Troy Football Press Conference Video & Transcript -- North Texas Game

Troy Head Coach Larry Blakeney

Opening Statement
“We certainly did some good things, but the same old enemies showed up. I told our team in the locker room that we needed to find a way to beat Troy before we could beat anyone else. Actually our penalties yards were better. We were around 70-plus (plays) and we're still beaten by the other team in penalties. Plus, we had two that were totally avoidable. One was before and between snaps and one was a receiver who ran all away across the field when the play was already dead and he bump a guy from behind. Not a brutal lick at all but knocked him down. The guy almost 125 yards away threw the flag as far as he could. But he had a flag and he had a penalty and it was legit. That would have put us under 50. I know that doesn't mean a lot to y'all, but we're trying to get where all of our statistical data is counting for us and not neutralizing some of it with negative things like turnovers and penalties.”

"We certainly got to find a way to not give up explosive plays. They had a really good plan to attack our safeties with a big-armed quarterback who could fire it, and they did a great job in that regard. They did it by buying time and giving the inside receiver time to climb downfield to safety depth and make a move either way, corner or post. The quarterback could get it to him. Usually it was a sprint or half roll or good play action fake to how they got to that. Some explosive plays that we can certainly defend, so we got to find a way to do those things. Eliminate turnovers, minimize penalties, and eliminate explosive plays on defense.”

“Offensively, we we're up and down the field. We kicked the field goal to make it a six-point game and I thought that was the thing to do. Then we decided to kick it deep. If we had one more timeout it might have been more effective, but we still gave them a couple first downs and allowed them to get into clock phase and burn it down.

“Our guys plays hard, there were some guys who were really crushed and upset with the inability to win the game, but I think we had a pretty good practice last night and will be ready to play. We better because North Texas is really a good football team. They played pretty well against LSU and Kansas State. They are capable quarterbacks, running backs, offensive line, and defense. They are a lot like us on defensive, maybe some more physical looking guys up front, but they're are a good overall football program. We'll fly to Dallas and deal with the road a little bit. It shouldn't be a lot different from what we deal with every week. That is really the premise behind what we do for home games. They only thing different will be the (flight). I'm looking forward to the trip; really need a win bad, especially in the league. I'm hoping that we're highly motivated to do that.”

On not kicking an onside kick
If we get a stop, we get the ball back in plenty of time to drive down and score. All we had to do is choose run or pass, and we we're right down the field. An onside kick is low percentage and I just didn't like it. I wanted to kick it deep, get field position, and get the ball back. That was the call, and it was mine, and I think it was the right thing to do. We needed to get a stop and get a punt, but we never did get to that. That was my decision and at the time it was a right one, I certainly understand people at least considering an onside kick.

On turnovers
“I don't want to beleaguer the point, but we turned it over and give them three in the kicking game, and we turn it over three times on offense. If we turn it over two times less and they turn it over once or twice, we beat them by three scores. That the way this game was running. But it didn't happen, we got no turnovers and we gave up four, that's a considerable handicap.”

On the confidence of the offense
“It should be good, but if you take it the wrong way and go to Denton, Texas, and think they are going to waller up for you, then you got the wrong idea. We're going to have to execute, play fast, we got to be able to run it and throw it against these guys to keep them off balance. If we do that and don't turn over, we will score points, hopefully enough to win the game. The confidence level on the offense is pretty high, but that can be changed or shattered in one outing. We got to go in there and know you are going to face a bona fide opponent in your league at their place. Those are the circumstances.”

On the confidence of the defense
“We're playing hard. We got to get more four-man pressure and we got to play the pass better in critical downs. Everybody seems to be finding our weak spots. I thought we had one bad call on the draw against the blitz, the rest of the calls we were in perfect position. All you got to do is make a play. Now, there may be some inability to make plays at those positions, and the only way you can cure that is recruitment. The little wide receiver screen, I haven't figured that one out yet. We're not very lucky right now, we got to make some luck.”

On the quality of the Sun Belt Conference
The Sun Belt is getting better; I've said that all along. Everybody in the league is capable; there is not a bad team in the league. I've always said that South (Alabama) would have an early impact on the league. There are a lot of good coaches in the league. I think the league is competing well outside the conference and across conference lines.

On the running game and senior running back/ wide receiver Justin Albert
“I think the running game was really big and paramount. When you get that thing going, it means we're playing fast which we need to do to get people discombobulated. It's hard to get their calls in and they get tired. When you are able to run the football, they have to lean to the box to stop the run. That makes less people outside in all that grass. It helps you be able to throw the fast screens and the drop-back stuff. Rushing in football is huge. Albert has really been effective in playing running back. He is playing well, except for missing the punt. He could feel that guy boiling down on him, and we had a guy there but he was trailing and couldn't block him, so he should have just fair caught it. He's doing a great job for us; he's got tremendous instincts. He's made a bunch of plays for us.”

On recognizing the potential of this team
“I think there was some recognition that we had a chance to beat a good team. I think it's easier to coach them because they can look at the tape and see where each individual could have made a play or two that would have made a difference in the outcome. We had all kinds of chances to win both of those games, but weren't quite good enough to make those things happen. That's why we coach and work to play.”

On the fast tempo of the offense
“What if we slow the game down and we become ineffective running the ball? We got all kinds of ways to slow the game down. We can freeze, we can double freeze, or stand there until 15 seconds to call the play. But we're definitely better running it if we're up-tempo. We've out clocked everybody we played. There's not a question we're better when we're fast.”

On the energy of Saturday's record crowd of 29,013
“Our crowd on the student side is pretty involved. I'm glad they're there. Sometimes they holler at me, sometimes they holler at the players. I think our great was really great.”

On what Troy has to do to beat North Texas
“If I could have two or three things, it would be no turnovers, well under 50 yards in penalties, and outkick them. If we can get those three things, we'll have a chance to win. Anything less than that gives them more opportunities, and they don't need more opportunities because they are good.”

Troy University Athletics

Troy Football Press Conference Video & Transcript -- North Texas Game

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