Quotes from Montana State coach Rob Ash
Rob Ash Press Conference Transcript
10/6/2010 3:27:17 PM | Football
Quotes from Bobcat coach Rob Ash on October 5, 2010
Quotes from Montana State's football press conference on Tuesday, October 5...
BOBCAT HEAD COACH ROB ASH
Everything really changed after halftime Saturday.
“Everything changed dramatically in the third quarter. We had such a good performance in the first half. We got turnovers, stopped drives, had a good offensive day going, we scored last – after they scored a field goal we answered with a touchdown – and everything was going perfectly. But when they came out and changed, really, from a run game emphasis to a pass game emphasis, and they had all that success with it, then it changed a lot. We knew we had to tempo it up and score more quickly and try to find some solutions on defense. But give them credit for coming back. That's not easy to do.”
How is Portland State different offensively without Mouse Davis and Jerry Glanville?
“Portland State has completely revised their offense. They're running the Pistol now, which is a variation of the spread offense. They've got a very good run game out of that, kind of a tailback-oriented run game, but you also have the zone read option stuff out of that Pistol formation, as well. They've got a running quarterback who can also throw the ball, a multiple threat quarterback, so it's way, way different than the run-and-shoot.”
Will this be more of a smash-mouth game because of Portland State's new coaching staff?
“I think it could be. I'm not really sure where Portland State is with their defense because they've played two Pac 10 teams. I'm not looking at the statistics as being very relevant as an indication of their team. Oregon's going to run the ball on everybody, so that's all factored in. I think they're pretty good on the run defense, I think they're very skilled in the secondary, I like what they're doing on offense. I think Nigel Burton's done an excellent job of coming in and taking the talent he had and molding it into his particular schemes on offense and defense. I'm expecting them to be a team that has an impact on this Big Sky Conference race all season long.”
What are your impressions of how Nigel Burton's adjusted to the conference?
“I think he's done an awesome job. I know he had a good recruiting year, he's been aggressive out on the road, he's got some good player to come to Portland State. I like what he's doing with the offense. He obviously knows the Pistol and understands how to run it, and they've done a very good job with that. Like I said, it's tough to know exactly where they are because they've had the two Pac 10 games and then the Idaho State game they won handily, so we really only have one game to base a judgment on and that's UC Davis. They won that game 41-33, played very well against a future Big Sky Conference team who's going to be a good team. UC Davis went and beat San Jose State, so they must be very good. Based on all that I think Nigel's done a very good job in his first year.”
Is CJ Palmer getting more involved in the offense?
“I think he's pretty involved in the offense right now. With CJ and Orenzo, it's nice to have two backs. We'll continue to use two backs. When it breaks open it's nice to know either one of them is a guy who can hit the home run now, with CJ's trimmed down size and better speed. I think that showed up in the game in a big way on Saturday, and that's nice to know. It's nice to know that he's got that now. Both of them have played well, and both of them will continue to play. I think that allows us to stay fresh and keep a good running game going for four quarters.”
How did the absence of Jordan Craney and Dustin O'Connell affect the defense?
“Actually there were three that didn't play, with Clay Bignell being out. We lost a (veteran) leader on all three levels of our defense with O'Connell in the line, Bignell at linebacker and Craney in the secondary. Three (experienced) starters, veterans, leaders, it's hard to replace that kind of guys. That's what makes our first half performance so impressive and so positive. We did a good job there. In the second half we just got exposed a little bit there and made some mistakes that we have to get corrected. We do get Craney back, that'll make a big difference. Clay is still marginal with his ankle, and O'Connell's out for a number of weeks here, so we still have to find some solutions.”
What happened in the second half that allowed Sacramento State's success?
“There was a physical sag at halftime by our team, not so much mental, necessarily, because you know you have to play another two quarters, but we were tired. Not out of shape, but it was a physical sag. It was 90-plus degrees, we had a 37-10 lead, we had really extended ourselves in that first half, and we played well. We went out in the second half and there were a couple times we felt like we were just running in mud out there, so physically I think it just took us a while to get rolling, and by the time we got our legs back under us in the second half they had caught us. And the other thing that happened is they got hot. I made this analogy after the game, and any sport has it. A basketball shooter hitting threes, sometimes somebody can hit 10 in a row, and the next week he'll clank them all off the rim. Fleming got hot, the play-callers for Sac State got hot, they had the right plays at the right time, and they were hitting on all cylinders. Sometimes that happens, and we got caught in that buzz-saw for a while in the third quarter.”
Were you guys blitzing uncharacteristically more than you usually do, do you know?
“No. It just happened that when we blitzed and were in man coverage they had a great man-beater call on and when we were playing back in zone they had a great zone-beater call on. It just was one of those days that every call they made for a stretch of time worked out perfectly for them, and they executed it and got it done. It's just one of those things you have to survive and then try to rally and finish at the end, and that's what we tried to do.”
Do you agree with Mike Rider that the team is 'scared straight' by the second half at Sac?
“I think it was a shock, I don't know that scared is the right word, but I think it was a shock. It doesn't happen to us very often around here, and I think our defense will play extremely well this week. They're proud of their abilities, and they're proud of what they've done in the past here, and I think they're very confident about what they can do in the future. They'll practice extremely hard this week, believe me. We'll play well on Saturday.”
On the flip side, do you know that you have all this offensive talent bottled up and you're just waiting for the right time to break out?
“What's interesting is, we don't think about individuals as an offense. We are a team. When we run, whoever is the running back gets that call. Whoever is at X gets the fade, it could be Julius, Elvis, Tanner. We rotate guys in, we roll 'em through, we don't necessarily try to match up a call to a guy. We don't say in the second half, 'OK, we're going to throw three times to Julius Lloyd for touchdowns here in the second half.' The calls match up how they match up. It's not about the individuals, it's about the process of the whole team, what the design is, what's the right percentage play to call at a certain time, and who are the guys on the field at that time. I feel confident no matter what running back, tight end, receiver is in there, even quarterback. Cody Kempt would do a good job if he went in, too. Those guys would run this offense very well.”
What adjustments do you make to fit Portland State, a team with a good secondary?
“I think it's all about matchups all the time in football. You have to decide what matchups you want to try to exploit and what matchups you want to try to minimize, and that's what we look at. You've got to look at the corners, can they play us man-to-man, the safeties, do they play run or pass? Look at the front line, how tough are they going to be to block up front, do we have to double them, do we have to slide our protection or can we go man-to-man? It's all about matchups all the time. It's all guess-work, you look at the film but you're not playing them yourselves, you're looking at them against Oregon or you're looking at them against Idaho State, so you never really know until you're playing them yourselves. So each week it's kind of a work in progress until you finally get to Saturday, and then you continue to evaluate in the game to see if the matchups are the ones you expected.”
What matchups early on this week are you thinking you can exploit?
“It always is, every week, the one-on-ones. Can we win one-on-one on the outside? That's a rule of offensive football, you've got to see if you can win outside one-on-one. The second one is, where are the safeties going to play? Are they going to play pass, run, aggressively, down low, up high, what kind of players are they? Then maybe the most important one is how do we stack up man-for-man across the front line? I think Portland State has a very good defensive line and excellent big, strong linebackers, so we're looking at all those matchups up there, too.”
Was Sacramento State a defining game that Denarius McGhee is the unquestioned leader of the team?
“Denarius has played really well so far this year. Each game he's come up with something new and different for us to watch that's exciting, but the best thing about him is that it's not about him making plays for himself, it's about doing what we need to do to win the game. Denarius is focus every single play out there is to try to make a play that will score points that will help us win the game. It's not about himself, and that's what I love about him. What's been good about him so far is that when he has to put more points on the board for the team to win it seems like he's got the ability to do that.
Can you talk about his leadership for a redshirt freshman?
“I think it's pretty amazing. Pretty amazing. I think it goes back to great upbringing. I think his (parents) raised him well, made him be a well-behaved, mature young man growing up. He's always been a good student. He's got a good head on his shoulders. He played a lot of football in high school. He played almost 30 games in high school in big conditions, so he had seasoning that was unusual for a high school guy coming in. And he had a year of seasoning here that I think really helped his maturity. I think redshirting him was the best idea that we could have possibly had to get him used to the college game and the system before he actually had to go play. So he's probably older than his years, really, in a lot of ways.”
Are you content with his decision-making in terms of staying in the pocket as opposed to making plays with his feet?
“Absolutely. I don't know how he does it, because he knows when to stay in the pocket and he knows when to get out, but I don't really know how he knows that. It's just an instinctive thing. He has that ability to hang in there when he needs to and get out when he needs to, and he really is good. He's very creative when he's on the run. To me that's the extra thing he brings to the table. The first touchdown (at Sacramento State) to Kyle Begger was a created play, and the last drive had two created plays out on the outside. From start to finish he's just a creator that makes plays when things break down.”
Is it his instincts, or are you guys coaching him and telling him, 'Stay in the pocket'?
“Oh, yeah, we've coached everything he's doing, exactly. (laughter) There are still a lot of things he has to learn, but he has a great basis for what we're trying to do from Coach Wright, the quarterbacks coach, also the coordinator. He understands the game plan. Everything he does is within the parameters of the plan, but then we've got to make sure we don't restrain him too much because he's really good when things sort of unravel. He can make things happen.”
What's your level of satisfaction with the players buying into the mantra of winning the fourth quarter?
“We haven't been particularly good at that the last three years, so we started talking about that last January. When we evaluated the season (we saw that) we just needed to be better in the fourth quarter, so it's been an off-season focus, it's been a weight room focus, a spring ball focus, a summer focus, and now into the season. They better buy in. It's something you have to do to be successful. We've got it on our goal chart downstairs, win the fourth quarter. We're keeping score in the fourth quarter. So far we're doing fairly well there, and we're going to have to continue to do that.”
How close are you to finding a solution if Clay Bignell is out for a while?
“I think Aleksei Grosulak will be much more comfortable in the middle this week than he was last week. That was hard, to move from the outside in and play a whole game there. He's a fast learner, he's a smart young man, a very good player. I think he'll be a lot more comfortable in there this week.”
How is Clay doing? What's the rest of the injury situation? “Day to day on this ankle. Sometimes those can take a while. I wish I knew. We'd all love to know. We're not going to rush him back, because sometimes you get a guy back too soon with an ankle and then it becomes a problem that lasts the rest of the year. We don't want that to happen.” Is Conrad Burbank close to coming back? “We're hoping he can start to practice maybe middle of this week and then we'll have to see how his movement goes, how his power is, and whether or not he'll be able to play.” How about Alex Terrien? “Same thing, he's better now than he was a week ago Tuesday so he should be able to practice later this week and potentially be ready to play on Saturday.” How did Clay hurt his ankle? “He got rolled up in the Eastern Washington game (in the) early fourth quarter and missed the last part of that game. We thought at first it wasn't real serious, but then it just lingered, and that's been the problem.” Dan Ogden seems to get knicked up every week, are you concerned about him suffering a more serious injury? “Dan plays hard, and he plays with a lot of pain. He's probably playing on an ankle that most guys would not play on. He's got the ability to make it work, and it's hard for him, it's very painful, and when he gets it rolled up it puts him on the ground for a while. But he's so tough he always comes back. But he'll let us know. If he's significantly injured we won't put him out there.”
What's the solution on the defensive line, missing O'Connell?
“I think we're going to continue with the experiment with Dan Ogden at end, and we're going to continue to work with Preston Gale and Caleb Schreibeis, John Laidet, all those guys, rolling them through until we get the right decision. Zach Minter's getting more playing time inside with Dan Ogden being at end, and I think that's a good thing for our defense. That's one of the plusses of putting Danny out there.”
Have you had a chance to look over the plans for stadium renovation and do you feel that is a viable, realistic goal to get it up for the 2011 season? “I'm really excited about the concept. I think bowling in the end zone would be a terrific addition to our stadium. It would improve game day, it would improve recruiting, it would improve capacity. We would have more tickets available. Everything I've heard about it sounds awesome, and I hope it goes through.” Have you seen a timeline? “I understand it's an aggressive timeline. Obviously, the sooner the better for us in the football program, so we'll see how everything goes this week and in the next few weeks of fund-raising, and hope for the best.” Do you think this team deserves a stadium upgrade? “If you're successful and winning I think it's nice to have the program get some extra visibility, which the stadium would do for us. The other thing is we're selling out right now. When you sell out, you wonder how many people aren't coming to the games that would if we had more seats, so I think increasing the capacity would be a real positive thing. Here's the biggest thing for me: we've got great fans who love our game day environment, our game day experience. If we could do something that enhances their experience like making the stadium bigger and better for them, more bells and whistles, I think they deserve it, too.”
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