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DIVISION I FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: JAMES MADISON VS NORTH DAKOTA STATE

December 28, 2017

Chris Klieman

Frisco, Texas

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, everyone, for joining us today during this holiday season, and we wish you happy holidays to you and your family as well.

We have head coach Chris Klieman from North Dakota State who is going to join us in a minute, and then we'll open it for questions. Coach, could you please give us an opening statement? And again, congratulations on the Bison returning back to Frisco.

CHRIS KLIEMAN: Thank you for having me. We're excited to go compete for another National Championship. It's really hard to get back down to Frisco, and we've been able to do it six times in seven years, and it's a credit to our kids and administration for making the commitment they do to our football team.

We know we're playing a terrific team in James Madison. They're undefeated, and for a good reason. They've just dominated most of their opponents. They're getting an opportunity to go back for a second straight year, which we know how hard that is. So, commend them and Coach Houston for a great job that they've done.

We're looking forward to a really competitive, great football game on January 6th. So, open it up for questions.

Q. Let's talk about JMU and their running game. Seems like they've got a kid that's transferred from Georgia Tech in Marshall. What do you guys have to do a week from now to stop that guy from running? He seems like he knows how to hit all the holes. Against South Dakota State he ran like 75 yards and all that stuff. What do you have to do to control that?
CHRIS KLIEMAN: Well, we've got to do a great job of being gap sound. They do a good job of creating some openings against South Dakota State, and South Dakota State missed some fits.

We can't miss our fits. They have a tremendous running game. They do some zone stuff, do some gap scheme stuff. Obviously, they have a couple of backs, and he's probably the leader, without question, as far as yards and stuff. But they have a number of guys capable.

We have to do a great job of tackling too. It's something that we've emphasized and need to do a great job of. He's a big back, trying to get him down.

Q. Talk about your team's success for six out of seven years at Frisco. Why have you been so successful in the last six or seven years going back to the championship game? What is the key for you guys to continue that success?
CHRIS KLIEMAN: Well, we have a great culture here. Our guys understand how to win. They know how to win close games. They believe in the system. They believe in each other. We've had a lot of former guys that have come back and talked to the guys about doing it for the guy next to you and doing it for the guys that have put the jersey on before you. That's hard to find in college football these days, is sustained success for that long a period of time.

My hat's off to our players and our assistant coaches for a phenomenal job getting back there this year.

Q. As you and your staff have prepped the game plan for this championship match-up, how much stock have you put into last year's semifinal game just in terms of the film breakdown with tendencies and plays? How much stock, I guess, do you put into last year's game now with the personnel being a little bit different?
CHRIS KLIEMAN: Well, we put it into our breakdown. We've looked at every game, but in the same respect we've probably, oh, hand-picked about seven or eight games that we've designed a game plan around. That's one of those games. The personnel is a little bit different. There are some familiar faces for both teams, but there are some guys that didn't play in that game or have graduated or were injured that maybe make it a little bit different.

But I'm sure that you can see some similarities from '16 to '17 on both teams. So it's something that we definitely are looking at.

They did a good job of coming into Fargodome and beating us that day. They had a great game plan, and they deserved to win.

Q. With James Madison, what do you see that's similar to last year's team? What do you see that's different from last year's team that won the championship?
CHRIS KLIEMAN: Well, they know how to win, for starters. I love the quarterback. He's an exceptional player, and he's a winner. He just makes plays. Very similar to what we have in Easton Stick.

I think to get to this stage you have to have a quarterback that's a winner, that's a playmaker, that the moment's not too big for them. That's no question, both quarterbacks in this game are like that.

Then defensively their back end is as good as I've seen at the FCS level. They play the ball so well, they tackle well, and they're extremely talented. We have to be able to do a good job of getting off of man-to-man coverage.

Q. Talk about -- you talk about how hard it is to get there. Coach Houston has spoken this year about getting every team's best shot. This is obviously something you're familiar with. And you've gone through some adversity in some games this year. Talk about how you've gotten your team to work through close games and adversity, which you referenced earlier.
CHRIS KLIEMAN: We try to embrace the target that's on our back every week. Coach Houston's right. You're going to get everybody's best shot. Every game for us is a conference championship or a playoff implication game.

I think having success in close games, doesn't matter if it were this year or last year, we had a number of guys that went to the University of Iowa and beat those guys in a last-second field goal, and a number of those guys are playing for us this year. You have that successful endeavor like you do in a game like that or Youngstown, beating those guys in overtime at their place, you know, the guys just think they can always find a way to win.

I think that's the mark of a championship team. It's just like James Madison against Weber State, I'm sure nobody was in panic mode at all. They just executed, went down the stretch and found a way to win.

We've had some of those games as well. I think that's just the culture of the programs. They never feel they're out of a game. If there's time on the clock, if you win as many games as both teams have, you just always feel you have a chance to win.

Q. Can you walk us through the off-season? Was it any different for your returning guys not making the National Championship last year with that being your goal and having that rare loss there in the playoffs? Was there any difference in the off-season and when you got back to work, say, in January?
CHRIS KLIEMAN: Not a thing. Business as usual. It's so hard to do what we've done for five consecutive years that it wasn't broken, we weren't going to try to fix it. We just went back to work and did what we typically do in the winter, typically do in the spring and summer. Lo and behold, we're back here again. I don't think you can reinvent the wheel because you lose a football game.

Q. Two of the most rabid fan bases that I'm familiar with, and I've spoken with Coach Houston about this, how do you get the guys to drown out the noise of the fan base? They love this team so much, and they're always a part and always active. How do you keep that separate so you can be focused on what the task at hand is?
CHRIS KLIEMAN: We have great fans, just like James Madison does. We think we have the best fans in FCS, and Bison Nation strong. We don't try to drown them out. We're ecstatic that we're going to come down to Frisco, Texas, in thousands. We're excited about the opportunity.

Every game that we play, it's a sold-out place here. I think we're the only playoff team that's sold out every home game this year. That's a credit to our fan base, and it's a credit to our players. So now we kind of cherish that and love the fact that we've got a rabid fan base.

Q. I hate to keep harping on last year's semifinal, but what do you take from that game that might be useful as you move forward against James Madison?
CHRIS KLIEMAN: Nothing, really. We just watch the film and decide what we liked, what we didn't like and move on. It's the 2017 Team Bison. It's the 2017 Team James Madison squad. What you did yesterday means nothing. It's what you do today and what you do tomorrow. That's what we need to focus on.

Q. You mentioned JMU's quarterback, Bryan Schor. Is there another thing or two that rises on your list to be concerned about?
CHRIS KLIEMAN: Well, the fact that they're multiple offensively. He can beat you with his legs and his arm, and they have the ability to run the football. They're an explosive team offensively because they can hit the home run with great receivers.

Defensively, without a doubt, you're going to see the best two defenses in FCS. So that always worries you is how can we dent these guys and how can we find ways to keep drives alive and stay on the field and keep their offense on the sideline.

When you have two dominant defenses, as shown that both teams are, it's going to come down to who can make some of those plays and who can stay on the field and try to get some drives going. Because these are two teams that know how to win. You run the football, you stop the run and you play good red zone defense, and you don't beat yourself.

Q. Can you talk about how you overcome the injuries that you have currently at cornerback?
CHRIS KLIEMAN: Yeah, well, the next guy up. No different than we lost Greg Mendard, and the next guy came up in Dan Marlette and Lance Dunn and so on and so forth. We have a lot of depth here. We try to keep working on that depth by doing our double reps in the fall and having a lot of guys get a ton of reps. Nobody's going to feel sorry for somebody being hurt.

So the next guy has to be ready to play. Marquise Bridges had two picks in the semifinal game. We think he's a tremendous player that's starting to finally come into his own. We're excited about Josh Hayes, a young player that's done a really nice job. We think we'll get Dom Davis back, and we'll get an outside chance of getting both Jalens back.

Q. Throughout this decade, what has your program learned to manage the grind and the injuries throughout a long season like this?
CHRIS KLIEMAN: Well, you just know they're going to happen. That's just the nature of football. You're going to have guys injured. Nobody wants that. I hope we're at our best, and we hope JMU is at their best, but that's not the reality. Both teams have lost guys for the season.

But you try to prepare for that all season long or all year long. You don't just all of a sudden have an injury and think, oh, boy, you're going to fix that problem right then. You try to look at that through the spring, summer, fall camp, and try to develop enough depth that you can hopefully have eight defensive linemen for our second play, and four or five running backs and eight or nine defensive backs.

You just have to continue to coach them all and coach them all every day. You never know when that opportunity's going to come.

That's the neat thing about our program is somebody goes down, and all the veteran guys rally around that young player to say it's your opportunity. Kyle Emanuel left our program, and Greg Mendard came along. Greg Mendard is injured, and Derrek Tuszka comes along.

The expectations are high, and guys want to play at a high level for the brother next to them.

Q. Can you describe Nick DeLuca as a player?
CHRIS KLIEMAN: He's a difference maker. He's a next-level player that is finally 100% healthy, which he was through the playoff run, after getting the week off at the end of the regular season.

But such a cerebral guy. Knows everything in and out about our defense. He's 6'3.5", he's 245, can run really well, covers really well, understands fits and things.

What a great leader. He practices that way too. That's why he's going to get a great opportunity to play at the next level is he just gets the game. He has that it factor.

Q. Coaches in both conferences, the CAA and Missouri Valley, like to say they're in the toughest conference in the FCS. How much does this game count towards that?
CHRIS KLIEMAN: Well, it will prepare us. Playing the teams we've played in the Valley and JMU is a really dominant force in the CAA, and they play football, I think, the way it's supposed to be played, like a number of teams in the Valley do, with physical running styles, physical defense, extremely well-coached, disciplined group, great special teams.

So we hope that the gauntlet of the Missouri Valley has prepared us for a game like this. So we'll find out. But I don't think there is any question that the schedule that we play in the Valley, probably similar to what JMU would say, will prepare them for the playoff run. It's obviously prepared both of us for the playoff run, because we've been able to work ourselves all the way to Frisco.

Q. You have a number of guys who have been on this stage and contributed in this title game in the past like Nick and RJ and Tre. How do you see those guys helping the younger players on this team prepare for the title game?
CHRIS KLIEMAN: Well, when you have three weeks to prepare, you see a lot of guys having conversations, whether it's on the practice field, in the meeting rooms, just what to expect mentally, what to expect from the game standpoint, but what to expect from the preparation standpoint.

You have a few more walkthroughs. You have a little bit more meeting time because there's no school going on right now. You watch a little bit more film, and just all the thing that's it takes to prepare to get to a game like this.

Then once you get to Frisco, that's a unique thing for both programs is both teams have been there recently enough that most of the guys have been through what each day brings.

And then ultimately, come Saturday morning, once it tees off, it's a football game. It's a big football game, but once it tees off, that's the thing that I've noticed in the five years that I've been there, it just becomes a football game, and now it comes down to execution.

Q. Along those same lines, is there anything as you get the younger players, the freshmen on the team, the guys that haven't been here before, is there something you want them to slow down and make sure they take it all in when they get down to Frisco?
CHRIS KLIEMAN: We've talked this whole year about enjoying the journey. That's part of embracing the target and getting everybody's best shot and all those other things. That sometimes can cause some stress on an 18- to 22-year-old.

We've mentioned a lot as a coaching staff to the guys that this is the best time of your life. Enjoy the journey. We've had a number of our fifth-year seniors that are going to play in probably somewhere in their mid 50s for football games, between 53 and 57, 58 football games, which not many college kids can walk away and say I played in 50-some football games and had an opportunity to play in three National Championship games or four National Championship games, if you're a guy like DeLuca.

So that's a pretty special time. Never forget why you play the game too.

Q. I know you guys play in the dome a lot. Why do dome teams not succeed well when they play with a team that plays more outdoors? What do you have to do with the elements to get yourself ready? Because you never know about the weather down there in Texas.
CHRIS KLIEMAN: If you were in Fargo today, you'd realize that -- and we don't have the Fargodome today, but we handle those challenges pretty well. We've been outside in some tough weather. We played at Illinois State where it was a blizzard condition.

So conditions aren't going to be an issue to us. It's going to be more of the fact that are we good enough to execute and play at a high level. You're not going to be from Fargo, North Dakota, or live in Fargo, North Dakota, and ever worry about the elements outside.

Q. Did I hear you say that Jalen has an outside chance of playing?
CHRIS KLIEMAN: Yeah, both Jalens do.

Q. Okay, does that mean it wasn't ACL?
CHRIS KLIEMAN: No.

Q. How about Brooks?
CHRIS KLIEMAN: Outside chance, but probably doubtful. I'll learn more about him by the end of the weekend.

Q. Considering you and Coach Houston have both won 98% of your games this year, you don't hear much about FBS job or offers or rumors out there. Is it a grass is not necessarily greener thing for you?
CHRIS KLIEMAN: Well, you have a long time where you coach where you're at today, and where you're at today, and in reality we both have great jobs with tremendous administrations and tremendous student-athletes that do it the right way. It's fun to win, and it's fun to be a part of fan bases like we have.

So if opportunities come about for either coach or for any coaches, you deal with those as they come. But I know this. I have a great job here. My family loves it at North Dakota State, and I know Coach Houston really enjoys his time there at JMU. It's fun to be in this championship run like we're both in.

Q. I wanted to ask you about first time you guys are going to play on a grass field, I think since the last time you were in Texas. What adjustments do you have to make for that coming up on Saturday?
CHRIS KLIEMAN: We'll get down there and practice a few times obviously here next week. But we practice outside so much on our practice fields on the other side of the shack that I don't think it will be a big issue. Plus the fact that a number of our guys have played on that surface down in Frisco. Most of our guys that are playing have played on that surface.

So it's different, obviously, but I promise you the surface will be better than it was at Illinois State a few weeks ago.

Q. I want to ask, can you underestimate or overestimate maybe the value of having Tanguay, DeLuca, and now adding in Jabril Cox in this game that weren't on the field last year against James Madison?
CHRIS KLIEMAN: Yeah, that's a big lift for us. And Steidl didn't play that game either. He played the first quarter and got hurt. So you put what I think are three All Americans in Nate, Nick, and Jabril in the game, and it makes us better.

Does it make us unbeatable? Absolutely not. We still have to play at a high level at every spot. So I just think the experience factor with Nate and Nick in this game I think will calm a guy like Jabril down. It will calm some of our younger players down, and the number of guys that have played. Chris Board didn't play a whole lot last year, but he's a fifth-year senior that is kind of doing a great job for us at the other linebacker spot. So experience is a big thing. Guys from both teams have a lot of experience on this stage.

Q. I want to circle back around and follow up. Being there five times, how have you learned to manage from the end of the semifinals until championship week with your team? Has that changed over the years that you learned how to get your guys focused, get them rested, but still keep them active and working? Has your philosophy from year to year changed at all approaching the championship?
CHRIS KLIEMAN: Well, years ago it was a two-week window. That probably changed it quite a bit. We didn't take hardly any time off then when it was a two-week window. Since it's been back to a three-week window we have a plan we've implemented the last few years that we've been down there that we think is a good plan that allows the guys to get a break and get away for a few days as well as gives us coaches a chance to break down more film.

Who knows if it will work this year, but it's something that we feel comfortable with. It's something we look at every year. Based on the amount of injuries you have, do you cut back maybe a little bit of time at practice like we have this year? But not necessarily the days.

We know there is a specific amount of practices that we want to get in before we arrive in Frisco.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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