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NCAA DIVISION I FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: NORTH DAKOTA STATE v ILLINOIS STATEJanuary 9, 2015Marshaun CoprichChris HighlandDontae McCoyBrock SpackFRISCO, TEXAS Q. First of all, Coach Spack, congratulations on a great season. How come you didn't play these guys before? COACH SPACK: Well, we've played them every year up until this year. Tremendous program. They have our deepest respect. They're obviously the three‑time national champions. They're here for a fourth time, which is very impressive, and we're going to have our hands full, there is no doubt. Q. I know you mentioned earlier in the week that you thought this team maybe would be at this point next year, but going from 5‑6, putting Tre at quarterback, what sort of things broke right this year to get to this point? COACH SPACK: A lot of things. We had a very good offensive line coming back. I felt a year ago, I told the guys in the preseason, I think the season will rest on them. To be honest with you, they're going to set the tone. What I meant by that is that they're going to develop our whole team. In order to win the Missouri Valley, those from NorthDakota State know that you have to have a physicality about your team, and it all starts with your offensive line. They really allowed our defense to get better. Our front seven on our defense because our front was pretty physical. And they've opened holes for this guy next to me, and been able to protect Tre so he can throw the ball around a little bit, so that's kind of where it started. I thought we'd be a pretty good football team. We didn't have Lechein Neblett a year ago. He had a very good foot speed. And Jon‑Marc Anderson, a young player a year ago, we lost both those guys during training camp, and lost some speed and ability to stretch coverages. So I thought if we could get those guys back and we could get our transfer quarterback to mesh, we'd be maybe at this place next year. But it happened pretty quickly. Tre's, I think these guys will tell you, Tre is a very good teammate. He's humble and a hard worker, he's fit in very well, and our offense has really taken off here in the second half of the season. We've been very good in the playoffs. Our defensive front seven has played pretty well, as well as our secondary. So our kicking game has vastly improved over a year ago. Chris Highland, the gentleman two spots down from me has been a tremendous player and one of the best long snappers I've ever been around. He's a great kid as well, very good student. So we've improved in some areas that you have to be good at in order to play on this kind of stage, and you have to play sound defense, obviously to get to this point, but we've got a pretty explosive offense, and our kicking game has been pretty solid as well as our defense. Q. Coach, can you talk about just the different dynamic of coming back after the holidays, practice for a week, this week you're here, starting and stopping with Saturday's functions going on. Just how your team has approached this different kind of schedule you're not used to? COACH SPACK: I've been asked that question quite a bit and it's a really good question because most of my experience has been in FCS and been in bowl scenarios. I've been in 14 or 12 bowls as a coach and a couple as a player. This part is a little more like a bowl game. But the playoff scenario is not because you go through a tough, grinding three games. We are in three games to get to this point, and then you take some time off. That was an interesting dynamic. I thought it was good for our players, I guess you could ask them, because we were a little fatigued mentally, I thought. We didn't play a great game in NewHampshire. We played a gritty game and a really good fourth quarter, but we weren't really sharp I didn't think at times during the game. I think defensively we missed a lot of tackles, which is a sign you might not be as sharp as you want to be. So I think the layoff was good. Then we came back and got after it pretty good after Christmas at our place and have come down here and tried to have our heavy lifting, so to speak, done before we ride into Frisco. So just kind of polishing up while we're here. I liked it. I guess I'll let you know after tomorrow, but it seemed to be fine. Q. For any of the players, what are the emotions now 24 hours out, and does the fact that you're playing another conference game sort of help keep a little bit in perspective and not get too overwhelmed by playing a National Championship Game. STUDENT‑ATHLETE: There was definitely a lot of emotion coming in the day before the game. It just feels really good to be in this position and see all the hard work that we put in over the off‑season and the winter workouts and all of that to finally pay off for us to finally be in a position for us to try to win the National Championship which has been our goal since we've been in this season. First we had to win the Missouri Valley, which is a very tough task, and we're in a great conference. So the conference is the goal, and then being able to accomplish another goal that we have of winning a National Championship is definitely a great feeling and something we don't take for granted, and we feel is definitely a blessing. COACH SPACK: Well, it's been a crazy kind of 48 hours since we've gotten in, but we're done with most of the mandatory team functions. Now it's just time to play football. We're kind of into our regular Friday schedule that we've had all throughout the season. Now we're just focused on one thing and that is NorthDakota State. MARSHAUN COPRICH: I would just say we're ready to play now, that's all I've got to say. Q. I know this is an FCS championship, but do you kind of feel like this is also the MVC championship, where this is who proves who the best of the best is? COACH SPACK: It's hard not to say that because we are playing‑‑ as I said, we were playing our brothers from the Missouri Valley. It's a real proud moment, I think, for both schools. I think it is for them too to play us. I know we as coaches have been, since I've come into the Missouri Valley, this league has really worked hard to get more teams into the tournament. We've had a very good tournament. All our teams did well. We had a very good out‑of‑conference season. It is kind of fun to settle amongst our own league. That's kind of unique. Someone asked me, I don't know who it was the last couple weeks to describe it. I said it's kind of like playing your brother one‑on‑one basketball in the backyard. You're the only one that can really dunk on him and take advantage of him, and no one else can. You want everybody else to lose to him but you. That's kind of, I think, where we are. We cheered for them in the playoffs. We cheered for all our conference schools. We cheered for them, and obviously found out from Coach Klieman that they were cheering for us, which is great. I heard rumors the NCAA was going to put us in the same bracket, and I commend the NCAA for not doing that. We appreciate that. We felt if we got in separate brackets that maybe this could happen. I know they kind of thought it. I was hoping we'd be that kind of team, and it turned out that we were. So it's been really fun for our league, and I think we'll settle who is the best team this year. Q. I wanted to ask Marshaun, you seem to get better with each and every carry. So I wanted to ask you what do you see on your 20th carry as opposed to your fifth? MARSHAUN COPRICH: My fifth I'm just warming up, and on my 20th, I'm locked in and ready to go. Q. Marshaun, you're one of two Cali guys on the team. Where's Victorville, and how did a Cali guy end up at Illinois State? MARSHAUN COPRICH: I had a long recruiting process, but Henry and Bill from (Indiscernible) played at Purdue together, and he gave them a call. I talked to Coach Spack, and he offered me and I committed right on the dot. Victorville is hidden towards Barstow and Vegas, it's like right there. COACH SPACK: The desert. MARSHAUN COPRICH: Yeah. Q. This question is for anyone, how have you tested out the team's momentum this season? THE MODERATOR: Chris, why don't you start? CHRIS HIGHLAND: I think the way our schedule is set up is very nice. Having a bye week early on in the season and then playing consecutive games almost where I think it was eight or nine weeks, I think that really helped us continue momentum. We played a really great team football game against SouthDakota State early on in the season, and I think that was kind of a turning point early on when we knew that we had the potential to make a deep run in the playoffs and possibly get to this point. So I think it was after we got the bowl game and the end of the conference season, it just all fell into place. STUDENT‑ATHLETE: Definitely, after we won the first game, the more you win, the more you want to win. So as a team to keep up our momentum, you could definitely week to week you could see the vibe of the players and everybody wanted to get better. We pushed each other and competed in practice more so than we ever have since I've been here. Honestly, it was just a feeling of continue to get wins, continues to push us further to want to win some more. MARSHAUN COPRICH: I would just say that we just don't let each other down. We all feel like we're brothers and we don't want to let your brothers down, you just want to keep going. That's why we're here right now. Q. I know you talked a little bit about how you were opposite of the bracket from NDSU. Are you considering how everything went in regular season, do you feel like it was kind of a fair situation and how everything played out where you're seeded and the teams you played against in the playoffs? COACH SPACK: Yeah, I think it was fair. We had a tough road. We had to play Northern Iowa at home, which is good that we played them at home. That was our only loss, and we were able to correct that a little bit. Then we went on the road to Eastern Washington, and that was obviously another storied program out west that's won a National Championship, and went to NewHampshire who is the No. 1 seed in the playoffs and in the tournament and won there. So I was very impressed with our team for doing that. I felt it's not easy to get here, and no matter what road you take, it's difficult. Every team, I'm sure that's come this far has had to fight through some adversity, and we were able to do that, as I'm sure NDSU was too. But it's been a great run. I think that this is something that we all were hoping would happen. Like I said earlier, I credit these guys next to me on our team for fighting through a tough road to get here. Q. Chris, you mentioned being here 48 hours and now your focus is football. This is for Chris and any of the players. In that 48 hours, what have you found to be maybe the most light‑hearted moment, and what have you found to be the most serious moment leading up to this game? CHRIS HIGHLAND: Well, I think that the Barbecue Bowl last night, we had a great time. It was nice to kind of let loose and have a little bit of fun with your teammates. Then I think the best moment probably though was the miracle league game that we got to play in that flag football game, and that was awesome. We had a lot of fun there interacting with some of the kids. It's been a crazy 48 hours, but well worth it, I think and everything that we've done. MARSHAUN COPRICH: I would say just how we were all together and first starting off with the little kids game for the special needs kids. I would say doing that and just meeting the players and seeing each other and just being ready. That's all I'd say, being ready now. STUDENT‑ATHLETE: Yeah, I would definitely say a light‑hearted moment for me would be just being around the kids and giving back. You definitely want to give back. One of the most important moments now for me is like Marshaun said, just being able to be out here with your brothers. Especially being a senior in the last game, it's wild to be playing together as a whole team. This is the last time this 2014‑2015 team will play together. So to be able to have an opportunity to go out with a National Championship, there is nothing like it. Q. Coach, can you talk about it seems like in recruiting the long snapper is now a coveted position. What has changed through the years? COACH SPACK: The only time we talk about long snapper is when he screws things up. This one hasn't done that very often, so he's‑‑ I like to bang his drum every opportunity I get because I think he's as good as he's ever been around. It's interesting, we had a long snapper from California when I took the team over, and he was on a full scholarship. He was a good player. But I said, you know, we have 7 million people that live just an hour and a half from our campus and we can't find just two guys that would like to walk on and long snap? And we found two in our own town. One of Chris's teammates who is a few years ahead of him at Central Catholic High School, and Nathan, and then Chris came along. And both earned scholarships since they've been at our school, and were good students and great players. It is a very comforting thought as a coach when you go to sleep at night knowing that you have a long snapper you can count on. I can tell you, it's the fastest way to lose a game. It's catastrophic plays in the kicking game. People take for granted the battery in the kicking game. Q. Marshaun, obviously there are a lot of keys to the normal running game, but against NDSU's defense, do you see any keys in particular or anything you want to take advantage of? MARSHAUN COPRICH: No, I'm just playing my game that I play every week. Slow to fast and just playing at my tempo. That's what I'm doing. Nothing is changing. Q. I guess I'll start with Coach and then the players if you want to answer too. You mentioned your offense kind of took off in the later part of the year. Is there something that had to change or maybe you didn't expect Tre to get into the system as fast as he did, and when he did, you really kind of took off? COACH SPACK: It's been well‑documented that Tre has a lot of experience at the FCS level at Indiana and the Big 10. He had been a starter there. He had fought through injury. So he had a lot of experience coming in. But I think people what they assume is a player like him is going to step in and all of a sudden put a magic wand over him and he's going to understand the offense. Our offense is a little different. We weren't a no‑huddle team, per se, so we have to ask our quarterback to get us in correct protections sometimes in and out of right direct plays, and I'm sure you know that covering your team. So he was one that he really liked throwing the ball over the top, and it was forcing throws into places maybe they shouldn't go. About Game 3, 4, 5, and he started learning how to take what the defense gives him. And I think that's his biggest hurdle. Once he became more patient, he became a much better player. So he's had to learn on the run. He played a very complicated position being a quarterback, very cerebral, and also had to learn his new surroundings. He had started a new school, living in a different town. So he's still only 21 years old, and to put somebody‑‑ I think we asked these guys to pull off miracles that do this sometimes. It took him a little time. Actually maybe why I said this would be a year away, because that is asking a lot for a guy to do. But he's done very good and a tremendous player to be around. He's worked really hard. He's learned the system, and he's gotten better every week. I still think he has a high ceiling. I still don't think he's playing as good as he can. I really don't. I think he's going to get better. I think he'll be a better player next year than he is now because in the off‑season he'll study himself, he'll study what people did to him. He'll understand the system even more. So I think he'll be a better player even next year. But that's kind of in a nutshell. I think that was the key obviously. DONTAE McCOY: Tre's a great person, first of all. He's a great leader. He just loves the game of football. His work ethic is second to none. After every practice, Tre goes upstairs and watches the practice. He doesn't go eat. Like some of us go home and go eat. He's just a great guy. He's an ultimate competitor and loves the game. He's a great team player. You could tell, as soon as he transferred he immediately clicked with all of us. He immediately joined the brotherhood, and I've got nothing but love for Tre. CHRIS HIGHLAND: Yeah, I can echo what Coach and Dontae have both said. In the locker room, he's a great guy to be around. Being kind of the commander of the offense the guys flock to him immediately, I think, when he got here. He took on that leadership role right away. And I think that those guys have a lot of respect for him. Even though it's his first year in the program, he's done a lot for us. MARSHAUN COPRICH: I met Tre in the summer, and being around him and seeing how he is, oh, he is a great guy. How he wants to learn about the game and being able to understand what's going on. Me and him breaking down defenses and situations in the game, and pushing each other. I love the guy. We keep each other going. We wouldn't be where we're at today without each other. Q. Coach, studying you guys over the last five weeks or so, I've been impressed how you can play any type of game. Power, speed, do you think that flexibility is the reason you guys got here? COACH SPACK: That's a really good question and really good observation by you: I think it is part of that. One thing we tried to do in the off‑season is try to make ourselves a little more balanced, a little more dynamic, a more explosive team. I mentioned some players earlier that weren't around last year and their health. But we want to be a team that can be more than just one dimensional. In our conference there are times you're going to have to run power football or muscle football and NDSU is a great example of that. But we all have to have the ability to throw the ball. We all have to have the ability to attack the perimeter in the running game. So I don't think there is any doubt what you said is probably the reason why we're here, one of the biggest reasons. There are a lot of reasons, but that's maybe one of the biggest because we do have different ways of attacking a defense. We are able to adapt our offense to the situation and scenario that we need to win the game. Because we do have players in every facet of the style which you mentioned, we have guys within that style that can do that. So this is a player's game. It always has been. Coaches get too much credit when we win, and too much to blame probably when we lose. It's about these guys next to me. We have good players and in a lot of spots. Particularly offensively, we have some very, very dynamic and explosive players offensively, and particularly in skilled positions. Q. Seems like Cam Meredith has improved leaps and bound this is season. With this being his last game at ISU. What are your expectations for him against NorthDakota State? COACH SPACK: Yes, I think he's‑‑ two years ago when we were in the playoff scenario, we had a bye week, and I asked the coaching staff, we've got this guy standing next to me with a hat on and a clipboard who has a 40 inch vertical jump. He's nearly 6'4. He can run, and surely should be able to catch a football. He's standing next to me, and he's not playing much. He's a back‑up quarterback. We took him out there and threw the ball to him quite a bit in about three days period, and took a few passes at him, and he had very good ball skills. He was raw as a route runner, obviously, but a very athletic guy and a big target. He has a really good catch radius. Talking to pro scouts, they like catch radius guys. He's almost 6'4, and has a vertical at 40, so he can almost probably catch almost anything in this room because he's very, very tall and very athletic. He's turned out to be a very good player. He's worked really hard. He's had to go from playing quarterback to be a receiver. He understands that part of the offense, but it's a different style and different type of training. This is his second year doing it, and now his physical training, Jim, by the way, does a tremendous job with our strength staff and all our players, but Cam has turned into a really good position player now as a receiver. The last half of the season, you mentioned, he got better, and better, and better, and better, which a really good athlete will, because they have high ceilings. I'm hopeful that he has a good game tomorrow, obviously. But he's been a big part of what we've done this fall. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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