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RUTGERS UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 14, 2013Kyle FloodEASTERN MICHIGAN – 10 COACH FLOOD: Good afternoon. I don't know if there's anything better than winning a game and having your daughter hand you one of these fancy bracelets that seems to be the rage of the young people. I want to start by congratulating Coach English. I think the game was exactly the type of game that I anticipated, a very physical football game; two teams that really wanted to run the football, and based a lot of their offense off of the ability to run the football. I thought our defense was excellent today. It was great to have Jamil Merrell back on the field. We are certainly more than happy‑‑ Jamal wasn't out there, but Jamil, his energy helps. I think I would be remiss if I didn't talk a little bit about being out there at half‑time with Eric. It's the first half‑time I think I've been on the field for in 20 years, and I thought it was important that I be there, to at least start the ceremony as the person on the staff who was here with Eric. And it's an emotional thing for me to do it, to present him with this award, to present him with the number up in the stadium now and then to be able to start the video, a lot of really special people from his life were able to be a part of that ceremony by videotape, and I thought that that was great, and I know he appreciated it. I'm looking forward to seeing him here after a little bit and critiquing his speech, which I did not get a chance to see just yet. I'll have my turn, as well. But to go back to the game a little bit, the crowd support was tremendous, whether it was for the game or for Eric, I was really, really excited about what our students were able to produce, another off‑side penalty, delay‑of‑game‑type situation for the other team. And then on special teams, we scored. And when you‑‑ really, when you play at a high level on defense on special terms, Quron Pratt steps in; Jeremy gets dinged up a little bit on that first kickoff return, Quron goes in there, very well executed kickoff return. He hit it where he should have hit it, and he's never had a return in college yet. So to take the first one back to the house and score it was certainly a big play in the game. And not surprising at all. It doesn't surprise me that he takes one back for a touchdown. Doesn't surprise me that he runs down on a punt and makes a tackle. None of it surprises me because he prepares as well as any player on our program. He is an elite level preparer, the likes of Devin, Jason McCourty, Logan Ryan, those types of people, and he did a tremendous job today on special teams for sure. We still have to be a little more consistent in the kicking game. That, we are not pleased with. The punting, at times, Nick has done a great job, and at times, he's had some punts that he certainly would like to have back. He had two of them today that were sub‑par for him and he has the ability to do it. He's got to do it on a consistent basis and when Kyle goes out there, we expect him to make the field goals. We put him in positions where we know he can make it from the distance and we expect him to make those, and I know expects to make them as well. Q. Can you update us on Gary, the situation? COACH FLOOD: I don't know right now what his status will be in the up coming week. He could not return in the second half and he was not available to us really from the second quarter or midway through the first quarter‑‑ not sure exactly when I got notified. Might have been right after the first drive it would have been because the second drive was the kickoff return, so at that point he was not available to us. They reevaluated him at half‑time and he was not available at the second half. Q. Can you tell us what happened to him? COACH FLOOD: I have to see it on film. I really don't know just yet. I have to look at it on film and we'll figure out exactly what it is. Q. How did Chase look after not playing for 16 games? COACH FLOOD: You know what, I'm going to wait until I look at the film to evaluate it. I know chase wants to be more productive. That's the part that you can see during the game. We are not as productive as we needed to be. We can't get sacked three times. There are things that happened. But I know for sure, that one of the sacks was a busted protection, he had no chance on, so that certainly was not his issue. But we have got to look at the other two and see where we had a chance to complete some balls that we didn't and move the team a little bit better. Q. How do you approach the game offensively, change, after Nova went out? COACH FLOOD: It doesn't change initially. I think then you have to see, if you're able to maintain the type of flow and rhythm that we had in the first drive, because we come out and in the first drive of the game, we did not have great field position. We did not have the wind. We started on the minus 13 and eight plays later we ended up in the end zone; so it was a very well exexcuted drive. We had a good rhythm in the first drive and there is no second drive because of the kickoff return. Then we struggle to find our rhythm. We get the ball in the plus 30 and come away empty. Those are the things that really frustrate you as a coach. We have to execute better. When your defense or special teams gives you the ball in the plus 30, you have to think touchdowns. We did that last week and we weren't able to do it this week, so we have to figure out why. And then five plays in the punt, four plays in the punt in the first half. So in the second half we ripped off a few runs, but I think we are going to have to examine everything we did, decide if it's the best thing to do with the personal we have going forward, which we are not exactly sure what our personnel will be and put together the best game plan we can to be 1‑0 next week. Q. Without Jamal more he will, how did that change things at linebacker and what he's tried to do defensively? COACH FLOOD: It changes the people. Quentin Gause plays more. Davon Jacobs plays more. Certainly those things get changed a little bit. Jamal is one of the better players on our defense. When you remove him, you're losing a lot of experience, and a lot of game experience, and it's not easy to replace. I thought Davon and Quentin played better as the game went on. We are fortunate to have a guy like Kevin Snyder who can play multiple positions at a high level. When a team rushes the ball 40 times and only gains 38 yards by the end of the game, you've done a pretty good job. Now there's certainly thing on defense we have to do better. We have to look at our pass defense and see how we can keep so many balls from being completed. Q. On the defensive line, how would you assess their play today? COACH FLOOD: It's always tough before you look at the film. I can tell you the guys that I saw flash during the game. I see a guy like Isaac Holmes with a TFL. I see Daryl Stephenson with a TFL which is great, because Daryl is a guy that's starting to play more and more for us. I think Djwany Mera continues to be a consistent performer for us and that's critical. Thompson, one and a half sacks, each of the three first games, he's had a sack at least. That's not easy to do and I'm sure that teams are going to give him more and more attention as the year goes on. So those are the things I saw live, David Milewski, he energizes the entire defense just the way he plays. They are a strength of our team, and they give us a chance to win every week. Q. Do we expect this as a norm‑‑ are we at that point? COACH FLOOD: I'm very pleased with Paul. And to consistently create big plays in the running game is what you want. When you look at the running game, there's certain things you look at and you have to eliminate negative runs. He's done a good job with that. You want to create big plays in the run game, which means you're going to have to break a tackle at some point, usually, and he's done that. So now he's got a body of work three games long, and he certainly has earned the right to be the starter and he's earned the right to carry the ball quite a bit. So I'm excited about it, and I think going forward now next week will be an even bigger challenge to do it against an SEC defense and a group that's going to come in here knowing a little bit about Coach Bielema. I'm sure he will come in here with a desire to run the ball and stop the run just like we do. Q. You'll watch the film, Dallas at center, any initial thoughts? COACH FLOOD: Very pleased. Very pleased.  I thought Dallas operated well at center. We had one snap issue where I believe the snap was early, I'm not completely sure if it was or not but it created a penalty for us. But to have one in the game, I thought he‑‑ he operated the game very smoothly, and I think that's critical, when you go in there without having been‑‑ get battle tested in games and actually missing a day of practice this week, because of a death in his family, you know, for him to be able to go out and perform like that, I'm proud of him, and I'm excited for him and we needed him to do it today and he stepped up. Q. What kind of injury did Gary suffer? COACH FLOOD: I haven't talked to the doctors yet, so I'm not even going to discuss it. I have to look at the film and then I want to speak to the doctors and the trainers. Q. Time of possession, 22 minutes, 42 plays, in the eight years or nine years, remember only attempting 13 passes, just in terms of the number? COACH FLOOD: I don't know, it's certainly a low number. I don't know if I would go into any game thinking we would attempt 13 passes. We don't do that. We want to be balanced and whether that's 60/40 run pass or 60/40 pass run or anything in between, I think that's a pretty balanced offense. I wouldn't have expected that. The time of possession, I don't fixate on that much because nobody has ever given me a statistic that equates to wins and when you have a kickoff return that goes for a touchdown, that's a possession you don't have and when you have big plays in the run game that go for touch downs, those are possessions that get shortened for good reasons. So the time of possession, I don't fixate on. The 13 passes, though, I would not have gone into the game thinking that that would have been the result. Q. That said, does that put extra emphasis on Paul James' performance? Did he step up even further given the fact that you didn't pass the ball that much? COACH FLOOD: I think it might be the other way around. I think because he stepped up, we didn't pass the ball as much. I think those drives get shortened and they land in the end zone before you need to attempt those passes on third down or second and five or whatever they might be. Q. Since the team has not really been able to pass the ball much since Fresno State, do you want to try to put more emphasis on that before conference play starts next week, or do you just want to keep going with what works? COACH FLOOD: No, I think every week we have a game plan to try to be 1‑0. I'm not looking ahead to conference play. We are completely fixated at this moment on trying to be 1‑0 next week when Arkansas comes to town. It will be a tremendous challenge for our program and we have a lot of work to get ready for that game. And when that's over, then we'll worry about the next one. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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