Troy University Athletics
Photo by: Joshua Thurston
Football Press Conference (Blakeney) - Georgia Southern Game
10/27/2014 3:32:00 PM | Football
TROY, Alabama -- Troy head coach Larry Blakeney met with the media on Monday in advance of Troy's game at Georgia Southern on Thursday night.Â
Opening Statement…
Of course, y'all know about the game. I was real impressed with South (Alabama) going in. I probably don't study them as much as our coaches do, but they have developed a good bank of personnel down there. Our kids fought them pretty hard. I thought we had a chance, but we just couldn't quite get it done. We are just not quite good enough to drive the football on offense and make plays on defense that stop drives. That is bad medicine. So, we have to keep plugging and a keep trying.
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We are going into a bad place to get a W, because those guys are probably the best team in our league. They are very well disciplined in their offensive approach and really their defensive approach too. They don't give up much, they try and keep everything in front of them. They run the triple option. Their quarterback (Kevin Ellison) is very much a threat. They have plenty of firepower. They will throw it a lot. I have been sitting in on our defensive room, especially, and I think all of those guys in there know a lot about the option, but that doesn't mean that we are going to be able to line up and play it totally effectively. It takes players along with X's and O's. We're a pretty beat up football team.
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I don't know how many or who will make it to the game. We are struggling a bit. Again, let me add, the schedule that these kids have to go through is sick: play on Friday night, play on Thursday night, play in Mobile, Ala., play in the Atlantic Ocean, you know? You have to go from one end to the other of the Southeastern region of the United States to play a game and you don't even have seven days in between. All of the prep and all of the travel and the games are on class days. I'm an academic guy. I don't blame any particular person. I know conference has a lot to do with it and so do regional packages and conference packages and national packages and Thursday night packages. So all of those TV viewers can pick it up. I am not adverse to TV, I just know what kind of wear and tear it has on kids and old people, like me.
Â
Anyhow, very good football team at Georgia Southern. We first started this deal a long time ago. We wanted to be like Georgia Southern. We went to work and got to a point, I think we beat them once over there and they came back here. We should have beaten them, but we didn't. We blew it at the end of the game in the playoffs. We maybe got to a point where we could be considered a success story like Georgia Southern's was, but now we are back in the same league. They are very good and we have to compete with them. We practiced on Sunday and we practice today. We gave them Saturday off, I think they need to have one day a week off. Tuesday we will practice and Wednesday we will travel.
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On the health of the front defensive line…
We are not good. We have some key people that are hurt. Key people that, some definitely won't play and some might not play. We went through a pretty physical round down there in Mobile. Sometimes you don't have to be playing an awesomely physical football team to get hurt. You can get hurt playing football in a pass-fest. We have some guys that are valuable to us on both sides of the ball that will not play.
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On stopping the run…
This is different from the run. They are an option. It's like Navy. Only their version of this deal is even more deceptive. These guys motion from the wide receivers back in. The biggest thing is players and they have players. These guys have played Georgia Tech and NC State to the hill and beat everyone else. I am really concerned. Stopping them is dive, quarterback, pitch. If you tackle all of those guys, you have a chance. Of course, they do throw it some off of play action, and you can get a little deep sleep and someone will be wide open. I know we are working hard and I know we can get a very simple plan.
Â
On the 1995 game…
Coaches have too much time to think, or not think. Some of the folks that were here are very highly qualified football coaches. We get the ball down to the 3-yard line. I believe we were down by three. We were first-and-goal with 42 seconds left, no timeouts. We were going to try and score to win right there. The first thing that came to my mind was run it twice, spike the ball, kick the field goal to tie and go into overtime, if you don't score. We had been running the ball pretty well, but no. We tried to throw a three-yard out route on the right side. The first was incomplete, so we called the same one. The third receiver flashed and the quarterback threw it and the free safety intercepted it. It shows you should always go with your first gut feeling.
Â
On the offenses issues recently…
I'm not really sure. We have one or two guys over there that can make a play. Those guys on the other side know who those guys are and we get a lot of double coverage and notice from those guys. We don't seem to have the running game as something we can go to and count on. You have to be able to do both. You can't run it all the time and you can't throw it all the time. You have to have mixture. We haven't been very good. We try. We work at it, we call it and we practice it. It's just a matter of executing it. It's an 11-man game on offense, just like it is anywhere else.Â
Â
Opening Statement…
Of course, y'all know about the game. I was real impressed with South (Alabama) going in. I probably don't study them as much as our coaches do, but they have developed a good bank of personnel down there. Our kids fought them pretty hard. I thought we had a chance, but we just couldn't quite get it done. We are just not quite good enough to drive the football on offense and make plays on defense that stop drives. That is bad medicine. So, we have to keep plugging and a keep trying.
Â
We are going into a bad place to get a W, because those guys are probably the best team in our league. They are very well disciplined in their offensive approach and really their defensive approach too. They don't give up much, they try and keep everything in front of them. They run the triple option. Their quarterback (Kevin Ellison) is very much a threat. They have plenty of firepower. They will throw it a lot. I have been sitting in on our defensive room, especially, and I think all of those guys in there know a lot about the option, but that doesn't mean that we are going to be able to line up and play it totally effectively. It takes players along with X's and O's. We're a pretty beat up football team.
Â
I don't know how many or who will make it to the game. We are struggling a bit. Again, let me add, the schedule that these kids have to go through is sick: play on Friday night, play on Thursday night, play in Mobile, Ala., play in the Atlantic Ocean, you know? You have to go from one end to the other of the Southeastern region of the United States to play a game and you don't even have seven days in between. All of the prep and all of the travel and the games are on class days. I'm an academic guy. I don't blame any particular person. I know conference has a lot to do with it and so do regional packages and conference packages and national packages and Thursday night packages. So all of those TV viewers can pick it up. I am not adverse to TV, I just know what kind of wear and tear it has on kids and old people, like me.
Â
Anyhow, very good football team at Georgia Southern. We first started this deal a long time ago. We wanted to be like Georgia Southern. We went to work and got to a point, I think we beat them once over there and they came back here. We should have beaten them, but we didn't. We blew it at the end of the game in the playoffs. We maybe got to a point where we could be considered a success story like Georgia Southern's was, but now we are back in the same league. They are very good and we have to compete with them. We practiced on Sunday and we practice today. We gave them Saturday off, I think they need to have one day a week off. Tuesday we will practice and Wednesday we will travel.
Â
On the health of the front defensive line…
We are not good. We have some key people that are hurt. Key people that, some definitely won't play and some might not play. We went through a pretty physical round down there in Mobile. Sometimes you don't have to be playing an awesomely physical football team to get hurt. You can get hurt playing football in a pass-fest. We have some guys that are valuable to us on both sides of the ball that will not play.
Â
On stopping the run…
This is different from the run. They are an option. It's like Navy. Only their version of this deal is even more deceptive. These guys motion from the wide receivers back in. The biggest thing is players and they have players. These guys have played Georgia Tech and NC State to the hill and beat everyone else. I am really concerned. Stopping them is dive, quarterback, pitch. If you tackle all of those guys, you have a chance. Of course, they do throw it some off of play action, and you can get a little deep sleep and someone will be wide open. I know we are working hard and I know we can get a very simple plan.
Â
On the 1995 game…
Coaches have too much time to think, or not think. Some of the folks that were here are very highly qualified football coaches. We get the ball down to the 3-yard line. I believe we were down by three. We were first-and-goal with 42 seconds left, no timeouts. We were going to try and score to win right there. The first thing that came to my mind was run it twice, spike the ball, kick the field goal to tie and go into overtime, if you don't score. We had been running the ball pretty well, but no. We tried to throw a three-yard out route on the right side. The first was incomplete, so we called the same one. The third receiver flashed and the quarterback threw it and the free safety intercepted it. It shows you should always go with your first gut feeling.
Â
On the offenses issues recently…
I'm not really sure. We have one or two guys over there that can make a play. Those guys on the other side know who those guys are and we get a lot of double coverage and notice from those guys. We don't seem to have the running game as something we can go to and count on. You have to be able to do both. You can't run it all the time and you can't throw it all the time. You have to have mixture. We haven't been very good. We try. We work at it, we call it and we practice it. It's just a matter of executing it. It's an 11-man game on offense, just like it is anywhere else.Â
Â
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