Mike Uremovich Opening Press Conference Quotes
Opening Statement: “I want to thank President Mearns and Jeff Mitchell. Talking with them through the process and finding out their values and their passion and what they see the football program looking like here at Ball State, it was right in line with what I want to do and how I like to run a football program. It is about everybody doing it together. It's about from the President to the head football coach, all the way down to the trainers to the equipment managers, the people that are filming practice. A football program is important to the university. It brings spirit to university because people in the community have something to be proud of, not just the way our kids are going to play, but the way they represent themselves in the community.”
Q: “ You talked about what needs to happen here to turn around the program. How do you go about enforcing those things and those demands?” — Kyle Smedley, Ball State Daily News
A: “I wouldn’t say they’re demands—they’re challenges. It's a challenge for everybody to have a great attitude and have great effort and be accountable every day, but it's one day at a time. You can’t sit up here and say we're going to win a MAC championship. What we’ve got to do tonight as a staff is make the best effort we can in recruiting, both some high school prospects that are there and some of these portal guys. And we’ve got to do it again tomorrow. Our players over this break have all been challenged to go run and lift and get after it, because when they come back here January 6, we are getting after it.”
Q: “What were you able to learn from [Butler] that really prepared you for this job?” — Elijah Poe, Ball State Daily News
A: “Just how everybody worked together. Butler was the first job that I had as a head coach with the portal being what it is. I've been consistent with the portal going on for a while. I was a head coach at Saint Francis without the portal, so it was the first time that I had to build a roster with the availability. It really taught me how to navigate through there and what homework you have to do on the guys, and that's the thing I learned the most personally about building a program is just how different it is now.”
Q: “You talked about recruiting, not only in Indiana, but within five hours. Why is that important?” — Kyle Smedley, Ball State Daily News
A: “The closer you go to school, first of all, the more likely you are to stay because you have family and friends and all that, and they invest in the process, and you're not getting homesick and all these other things. But that's where our connections are, and that's when I go into high school in Indianapolis, or I go into Chicago, and I know the high school head coach, and he tells me: ‘This kid can play for you. You've been here for 20 years, and I know what you want. He'll fit with you.’ I'm going to take his word for it, because he's given me eight other players.”
Q: “How would you describe the offense you like to run?” — Elijah Poe, Ball State Daily News
A: “We are always going to build our offense around our best players, so it would be foolish to come here and say, ‘we’re going to do this.’ We're going to get it in spring. We're going to evaluate our guys and say: ‘These are our best players. We’ve got to get them involved. Here's how we're going to do it.’
Q: “How does your mindset change trying to get to the MAC championship or to a bowl game?” — Jason Miller, NewsLink Indiana
A: “The MAC is a great conference because all of the teams are fairly close. They're competitive football games. The way that you win is first of all is you don't beat yourself: you don't have penalties; you don't turn the football over; you’ve got to win on special teams. And then in a lot of those games, you’ve got to be a tougher, more physical team to win in the fourth quarter. That's what you’ve got to do.”
Q: “How do you plan to go about building a winning culture here at Ball State?” — Cade Hampton, The Star Press
A: “Just keep telling the guys what the expectations are every day. You're never going to go into our building and have a big list of team rules on the board because they’ve got to do things right. I mean, that's not too complicated. I don't worry about statistics. I worry about execution scoring and stopping. We’ve got to reinforce that with our guys.”
Opening Statement: “I want to thank President Mearns and Jeff Mitchell. Talking with them through the process and finding out their values and their passion and what they see the football program looking like here at Ball State, it was right in line with what I want to do and how I like to run a football program. It is about everybody doing it together. It's about from the President to the head football coach, all the way down to the trainers to the equipment managers, the people that are filming practice. A football program is important to the university. It brings spirit to university because people in the community have something to be proud of, not just the way our kids are going to play, but the way they represent themselves in the community.”
Q: “ You talked about what needs to happen here to turn around the program. How do you go about enforcing those things and those demands?” — Kyle Smedley, Ball State Daily News
A: “I wouldn’t say they’re demands—they’re challenges. It's a challenge for everybody to have a great attitude and have great effort and be accountable every day, but it's one day at a time. You can’t sit up here and say we're going to win a MAC championship. What we’ve got to do tonight as a staff is make the best effort we can in recruiting, both some high school prospects that are there and some of these portal guys. And we’ve got to do it again tomorrow. Our players over this break have all been challenged to go run and lift and get after it, because when they come back here January 6, we are getting after it.”
Q: “What were you able to learn from [Butler] that really prepared you for this job?” — Elijah Poe, Ball State Daily News
A: “Just how everybody worked together. Butler was the first job that I had as a head coach with the portal being what it is. I've been consistent with the portal going on for a while. I was a head coach at Saint Francis without the portal, so it was the first time that I had to build a roster with the availability. It really taught me how to navigate through there and what homework you have to do on the guys, and that's the thing I learned the most personally about building a program is just how different it is now.”
Q: “You talked about recruiting, not only in Indiana, but within five hours. Why is that important?” — Kyle Smedley, Ball State Daily News
A: “The closer you go to school, first of all, the more likely you are to stay because you have family and friends and all that, and they invest in the process, and you're not getting homesick and all these other things. But that's where our connections are, and that's when I go into high school in Indianapolis, or I go into Chicago, and I know the high school head coach, and he tells me: ‘This kid can play for you. You've been here for 20 years, and I know what you want. He'll fit with you.’ I'm going to take his word for it, because he's given me eight other players.”
Q: “How would you describe the offense you like to run?” — Elijah Poe, Ball State Daily News
A: “We are always going to build our offense around our best players, so it would be foolish to come here and say, ‘we’re going to do this.’ We're going to get it in spring. We're going to evaluate our guys and say: ‘These are our best players. We’ve got to get them involved. Here's how we're going to do it.’
Q: “How does your mindset change trying to get to the MAC championship or to a bowl game?” — Jason Miller, NewsLink Indiana
A: “The MAC is a great conference because all of the teams are fairly close. They're competitive football games. The way that you win is first of all is you don't beat yourself: you don't have penalties; you don't turn the football over; you’ve got to win on special teams. And then in a lot of those games, you’ve got to be a tougher, more physical team to win in the fourth quarter. That's what you’ve got to do.”
Q: “How do you plan to go about building a winning culture here at Ball State?” — Cade Hampton, The Star Press
A: “Just keep telling the guys what the expectations are every day. You're never going to go into our building and have a big list of team rules on the board because they’ve got to do things right. I mean, that's not too complicated. I don't worry about statistics. I worry about execution scoring and stopping. We’ve got to reinforce that with our guys.”