Ball State Football Postgame News Conference Quotes, September 28: Game 4 at James Madison
Coach Neu
Opening Statement
A: "I firmly believe it comes down to confidence. I told the team that at halftime, imagine when you're playing a sport, and if you're afraid to make a mistake, that can get magnified. They have a great week of preparation on the practice field. They do a good job of knowing what they're doing, but when you get on the field and the lights get a little bit brighter it comes down to just not really having enough confidence right now. When things start to spiral, it's not that guys aren't trying, but one mistake gets compounded by another mistake, and it starts with me. I got to figure out a better way to prepare our football team at the end of the day. That's where it starts, and that's where it stops. It's totally on me, and I told the team at the end of the game I love them to death. We've just got to keep fighting. Tough times in life never last. Tough people do."
Q: "To put yourself how you were a player in this program as well: when you, or maybe even some of your teammates were struggling with confidence, how did you go about finding that within yourself again?"
A: "You work so hard every week: you install a game plan and practice those plays, and you know, you just totally submerge yourself in the mindset of man, just one play at a time. I know people hear that all the time. It's probably a boring answer, but really, at the end of the day, if you can just stack some plays and you can get some positive drives and you can get some momentum, it really starts with that. When the game started the way they did, I could see the confidence. I could see guys trying to press too much. I could see guys afraid to make a mistake, because that's the last thing that you want to get done. I've got to be better. I've got to figure out a way to help our football team through that rough patch there."
Q: "Does something need to change on defense, given the fact that you guys have allowed 500 yards in three games?"
A: "Obviously, that's not acceptable. Again, I made the decisions, and I still believe fully in our staff. I still believe fully in what we're doing, but it starts with confidence. You know, each guy making sure that he's fully committed to doing his job and doing it to the best of his ability. It's easier said than done, because you've got to make sure you're reaching 11 guys on the field on every play. If all 11 of those guys can process like that and think like that, then we've got a chance to have success."
Q: "You knew the importance of winning the turnover battle coming in this week, especially after what JMU did at North Carolina last week and they started both halves by capitalizing on turnovers. Does that need to be a focus of cleaning up moving forward?
A: "Yeah, you can't ever turn the ball over, man. There was two tipped balls, if you will, that ended in interceptions, and then a third one that the end dropped into the slant window to the field, and they did a good job of making a play in close quarters, taking it back for a touchdown. So you credit them on that, but you cannot turn the ball over and expect a win. obviously, in our case, we lost a turnover battle, and that's a tough formula to overcome."
Keionte Newson
Q: "Coach talked a lot about confidence, and how that was his message to you guys after the game. Where would you say that the confidence level is at right now, and how can you guys maybe improve it moving forward?"
A: "Right now, throughout the team I can tell that it's low right now. It's hard to be confident in games with these bigger margins with Miami and then the close one in Central, and then today. It's hard to stay confident when things don't go your way. We've just got to stay diligent, and keep working and dive in our playbook so we can fly around 100 miles per hour and not care about making mistakes."
Q: "You've got that TC patch on your shoulder. Do you view your role as TC one as maybe a responsibility of yours to help the team get that confidence back?"
A: "Yeah, and right now I'm being a fraud. I'm still having mistakes myself, and then it's getting challenging, trying to keep guys up when things like this keep happening. So, I've just got to get back to being who I am and be a better leader."Â
Q: "What Is there that needs to change moving forward after this rough three game stretch?"
A: "Effort and focus, and attention to detail. Early on in the game, we had miscommunications with myself and the corner. Let's be in and out with something, and then what happened? You know what I'm saying? Just leaving people open, making the wrong calls getting the D-line lined up and stuff like that, and they hit a big run there and scored early on there too. So just having more focus throughout the game, and just giving effort no matter what's going on. Just going 100 miles per hour."Â
Kadin Semonza
Q: "Mike talked a lot about how the confidence of this team. He feels like it's down. Do you feel that way as well?"
A: "What you're going to hear from me is I'm going to stand by my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and at the end of the day, he makes no mistakes. No matter how hard or how difficult the times may be, I truly believe he's got a plan for us. No matter how hard it is, I've got to keep leading and keep pushing these guys to keep their confidence up so that we can go achieve what we're supposed to achieve."
Q: "Keionte and Mike both blatantly took responsibility for not only this loss, but just the start to the season. Do you feel like part of your job as quarterback is taking some of the responsibility as well?"
A: "Of course, it goes without saying. I've got to play better. It is what it is. It's tough. Nobody wants to be where we're at now, but like I said, we're going to keep pushing, and I'm going to make sure we do everything we can to get to where we're supposed to get to."
Q: "What was it about the James Madison defense today that gave you guys trouble on offense?"
A: "They're very good all around. I mean, they've got a great scheme, but at the end of the day, I think it comes down to we didn't do enough on offense. We didn't execute what we were supposed to execute. I got a couple unlucky breaks early in the game, and that really set us behind, and that sucked at the end of the day. That was a great football team, yes, but you know that more falls on us."
Coach Neu
Opening Statement
A: "I firmly believe it comes down to confidence. I told the team that at halftime, imagine when you're playing a sport, and if you're afraid to make a mistake, that can get magnified. They have a great week of preparation on the practice field. They do a good job of knowing what they're doing, but when you get on the field and the lights get a little bit brighter it comes down to just not really having enough confidence right now. When things start to spiral, it's not that guys aren't trying, but one mistake gets compounded by another mistake, and it starts with me. I got to figure out a better way to prepare our football team at the end of the day. That's where it starts, and that's where it stops. It's totally on me, and I told the team at the end of the game I love them to death. We've just got to keep fighting. Tough times in life never last. Tough people do."
Q: "To put yourself how you were a player in this program as well: when you, or maybe even some of your teammates were struggling with confidence, how did you go about finding that within yourself again?"
A: "You work so hard every week: you install a game plan and practice those plays, and you know, you just totally submerge yourself in the mindset of man, just one play at a time. I know people hear that all the time. It's probably a boring answer, but really, at the end of the day, if you can just stack some plays and you can get some positive drives and you can get some momentum, it really starts with that. When the game started the way they did, I could see the confidence. I could see guys trying to press too much. I could see guys afraid to make a mistake, because that's the last thing that you want to get done. I've got to be better. I've got to figure out a way to help our football team through that rough patch there."
Q: "Does something need to change on defense, given the fact that you guys have allowed 500 yards in three games?"
A: "Obviously, that's not acceptable. Again, I made the decisions, and I still believe fully in our staff. I still believe fully in what we're doing, but it starts with confidence. You know, each guy making sure that he's fully committed to doing his job and doing it to the best of his ability. It's easier said than done, because you've got to make sure you're reaching 11 guys on the field on every play. If all 11 of those guys can process like that and think like that, then we've got a chance to have success."
Q: "You knew the importance of winning the turnover battle coming in this week, especially after what JMU did at North Carolina last week and they started both halves by capitalizing on turnovers. Does that need to be a focus of cleaning up moving forward?
A: "Yeah, you can't ever turn the ball over, man. There was two tipped balls, if you will, that ended in interceptions, and then a third one that the end dropped into the slant window to the field, and they did a good job of making a play in close quarters, taking it back for a touchdown. So you credit them on that, but you cannot turn the ball over and expect a win. obviously, in our case, we lost a turnover battle, and that's a tough formula to overcome."
Keionte Newson
Q: "Coach talked a lot about confidence, and how that was his message to you guys after the game. Where would you say that the confidence level is at right now, and how can you guys maybe improve it moving forward?"
A: "Right now, throughout the team I can tell that it's low right now. It's hard to be confident in games with these bigger margins with Miami and then the close one in Central, and then today. It's hard to stay confident when things don't go your way. We've just got to stay diligent, and keep working and dive in our playbook so we can fly around 100 miles per hour and not care about making mistakes."
Q: "You've got that TC patch on your shoulder. Do you view your role as TC one as maybe a responsibility of yours to help the team get that confidence back?"
A: "Yeah, and right now I'm being a fraud. I'm still having mistakes myself, and then it's getting challenging, trying to keep guys up when things like this keep happening. So, I've just got to get back to being who I am and be a better leader."Â
Q: "What Is there that needs to change moving forward after this rough three game stretch?"
A: "Effort and focus, and attention to detail. Early on in the game, we had miscommunications with myself and the corner. Let's be in and out with something, and then what happened? You know what I'm saying? Just leaving people open, making the wrong calls getting the D-line lined up and stuff like that, and they hit a big run there and scored early on there too. So just having more focus throughout the game, and just giving effort no matter what's going on. Just going 100 miles per hour."Â
Kadin Semonza
Q: "Mike talked a lot about how the confidence of this team. He feels like it's down. Do you feel that way as well?"
A: "What you're going to hear from me is I'm going to stand by my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and at the end of the day, he makes no mistakes. No matter how hard or how difficult the times may be, I truly believe he's got a plan for us. No matter how hard it is, I've got to keep leading and keep pushing these guys to keep their confidence up so that we can go achieve what we're supposed to achieve."
Q: "Keionte and Mike both blatantly took responsibility for not only this loss, but just the start to the season. Do you feel like part of your job as quarterback is taking some of the responsibility as well?"
A: "Of course, it goes without saying. I've got to play better. It is what it is. It's tough. Nobody wants to be where we're at now, but like I said, we're going to keep pushing, and I'm going to make sure we do everything we can to get to where we're supposed to get to."
Q: "What was it about the James Madison defense today that gave you guys trouble on offense?"
A: "They're very good all around. I mean, they've got a great scheme, but at the end of the day, I think it comes down to we didn't do enough on offense. We didn't execute what we were supposed to execute. I got a couple unlucky breaks early in the game, and that really set us behind, and that sucked at the end of the day. That was a great football team, yes, but you know that more falls on us."