Ball State Football Postgame News Conference Quotes, September 13: Game 3 versus New Hampshire
Coach Uremovich
Opening Statement: "I'm happy we got the win. Obviously, it's hard to win in college football. I'm excited for our kids. I'm excited for our coaches, and excited for Ball State to get a win at home and be undefeated at home. We take a lot of pride in playing well at home. It didn't look like that in the first half with some of the mistakes we made, but the guys fought. They played hard. That's a good football team we just played. That's a team that's played in the national playoffs, That was 2-0 and beat a good Holy Cross team. They were going to hang around the whole day, and I'm very impressed with them and their staff.
Q: "You talked about the early mistakes and how the team was able to bounce back. What does that say about where you guys are at right now?"
A: "I know [the team] is going to play hard the whole game. We fell behind again to start the game, and sometimes people can't respond from that, you know. We went back down the field and scored, and I was happy with the way they maintained their composure. At the end of the first quarter, we talked as a group about just taking a deep breath. Just play football. You can't make up for the previous play, and you can't do anything about something in the fourth quarter. We're still learning. We still have a lot of young guys out there who have not played a lot of football. And our [Kiael Kelly] played a really good game. And, you've got to remember, he hasn't played quarterback in a long time, either, so there's still things he's going to continue to improve on. Qua had a really good game, obviously, up front and it did a nice job for him."
Q: "What do you contribute the success in the run game to?"
A: "Guys finished their blocks today. Our [defensive backs] made some people miss, and I thought our offensive staff put together a good plan for how to attack [New Hampshire]. We had some big runs in the course of the game, which is nice to see. The first two weeks, I kept telling everybody that I thought we were running the ball okay, and we were at times, but obviously we put together some big runs today."
Q: "What was your message to the team at halftime to be able to clean up the turnovers?"
A: "We can't turn the ball over. Football games are decided by touchdowns and turnovers, but our defense was be able to force those field goal attempts, and they missed two of them. I don't care how many field goals we give up on defense, we can give up 10 of them. We'll always outscore that. It's stopping them in the red zone, and today in the red zone, we did a good job of finishing our drives."
Q: "It seemed like special teams had a couple of errors. What do you make of that?"
A: "They had more than a couple. They had several. It sas poor special teams play, and it was multiple groups. Obviously, we had a punt blocked to start the game. We had a punt return fumbled. We had a personal foul that was dumb on a kickoff at the end of the half that gave them an opportunity to get a field goal up. We'll fix those tomorrow."
Q: "What was it like to get the first win?"
A: "I'm excited for the players. We talked earlier this week, actually, about how these guys have a finite window of time to play college football, and it's hard to win, and every time they can win, I'm excited for them, because of how much they put into it. As far as me and the coaches, they're going to have to drag me off the field. I'll probably die in the field. I'll never retire. Not that it's not a big deal for us to get a win, because I'm excited about it, but it's all for the players, and watching them get excited in the locker room because they put so much into it. For them to be able to experience the product of that hard work is fun for me to watch. That's my reward as a coach."
Jack Beebe
Q: "How does it feel to get the first win of the season?"
A: "It feels great, honestly. It's been a long time coming, but it's really awesome. To have it come at home and in front of the home crowd is pretty cool."
Q: "What was the defense's motivation?"
A: "Just to play as best as we can. We're trying to dominate on every single down."
Q: "What's the feeling like when the defense was able to come up big and stop New Hampshire to secure the win?"
A: "It's awesome to get that stop on a two-minute drill. We knew they had to score a touchdown. We could have let them in field goal range, but we didn't really have to, because we were breaking up passes and getting the ball down."
Q: "What do you think of the early defensive struggles, and how do you focus on preventing those going forward?"
A: "Just correct the mistakes and improve on what we can control. We'll get back to the fundamentals tomorrow and look at the film and see what we can do better."
Qua Ashley
Q: "What were the emotions like playing in your first game at Scheumann Stadium?"
A: "Â It's pretty nice. It was fun to go out there with my brothers and get a win in my first game here, of course."
Q: "What was working for you today?"
A: "The offensive line did their job, and I just had to make a person miss and do what I do. Shoutout to the O-line."
Q: "What was it like to be the star of the show in your first home game?"
A: "I'm not going to say I was the star of the show, but like I said, it was pretty fun. We rallied together as a team and got a team win."
Q: "There were struggles on the ground the first two games. What confidence do you have now after today?"
A: "It shows us that we can do it. Everyday we go to work and put in the practice. We fix the small things and see what the outcome will be. I feel like, now that we know what outcome will be, we'll do it every week right here on out."
Coach Uremovich
Opening Statement: "I'm happy we got the win. Obviously, it's hard to win in college football. I'm excited for our kids. I'm excited for our coaches, and excited for Ball State to get a win at home and be undefeated at home. We take a lot of pride in playing well at home. It didn't look like that in the first half with some of the mistakes we made, but the guys fought. They played hard. That's a good football team we just played. That's a team that's played in the national playoffs, That was 2-0 and beat a good Holy Cross team. They were going to hang around the whole day, and I'm very impressed with them and their staff.
Q: "You talked about the early mistakes and how the team was able to bounce back. What does that say about where you guys are at right now?"
A: "I know [the team] is going to play hard the whole game. We fell behind again to start the game, and sometimes people can't respond from that, you know. We went back down the field and scored, and I was happy with the way they maintained their composure. At the end of the first quarter, we talked as a group about just taking a deep breath. Just play football. You can't make up for the previous play, and you can't do anything about something in the fourth quarter. We're still learning. We still have a lot of young guys out there who have not played a lot of football. And our [Kiael Kelly] played a really good game. And, you've got to remember, he hasn't played quarterback in a long time, either, so there's still things he's going to continue to improve on. Qua had a really good game, obviously, up front and it did a nice job for him."
Q: "What do you contribute the success in the run game to?"
A: "Guys finished their blocks today. Our [defensive backs] made some people miss, and I thought our offensive staff put together a good plan for how to attack [New Hampshire]. We had some big runs in the course of the game, which is nice to see. The first two weeks, I kept telling everybody that I thought we were running the ball okay, and we were at times, but obviously we put together some big runs today."
Q: "What was your message to the team at halftime to be able to clean up the turnovers?"
A: "We can't turn the ball over. Football games are decided by touchdowns and turnovers, but our defense was be able to force those field goal attempts, and they missed two of them. I don't care how many field goals we give up on defense, we can give up 10 of them. We'll always outscore that. It's stopping them in the red zone, and today in the red zone, we did a good job of finishing our drives."
Q: "It seemed like special teams had a couple of errors. What do you make of that?"
A: "They had more than a couple. They had several. It sas poor special teams play, and it was multiple groups. Obviously, we had a punt blocked to start the game. We had a punt return fumbled. We had a personal foul that was dumb on a kickoff at the end of the half that gave them an opportunity to get a field goal up. We'll fix those tomorrow."
Q: "What was it like to get the first win?"
A: "I'm excited for the players. We talked earlier this week, actually, about how these guys have a finite window of time to play college football, and it's hard to win, and every time they can win, I'm excited for them, because of how much they put into it. As far as me and the coaches, they're going to have to drag me off the field. I'll probably die in the field. I'll never retire. Not that it's not a big deal for us to get a win, because I'm excited about it, but it's all for the players, and watching them get excited in the locker room because they put so much into it. For them to be able to experience the product of that hard work is fun for me to watch. That's my reward as a coach."
Jack Beebe
Q: "How does it feel to get the first win of the season?"
A: "It feels great, honestly. It's been a long time coming, but it's really awesome. To have it come at home and in front of the home crowd is pretty cool."
Q: "What was the defense's motivation?"
A: "Just to play as best as we can. We're trying to dominate on every single down."
Q: "What's the feeling like when the defense was able to come up big and stop New Hampshire to secure the win?"
A: "It's awesome to get that stop on a two-minute drill. We knew they had to score a touchdown. We could have let them in field goal range, but we didn't really have to, because we were breaking up passes and getting the ball down."
Q: "What do you think of the early defensive struggles, and how do you focus on preventing those going forward?"
A: "Just correct the mistakes and improve on what we can control. We'll get back to the fundamentals tomorrow and look at the film and see what we can do better."
Qua Ashley
Q: "What were the emotions like playing in your first game at Scheumann Stadium?"
A: "Â It's pretty nice. It was fun to go out there with my brothers and get a win in my first game here, of course."
Q: "What was working for you today?"
A: "The offensive line did their job, and I just had to make a person miss and do what I do. Shoutout to the O-line."
Q: "What was it like to be the star of the show in your first home game?"
A: "I'm not going to say I was the star of the show, but like I said, it was pretty fun. We rallied together as a team and got a team win."
Q: "There were struggles on the ground the first two games. What confidence do you have now after today?"
A: "It shows us that we can do it. Everyday we go to work and put in the practice. We fix the small things and see what the outcome will be. I feel like, now that we know what outcome will be, we'll do it every week right here on out."