Ball State Football Weekly News Conference Quotes, September 1: Game 2 at Auburn
Coach Uremovich
Opening Statement: "Obviously, [the team] is disappointed at the result Saturday, but, you've got to look at it objectively as a coach, play by play, and see what we can improve and see things that went well. There's a lot of positives. [The offense] didn't turn the football over, which is something we emphasize a lot, and that's good in the first game of the year. I thought our front seven did a good job against the run, holding them to 100 yards rushing, and we out rushed them offensively. In the back end, we've got some things we need to clean up, and then the pass game wasn't as good as we wanted it to be, but we were forced to throw the ball a lot of times on [third down]. We've got to get ready for Auburn, which is another good challenge. They've got a big time quarterback who can throw and run it. He's a dual threat kid who's very talented, and defensively, [Auburn] runs very well. They're strong, they're physical, and their coordinator does a really good job."
Q: "After watching film, what have you noticed needs to be cleans up before Saturday?"
A: "Assignment wise, we had a couple missed ones on offense, which shouldn't happen. That's us beating ourselves. Same with the defense. A couple of [Purdue's] bigger runs were because we lost detainment. It wasn't anything they had done. It was poor technique, and we can fix those. Purdue didn't beat Ball State. Ball State beat Ball State because we weren't being fundamentally sound. You're going to lose in football. You're going to get beat physically. That's going to happen, but we can't lose leverage, we can't run the wrong route and we can't get off on the snap count. Those are things that we can fix, and we went through all of them, but those are things we can fix and we will fix."
Q: "What do you think went into the lapses of coverage on the defensive back end?"
A: "We got beat physically a couple of times, and then we had a couple safeties that had bad eyes and were coming for run support too soon, which put us one-on-one, and we don't want to be in that situation."
Q: "How do you feel the locker room was able to move on through the loss and get ready?"
A: "Whether we won the game or not, they need to move on too. You will hear me say this all year long, It's a one week season. It really is, and if we won, 31-0, I'm saying the same thing on Sunday. We've got to get ready for Auburn. So we have to get that mentality. I feel like they had it yesterday. The challenge is to have that mentality for 12 weeks, and that's something we've got to help them with as coaches, and that's something they have to do as players as well. It is a one week season. Every week's different."
Q: "How do you evaluate Kiael Kelly's performance in the first game?"
A: "I thought he played hard. I thought he made a lot of plays, and I'm sure if you asked him that, he'll tell you that there's a few things he wish he did better, but I hope he says that every game. There's always stuff we can get better at. There's a lot of emphasis on the quarterback, and there should be, but he can't throw it if the guys aren't open, and he can't get the ball out if he's not getting protected. The other side of it is, if they are protecting him, he's got to make the throws, but you saw what he can do at some of those plays. They were pretty dynamic. We've got to get better at things across the board."
Q: "With how much [Kiael] Kelly ran that game, do you worry about fatigue or injury?"
A: "I worry about injury with all of our guys, but with quarterbacks, that's what they do. With the quarterbacks that I've coached, it's just something I believe in, and it's really played out to be true over last 20 years. The quarterbacks, when they get injured, it tends to be when throwing ball because they're sitting back there and they're looking somewhere else and somebody else gets to them. When they're running the football, they're a running back so they're protecting themselves. Did I want him to scramble as much as he did? No, but that's part of what makes him a great player, too."
Ashton Whitner
Q: "The defense had notable improvement after that first quarter for the rest of the game. What were you able to takeaway and learn about this team?"
A: "After every drive we went to the sideline, made adjustments and we just fixed it from there on out."
Q: "What's it been like, adjusting to the Ball State culture?"
A: "It's been good. There were a lot of fans there Saturday, and so far, everything has been good."
Q: "Do you feel like the communication improved after the first couple of drives?"
A: "Definitely. Like I said, we made adjustments on the sideline and just came back and fixed it from there on out."
Q: "Auburn has a running quarterback. How does that change how you approach a defensive style playbook against the team?"
A: "We've just got to continue to keep our eyes right and have our D-line contain the quarterback. I think we will be good for Saturday."
Q: "To hold Purdue to under 100 rushing yards, how much confidence does that give you in the defense moving forward."
A: "We've prided ourselves all summer long and all spring on our tackling. I think that with this upcoming Auburn game, we'll just have to continue to stop the run, and with the pass game, just get our eyes right."
Qua Ashley
Q: "What was it like to experience your first game in a Ball State uniform?"
A: "It felt good to be playing football again.I was excited to play with my brothers for the first time. I felt pretty good. I'm excited about this upcoming season."
Q: "What was it like to get out there and put together some good plays?"
A: "I always pride myself on being the one to try to get the team going. I feel that when things went bad, I try to be one to try to make a play. The D-line did a good job, and we got pretty good yards out of it."
Q: "What are some things you'd like to see cleaned up before going to Auburn?"
A: "We've got to fix ourselves, like the small things that we can, like effort and assignments. When we fix that, we'll be pretty good for this week."Â
Q: "How did you feel about [Kiael Kelly's] communication with the offense in the Purdue game?"
A: "He's a vocal leader. I felt like he was pretty good in the game. He talked a lot when things were going back, trying to pick everyone up when we couldn't get things going. I feel like Kiael's a pretty vocal leader. Everybody is right behind him. I feel like going forward the rest of the season, he'll be good for us."Â
Coach Uremovich
Opening Statement: "Obviously, [the team] is disappointed at the result Saturday, but, you've got to look at it objectively as a coach, play by play, and see what we can improve and see things that went well. There's a lot of positives. [The offense] didn't turn the football over, which is something we emphasize a lot, and that's good in the first game of the year. I thought our front seven did a good job against the run, holding them to 100 yards rushing, and we out rushed them offensively. In the back end, we've got some things we need to clean up, and then the pass game wasn't as good as we wanted it to be, but we were forced to throw the ball a lot of times on [third down]. We've got to get ready for Auburn, which is another good challenge. They've got a big time quarterback who can throw and run it. He's a dual threat kid who's very talented, and defensively, [Auburn] runs very well. They're strong, they're physical, and their coordinator does a really good job."
Q: "After watching film, what have you noticed needs to be cleans up before Saturday?"
A: "Assignment wise, we had a couple missed ones on offense, which shouldn't happen. That's us beating ourselves. Same with the defense. A couple of [Purdue's] bigger runs were because we lost detainment. It wasn't anything they had done. It was poor technique, and we can fix those. Purdue didn't beat Ball State. Ball State beat Ball State because we weren't being fundamentally sound. You're going to lose in football. You're going to get beat physically. That's going to happen, but we can't lose leverage, we can't run the wrong route and we can't get off on the snap count. Those are things that we can fix, and we went through all of them, but those are things we can fix and we will fix."
Q: "What do you think went into the lapses of coverage on the defensive back end?"
A: "We got beat physically a couple of times, and then we had a couple safeties that had bad eyes and were coming for run support too soon, which put us one-on-one, and we don't want to be in that situation."
Q: "How do you feel the locker room was able to move on through the loss and get ready?"
A: "Whether we won the game or not, they need to move on too. You will hear me say this all year long, It's a one week season. It really is, and if we won, 31-0, I'm saying the same thing on Sunday. We've got to get ready for Auburn. So we have to get that mentality. I feel like they had it yesterday. The challenge is to have that mentality for 12 weeks, and that's something we've got to help them with as coaches, and that's something they have to do as players as well. It is a one week season. Every week's different."
Q: "How do you evaluate Kiael Kelly's performance in the first game?"
A: "I thought he played hard. I thought he made a lot of plays, and I'm sure if you asked him that, he'll tell you that there's a few things he wish he did better, but I hope he says that every game. There's always stuff we can get better at. There's a lot of emphasis on the quarterback, and there should be, but he can't throw it if the guys aren't open, and he can't get the ball out if he's not getting protected. The other side of it is, if they are protecting him, he's got to make the throws, but you saw what he can do at some of those plays. They were pretty dynamic. We've got to get better at things across the board."
Q: "With how much [Kiael] Kelly ran that game, do you worry about fatigue or injury?"
A: "I worry about injury with all of our guys, but with quarterbacks, that's what they do. With the quarterbacks that I've coached, it's just something I believe in, and it's really played out to be true over last 20 years. The quarterbacks, when they get injured, it tends to be when throwing ball because they're sitting back there and they're looking somewhere else and somebody else gets to them. When they're running the football, they're a running back so they're protecting themselves. Did I want him to scramble as much as he did? No, but that's part of what makes him a great player, too."
Ashton Whitner
Q: "The defense had notable improvement after that first quarter for the rest of the game. What were you able to takeaway and learn about this team?"
A: "After every drive we went to the sideline, made adjustments and we just fixed it from there on out."
Q: "What's it been like, adjusting to the Ball State culture?"
A: "It's been good. There were a lot of fans there Saturday, and so far, everything has been good."
Q: "Do you feel like the communication improved after the first couple of drives?"
A: "Definitely. Like I said, we made adjustments on the sideline and just came back and fixed it from there on out."
Q: "Auburn has a running quarterback. How does that change how you approach a defensive style playbook against the team?"
A: "We've just got to continue to keep our eyes right and have our D-line contain the quarterback. I think we will be good for Saturday."
Q: "To hold Purdue to under 100 rushing yards, how much confidence does that give you in the defense moving forward."
A: "We've prided ourselves all summer long and all spring on our tackling. I think that with this upcoming Auburn game, we'll just have to continue to stop the run, and with the pass game, just get our eyes right."
Qua Ashley
Q: "What was it like to experience your first game in a Ball State uniform?"
A: "It felt good to be playing football again.I was excited to play with my brothers for the first time. I felt pretty good. I'm excited about this upcoming season."
Q: "What was it like to get out there and put together some good plays?"
A: "I always pride myself on being the one to try to get the team going. I feel that when things went bad, I try to be one to try to make a play. The D-line did a good job, and we got pretty good yards out of it."
Q: "What are some things you'd like to see cleaned up before going to Auburn?"
A: "We've got to fix ourselves, like the small things that we can, like effort and assignments. When we fix that, we'll be pretty good for this week."Â
Q: "How did you feel about [Kiael Kelly's] communication with the offense in the Purdue game?"
A: "He's a vocal leader. I felt like he was pretty good in the game. He talked a lot when things were going back, trying to pick everyone up when we couldn't get things going. I feel like Kiael's a pretty vocal leader. Everybody is right behind him. I feel like going forward the rest of the season, he'll be good for us."Â