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LIBERTY UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 2, 2017Turner GillWaco, Texas Liberty - 48, Baylor - 45 TURNER GILL: First of all, I want to say to God be the glory. I want to thank our lord and savior Jesus Christ. We got to give him the glory. Again, he helps guide us, instructs us in the way we do things here. Our fans were fantastic. Great showing, people coming down here in Texas here. And, again, it's a win for our fans, our alumni, and our former players in the past. And we're just trying to keep our -- everybody know what Liberty University's all about. Even deeper than just winning this football game, it's about a relationship with Jesus Christ. Q. Is this an upset? TURNER GILL: Well, I would say so, sir. Again, Baylor is a big time school. They have been dominant in the last four or five years. And for our football team to come in here in their place and to win a football game, absolutely. I'm going to let you determine how all that is, but that's the way I'm going to say yes. Q. Did you have any flashbacks from your time in the Big 12 with the number of points that were scored in this game? TURNER GILL: Well, there's not much defense playing, but hey, it doesn't matter about all that. It's just about who can win the football game and score as many points as possible and sometimes you have to have those kind of games. We'll have probably some games go the other way, where you got to win one that's 7-6 or something like that. So I'm just proud of everybody the way they played. Q. Did you feel like you had some matchups that you could exploit, because you had some pretty good mismatches it looked like out there. TURNER GILL: Well, we just went to our playmakers. Number 11 there Gandy-Golden, he's only a sophomore, he really made a big improvement from last year to this year. Strong, physical, great hands, good speed, and he did a great job. The other guy, Damian King, number 7. He's always been a guy that's had some ability, but this ball game here, he came out and played extremely well. So our two top receivers played really, really, really well, and we got to have that in them. But we got to also give it to our offensive line, they protected our guys pretty well. Buckshot made some key throws on some third down conversions where we had some tight windows and our guys made some catches. So we kind of kept staying on the field, particularly early in the ball game, so it was a very, very key in the game. Our receivers, to make plays when they were called upon. Q. Was the game plan to throw the ball that much? TURNER GILL: Yeah, we wanted to get some matchups. Obviously, we wanted to run the ball. We're going to throw the ball more than we run the ball. I can say that's probably going to be more part of our offense as we move forward, because we feel good about our receivers. Then we just took advantage of it and Carrington Mosley, a hundred yards rushing, big time guy right there. So I'm proud of him and tough runner there. I'm just really excited about this win. Q. Your secondary, Peters, was really good in the first half, then when Turner got in in the second half, they seemed to go to the slot more often. Is that something you need to work on with the guys behind Peters and Turner to get them up to their level? TURNER GILL: Well, it's all about matchups. We all do the same thing. You move a receiver certain positions, and you get a matchup, sometimes you win, sometimes you don't. We did the same thing against them. So, again, we'll improve. First ball game, so that what makes me really proud of the team is, again, we still have a lot of work to do to clean up, there's no question about that. But again, to hang in there, even when things maybe didn't quite go as right, we still made plays when we had to make them, even on the defensive side. Q. As you've played, Coach, has the talent level between Division I, FCS, and what have you, and FBS narrowed? Are the havenots closer in talent to the haves nowadays? TURNER GILL: Oh, I wouldn't say that now. I think overall once they went to the 85 scholarships, I think that made a difference and that's why I think you see so many different teams maybe have chances to be successful, FBS-wise. FCS, it's still a challenge to be competitive as an FCS team to play an FBS team and beat them. It's not going to happen on no consistent basis, I can tell you that. But I think the 85 scholarships, I can't remember exactly when that all took place, maybe 20 years ago or so, that kind of made it an even field, because everybody can't get all the good players, you can't get them all. Q. Over the last 7-8 months, what have you told your team about this game? Has it been on the bulletin board? Have your coaches had a message to them about this game? TURNER GILL: No, no, we didn't. We just talked about us getting better. That's what we got to talk about every game. You don't want to make something any bigger than what it is. It's a game, it's an opponent, and you move forward. It's no different right now. We're going to -- 24 hours, we're going to turn the page here and get ready for Morehead State. And that's how you got to go about life. You don't get too high, don't get too low, because sooner or later, you're going to get that big dip, and you don't want that in life. Q. With a pending FBS move and then getting a win like this, is this a game that you can kind of open the recruiting aspect? TURNER GILL: Oh, no question it's going to help on the recruiting. I think Liberty's name, brand name, just went out pretty strong across the country. Again, not just for football, but really for the whole school. And that's kind of what sports is all about. It raises the name brand of the university. And this is what that win does. It's an absolutely going to help us in recruiting. Not only in football, it's going to help us in every sport. Now people are going to know about Liberty University. They're going to watch us a little bit more, they're going to push that button a little bit more on the internet and research us a little bit more about who we are, what we're all about, what we stand for. So, therefore, when we have that opportunity, then God's going to intervene. And now all I got to do is pray about it and God's going to put the right people at Liberty University. Q. Are you surprised by your quarterback over the last calendar year, how far he's come? He just put up almost 500 yards against a team that was 7-5 last year -- TURNER GILL: Well, he's a special guy. He's only a sophomore, and he's still got some work to do, but he's a very, very talented guy. I think if you really watched some of the throws he made, he was very, very accurate. So he's not just having a strong arm, not just going to do this and that, I mean he can put the ball where it needs to be. He can make the soft throw, he can make the firm throw, make the touch throw. So, again, I'm glad he's on my team, and he's going to do some great things, and we're proud of him. But, again, it's a whole team effort, offense, defense, special teams, Alex Probert, our kicker, he's a sophomore also. So, again, we got some young guys, and they stepped up and made plays, so we got some work to do though still. Q. Did you know Coach Rhule? Did you all play each other when you were at Buffalo and he was at Temple? TURNER GILL: Yeah, yeah. Four years I was at buffalo, he was at Temple, so I know of him per se, and we chat here and there. But I can't say we're best friends or anything of that nature. But coaches, football coaches, we all know each other to a certain extent. He also was at Penn State when I was an assistant coach there at Nebraska. So we definitely have run into each other quite a bit. Q. Did you have an idea of what he was going to do because of that? TURNER GILL: Again, you don't know for sure, but I think in general what I thought about he would run the ball a little bit more than maybe into two tight ends, which they did. And they kind of two tight ends and two backs and that's kind of a little bit what he had done in the past. So we prepared for that just in case. We prepared for a little bit of everything, to be honest with you. You just never know in the first ball game. You never know when a guy makes a coaching change and a change in his team, whether he was going to go with the talent what they did last year, or he's just going to say, we're going to run our scheme and the players have to adjust. So I think they are doing a little bit of both, but he definitely did go into them two backs, and they did hurt us when they went to the two backs. Q. In addition to the spiritual aspect that you described earlier, what are you feeling right now? After that win? TURNER GILL: Well, I'm just proud of our players. I'm proud of all the, again, the former players who played here. They've laid down a foundation here and I appreciate that. The present players here now, they're working hard and continue to do the things in the right way. We're also playing for the future of Liberty University. So I talked to them about that. We were playing for the people that's been here in the past and the Liberty University's come a long way. A lot of prayers have come before me, and they continue to have prayers. And so to have this opportunity here, where Liberty University nationwide can get recognition. Again, I know recognition is definitely beating Baylor football, but it's really going to be deeper than that. It's really people and particularly people that have a faith base in their families, they get a chance to really research this university and see if this is a place that they want their child to come and attend the university. And, again, not just on the football, but a lot of other things and this university's growing. Our president has done a great job and doing, leading us in a great way in every aspect of the university. So it was just a blessing for me to have an opportunity to be a part of this university. Q. You only had a few minutes to digest this, but what does a win like this rang in your coaching career? TURNER GILL: Don't care. Doesn't matter. Q. I know he's not going to like me asking this, but are you happy to get this win for Ian as well? TURNER GILL: Well he's here at Liberty University and we're all in it together and I appreciate all the hard work and dedication that he's done and we have worked well together and he's a tremendous leader and I appreciate him and again we'll continue to work and hope we're going to have many more. I'm just glad to be a part of it. I know he is too. Q. Late in the game coach playing the time out game running the clock down, what are you thinking in terms of trying to squeeze this one out and work the clock to zero? TURNER GILL: Well we had a little bit of discussion as far as the offensively we were trying to decide whether we want to go in the one-on-one matchup. Needed one first down to win the game, and were we going to decide to go one-on-one with number 11 again, Gandy-Golden, we talked about it, and I just said, no, let's run the ball. I know we can handle the clock. It will be under a minute. And we'll see what happens. And I hope our defense can do some things of that nature. I didn't want to -- they had no timeouts I just thought we don't want to give them another, it could be another two plays if we get an incomplete pass and just not worth it. They just need a field goal, I think it would be a little bit different maybe if it were a touchdown situation, but they needed a field goal and I know they had a real good field goal kicker so all they had to do was maybe get to about the 40 yard line and they had a shot to kick a 55, 57 yard field goal. And so again, just a decision that we all made, we talked about it as a staff, talked about the defensive side of the ball a little bit too and kind of what they were thinking and we all came to a conclusion and I just said hey we're going to run the football and we're going to have the least amount of seconds on the clock and let our defense stop them. Q. This is a win for Liberty University, but is it also a win for FCS teams, Big South teams that it's possible? TURNER GILL: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Everybody's going to look at that from that point of view and again that's why you play the game. It's no different than I told our team, we got a chance to play if we play well, it may still not be enough, but all we got to do is play your best. So again we have seen other teams that have played if you want to say the Power Five, FCS and there's opportunities and that is why you play the game. If you don't play the game, you have no chance. So I think that's just great that God blessed us with this win. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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