty well. If we have a good week of preparation, we feel we can beat anyone on the schedule.”
-Maryland-
