Ball State Football Weekly News Conference Quotes, November 10: Game 10 versus Eastern Michigan
Coach Uremovich
Opening Statement: "We're excited to finish our season at home on Saturday against a good Eastern [Michigan] team. They're a typical [Mid-American Conference] team. It's going to be a four-quarter-football game. They probably have the best quarterback in the MAC, who's leading the conference in passing yards. They got a good group of receivers with them, their defensive backs run really hard, and they're physical defensively. Their corners are going to challenge us and play press man coverage. They play a bunch of different fronts and blitzes, and their special teams are the best-coached units that we've gone against, in terms of being fundamentally and assignment sound and playing hard. They make a lot of plays on special teams, and they're really well coached in that area. So it'll be a good challenge for us. Our guys are excited. We got a little extra rest this week and had a couple good practices over the weekend."
Q: "You talked about having extra rest. What were you focusing on during those extra days?"
A: "We just got right back, and right into Eastern Michigan. We spent two days on first and second down, which you normally only get one day on. Then, the staffs upped their game plan at third down and redzone today, and we'll install that stuff tomorrow. We did sit some guys out that probably would have practiced had we had a game in a week, but since we had some extra time, they could get better and get healthy for the last three games."
Q: "What was the team able to takeaway from watching Eastern Michigan during that time off?"
A: "It's fun watching with the guys, because they know the game plan already, so they're pointing out things as the formations pop up on offense and defense, and it's just like watching film, just in real time. [Eastern Michigan] has played a lot of close games. I mean, they've had a lot of one score games. I think it's five one score games they've played this year. So, their record could be flipped the other way. So you just know, in MAC play, it's going to be a close football game that comes down to the end."
Q: "What's it like to go into the final home game in your first season?"
A: "Senior Day is an exciting day for the seniors. It's exciting for us as coaches too, for them to experience it. Their families will be out there before the game and all that. It's really not something that I've ever made a big deal about, because you're always going to remember your senior day if you win the football game. I talked to the seniors about it on Saturday and told them, this is the only time we're going to talk about it. I told them, after warm ups, when your families are out there, look around, enjoy it a little bit and understand that it is your last home game, but then when your families walk off the field and they go back in the locker room, we've got to go play football. There's a lot of time down the road when they're done playing to reminisce and think about all the great memories and times they've had here, but Saturday's not that day. We've got to go perform."
Q: "How do you want to prepare your players for these last three games?"
A: "Our preparation is going to be the exact same as any other week. We have a couple extra days, but it's always challenging with the seniors because they're human beings. As much as I tell them, It's every other game, there's a lot of emotion going into it. They've put a lot into it. Whether they've been here for a year and they're a transfer or they've been here for five years. This team's gone through a lot of adversity and a lot of things that happen throughout the course of football season. I want them to take a minute to enjoy it. I do, but then we've got to go play."
Q: "How have you seen this team grow throughout the season?"
A: "There's a lot of things that we've gotten better at that you might not notice just watching the game, whether it's a safety making a call that gets us into a better coverage, or a quarterback seeing something and getting us checked into a different play. There's a lot of errors that we've improved on, but really, honestly, we're just worried about this game right now. When the season's over, that's when we'll do our self-scout, that's when we'll look at everything we got to do better as coaches, schematically, where we got to fix needs on the roster, where we can develop guys. All of that is stuff that we'll do, and we'll spend all February doing that. But really right now, it's just about finding a way to play well on Saturday."
Nathan Voorhis
Q: "What are your emotions like going into your last home game?"
A: "Obviously, this last home game of my career, and I've been playing football since sixth grade. You've played over 100 games, and you think back on it all like, what got you here? You've got to shut that down, though, and just focus on the task ahead, watching all the film and going through like a normal week. The Senior Day ceremony might be a little bit more emotional, but you've got to go win a game."
Q: "What pushes you to finish out these last three games?"
A: "We just have a goal, and we've got to go reach it. You didn't come this far, just to come this far. We're playing meaningful games in November. That's what all we wanted. We still can go to a bowl game, we can still win the MAC. So, yeah, bodies hurt, but that's every season. That's every team, too. The team we're gonna play is gonna be banged up. There's injuries everywhere, so we've just got to keep going."
Q: "What did you see while watching the Eastern Michigan game on Saturday?"
A: "You just get the feel for how they operate in general. Like, we all sat here as a team and watched the game live, so you get to see their operation, their tempo. All the stuff like that."
Q: "What did you takeaway about Eastern's quarterback while watching the game?"
A: "He's dynamic. He can run. He does a great job of getting out of the pocket, extending plays. We know he has a great arm, so  everybody's on alert, but when he starts running, we've got to get him down."
Q: "What does closing in on the program sack record mean to you?"
A: "It means a lot. I want to obviously set records and accomplish a lot individually, but most importantly, I want to win games. I go into every game and people are like, "We need some sacks," or "We need this many sacks," but I want to win. That's really all that matters."
Kiael Kelly
Q: "Going into your final game after five season here, what are you emotions like going into the game Saturday?"
A: "I'm ready to play that final one in front of the home fans and just be able to to leave it all out there one more time. I've played a lot of games here, and since I've been here, we've never been undefeated at home, so that'll be a good accolade to walk off with, and it's  something that teams in the future can can build off of."
Q: "What really pushes you to get through these last three games?"
A: "I think just knowing that it's only three guaranteed games left. You've got at least three weeks, and then you can worry about how your body feels after that. Everybody's banged up, everybody's going through something, you know. You don't ever finish the year 100%, so you can't feel sorry for yourself. It's the biggest thing, because if you feel sorry for yourself, then you're just going to get ran over out there. You've just got to fight through it. The main thing is to keep going and to take everything one day at a time."
Q: "What were your takeaways from watching Eastern Michigan play on Saturday?"
A: "They have a good defense. They are very disciplined, and you can tell they know their scheme. We've just got to be assignment sound. If we take care of our 11 every play, we'll be good."
Q: "How have you seen the offense grow from week one to now?"
A: "We keep punching as an offense, no matter how it's going out there. We try to figure out the problem and just move forward from there. At times, in the beginning of the year, we would hit a low point and just stay in that low point. Now, we're just finding ways to come out of those and be able to help our defense out."
Q: "A lot of these MAC wins have come down to the fourth quarter. How do you keep the team poised to be ready in those moments?"
A: "The biggest thing is just not panicking. It's easy to panic when you expect to win and then that doesn't happen. The biggest thing is just understanding that we're good and to go out there and execute and score a touchdown. Play one play at a time and execute your job."
Coach Uremovich
Opening Statement: "We're excited to finish our season at home on Saturday against a good Eastern [Michigan] team. They're a typical [Mid-American Conference] team. It's going to be a four-quarter-football game. They probably have the best quarterback in the MAC, who's leading the conference in passing yards. They got a good group of receivers with them, their defensive backs run really hard, and they're physical defensively. Their corners are going to challenge us and play press man coverage. They play a bunch of different fronts and blitzes, and their special teams are the best-coached units that we've gone against, in terms of being fundamentally and assignment sound and playing hard. They make a lot of plays on special teams, and they're really well coached in that area. So it'll be a good challenge for us. Our guys are excited. We got a little extra rest this week and had a couple good practices over the weekend."
Q: "You talked about having extra rest. What were you focusing on during those extra days?"
A: "We just got right back, and right into Eastern Michigan. We spent two days on first and second down, which you normally only get one day on. Then, the staffs upped their game plan at third down and redzone today, and we'll install that stuff tomorrow. We did sit some guys out that probably would have practiced had we had a game in a week, but since we had some extra time, they could get better and get healthy for the last three games."
Q: "What was the team able to takeaway from watching Eastern Michigan during that time off?"
A: "It's fun watching with the guys, because they know the game plan already, so they're pointing out things as the formations pop up on offense and defense, and it's just like watching film, just in real time. [Eastern Michigan] has played a lot of close games. I mean, they've had a lot of one score games. I think it's five one score games they've played this year. So, their record could be flipped the other way. So you just know, in MAC play, it's going to be a close football game that comes down to the end."
Q: "What's it like to go into the final home game in your first season?"
A: "Senior Day is an exciting day for the seniors. It's exciting for us as coaches too, for them to experience it. Their families will be out there before the game and all that. It's really not something that I've ever made a big deal about, because you're always going to remember your senior day if you win the football game. I talked to the seniors about it on Saturday and told them, this is the only time we're going to talk about it. I told them, after warm ups, when your families are out there, look around, enjoy it a little bit and understand that it is your last home game, but then when your families walk off the field and they go back in the locker room, we've got to go play football. There's a lot of time down the road when they're done playing to reminisce and think about all the great memories and times they've had here, but Saturday's not that day. We've got to go perform."
Q: "How do you want to prepare your players for these last three games?"
A: "Our preparation is going to be the exact same as any other week. We have a couple extra days, but it's always challenging with the seniors because they're human beings. As much as I tell them, It's every other game, there's a lot of emotion going into it. They've put a lot into it. Whether they've been here for a year and they're a transfer or they've been here for five years. This team's gone through a lot of adversity and a lot of things that happen throughout the course of football season. I want them to take a minute to enjoy it. I do, but then we've got to go play."
Q: "How have you seen this team grow throughout the season?"
A: "There's a lot of things that we've gotten better at that you might not notice just watching the game, whether it's a safety making a call that gets us into a better coverage, or a quarterback seeing something and getting us checked into a different play. There's a lot of errors that we've improved on, but really, honestly, we're just worried about this game right now. When the season's over, that's when we'll do our self-scout, that's when we'll look at everything we got to do better as coaches, schematically, where we got to fix needs on the roster, where we can develop guys. All of that is stuff that we'll do, and we'll spend all February doing that. But really right now, it's just about finding a way to play well on Saturday."
Nathan Voorhis
Q: "What are your emotions like going into your last home game?"
A: "Obviously, this last home game of my career, and I've been playing football since sixth grade. You've played over 100 games, and you think back on it all like, what got you here? You've got to shut that down, though, and just focus on the task ahead, watching all the film and going through like a normal week. The Senior Day ceremony might be a little bit more emotional, but you've got to go win a game."
Q: "What pushes you to finish out these last three games?"
A: "We just have a goal, and we've got to go reach it. You didn't come this far, just to come this far. We're playing meaningful games in November. That's what all we wanted. We still can go to a bowl game, we can still win the MAC. So, yeah, bodies hurt, but that's every season. That's every team, too. The team we're gonna play is gonna be banged up. There's injuries everywhere, so we've just got to keep going."
Q: "What did you see while watching the Eastern Michigan game on Saturday?"
A: "You just get the feel for how they operate in general. Like, we all sat here as a team and watched the game live, so you get to see their operation, their tempo. All the stuff like that."
Q: "What did you takeaway about Eastern's quarterback while watching the game?"
A: "He's dynamic. He can run. He does a great job of getting out of the pocket, extending plays. We know he has a great arm, so  everybody's on alert, but when he starts running, we've got to get him down."
Q: "What does closing in on the program sack record mean to you?"
A: "It means a lot. I want to obviously set records and accomplish a lot individually, but most importantly, I want to win games. I go into every game and people are like, "We need some sacks," or "We need this many sacks," but I want to win. That's really all that matters."
Kiael Kelly
Q: "Going into your final game after five season here, what are you emotions like going into the game Saturday?"
A: "I'm ready to play that final one in front of the home fans and just be able to to leave it all out there one more time. I've played a lot of games here, and since I've been here, we've never been undefeated at home, so that'll be a good accolade to walk off with, and it's  something that teams in the future can can build off of."
Q: "What really pushes you to get through these last three games?"
A: "I think just knowing that it's only three guaranteed games left. You've got at least three weeks, and then you can worry about how your body feels after that. Everybody's banged up, everybody's going through something, you know. You don't ever finish the year 100%, so you can't feel sorry for yourself. It's the biggest thing, because if you feel sorry for yourself, then you're just going to get ran over out there. You've just got to fight through it. The main thing is to keep going and to take everything one day at a time."
Q: "What were your takeaways from watching Eastern Michigan play on Saturday?"
A: "They have a good defense. They are very disciplined, and you can tell they know their scheme. We've just got to be assignment sound. If we take care of our 11 every play, we'll be good."
Q: "How have you seen the offense grow from week one to now?"
A: "We keep punching as an offense, no matter how it's going out there. We try to figure out the problem and just move forward from there. At times, in the beginning of the year, we would hit a low point and just stay in that low point. Now, we're just finding ways to come out of those and be able to help our defense out."
Q: "A lot of these MAC wins have come down to the fourth quarter. How do you keep the team poised to be ready in those moments?"
A: "The biggest thing is just not panicking. It's easy to panic when you expect to win and then that doesn't happen. The biggest thing is just understanding that we're good and to go out there and execute and score a touchdown. Play one play at a time and execute your job."