ARMY BLACK KNIGHTS FOOTBALL

October 14, 2023

Kalib Fortner

Press Conference

Troy 19, Army 0

Q. Tough game for you; defensively a lot of plays today. You stopped a lot of 3rd down plays. What was working on defense today?

KALIB FORTNER: I think we did really well as a whole, just kind of rallying to the football. I think something that hurt us and continues to hurt us is missed tackles. Just off the top of my head, I think I had three or four, but as a unit yards after contact is significant. We need to chop that down. I think that's kind of what we've got to work on working forward.

Q. Just at the end of the second quarter the 52-yard touchdown pass really made a big difference in the game, Watson to Lewis. What did you see happen on that play?

KALIB FORTNER: Missed assignment, busted coverage. That's really all it was. It was a missed assignment.

Q. You had eight tackles, three solos. What did you feel was your role in the game?

KALIB FORTNER: Sir, to be honest with you, with a loss, it doesn't matter how good I played. I still, like I said, had three or four missed tackles off the top of my head, so that's I need to improve on.

Q. Defensively you guys got on the field a lot (indiscernible), home territory a bunch of times. A lot of people thought you guys played pretty well defensively. Going into the game, what was the strategy?

KALIB FORTNER: To stop -- first and foremost, they can't win if we stop the run. I think that's our thing going into every game. That's just something we didn't do well today.

Q. What did you think of the way you guys were able to stop that Troy run game, especially considering they had the leading rusher in the nation?

KALIB FORTNER: I'm not sure how much he had today, but I think we did a good job of kind of bottling him up. You know, holding him to, I think, four field goals is pretty significant, and that's just something we've got to continue to do.

Honestly, they wouldn't have even gotten down to field goal position if we would have made those tackles and mitigated those missed tackles. That's something, again, we're going to work on in practice.

Q. As a team leader right now, what do you say to your group? What's your message to the rest of the locker room as you work through a difficult stretch in the schedule?

KALIB FORTNER: I think just basically for me tomorrow, for the unit, the defensive unit specifically, it's tell them to keep taking steps forward, keep playing our ball. I think we made steps forward today, but we've just got to continue to do that.

Like you said, sir, the stretch doesn't get any easier, so just keep playing our ball and playing with black flag mentality and working to get better.

Q. If there's a silver lining to today, what would it be?

KALIB FORTNER: I think just help the offense keep their heads up and then also keep playing with black flag mentality on the defensive side of the ball.