Ball State Football Weekly News Conference Quotes, October 20: Game 8 at Northern Illinois
Coach Uremovich
Opening Statement: "Excited to go on the road. We are trying to play better on the road than we have to this point. Northern [Illinois] is not having the season that they wanted, but they're one of the most talented teams in the [Mid-American Conference]. Defensively, they might be the best in the conference. Their defensive line's really big and long. The defensive ends are both good players. Their linebackers can run. They're physical, tough and fast. They're really well coached on defense. The defense coordinator does a good job of mixing things up. Offensively, they've started two different quarterbacks. The kid that started last week had his best game. They scored the most points they've scored to this point in the year. Northern always has good running backs, and they have got three of them. One of their receivers has 24 catches on the year. The offensive line averages over 300 pounds across the board. It'll be a big matchup for us. It's a tough place to win a game at.
Q: "This could be the last time we see this battle for [The Bronze Stalk Trophy] for a while. How much does that add to the game?"
A: "Every game is important, and every conference game is important. When you're playing for a trophy, that gets attention, and it's something the guys know about, obviously. It's not something we're going to run and hide from, but how we're getting ready for the game should be the exact same every week."
Q: "How do you keep the guys locked in, knowing that you've had those struggles on the road this year?"
A: "It's just part of growing up as a team and being mature to handle different changes in environments. We need to do that this week. We need to have a good week of practice, and then go out and play well on Saturday. It sounds easy when you say it, but it's not, and that's a tough place to play. I know that it's going to be, it doesn't matter what the weather says. It's going to be windy there, and it's going to start going one way in the first half and go the other way in the second half. The wind is always a factor in football games there. I've coached a lot of them there."
Q: "What do you think the offense needs to focus on this week?"
A: "We have to be assignment sound, because they play a lot of fronts. Like I said, they have got a good defense, but the defensive ends are really talented, so they take away some things in the run game. We haven't gotten that far in the third down, but some of the third down stuff that I've watched, it's different every week. So there's going to be one or two pressures that we have not practiced yet. We've got to know our rules. We've got to be assignment sound, and we've got to block."
Q: "What do you want to see from the defense?"
A: "We've got to stop the pressure in the run game, and we've got to stop the run. I know it sounds like we say that every week, but they do have explosive tailbacks. They run really hard, and they break a lot of tackles. If you block it right, and the ball's on your safety, we have to get the ball down, because they make people miss. Even over the last couple years, when you look at them, they've had a lot of explosive plays. A lot of explosive plays in the run game. Because everybody's packing down in there to stop the run, they get one on one with those receivers, and they can go up and get the ball. We've got to do a good enough job against the run so we don't have to put a ton of people in there so we can get some help and coverage."
Darin Conley
Q: "How important is it for the defense to have consistency?"
A: "It's really important. It starts in practice. We got after it, after that bad taste in our mouths against Western [Michigan], so we attacked the film. Coach Siwicki definitely got on us to attack the game plan and know what [Akron] was going to do. We felt like we had a good match up against their offensive line."
Q: "What does this rivalry game mean to you?"
A: "To me personally, it means a lot, because this is going to be the last time we play NIU for a long time. The history with this trophy, what it means, we want to have this trophy. We don't know if we will play them in a decade, so it's important to have this in the building for as long as possible. I know we're going to go in as a team and use that as motivation to keep that trophy here in Muncie."
Q: "How much motivation is there to keep your winning streak versus Northern Illinois going?"
A: "There's a lot. NIU's having a little bit of a struggle, so they're going to be hungry for this win against us. This rivalry is very important. We beat them in a close game last year for our homecoming, so they are going to have a bit of a chip on their shoulder. We're going to have to come out fast."
Q: "Was it different watching film yesterday versus after the game at Western Michigan?"
A: "Whether it's a win or a loss, we're going to look at the film objectively. We're going to pull the good things from it, and we're going to pull the bad things from it. I feel like the difference is we don't ever want to have that taste in our mouths, and we learned from that film, just like we learned from the film against Akron. Coach Uremovich and the staff does a great job of keeping everything consistent throughout the week, so every team meeting you expect the same thing.Â
Q: "What do you see in Northern Illinois' offense?"
A: "I see a hard-nosed team, and I feel like we're going to have to play physical. It's going to be a four-quarter, physical game from start to finish. They have a big offensive line and big running backs. We're going to have to come out with energy. We can't come on slow. We're going to have to come out gang tackling on defense, and then stop the run. Once we can do that, we can start getting at [Nathan Voorhis] and [Drew Hughes] and get after their quarterback."
Qua Ashley
Q: "What made the difference against Akron compared to Western Michigan to get the ground game going?"
A: "I feel like versus Western, we were flat. Against Akron, like [Darin Conley] said, we had a lot of energy. Everybody was excited to bounce back from that bad taste. Everybody was doing their job."
Q: "How do you keep that energy going?"
A: "Just attacking practice and film, the same as we did last week, as well as making sure everybody is doing their job."
Q: "What's something you took away from Saturday's game that you can improve on?"
A: "I always look to see what I did that wasn't my best, such as blocking. A couple of times I got beat on the pass block or on the receiver runs. I led up on my block and my dude made a tackle. I can go into practice this week and become a better blocker."
Q: "What do you think the team needs to do to flip around the performance on the road?"
A: "Energy. Just attacking practice and film. It's going to be a big game and we're going to have a different mentality this week. If we have good energy, then we can come out victorious."
Coach Uremovich
Opening Statement: "Excited to go on the road. We are trying to play better on the road than we have to this point. Northern [Illinois] is not having the season that they wanted, but they're one of the most talented teams in the [Mid-American Conference]. Defensively, they might be the best in the conference. Their defensive line's really big and long. The defensive ends are both good players. Their linebackers can run. They're physical, tough and fast. They're really well coached on defense. The defense coordinator does a good job of mixing things up. Offensively, they've started two different quarterbacks. The kid that started last week had his best game. They scored the most points they've scored to this point in the year. Northern always has good running backs, and they have got three of them. One of their receivers has 24 catches on the year. The offensive line averages over 300 pounds across the board. It'll be a big matchup for us. It's a tough place to win a game at.
Q: "This could be the last time we see this battle for [The Bronze Stalk Trophy] for a while. How much does that add to the game?"
A: "Every game is important, and every conference game is important. When you're playing for a trophy, that gets attention, and it's something the guys know about, obviously. It's not something we're going to run and hide from, but how we're getting ready for the game should be the exact same every week."
Q: "How do you keep the guys locked in, knowing that you've had those struggles on the road this year?"
A: "It's just part of growing up as a team and being mature to handle different changes in environments. We need to do that this week. We need to have a good week of practice, and then go out and play well on Saturday. It sounds easy when you say it, but it's not, and that's a tough place to play. I know that it's going to be, it doesn't matter what the weather says. It's going to be windy there, and it's going to start going one way in the first half and go the other way in the second half. The wind is always a factor in football games there. I've coached a lot of them there."
Q: "What do you think the offense needs to focus on this week?"
A: "We have to be assignment sound, because they play a lot of fronts. Like I said, they have got a good defense, but the defensive ends are really talented, so they take away some things in the run game. We haven't gotten that far in the third down, but some of the third down stuff that I've watched, it's different every week. So there's going to be one or two pressures that we have not practiced yet. We've got to know our rules. We've got to be assignment sound, and we've got to block."
Q: "What do you want to see from the defense?"
A: "We've got to stop the pressure in the run game, and we've got to stop the run. I know it sounds like we say that every week, but they do have explosive tailbacks. They run really hard, and they break a lot of tackles. If you block it right, and the ball's on your safety, we have to get the ball down, because they make people miss. Even over the last couple years, when you look at them, they've had a lot of explosive plays. A lot of explosive plays in the run game. Because everybody's packing down in there to stop the run, they get one on one with those receivers, and they can go up and get the ball. We've got to do a good enough job against the run so we don't have to put a ton of people in there so we can get some help and coverage."
Darin Conley
Q: "How important is it for the defense to have consistency?"
A: "It's really important. It starts in practice. We got after it, after that bad taste in our mouths against Western [Michigan], so we attacked the film. Coach Siwicki definitely got on us to attack the game plan and know what [Akron] was going to do. We felt like we had a good match up against their offensive line."
Q: "What does this rivalry game mean to you?"
A: "To me personally, it means a lot, because this is going to be the last time we play NIU for a long time. The history with this trophy, what it means, we want to have this trophy. We don't know if we will play them in a decade, so it's important to have this in the building for as long as possible. I know we're going to go in as a team and use that as motivation to keep that trophy here in Muncie."
Q: "How much motivation is there to keep your winning streak versus Northern Illinois going?"
A: "There's a lot. NIU's having a little bit of a struggle, so they're going to be hungry for this win against us. This rivalry is very important. We beat them in a close game last year for our homecoming, so they are going to have a bit of a chip on their shoulder. We're going to have to come out fast."
Q: "Was it different watching film yesterday versus after the game at Western Michigan?"
A: "Whether it's a win or a loss, we're going to look at the film objectively. We're going to pull the good things from it, and we're going to pull the bad things from it. I feel like the difference is we don't ever want to have that taste in our mouths, and we learned from that film, just like we learned from the film against Akron. Coach Uremovich and the staff does a great job of keeping everything consistent throughout the week, so every team meeting you expect the same thing.Â
Q: "What do you see in Northern Illinois' offense?"
A: "I see a hard-nosed team, and I feel like we're going to have to play physical. It's going to be a four-quarter, physical game from start to finish. They have a big offensive line and big running backs. We're going to have to come out with energy. We can't come on slow. We're going to have to come out gang tackling on defense, and then stop the run. Once we can do that, we can start getting at [Nathan Voorhis] and [Drew Hughes] and get after their quarterback."
Qua Ashley
Q: "What made the difference against Akron compared to Western Michigan to get the ground game going?"
A: "I feel like versus Western, we were flat. Against Akron, like [Darin Conley] said, we had a lot of energy. Everybody was excited to bounce back from that bad taste. Everybody was doing their job."
Q: "How do you keep that energy going?"
A: "Just attacking practice and film, the same as we did last week, as well as making sure everybody is doing their job."
Q: "What's something you took away from Saturday's game that you can improve on?"
A: "I always look to see what I did that wasn't my best, such as blocking. A couple of times I got beat on the pass block or on the receiver runs. I led up on my block and my dude made a tackle. I can go into practice this week and become a better blocker."
Q: "What do you think the team needs to do to flip around the performance on the road?"
A: "Energy. Just attacking practice and film. It's going to be a big game and we're going to have a different mentality this week. If we have good energy, then we can come out victorious."