Troy University Athletics
Troy Football Press Conference - Oct. 20
10/20/2020 2:12:00 PM | Football
Troy Football Press Conference – Oct. 20, 2020
Head Coach Chip Lindsey
Opening Statement
We were happy to get the win over Eastern Kentucky last weekend. Anytime you win in college football it's a blessing. I'm really proud of how our guys continued to claw and fight throughout the game. They kept believing and supporting each other which says a lot about this team. There was a lot of adversity during that game and some of it was self-inflicted, but we kept believing throughout the game. Coming into the EKU game, we talked about needing to not turn the ball over, limiting explosive plays on defense and playing disciplined. After watching the film, we were pretty disappointed in all three of those areas. Hopefully this game will serve as a learning experience for us. We had a great week of practice last week but for some reason it didn't carry over to Saturday.
We played well in spurts in all three phases, but we need to play way more consistent this week because we're playing a good team. Last season we had three or four games that came down to the last drive, and we weren't able to win any of them, so it was good to see us do that this year. We executed the two-minute drive and then Evan [Legassey] hit the field goal at the end.
That sequence should be a big confidence builder for our team as we move forward and for Evan who I thought handled that situation well and stayed calm. I was also proud of how our offense handled the two-minute drive because we work on that every week. It was a really good sign that we were able to put together that drive when we needed it the most.
Now we flip the page back to our conference schedule. Georgia State has already played two Sun Belt Conference games, losing both by just one score. But they're a really good team. This game is important because we need to keep ourselves in a great position to win our division. We're looking forward to playing at The Vet. The environment the last two weeks has been really strong so we just need to continue to make it a great environment. Hopefully, our players will have a great week of practice and we'll be ready to go on Saturday.
On Georgia State
Sean Elliott does a great job. He's an offensive lineman by trade and has done that this entire career. You can see that his teams match his personality and they play very physical up front and run the ball downhill. They throw the ball some too, but they hang their hat on running the ball. They're extremely well coached and will play fast too. Our defense sees a lot of tempo in practice against our offense, so hopefully that's something that will help us. Last year they did a really good job of running downhill against us. Going into that game we had been strong against the run, but we were very disappointed about how we defended the run against them last year. We have to get that corrected and do a good job of matching their physicality and being where we're supposed to be. If you look back at that game we didn't do a good job of fitting against the run and staying in our gaps. So that will be a point of emphasis for us.
On the Georgia State Offense
Offensively it starts with their big line up front. They do a great job of getting movement at the point of contact and creating double-teams. They run both a zone and a gap scheme, and they want to control the line of scrimmage and run downhill. They mix in a little bit of quarterback option as well, so we need to make sure we have a plan for that as well. We have a huge week of preparation ahead of us to get ready for this challenge. The one positive is we'll get them here at The Vet. They're averaging about 250 yards rushing which is in the top 10 nationally, so it's going to be a huge challenge for our defense.
They also have a new quarterback this season in Cornelious Brown IV. I'm pretty familiar with him being from Birmingham. He's doing a nice job of running their offense. He's a bit of a dual-threat guy that is long and athletic. They use him a lot in the run game but he can also hurt you throwing the football too which was evident during their last game against Arkansas State. Sam Pinckney is a big and athletic guy who has improved. He does a great job on the 50-50 balls so we're going to have a good plan for him. And then they mix in several really talented running backs. Their offense will present a big challenge for us and we're going to have to execute our plan much better than we did last week to have a chance to win the game.
On the GSU defense
On defense they're very physical up front but I'm most impressed with their safeties who do a good job of getting involved with stopping the run and playing the ball in the air well. As a unit, they're running to the ball and tackling well which is always what you want to see. Trajan Stephens-McQueen is a guy that has been there for a while and was a Preseason All-Sun Belt selection. He's first or second on their team in tackles-for-loss and interceptions and he's very active. He gets them lined up on defense and seems to me to be one of their leaders.
In terms of their safeties, Antavious Lane is the guy that has stood out to me the most. He's very active, physical and plays with a lot of energy. He shows up on film all over the place. Those are two guys that we need to make sure we have a plan for blocking and know where they are on the field. Overall, I think it's an improved unit and they're doing a nice job on defense.
On what practice looked like on Sunday
Sunday night we had a light practice and corrected a few things, but our team was extremely dialed in. We were fortunate to win the game on Saturday and we understand that we need to improve. But I like the leadership on this team. We have a lot of guys that have played a lot of snaps and they understand the sense of urgency that we need to have this week to get ready for another good opponent. I was very pleased with what I saw Sunday, but today, we'll get back out to practice, and I'm excited to see how our team will react.
On Kimani Vidal and the running backs
We feel really good about all four or five our running backs. I know we played four different guys on Saturday in Kamani [Vidal], BJ [Smith], Jamontez [Woods] and DK Billingsley. Those four guys are the guys we're rolling with right now. All of them have different skill sets and we try and use them differently each week depending on the game plan each week. There's no cap for Kamani's workload. Obviously, we want to keep him fresh so he's ready to go, but we'll keep doing what we've done going forward.
Head Coach Chip Lindsey
Opening Statement
We were happy to get the win over Eastern Kentucky last weekend. Anytime you win in college football it's a blessing. I'm really proud of how our guys continued to claw and fight throughout the game. They kept believing and supporting each other which says a lot about this team. There was a lot of adversity during that game and some of it was self-inflicted, but we kept believing throughout the game. Coming into the EKU game, we talked about needing to not turn the ball over, limiting explosive plays on defense and playing disciplined. After watching the film, we were pretty disappointed in all three of those areas. Hopefully this game will serve as a learning experience for us. We had a great week of practice last week but for some reason it didn't carry over to Saturday.
We played well in spurts in all three phases, but we need to play way more consistent this week because we're playing a good team. Last season we had three or four games that came down to the last drive, and we weren't able to win any of them, so it was good to see us do that this year. We executed the two-minute drive and then Evan [Legassey] hit the field goal at the end.
That sequence should be a big confidence builder for our team as we move forward and for Evan who I thought handled that situation well and stayed calm. I was also proud of how our offense handled the two-minute drive because we work on that every week. It was a really good sign that we were able to put together that drive when we needed it the most.
Now we flip the page back to our conference schedule. Georgia State has already played two Sun Belt Conference games, losing both by just one score. But they're a really good team. This game is important because we need to keep ourselves in a great position to win our division. We're looking forward to playing at The Vet. The environment the last two weeks has been really strong so we just need to continue to make it a great environment. Hopefully, our players will have a great week of practice and we'll be ready to go on Saturday.
On Georgia State
Sean Elliott does a great job. He's an offensive lineman by trade and has done that this entire career. You can see that his teams match his personality and they play very physical up front and run the ball downhill. They throw the ball some too, but they hang their hat on running the ball. They're extremely well coached and will play fast too. Our defense sees a lot of tempo in practice against our offense, so hopefully that's something that will help us. Last year they did a really good job of running downhill against us. Going into that game we had been strong against the run, but we were very disappointed about how we defended the run against them last year. We have to get that corrected and do a good job of matching their physicality and being where we're supposed to be. If you look back at that game we didn't do a good job of fitting against the run and staying in our gaps. So that will be a point of emphasis for us.
On the Georgia State Offense
Offensively it starts with their big line up front. They do a great job of getting movement at the point of contact and creating double-teams. They run both a zone and a gap scheme, and they want to control the line of scrimmage and run downhill. They mix in a little bit of quarterback option as well, so we need to make sure we have a plan for that as well. We have a huge week of preparation ahead of us to get ready for this challenge. The one positive is we'll get them here at The Vet. They're averaging about 250 yards rushing which is in the top 10 nationally, so it's going to be a huge challenge for our defense.
They also have a new quarterback this season in Cornelious Brown IV. I'm pretty familiar with him being from Birmingham. He's doing a nice job of running their offense. He's a bit of a dual-threat guy that is long and athletic. They use him a lot in the run game but he can also hurt you throwing the football too which was evident during their last game against Arkansas State. Sam Pinckney is a big and athletic guy who has improved. He does a great job on the 50-50 balls so we're going to have a good plan for him. And then they mix in several really talented running backs. Their offense will present a big challenge for us and we're going to have to execute our plan much better than we did last week to have a chance to win the game.
On the GSU defense
On defense they're very physical up front but I'm most impressed with their safeties who do a good job of getting involved with stopping the run and playing the ball in the air well. As a unit, they're running to the ball and tackling well which is always what you want to see. Trajan Stephens-McQueen is a guy that has been there for a while and was a Preseason All-Sun Belt selection. He's first or second on their team in tackles-for-loss and interceptions and he's very active. He gets them lined up on defense and seems to me to be one of their leaders.
In terms of their safeties, Antavious Lane is the guy that has stood out to me the most. He's very active, physical and plays with a lot of energy. He shows up on film all over the place. Those are two guys that we need to make sure we have a plan for blocking and know where they are on the field. Overall, I think it's an improved unit and they're doing a nice job on defense.
On what practice looked like on Sunday
Sunday night we had a light practice and corrected a few things, but our team was extremely dialed in. We were fortunate to win the game on Saturday and we understand that we need to improve. But I like the leadership on this team. We have a lot of guys that have played a lot of snaps and they understand the sense of urgency that we need to have this week to get ready for another good opponent. I was very pleased with what I saw Sunday, but today, we'll get back out to practice, and I'm excited to see how our team will react.
On Kimani Vidal and the running backs
We feel really good about all four or five our running backs. I know we played four different guys on Saturday in Kamani [Vidal], BJ [Smith], Jamontez [Woods] and DK Billingsley. Those four guys are the guys we're rolling with right now. All of them have different skill sets and we try and use them differently each week depending on the game plan each week. There's no cap for Kamani's workload. Obviously, we want to keep him fresh so he's ready to go, but we'll keep doing what we've done going forward.
Players Mentioned
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