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SUN BELT CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA DAYSJuly 22, 2019Matt ViatorNew Orleans, Louisiana MATT VIATOR: Great to see everybody. Great to be here for another Sun Belt Media Days. Interesting thing about this event is always you know as the summer moves along, it's getting close, it's getting close, it's getting close, but when you come to the Media Days you know it's here pretty much starting next week. Glad to be here. We're really excited about what we're doing in Monroe. We think we have a lot of great things going, both from an athletic department standpoint and also a football team standpoint. We're really excited about the young men that we have, and really like our football team a lot. I think we have some -- I think we have some of the pieces in place that we need, and the biggest thing that we're focused on that we've continued to focus on is to get better. We think we've gotten a little better each year. If you go back and look at what we've done. And the question continues with me all day is we were in position last year and didn't quite get it done, and we made a bowl -- we were bowl eligible but didn't get into a bowl, but what kind of incentive is that. Really the way we've attacked it is let's just try to get better because we're hoping if we get better that'll take care of itself. From an offensive standpoint, we have our line back, and we're excited. Hopefully our tight ends can stay healthy. We think we have four young men that play the position. We actually ended up with some games last year where we only had one healthy tight end for the entire game. So hopefully we can keep that position a little bit more healthy than it was last year. Wide receiver standpoint, I think any time you lose a guy like Marcus Green, you know he's with the Atlanta Falcons for a reason, so we'll have to replace him by committee, but we think we have some young men that are really good players and really talented that are excited about the opportunity to get in there. Running back position, we think we have players there, as well. And to get a guy like Caleb back for a fourth year, I guess, to play is really exciting. I'll say this: I'm really excited to bring Caleb here to represent our football team and represent ULM, and I think from the standpoint if you look at it not only on the field but off the field, he's done a fantastic job with that position because y'all know the position of quarterback, and especially when you're asked as a true freshman to step in and take that role. But I think he's done a fantastic job with it, with both of them both on the field and off the field and I'm really proud of him for that. Caleb was in the original signing class when we went, and he's done a fantastic job at what he's done. Defensively we have a lot of guys back. I felt like the last half of the year is kind of a tale of two seasons really. On our defense, botched in the one year, but the first six games didn't really play the way we would like. The last six games I thought we played good enough to win every game. I thought our defense came a long ways in terms of limiting big plays. We keep talking about that as a defensive team. This is a league if you look at it, and I've studied it a lot the three years I've been involved, there are not a lot of shutouts. People are going to move the football. People are talented on offense. But if you can limit, get some stops, maybe take some -- instead of touchdowns, field goals, get a couple turnovers here and there, then you give yourself a great opportunity to win, if you do what you're supposed to do on offense, and I felt like we did that the last half of the year. I thought we played as good enough defense to win all six games, including the last two games. We just didn't get it done from an offensive standpoint. We're excited about that moving forward because got most of our players back. We're also excited to get a guy like Tyler Glass back, who got hurt the first game of the year. He was penciled in as a starter free safety. Rhoy Williams was penciled as a starter at corner. Got hurt in August camp, missed the whole year. So we were able to get most of our guys back plus add a couple pieces that had to miss the season last year with injuries. Kicking game-wise, we lost Craig Ford, who was a four-year kicker. We're going to replace him with Jacob Meeks, a young man that was a kickoff guy last year for us, and he'll also step in the role of PAT field goals. One big question for us is who will be the punt returner. So we'll have to get somebody there. I've been asked all day, are you worried about it? Heck yeah I'm worried about it. You always worry because Marcus Green has returned every punt since I've been at ULM. But we have some guys fortunate for us that did it in high school and were very good at it in high school. So it would be a matter of getting them out there and getting them some college game reps. But we certainly think we have the personnel to do it. But we haven't had anybody that's done it yet on Saturday, or Saturday nights. That's kind of an overview of our football team. Again, we're really excited. I really like this team. I think we have an opportunity to do some good things. If you look at our schedule, it's a -- no doubt it's a challenging schedule, and any time you play a Florida State or an Iowa State, it's going to be challenging. The non-conference schedule, but we're also excited, we have six home games this year, and any time you have an opportunity to play Grambling at home, which is obviously very close regional game and the success they've had, a lot of the pictures you see in our facility are from the Baylor game and the Grambling games, the full stadium games and stuff. So we're excited about getting Grambling into our place, and also really excited to get a team of Memphis's caliber to come to Malone Stadium, which we're playing Memphis. I think the fourth game of the year or fifth game of the year. They're actually coming to Malone Stadium. We do have six home games again, so we're excited about that. Again, challenging schedule. Everybody in the Sun Belt plays a challenging schedule, but we really look forward to it. Again, I think there's a lot of great things going on in Monroe. We're excited about it. Again, from an athletic standpoint, athletic department standpoint and from a football program standpoint, we couldn't be more excited about the direction we're moving, and hopefully we can take one more step of improvement forward, and that's what we're looking to do. Any questions? Q. You mentioned yourself the way things ended last year, obviously disappointed, had a chance to control your own destiny but lost those last two games. From the moment the off-season started, have you gotten the sense that the players have taken that to heart and that's motivated them and they go through and get ready for the year? MATT VIATOR: Yeah, I think it has. Really before the Christmas break we were still kind of waiting to see if we were going to get a bowl game or not get a bowl game. But when they came back for the spring semester, we talked about it, but I talked about it from the sense of really I wanted to make sure that it wasn't -- it was not any of the, hey, look, poor us. We qualified for a bowl game and didn't get in a bowl game. I never even mentioned that. But we did start talking about, however, how we were in position to get some things done and we just didn't finish doing it, and just didn't feel like -- look, there's no question, it's hard to win in Jonesboro. I'm not saying that would have been any kind of an easy task or even the Lafayette game the last game. They had a good football game. But we were in position really in both games when you look at it. We just didn't make enough plays. We just didn't put our kids as coaches in position enough to make them, and we didn't make them enough as a team. But we were in position on both of those games to -- but I think that's really what the league boils down to when you look at it. When two teams go out there and play pretty good, it's going to come down to a few plays. What we hope to do is continue to improve, and what I've been talking to the coaches about is let's get ourselves back in that position again. We want to be in the mix, and I felt like -- so I feel like we've improved in the sense that when we first started at ULM we weren't in the mix. I mean, we weren't. But we've finally got ourselves in position, and hopefully we can continue that, where we're right there. We're in the mix, we're in the conversation, and we can get ourselves in position to be in a position to where it comes down to a play or two. Hopefully we can do that again. Q. Just wondering, so your guys spent your entire coaching career in the state of Louisiana. What does it mean for you to have hometown guys on your team like Donald Louis Jr., and what has he really meant to Monroe, Louisiana? MATT VIATOR: Well, Donald, it was interesting when I got to ULM because we recruited Donald at McNeese, so I knew Donald. I had already had conversations with Donald, and that was certainly a situation where I was excited a young man did go to McNeese, and I walked in there and saw him. But I think he's been big in terms of what we're doing because he's one of the guys that was -- he'd only spent a semester there. But he bought in immediately in terms of what we're doing. But you look at him, he's had a productive career. Donald has already graduated, and he's a young man that's very close to his family, and he loves Neville. He's really close to his high school and his high school coaches. I think it been great for Donald, the fact that he got to stay home and play I think has really worked out well for him, and like I said, because he really bought into what we were doing early and because of the young man he is, he's really helped us out a lot. Q. Obviously you knew that Green was going to be moving on, but then also having Turner transfer out. Looking at the wide receiver corps, who are you expecting to step in to be that No. 1 spot or is this going to be committee and see who comes out? MATT VIATOR: Well, that's a good question, and it's something that we'll have to define as August camp goes on. But Xavier Brown is a young man that was very, very productive for us in the past that got hurt last year, was a senior last year and got hurt so he's coming back for his senior year. Markis McCray actually sat two years ago, was hurt, and never a good thing when you're hurt, but I remember at the time talking to Markis and saying, you know what you have an opportunity instead of playing behind Marcus or being the fourth receiver when we go to four receivers, you'll have an opportunity possibly your senior year to be the guy and stuff. I think you look at him, Zach Jackson played a lot, Brandius Batiste played a lot. You don't just replace a Marcus Green, and R.J. was a good player, but I think we're fortunate to have been playing a lot of guys and have a lot of guys in there that I think can be very productive players. Q. Last three seasons you've defeated Texas State, but how will that change knowing that Texas State just hired Jake Spavital as head coach? How are those games going? MATT VIATOR: That's a good question, too, because I know Coach Spavital and I know his past, and he's a great football coach. The thing about it, the last two years for sure, is Texas State has been really good defensively, and I think they -- last year I thought they were one of the better teams we played defensively. I think in my opinion have two of the best linebackers, if not the best in the league, in Daniels and London and stuff. I'm with you, when I saw that and knew how good they were on defense, and then you bring a guy with Coach Spavital's -- that he can come in and take over the offense, I agree with you, I was looking at that and going, wow. We've been fortunate, if you look at the games, they've been close games. I remember a couple years ago Texas State throwing a Hail Mary on the last play and it tipping around. We beat them this year, I think it was, what, a three-point touchdown game I remember in San Marcos. I remember a back-and-forth type of game and stuff. They've been close games, and I have no doubt that Coach Spavital will do a great job and it'll be a tough game, especially I think this year is a Thursday night game in San Marcos. It'll be a tough game for sure. Q. As you mention, you guys have been right there, especially last year in those last two games, and you look at the preseason poll and it's shaking out with the Cajuns and Arkansas State there at the top. You know who you're going to have to beat in this division, so to speak. How do you break down those two teams and what makes them so difficult to play? MATT VIATOR: Well, first off, that's how I voted because that's how it finished last year, and I think that's how it ought to be. I don't think anybody gains an upper hand in the off-season. That's the way it finished. I think fortunately for us when you look at it, the two teams that finished ahead of us in the West, that's the last two games we played. Fortunately, I guess, we're very familiar with them. Unfortunately they're very talented. We would like to be able to get ourselves in a position again to get it, like I said, to an opportunity where we're in there, we're right in the thick of things, and we have an opportunity to play those games, meaningful games and stuff, especially when you look at -- at the game with Lafayette. There's nothing better to me, whether you're in high school or college, as having a very meaningful game the week of Thanksgiving. There's nothing like it. So last year we had it, and hopefully we'll be there again this year. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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