Coach Hugh Freeze sat down with the media on Monday night to wrap up Ball State and preview South Alabama. These are the things he said.
Opening remarks…
“It’s exciting that we can sit here with another win and an incredible home atmosphere for our opener. Our fans and students, band, cheerleaders, everybody involved in helping create that atmosphere from the administrative side, it’s fun to play at Jordan-Hare. It is a really good home-field advantage, and we’re going to need that moving forward, starting this Saturday. I’m glad it’s another sellout, that’s 17 consecutive sellouts, which I think ties the school record. So, again, we’re very thankful that we get to play in front of such good fans and student section and everybody that makes it so difficult to play at (Jordan-Hare Stadium).
It was a solid win (vs. Ball State). I thought defensively the effort and physicality was there. Our loafs went way down from week one to week two. Our tackling was much better from week one to week two. We still had some busts that we’ve got to continue to improve, but it went down. Still a few too many. But I thought defensively the effort, the way they responded to sudden change when we had a turnover, and battled to keep them out of the end zone, I thought that spoke volumes about their belief and what they’re doing. I thought they had an incredible game, and they got us a turnover. So it was a solid game. Special teams-wise, the coverage units were good. We didn’t execute a field goal or a punt very well, so we’ve got to continue to work and improve those areas. Sudden change there, with Towns (McGough) getting an injury and (Connor) Gibbs coming in. I thought he did phenomenal. His kickoffs were exactly what you want with hang time and distance. Really good to see him step in when you have a ‘next man up’ mentality.
Offensively, I did not think we strained very well, up front particularly. I know we averaged nine yards a rush. The run blocking was solid. But I did not think we strained the entire game, particularly (with) another slow start in both halves. Some of it’s not exactly them. Giving up the two sacks was disappointing, but we’ve got to make sure the pocket is where it needs to be also as coaches, and that’s on us. One of those was definitely… we were way too deep in the pocket to be able to protect from that launch point. We as coaches have to make sure we get that fixed. But I just thought we could have strained more. I know we did some good things, and obviously rushed the football for nine yards a carry, that’s pretty good. And 24-for-28 (passing from Jackson Arnold) so it’s hard to sit here and act like we weren’t solid, but there are things on the film that I think we need to improve. We’ll go to work this week to try to do that as we host what I think is a very good G5 football team in South Alabama. Major (Applewhite) does a great job. He’s obviously been with some good programs and knows ball. (Paul) Petrino is a very good offensive coordinator, and I’m impressed with what they do on that side of the ball. Defensively, they muddy up the picture really well with all their movements and different fronts that they give you. Got two of my former coaches down there on staff, so that always throws another little dynamic to it in preparing. But I have great respect for them and the job they’re doing there, and I know they’ll be excited to come and play in Jordan-Hare this Saturday.”
On Jackson Arnold’s performance vs. Ball State…
“He had two throwaways and was still 24-of-28. It was a solid night passing. I don’t like the sacks, and he used his legs when he needed to. We didn’t call any quarterback runs for him Saturday evening, but he still used them to be effective at times. He was 24-of-28, it’s a pretty good stat night. I thought he got our receivers involved and it allowed us to stay balanced like we’d like to be from game to game. Obviously, each game has it’s own flavor when you get into it and you figure out the way people are trying to play you. You certainly want to be wise and doing what is going to be effective or what has the best chance at being effective provided you can block them and win routes and things. I thought he had a really solid night, truthfully, and looking forward to improving upon it moving forward. We’ll need to be balanced against South Alabama as they do a lot of things, and we need to try and keep their offense on the sideline for sure and limit their number of opportunities.”
On Towns McGough’s status…
“I think he’ll be ok this week. He was moving around pretty decent this morning. His foot caught the turf and it kind of tweaked his ankle. But I think he’ll be ok.”
On Keyron Crawford’s play so far this year…
“The improvement he’s had from year one to year two here is pretty drastic in my mind. I think he is more flexible; he’s stronger. I think most of the credit goes to our strength staff and Dom (Studzinski). Just the change in his flexibility and his body, he bends a lot better off the edge, and so I think most of that credit goes to him and his work ethic and to Coach Dom and them. I love his leadership. He was one that got a lot of votes for captain and is on our leadership team and is doing a really nice job in all areas of being our voice in the locker room that people listen to.”
On how he wants to see the team “strain” more…
“I think this hurt us defensively, too. I don’t want to go off on a tangent, but all throughout fall camp that whistle is blown pretty quick when you’re not in live situations, which is, what, 85 percent of camp? I think our DBs get used to that whistle being blown pretty quick and they think ‘Well, the blitz got there.’ They just get used to that timing. All of a sudden you get into a game and that’s not happening. You have to strain for the entire play. I think it’s the same way with the O-line sustaining blocks. We’re blowing a whistle pretty dang quick when somebody gets close to that quarterback, and they’re not straining for the four seconds it may take. I think that’s a long time to hold up, but sometimes you have to.
We actually talked about it yesterday in the staff meeting, trying to create that more where they have to strain for a three- or four-second play and learn to finish for that length of time. Just pad level being more consistent. You’ll have four that look really good. Listen, our O-line, we rushed for nine yards (per carry), so they did a lot of good things. I don’t want to set here and I don’t know, we want to get better. I think we can all strain a little more to win at the top end of routes as receivers, quarterback to make sure we’re at the right launch point and we’re progressing through our reads properly, and O-line straining to win for a little longer length of time, and tight ends the same. It’s not just them, not just the O-line. There’s five of them on every play that get graded, and we’re probably grading them pretty hard right now, but I’d like to see us get off to faster starts in both halves.”
On Damari Alston’s status and other injuries…
“Damari will probably be a game-time decision. I know he’s trying. He went through walk-throughs this morning. Until you put the pads on and take a hit on it, you won’t know how it feels, so he’ll be a game-time decision. Unfortunately, we lost Durell (Robinson) for an extended period of time to a freak injury. We didn’t even know he was hurt after the game. Sunday morning, he had a collection of blood on his thigh like I had never seen in all my years coaching. We had to rush him to Birmingham to open that up and get the blood off. They had to do a pretty big incision on it so he’ll be out for a while.”
On Xavier Atkins and how he has become a leader in the LB room…
“It was DJ (Durkin) and the defensive guys and personnel who believed he had that potential when we signed him. I became a pretty quick believer throughout spring ball into fall camp, especially fall camp. His movement skills and his strength and explosiveness…I know he’s not the biggest linebacker, but he packs a pretty good punch and plays the game the way you want it played. It’s 100 miles an hour like Eugene Asante, and it didn’t take long for us to realize that we needed that quick twitch, tackling ability on the defensive side of the field a large portion of the time and he continues to produce.”
On Sylvester Smith…
“It was really nice to see because we challenged him pretty good after the Baylor game. I know his snaps may not be significant from the past years but, he has some experience we need to be a voice back there to settle us down if we are creating some bust on our own. We need him to lead, and I thought he responded to our challenge very well and played a really solid football game. He played physical and tackled well and his MAs (missed assignments) were way down, so really proud of him. He’s worked hard for this opportunity and hopefully he can continue to build upon last week.”
On the defensive line’s buy-in…
“So far so good. I just hope that that buy-in continues because I do still believe that our strength there is because of numbers and playing unlimited number of snaps with incredible technique and passion and fundamentals. So far, it’s worked. I think both games the D-line, they’ve stopped the run, which if you do that you got a good chance to win a lot of football games and I think that they’ve bought into that thus far and will hopefully continue to.”
On Jeremiah Cobb’s running style and the running back room as a whole…
“I’d feel better if Durell (Robinson) was healthy, but Omar (Mabson) had some really good carries and was solid. Cobb is definitely different than Damari (Alston). Probably more of a slasher than a power guy, and obviously has open-field speed, which he showed the other night, and is excited that he got his first 100-yard rushing game. He’ll have to carry the bulk of the load Saturday for sure, and we’ll figure out how Damari is and get Omar ready to go also, and maybe even Alvin (Henderson). We’ll have to kind of see where we are towards the end of the week. But excited for Jeremiah. I’ve said leading up to this season I really thought he was heading for a breakout season and appears to be on that track.”
On getting Omar Mabson some snaps against Ball State…
“I thought his runs were solid and physical. We did not have to pass pro a lot with him, which is still an area particularly this week with all the mudding of the front that we’re going to get. He is going to have to spend some quality time with our running back staff and making sure he understands protections and what he needs to do against all the different looks, but nothing like live reps for him. I know he will be excited to get more when he is called upon.”
On success in the red zone…
“It’s early, but I think I’m on record saying that there were games we could have won in the past couple of years that we have to own. The reasons were pretty clear to me. If you look at the stats, our rushing average was really good per yard and yards per game, but what was not good was the turnovers and our red zone scoring. Whether it was field goals or whether it was the lack of touchdown production. The first thing you have to look at is our schemes and our calls, and see if we are putting our kids in the best possible scenarios for those, and then the second piece to that is continue to recruit players that when you do have the right call, they have a good chance of winning on whatever given call it is. I think it’s a combination of us examining our plan and also recruiting to make some of those that were on tape. Like, if this was a pretty good call, we just have to win this route or win this block or make the right read.
It’s a combination of both us as coaches making sure we’re having a good plan, and then you have to, ultimately, when you’re down there, someone is going to have to make a play. There’s usually going to be an extra guy unblocked, and someone’s going to have to run through or around, or you’re going to have someone have to win a one-on-one on the outside. When you get down there tight, I’m not talking about the 20-yard line, we’ve got to have a great plan there and try to score from there because when you get down to the five and inside, it gets really difficult to scheme up anything that’s going to get every hat blocked or somebody’s going to have to win in some way. So, that’s the recruiting portion, along with us making sure the calls are schematically solid.”
On South Alabama’s offense…
“#1 (Devin Voisin) and #11 (Anthony Eager) can really run. That receiver and that running back are really good and their quarterback (Bishop Davenport) is really athletic. They’re very multiple, motion, shifts, things that make you think and make you check. Before you know it, if you’re not careful, you’ve made the wrong check and one of those guys that can really run is hurting you. And so again, I think (Paul) Petrino does a really nice job with the scheme and he’s got guys that can run and make plays and a running back that was an SEC transfer – a really talented kid – a quarterback that is athletic and a solid offensive line for (group of) five. So I think it’s his scheme, plus he has some good players.”
