Rob Ash Tuesday Press Conference Transcript
9/4/2013 3:26:00 PM | Football
Comments from Bobcat Coach Rob Ash during the September 3 media lunch
TUESDAY PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES
September 3, 2013
BOBCAT HEAD COACH ROB ASH
Do you guys derive confidence from the success FCS teams had last weekend?
"First of all it was a record-setting weekend for the FCS, and I thought it was outstanding. I've been an FCS coach and advocate and proponent, it feels like, for my whole career, or at least the last 25 years, so I love to see those games. Eight wins is, I think, a record, and a lot of them were over very household-name type teams, (including) people from BCS conferences, so it was a great weekend for the FCS. I've always said FCS teams have a chance to win every time they play FBS games because it happens every year, and this year is no exception.
There were 10 last year and eight this weekend, do you attribute that to anything?
"No, I don't think there's any particular formula. I think some of our very best teams in FCS were playing those games this weekend, you've got number one and number two and (some of) the top four or five teams in the FCS playing so that might be part of it."
How important are the extra two days of rest coming out of the Thursday night game?
"I think we're really well-rested right now. I always worry about coming out of camp with fresh legs, that first game's always a difficult one going into it, whether or not we're going to be tired from camp or whether we're going to be in good enough shape. I thought we played just the right amount of football in this game. The starters played two-and-a-half quarters then had a chance to rest. We had two days off over the weekend, Saturday and Monday, we ran hard on Friday and Sunday, so I think we're in perfect shape right now to have a good week of practice and go to SMU and be fresh enough to play fast. They're a fast team and we have to be fresh to do that."
Why is it so special for the Texas guys on your roster to go back to Texas and play?
"Everybody loves to play in front of their family and these guys have a chance to do that. And it's not just the immediate family. Maybe mom and dad have a chance to come up here for games, but it's all the extended family, all the high school friends, maybe it's some of the coaches they played for. Some of the guys have 30 or 40 family members coming to the game. They couldn't do that here in Montana. It's a special time and the Texas connection has been very important to our program. I'm excited to take our guys back down there to play in front of their families."
What makes June Jones' offense so potent and so explosive?
"June Jones is one of the all-time great passing gurus in the coaching profession. He's got a great knack for the passing game, and now he's added to his staff Hal Mumme, who's another one of the great passing minds in all of college football. So there's a brain trust, really, for the passing game in this game we play. They're both outstanding coaches, they really have an understanding, they're committed to it, and they do a great job."
You go from Monmouth to SMU to Colorado Mesa, is it difficult to see a fluctuating level of talent on the field each week?
"We prepare the same every week. It doesn't matter who we're playing, we don't look further down the schedule to see who's next on the schedule, we prepare he same every week. Every Tuesday's the same, we know what we're going to do, we take care of our business. All we can do is line up with the players we have, and it's a pretty good group of players. We adjust to the speed of the game and the conditions and the environment when we're there, but you win the games in your preparation during the week, so it'll be all about film study, practice Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday, then getting on the bus or eating at home, and then just go play the game."
So there's never a concern about how the players approach each game?
"We try to get a level approach every week, that's our goal, and if you talk to our guys they'll tell you that's our goal. When guys watch the film, the film doesn't lie. If they see speed they'll be ready to play faster, and if they're faster (than the opponent) they'll see that, too. We just go week-by-week and try to keep it as level as we possibly can."
Texas Tech's quarterback was a true freshman walk-on who threw for over 400 yards, can you take anything from that?
"(Texas Tech) had a great plan. (Texas Tech coach Kliff) Kingsbury's one of the great passing minds, along with Hal Mumme and June Jones, so that was a battle of the pass kings of the country in that game. I thought the freshman did a great job for Tech. They had a good plan, they kept it pretty simple for him, he had a lot of short throws, he had a lot of easy completions and the (receivers) made a lot of nice plays running after the catch. I thought Kingsbury did a good job making it manageable, they did a good job protecting the young guy against SMU's pass rush, also. I thought they executed very well."
Can you talk about the challenges Garrett Gilbert presents?
"He's a magnificent quarterback, he's got a fabulous arm, he can throw the ball a mile, and he's got all kinds of experience. He has experience at Texas, he has the experience of playing one entire season at SMU and leading them to a bowl game. I thought he was really good in this game on Friday night, he just didn't get that play that broke it open. Not only can he throw the ball, but when he took off and ran he was extremely effective. He scored a touchdown from 25 yards out, did a very good job there, got away from the pressure. He'll be one of the best we see and that's a great challenge, but I've always felt challenges help raise your own team's level, so hopefully that will be the case."
Are you surprised the college game has gone so far toward the spread out game that June Jones helped create?
"They have to feel good about the fact that they started all that, they threw the ball all over the place before that was really commonplace, and it's evolved and evolved and evolved. The thing that's happened is the quarterback's become more of a runner now than back in those days. In the original days of the pass game the quarterback never ran the football and now what teams are doing is they've got athletic quarterbacks who can pass, so that's the new dimension of the true spread offense in my mind is the quarterback as a dual threat. June Jones and Hal Mumme and those guys are still more true pass game quarterback guys, so they're going to throw it more times a game still, and that's not as commonplace as the spread offense where the quarterback's throwing the ball 30 or 40 times."
How nice was it to take a Saturday off and watch college football?
"I actually took a day off and it was good, I relaxed a little bit in the morning, went out and played a little golf actually, then watched a couple football games in the afternoon. You need that time away to get refreshed and recharged and come back. It's a long grind. It seems like a short time when people are watching us play. Thursday was the culmination of three-and-a-half days of intensive preparation, seven days a week, every day, all day, every day, and when you get to that first game and you have an extra day off before you have to start preparing for that next team, it's fabulous. So we took advantage."
Do you think the FCS wins alert the FBS that these teams are for real?
"I don't know what it does to them. I would imagine it's going to be a topic of conversation in most FBS locker rooms this week that are playing FCS teams. If I were an FBS coach I would do that. Whether it resonates with the team is completely up to them. What we have to do is understand it doesn't help us or hurt us, really, in this game. We just have to go play our game."
What do you see form Jon Ellis, who is flourishing in Cramsey's offense?
"Jon has that nice combination of a guy who can run great routes but is good with the ball in his hands after the catch. He's not a one-dimensional guy. He brings great versatility to the offense so we can use him on the jet sweeps and the orbit motion as well as the short passes and the underneath routes and try to get him deep, as well. Tim likes to have those kind of athletes in this type of offense. It doesn't matter how big they are if they're fast and they can get the ball quickly early in the play they're going to make some things happen."
What growth have you seen from Craig Ashworth?
"Craig Ashworth's a great asset to this program, a walk-on who just worked hard. He had to gain weight (and) he did that, but I don't think he loves being as big as he is, I think quickly after he's done playing he'll lose that weight and get back to a more normal size, but he's done it for the team. He's become a good player. He's a great comic relief in our meetings and a great jokester, prankster guy that you have to have on a team because he keeps people loose, but when he goes out and plays he's very serious and very fundamentally sound. That's what's made him be able to earn a scholarship and a starting position."
