Neal Brown Press Conference - Liberty Game

Neal Brown Press Conference – Oct. 8, 2018

Opening Statement
Good win last Thursday night versus a very well coached Georgia State team. It gets us to 5-1 overall, 3-0 in the Sun Belt and more importantly 2-0 in our division as we try to play in this inaugural conference championship game.

Special teams wise, negatives we had three penalties with two on our kickoff unit and one that negated a huge punt return for us. We did allow one punt return by Georgia State. I think we have done a really good job of covering, I thought we fell asleep a little bit and didn't cover as well on the one that Penny Hart got out on us. Thankfully, he stepped out of bounds. Positives, I thought that both return units gave the offense good field position. Really proud of Marcus Jones and Cedarius Rookard. I thought they did a great job fielding punts versus a kid that has been leading the country in punting average. Kickoff, Bratcher Underwood continues to have a great senior season and we made all of out PATs.

Defensively, I think they went 3-for-4 on us in fourth down conversions. We have to do a better job in the secondary; breaking on balls, making more competitive plays and just playing better fundamental football in the secondary. The positives are our rush defense – 3.3 yards per carry. We created two takeaways that led to 14 points by the offense and very few explosive plays. Hart caught a couple of contested go balls on us but other than that they did not have many explosive plays. Especially in the first half, that was the best we have played defensively, definitely since Nebraska.

Offensively, the negatives, the goal line situation where we didn't get it in. We had a chance to make it 28-0 early in the second quarter but didn't get it in and that was disappointing. Then we had a lull there in early in the third. Just lost focus, just mental errors that we shouldn't be making this point in the season. We had seven penalties, which is extremely disappointing, and we have to play more disciplined. The positives are 8.9 yards per play and 337 yards rushing. Two 100-yard rushers, that's the second time in two weeks that we have done that, and we had four plays of 50 or more yards. We were really good on third down so those were the positives.

Wrapping up the game, big win. Finished up the two-game homestand that I thought was going to be a critical junction in our season we went 2-0, but the win came with costs. Tron Folsom is questionable for the game and we will know later in the week. Kaleb Barker tore his ACL, he will be out for the rest of the season and will have surgery on Friday. I hate it for him because I think his first quarter on Thursday night was probably as good as any quarterback that's played in my eight years here.

Just like we say all the time we have to be a 'next man up' program and Sawyer Smith will get the start on Saturday and we are going to have Gunnar Watson available for the game and he will play.

Excited about getting on the road this week to Lynchburg. I've never been there and heard really good things about their crowd support, especially their students. First year fully in the FBS after a very successful run in the FCS led by Turner Gill who is one of the most respected men in college football.

If you look at them from a special teams standpoint, I think they do a really good job. They blocked a punt against New Mexico, I think their punt team is really solid. I think the punter does a good job of directional punting and they have been successful kicking the football as well. The kickoff guy has got a lot of touchbacks.

Offensively they are very explosive. I think it starts with their quarterback (Stephen) Calvert and they have a receiver in Antonio Gandy-Golden and another one in (DJ) Stubbs, they have a really deep receiving core. They are averaging nearly 500 yards per game, 33 points, over 140 yards rushing and 340 yards passing and they are going to challenge us defensively especially in the secondary.

Defensively, an improving unit. They have played against some very good offenses early in the season. They have a veteran group if you go and look at their depth chart, a lot of guys have played in 20-plus games and they have won a lot which makes them dangerous. The guys that really stick out to me on defense is (Solomon Ajayi), I think he's physical and he flies around, he's their leading tackler. Then they have two defensive ends that have done a good job getting pressure, (Juwan Wells) and (Jessie Lemonier). We have to definitely account for where they are going to be.

A good challenge for us, we are looking forward to getting on the road. We are going to navigate some things weather wise this week and get our guys ready and get ready to play one of our better games.

When did the injury happen to Barker…
I'm not sure. It happened sometime in the first quarter. Not real sure if it was one direct cut or direct hit or anything like that. Or if it was something that he already had, and you just don't know. The MRI shows the tear and he needs to get it fixed. Whatever, the final event happened sometime in the first quarter.

Game plan approach with Sawyer starting…
It's going to be a plug-n-go. All that is going to change is Sawyer's the starter now and Gunnar is going to be number two. We strongly believe because of situations like this in getting our number two quarterback ready. If you look over our four previous years we have always done that. Our number two quarterback, we have been intentional about getting in the game usually in the second quarter at some point and they play a number of snaps. Sawyer has played in every game we've had this year and has had success. He's played in a number of games as a true freshman and had success. Gunnar got in the game in the fourth quarter against FAMU and did a good job, and he will get and have some opportunities in this game on Saturday against Liberty. It's just plug-n-play and we are not changing what we are doing. Our team and our coaching staff have a ton of confidence both in Sawyer and in Gunnar.

How big is the disadvantage without Tron…
Well I think it is a disadvantage anytime you don't have one of your better players. We do believe that we have recruited well, we do believe that we have really good depth. We make it a point in spring practice and in fall camp to get a ton of guys reps and we continue to do that during the season as well. So, AJ Smiley came in and played his best that he has ever played on the defensive side of the ball, he's been a great special teams contributor for us and kind of a backup role on defense but he came in on defense played really well. We do have some depth at those linebacker positions where we can move some guys around and we will miss Tron, but we feel like the next guy will step up and be productive.

Importance of BJ Smith playing well recently…
BJ played really well, Jabir (Daughtry-Frye) didn't play that well this week but he played at an extremely high level the previous week. Both of those guys we have a lot of faith in them. We are not going to change what we are doing. We are going to be fine as a football team and as a football program, but I hate it for him (Kaleb Barker) because I think he was just now scratching the surface of what he could be. To have it happen after he played so well and I'm not exaggerating. That was as well played of a first quarter in the eight years that I have been here and we've had a bunch of great quarterbacks.

Troy University Athletics

Neal Brown Press Conference - Liberty Game

Players Mentioned

Kaleb Barker

Tron Folsom

Marcus Jones

Cedarius Rookard

Sawyer Smith

Bratcher Underwood

Gunnar Watson

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