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Neal Brown Press Conference - New Mexico State Game
10/19/2015 2:49:00 PM | Football
Press Conference Oct. 19, 2015
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Head Coach Neal Brown
Opening Statement…
Before we get to New Mexico State, I want to start and finish a discussion we were having on Saturday after the game and then I'll move on.
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I'm very disappointed in the loss on Saturday. It is a game we lost because we didn't coach or play well enough. I think that was obvious. I think the story of the game, if you look at the statistics, is we had four turnovers and they had zero. We're going to have a hard time winning in our league with that type of turnover margin differential. I'm disappointed for our fans, for our students, especially – losing on our Homecoming.
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This is the point I want to make, and I said this after the game – I'm absolutely not discouraged. I'm proud to be here. I know our future is bright. Two things – two questions that we're asking that are leading us down a couple of things. I want to make real clear that I am never going to blame coach (Larry) Blakeney or anybody on the previous staff about the decisions they made. I'm not going to do it. I am never going to throw our kids under the bus. They are trying. They are playing hard and doing what we asked them to do. We have issues just like anybody else, but we are going to be a no-excuse operation. You're not going to hear excuses from our kids, from our players. We have had multiple opportunities to win our two conference games. I think the turnovers are the number one indicator of why we haven't won them, but we have been in them. We have been competitive. We have actually been competitive in every game except for the first quarter of Mississippi State.
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There is a process and a plan in place. This process is fortunately, or unfortunately, went through it basically two years ago in 2013 at Kentucky. You can kind of see where Kentucky is now. They've had opportunities, they're 4-2 with two really close losses to Florida and Auburn. I have been through it. There is a process in place. We are not going to differentiate from our process. I believe in it. I know where it's going to take us. It is going to take us back to where everyone associated with this program wants it to be. It may take a little time. It may take a little patience. Here is the other thing I want to make clear – I have gotten a lot of calls, a lot of texts, over the past few days. I am absolutely fine. It's funny, when you go home to an 18-month year old and a four-year old, they have no clue what's going on. My seven-year old is starting to figure it out, but those two have no idea. So, there is not much time for feeling sorry for yourself in my house. Here's the thing: I'm not going to be miserable. I'm not going to walk in here pissed off because of what happened on Saturday afternoon. I don't like it but I'm in a mode of getting us better. I refuse to let our staff or players be miserable. I'm not going to allow them to walk around with their heads down because we lost a game. It's a game. There are people that go through real struggles. Some of our kids are going through real struggles that have nothing to do with a game.
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So, while I appreciate the calls and texts I'm doing fine. Our kids and coaching staff are going to be fine. Here's the thing, I am less worried about outcomes at this stature. You have heard me say this a lot – do we go in with a plan to win every game, yes. Am I frustrated that we haven't won some of the games that we've been in? Absolutely, yes. Am I frustrated that we are 1-5 and haven't won a conference game? Yes, the answer is yes. That is the logical answer. But, I'm not discouraged. We are not going to be miserable, we are going to have fun and we're going to enjoy the process of getting better. We're going to have meetings this afternoon. We're going to practice this afternoon. We are going to focus on getting better, and that is what we're going to do. Every individual, every coach within our program has to get better and those are just things I wanted to get off my chest before we start to talk about New Mexico State.
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New Mexico State is an even matchup - very similar in a lot of ways. I have a lot of respect for coach (Doug) Martin. He is doing it the right way there. They played a ton of young kids last year and those kids are a year older. They have added a few high school pieces to that. He is doing it the right way and they are getting better. I think they are well coached in all three phases. They are solid and not beating themselves, which I think is important. That is something that I think we may have done a little bit with these turnovers. They are a quality unit. I think they are one of the better units in our conference.
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The quarterback (Tyler Rogers), he's been out, but I assume he's going to be back - I don't know that. Tyler Rogers, he's a big kid – very accurate, leads their offense, and is smart. He has a good feel for the game. Their running back (Larry Rose III) is probably their best player on the football team. He has been very productive. The thing that sticks out to me, probably because this is something we are struggling with is, he has over 700 yards rushing, and only 23 yards of negative rushing. That is important on a lot of carries. You look at some of our guys, or our team overall, that is one of our issues. We have had too many negative yardage plays. When we call a run play it has gone for negative yardage and that cannot happen. I think that is a stat that really sticks out. He is putting his foot in the ground and he's getting vertical and he's not having negative plays. He's a threat to take it the distance. They are solid upfront – big long guys that are solid. They move the ball against everybody. They had a little difficulty against Ole Miss, but other than that, Ole Miss has at least one first rounder and a couple of other guys that are pretty doggone good too.
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Defensively they are improved from a year ago. A kid that sticks out to me that is really their leader, I think he's a solider tackler; Â tackling Florida and Ole Miss in space, their safety Jaden Wright. They have good push in the middle, which has been an issue for us. That is where we have had some struggles.
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Special teams wise, they have done a nice job. They have a punt returner that has had a couple of good runs. Then their punting, Anthony Torres, he's been solid all the way through.
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It's going to be a good matchup. We're looking forward to going across country and playing out in Las Cruces.
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On coming out flat…
I don't like the way we've warmed up; I think our kids are a little tense. I don't know what is. We may have to go back and look at our pregame warm ups. That's something we talked about this morning as a coaching staff. Against Mississippi State, we didn't come out flat, we just got whipped. There is a difference, they physically got after us and they whipped us on a screen block and we didn't play it very well. They just beat us up front again on that touchdown.
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Against Idaho we didn't come out with enough energy. We got aligned wrong on the very first play on defense. That should never happen. Offensively, we had a good first drive, but then we had a negative run. If you look at some of the bad drives we've had, it's been because of a negative rush. But we've got to look at our pregame. That's what I told our coaches today. I want to evaluate how we're doing pregame warm ups. I don't feel like we had a lot of energy at the start and that's something we can definitely improve on.
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On the quarterback situation…
Brandon (Silvers) is progressing. Dallas (Tidwell) came in the second half and sparked us. We actually looked like a good offensive team for about the last quarter and a half there. That was encouraging, we actually threw the ball and caught it and protected the passer. We missed some opportunities, we dropped some touchdown passes, that's never a good thing. I'm hopeful and confident that Brandon is going to practice this week. Dallas came in and did some good things. What I think happened with Dontreal (Pruitt), he did a nice job managing the game and I don't think he ever overcame mentally the first interception that he threw that got tipped. He didn't play the same way after that.
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On negative run plays…
Give some of the credit to them (the defenses). Our communication hasn't been great there. It's always collective. Most of our run plays have things on the perimeter where the quarterback can get it out of his hand. So the quarterback hasn't gotten us out of some bad run plays. Some of them have been some bad calls; some of them have been from lack of communication up front. Our philosophy of running the football is that it should be a zero gain at the worst. Our running backs have to buy in to that and have to stick their foot in the ground whether than trying to make a big play. And I think sometimes our better skill players feel like that especially whenever things aren't going exactly right that they have to press and make a big play every time, which is not the case. Especially in the run game, they played it, let's stick our foot in the ground and get vertical with no gain let's play second and third down.
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On spreading out the wealth for receivers…
They have to get open and make plays when they get the ball thrown to them. A lot of it is that we have to win against man coverage. And we're still going to plan to get Teddy (Ruben) the ball because he deserves it and he's our best receiver right now. But we do have to spread the wealth and honestly we haven't thrown the ball great. We haven't played catch great and there's a lot of reasons behind that too, but we have to get Bryan Holmes the ball, he played the whole game the other day and I think he had one catch. He dropped a pass in the end zone, but we have to get him going. I was encouraged by Jarvis Bentley, I thought he made some good plays and a really good fourth-down conversion. He hung out to the ball and got hit. Deondre Douglas, he's a guy that has to make plays. There are some other guys that can make plays for us. It was encouraging seeing Emanuel Thompson going up and getting that go ball. There are some guys that we need to get more involved for sure.
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Head Coach Neal Brown
Opening Statement…
Before we get to New Mexico State, I want to start and finish a discussion we were having on Saturday after the game and then I'll move on.
Â
I'm very disappointed in the loss on Saturday. It is a game we lost because we didn't coach or play well enough. I think that was obvious. I think the story of the game, if you look at the statistics, is we had four turnovers and they had zero. We're going to have a hard time winning in our league with that type of turnover margin differential. I'm disappointed for our fans, for our students, especially – losing on our Homecoming.
Â
This is the point I want to make, and I said this after the game – I'm absolutely not discouraged. I'm proud to be here. I know our future is bright. Two things – two questions that we're asking that are leading us down a couple of things. I want to make real clear that I am never going to blame coach (Larry) Blakeney or anybody on the previous staff about the decisions they made. I'm not going to do it. I am never going to throw our kids under the bus. They are trying. They are playing hard and doing what we asked them to do. We have issues just like anybody else, but we are going to be a no-excuse operation. You're not going to hear excuses from our kids, from our players. We have had multiple opportunities to win our two conference games. I think the turnovers are the number one indicator of why we haven't won them, but we have been in them. We have been competitive. We have actually been competitive in every game except for the first quarter of Mississippi State.
Â
There is a process and a plan in place. This process is fortunately, or unfortunately, went through it basically two years ago in 2013 at Kentucky. You can kind of see where Kentucky is now. They've had opportunities, they're 4-2 with two really close losses to Florida and Auburn. I have been through it. There is a process in place. We are not going to differentiate from our process. I believe in it. I know where it's going to take us. It is going to take us back to where everyone associated with this program wants it to be. It may take a little time. It may take a little patience. Here is the other thing I want to make clear – I have gotten a lot of calls, a lot of texts, over the past few days. I am absolutely fine. It's funny, when you go home to an 18-month year old and a four-year old, they have no clue what's going on. My seven-year old is starting to figure it out, but those two have no idea. So, there is not much time for feeling sorry for yourself in my house. Here's the thing: I'm not going to be miserable. I'm not going to walk in here pissed off because of what happened on Saturday afternoon. I don't like it but I'm in a mode of getting us better. I refuse to let our staff or players be miserable. I'm not going to allow them to walk around with their heads down because we lost a game. It's a game. There are people that go through real struggles. Some of our kids are going through real struggles that have nothing to do with a game.
Â
So, while I appreciate the calls and texts I'm doing fine. Our kids and coaching staff are going to be fine. Here's the thing, I am less worried about outcomes at this stature. You have heard me say this a lot – do we go in with a plan to win every game, yes. Am I frustrated that we haven't won some of the games that we've been in? Absolutely, yes. Am I frustrated that we are 1-5 and haven't won a conference game? Yes, the answer is yes. That is the logical answer. But, I'm not discouraged. We are not going to be miserable, we are going to have fun and we're going to enjoy the process of getting better. We're going to have meetings this afternoon. We're going to practice this afternoon. We are going to focus on getting better, and that is what we're going to do. Every individual, every coach within our program has to get better and those are just things I wanted to get off my chest before we start to talk about New Mexico State.
Â
New Mexico State is an even matchup - very similar in a lot of ways. I have a lot of respect for coach (Doug) Martin. He is doing it the right way there. They played a ton of young kids last year and those kids are a year older. They have added a few high school pieces to that. He is doing it the right way and they are getting better. I think they are well coached in all three phases. They are solid and not beating themselves, which I think is important. That is something that I think we may have done a little bit with these turnovers. They are a quality unit. I think they are one of the better units in our conference.
Â
The quarterback (Tyler Rogers), he's been out, but I assume he's going to be back - I don't know that. Tyler Rogers, he's a big kid – very accurate, leads their offense, and is smart. He has a good feel for the game. Their running back (Larry Rose III) is probably their best player on the football team. He has been very productive. The thing that sticks out to me, probably because this is something we are struggling with is, he has over 700 yards rushing, and only 23 yards of negative rushing. That is important on a lot of carries. You look at some of our guys, or our team overall, that is one of our issues. We have had too many negative yardage plays. When we call a run play it has gone for negative yardage and that cannot happen. I think that is a stat that really sticks out. He is putting his foot in the ground and he's getting vertical and he's not having negative plays. He's a threat to take it the distance. They are solid upfront – big long guys that are solid. They move the ball against everybody. They had a little difficulty against Ole Miss, but other than that, Ole Miss has at least one first rounder and a couple of other guys that are pretty doggone good too.
Â
Defensively they are improved from a year ago. A kid that sticks out to me that is really their leader, I think he's a solider tackler; Â tackling Florida and Ole Miss in space, their safety Jaden Wright. They have good push in the middle, which has been an issue for us. That is where we have had some struggles.
Â
Special teams wise, they have done a nice job. They have a punt returner that has had a couple of good runs. Then their punting, Anthony Torres, he's been solid all the way through.
Â
It's going to be a good matchup. We're looking forward to going across country and playing out in Las Cruces.
Â
On coming out flat…
I don't like the way we've warmed up; I think our kids are a little tense. I don't know what is. We may have to go back and look at our pregame warm ups. That's something we talked about this morning as a coaching staff. Against Mississippi State, we didn't come out flat, we just got whipped. There is a difference, they physically got after us and they whipped us on a screen block and we didn't play it very well. They just beat us up front again on that touchdown.
Â
Against Idaho we didn't come out with enough energy. We got aligned wrong on the very first play on defense. That should never happen. Offensively, we had a good first drive, but then we had a negative run. If you look at some of the bad drives we've had, it's been because of a negative rush. But we've got to look at our pregame. That's what I told our coaches today. I want to evaluate how we're doing pregame warm ups. I don't feel like we had a lot of energy at the start and that's something we can definitely improve on.
Â
On the quarterback situation…
Brandon (Silvers) is progressing. Dallas (Tidwell) came in the second half and sparked us. We actually looked like a good offensive team for about the last quarter and a half there. That was encouraging, we actually threw the ball and caught it and protected the passer. We missed some opportunities, we dropped some touchdown passes, that's never a good thing. I'm hopeful and confident that Brandon is going to practice this week. Dallas came in and did some good things. What I think happened with Dontreal (Pruitt), he did a nice job managing the game and I don't think he ever overcame mentally the first interception that he threw that got tipped. He didn't play the same way after that.
Â
On negative run plays…
Give some of the credit to them (the defenses). Our communication hasn't been great there. It's always collective. Most of our run plays have things on the perimeter where the quarterback can get it out of his hand. So the quarterback hasn't gotten us out of some bad run plays. Some of them have been some bad calls; some of them have been from lack of communication up front. Our philosophy of running the football is that it should be a zero gain at the worst. Our running backs have to buy in to that and have to stick their foot in the ground whether than trying to make a big play. And I think sometimes our better skill players feel like that especially whenever things aren't going exactly right that they have to press and make a big play every time, which is not the case. Especially in the run game, they played it, let's stick our foot in the ground and get vertical with no gain let's play second and third down.
Â
On spreading out the wealth for receivers…
They have to get open and make plays when they get the ball thrown to them. A lot of it is that we have to win against man coverage. And we're still going to plan to get Teddy (Ruben) the ball because he deserves it and he's our best receiver right now. But we do have to spread the wealth and honestly we haven't thrown the ball great. We haven't played catch great and there's a lot of reasons behind that too, but we have to get Bryan Holmes the ball, he played the whole game the other day and I think he had one catch. He dropped a pass in the end zone, but we have to get him going. I was encouraged by Jarvis Bentley, I thought he made some good plays and a really good fourth-down conversion. He hung out to the ball and got hit. Deondre Douglas, he's a guy that has to make plays. There are some other guys that can make plays for us. It was encouraging seeing Emanuel Thompson going up and getting that go ball. There are some guys that we need to get more involved for sure.
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