Quotes from Tuesday's Press Conference
9/30/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
Head Coach Randy Edsall
Opening Statement:
"We have a tremendous opportunity and tremendous challenge ahead of us this weekend. We are playing a very talented Ohio State team and a very well coached Ohio State team. Looking forward to the home opener here at Byrd Stadium. I know it is going to be an electric crowd and a packed house. There will be a lot of pageantry with the first home game here. Hopefully, what we can do here is play to the best of our ability and give ourselves the opportunity to get a win on Saturday afternoon."
On quarterback Caleb Rowe's performance on Saturday:
"I'm very proud of Caleb for fulfilling the role of being the backup quarterback and being ready and coming in and being productive when his number is called. I think we've been blessed to have that at a number of positions with guys. Those are the expectations we have. I'm very proud of Caleb for staying engaged and being ready when his number was called. He came in and did the job he was expected to do."
On the significance of Saturday's game being the first-ever Big Ten home game:
"I'll repeat what I said last week, I know there are people who know and understand the significance of it, but again this game gives us the opportunity to get us to 5-1 and 2-0 in the league. We know Ohio State is a very good team and we need to play well. All of the surroundings of the game, we leave that up to our operations people. What we need to do as a football team is just focus on who Ohio State is, what they do offensively, defensively and on special teams and do that. That's what we did a week ago and that's the same approach that we are taking this week."
On Ohio State's personnel:
"They are very talented. They have a lot of really good athletes. They have a good scheme on offense and defense and are executing on a very high level. You can see they've gotten better from the first game and now going into the fifth game. J.T. Barrett is playing at a really high level and their skill guys as well. Their offensive line is coming along. They were young and now they have more experience. Defensively, their front four are very good and they have really good athletes on defense and do well in their kicking game. We have a lot to be concerned with, but what we have to do is come up with a plan to give our guys the best opportunity to win."
On the performance of Maryland's wide receivers against Indiana:
"Stefon [Diggs] and Deon [Long] are starting to get their legs under them a little bit. We are getting back to being more comfortable playing, coming off those injuries. It's good to see. They are helping blocking and make big plays on offense. We are blessed to have them and they are as talented as they are. What we have to do is continually have plays to get them the ball. They can make plays just like Marcus [Leak], Brandon [Ross], Jacquille [Veii] and all those guys. It's good to be able to have guys like Stefon and Deon, but it's also good to have those other guys who can make plays, so if they want to try to take them away, the other guys can step up and make plays."
On Ohio State's quarterback J.T. Barrett:
"You can see that he has a better understanding of what they are doing and he is more comfortable with each game. He's been impressive. He's got the ability to throw the ball extremely well. He can run the ball. He knows where to go with the ball and again. He is just an extremely talented quarterback that we are going to have to contend with."
On keys to slowing Ohio State's offense down:
"It doesn't change from week to week. What we have to do is continue to get better, work on our fundamentals and technique. Anytime people are going to throw the football, the best way to help yourself there, is getting pressure. If you get pressure with a four-man rush, that makes it better because you can cover more guys. It's just a matter defensively of all of our guys doing their job and making sure that they execute their assignments and we get guys that going hard each and every play."
On Maryland's concussion protocol:
"I figured I was going to get that question, so I brought along a copy of our concussion policy that we have. It's very thorough, but again, if we see a student-athlete diagnosed with a concussion, they are going to be withheld from competition or practice. They have to go under a series of tests and everything else. We have six different stages that they have to go through before they get back on the playing field. Stage one is a recovery. There is no activity. Stage two, after they get through stage one, there is light aerobic exercise. Stage three is sport specific non-contact functional activity. Stage four is supervise, modified non-contact practice and then stage five they can return back to full-contact and stage six they can go back to play. The one thing is, when we see somebody that happens to show symptoms or signs of being concussed, as a coach we can report it to our trainers and then as a coach you are out of it. It's all up to our trainers as they diagnose somebody with a concussion then they pass those steps. Sometimes those steps take a while. It is something that we take very seriously and make sure that we are going to do right by the student-athlete. Our trainers and doctors do a very good job, but we do have a policy in place that we follow."
On any updates on the injured players:
"We will find out on game day."
On the confidence in the locker room after two straight wins:
"You put a lot of stock in having four wins in five games right now. I think it helps the confidence of our players. And to win three games on the road, I think that's pretty special; it's hard to do. So again, we put all those wins in the bank, but now starting on Sunday we took the same approach to this game as we did all those other games that we played. And the thing is, what you do is, you study the tape, you break it down, you evaluate who you're playing, their strengths, their weaknesses and then you put together a game plan that you think gives you the best opportunity to win. Then you go out and practice that on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, walkthrough on Friday, and be prepared for Saturday. Again, our schedule isn't changing; we're not doing anything different. There's going to be things that we have to do to give us an opportunity to win and that's what we do as coaches during the week is come up with those things that we think can help us win."
On the play of defensive backs Daniel Ezeagwu and Jarrett Ross:
"We think their good players. They're on our roster, they're in our two-deep. If they have to go in and play; Jarrett played last week and we thought he did a good job. Daniel's a guy that we think is going to be really good; he's still young and learning right now. But we like his focus and approach, and I think those two young men know that they're a lot closer to playing right now than they were previously. They are guys that we have a tremendous amount of confidence in if they have to play."
On if there have been any surprises within the team through five games:
"I'm not so sure if there's anything that really surprised me about our team so far this year because I think I had a pretty good handle on who I thought we could be. I made mention about how I thought our offensive line would be better, I think they are better. They're playing well together. No, I wouldn't say there's anybody that really surprised me on our team. That's kind of the expectations that we've had and we've been building for."
On the current landscape of the Big Ten:
"I really haven't had a chance to study it as much as maybe you guys have. I just kind of look at it from week to week and see who we're playing and don't get caught up too much in the other things so we don't get ahead of ourselves. Again, football and sports are crazy; you never know what is going to happen. That's why I think you shouldn't start ranking people and doing things until you get to this point in the season. The thing that's crazy though is it's hard to believe that after Saturday half the season is over. I guess that's what happens when you're having fun."
On the play of linebacker Cole Farrand:
"Cole is, I mentioned it during the weekend, and to me he's the heart and soul of what we do defensively. He's vocal but he's not real vocal. He commands a respect of his teammates and really does a good job of going out there and saying the things he has to say. But really just the way he plays, he leads by example. He was all over the place. The kind of guy Cole is, just what he said after the game; the reason that he was able to do his job is because the defensive line did their job, L.A [Goree] did his job, so there were some seems for him to be able to go through and make some tackles. The thing is, he played fast and downhill and a lot of that is just the time and the effort that he puts in to studying his opponent and getting those tips and being coachable allowed him to play at the level that he did. Hopefully, we can keep him healthy and he can keep playing at the level that he's been playing at."
On Maryland's big scoring plays through the first part of the season:
"Usually the reason you get big plays is because first everybody is doing their job but you usually have to get blocks downfield. You have to get people blocking people downfield. Also, depending on the things people do to you defensively is the quarterbacks making the right reads and delivering the ball where it should go. Again, it's a combination of everybody; the offensive line doing their jobs, the tight ends doing their jobs, receivers, running backs, quarterbacks, but also the abilities and the talent that those guys that are making those plays have. When you take a look at Brandon's [Ross] screen play, you see Michael [Dunn] making a block, you see Silvano [Altamirano] making a block, you see Deon [Long] getting blocked; Deon gets in front of the guy and takes the brunt of the blow, but you see guys doing their jobs. Then, Brandon does a nice job of making his read and going down the sidelines. But again, I think our guys really understand that everybody needs to work and go until the whistle because if they do, on any given play, we have the ability to make \those big plays."
On the recent play of running back Brandon Ross:
Brandon, just like anybody else, sometimes when things don't go the way they should you have to sit down and reflect and focus a little bit more and concentrate a little bit more. We know he has the ability, it's good to have competition. He's playing well, he's making things happen; he can still play better. But we're pleased with what he's doing and hopefully he can continue to play at the high level that he's been playing at. He's practicing well so it wouldn't surprise me that he would keep playing at that level.
On the use of quarterback Shane Cockerille on Special Teams:
"Shane on terms of special teams, again we're going to utilize everybody that we can to help us win. He's a guy that was redshirted a year ago. He's got toughness, he loves to play, he just got a little carried away last week when we had a return called and he learned from that. It didn't really hurt us, but it's something that he knows was a bad mistake. He's going hard, but has to play a little bit smarter. Again, if he can help us on that just like Perry Hills; if Perry can help us on special teams we're going to use him. We've got enough guys that are nicked up and banged up and everything else that we have to utilize as many of the guys that we can that we want to keep from being redshirted or guys that have been redshirted to help us win and Shane's the guy that fits into that philosophy for us."
On the confidence of kicker Brad Craddock:
"He's always been confident. But I think the thing is just because of how hard he works and what he does to prepare himself you'd say yeah he is kicking with more confidence. Again, he's always trying to get better; he's studying film. This morning he stayed out there and did a little bit of extra on his own because he maybe didn't hit a couple of them as well he would've liked to this morning because we did PAT/Field Goal. But that's the kind of guy that he is. He's a perfectionist, he's a guy that isn't going to stand for himself being inconsistent. He's going to find a way to work through it and he's going to listen and be coachable and study it and get it figured out.”
On the play of defensive back Sean Davis:
"Sean's playing really well. Again, we still have some things we have to work on with Sean, but I like his approach, I like his work ethic, I like the way he's committed himself to being the best that he can be and it shows with how he's playing. Again, a couple of little things technique wise and fundamentals that he can be better at but I like how he's communicating out there. He's well-versed and much more knowledgeable of everything that's going on around him, the communication is better for him. He's a guy that loves to play and loves to prepare. Hopefully he can keep playing at that level for the rest of the year and I think he will."
Offensive Lineman Michael Dunn
On the anticipated atmosphere for Saturday's game:
"My parents and siblings are coming to the game. It should be a pretty good turn out, at least I'm hoping so. I'm sure it's going to be pretty loud and the students will be out there, but it should be a fun atmosphere."
On offensive chemistry:
"We are starting to get the hang of things. We are still not where we need to be, but the play calling has been great. We are just going out there doing what we are supposed to be doing. We are still not 100 percent and are still trying to get that perfect game. We haven't had it yet, but the way we are looking, I'm hoping that this upcoming game can be our perfect game."
Defensive Lineman Darius Kilgo
On defensive adjustments:
"Last week, we just had to make a couple of adjustments to fill our gaps. That showed last week when we played Indiana. We wanted to play very aggressive and fit our gaps and run to the ball. We are going to continue to do that as a defense and it'll help us in the long run."
On containing quarterback T.J. Barrett and Ohio State's offense:
"He is definitely an athletic guy. When he scrambles, he scrambles to run. We are just going to have to do a good job of keeping him in the pocket and when he does scramble, we don't want to have to give up any big plays. We just want to do our job as a defense and keep containing their quarterback and not give up big plays."
On playing Ohio State in the first Big Ten home game:
"They put on their pants just like we do, so it's just another team that we are looking forward to playing. It is a great opportunity to play Ohio State because of the history, but we are just looking at it as another chance to get another win."
Running Back Brandon Ross
On the team's start to the season:
"It's a pretty good start. We feel we could have very easily been 5-0, but 4-1 is definitely a good start. We are just trying to take it game-by-game and hopefully have success doing that."
On Ohio State as a team:
"They are very fast and talented. They have one of those defenses where they are going to try to take the ball from you, so we are going to have to do a good job playing a mistake-free game and make sure we don't have too many turnovers."
On playing Ohio State in the first Big Ten home game:
"It feels good. I was excited for the last Big Ten game too. It's just fun to be able to show what you can do in the conference. It is just another challenge and opportunity."
-Maryland-
