Head Coach Doug Marrone Press Conference Transcript (Sept. 13, 2010)
“Obviously we’re disappointed going out to the West Coast and losing a game to Washington. It starts with me. During the course of the game we did a nice job coming out early, taking advantage of that first drive and scoring a touchdown. They had man coverage and (quarterback) Ryan (Nassib) goes ahead with no one open, breaks it, goes down and scores. We had an opportunity to go ahead by 14 points. We had a good play going where we had a will free safety blitz and we wound up jumping offsides. We had too many penalties during the course of the game. We came back, the first play of the game we ran a strong side play, a toss play, they had everyone into the boundary, and they did a good job defending it the first play of the game. In the red zone I wanted to come back and run the reverse off it with misdirection, they had nine guys on the other side of the hash and the weak side will linebacker didn’t play it the way he did the first play of the game and wound up making a play for a seven yard loss. We had to go for the field goal which made it 10-0 and I think it was very important that we were trying to get up 14-0 at that point in the game.
“After that special teams did a nice job, except for the dropped kickoff return where we fumbled. Again, that is something that needs to be addressed. We’re putting the ball on the ground too much offensively and that is the quickest way to lose a game. They were able to turn that into points. It should have been 10-6 on the last drive. It was my error going down there. In the report, I was playing the percentages, they are a zero pressure team down in the red zone. We had seven seconds left, they played coverage and that is my fault putting the players in a poor situation. We had a chance to tie the game. I was hoping if everything played out that way it would have been 17-3 or 17-6 at that time.
“The second half, the first play for them, they scored. Now it is all of a sudden it’s a 20-10 game. Defensively we had some missed tackles. They did a nice job. Ttheir playmakers made plays and spread us out where we had to make a tackle for a short gain. Those tackles were missed. In turn they had approximately 120-something yards after missed tackles and that was a problem for us in the game.
“Give credit to Washington, the players they were relying on to make plays did, we didn’t and that is why we’re sitting here at 1-1 today rather than 2-0. There is a lot to learn from those games, individually we all can. I don’t think you don’t learn anything from a loss. I don’t believe in that philosophy. We can learn a lot about how to play better, how to be more detailed and learn how to take control of a game, go up and go ahead and win. The players did a nice job. They played hard all the way through, but that is expected of this football team.
“Moving on, we’re back and we’re getting ready for Maine. We understand that Maine is a football team that always gets better during the course of a year from game-to-game. They gave us all we could handle last year, early on in that game, I don’t think the score indicates what kind of game it was. We know we’ll get their best when they come in here. I have a lot of respect for Coach Cosgrove and that football team. I have a lot of experience going against them playing in the then-Yankee conference. They’re always big, they’re always tough, they’re always physical and then, after last year, we have to expect the unexpected anywhere on the field.”
On whether the team improved from week one to week two:
“We went over that and talked about individual players who has increased from week one to week two. You can see that in players on the field. I’m not going to point out which ones, but there was an increase in play. You look more toward the first start. I’ll give you one example, Zack Chibane came out the first game against Akron, his second start was against Washington and he made great strides. You can see that with a lot of the freshmen who came into play. With the upperclassmen it’s more attention to detail, using their hands well or being in position well. We’ve evaluated that as a staff and we’ve talked about it. We haven’t talked to the players yet, we’ll have our first meeting this afternoon with them.”
On the fumbled kickoff return:
“First, on the kickoff return it is something we can definitely correct. (Prince-Tyson Gulley) patted his feet and you don’t want to do that on kickoff return. A player had a 40-yard head start, came through and hit him at full speed causing the fumble. We want to have ball security and take the ball vertical but if you start patting your feet and cutting across the grain of where the return is going to go, then you’re susceptible to getting a full, 40-yard hit from someone.”
On whether Prince-Tyson Gulley will play Saturday after walking off the field gingerly at Washington:
“We feel very comfortable with everyone going into this game. The only player I know that is definitely out is Kevyn Scott.”
On preparing for Maine’s trick and gadget plays:
“It goes back to almost the first day. You have to make sure you’re sound in everything you’re doing. On special teams Coach Casullo and I have already talked and it will be addressed as far as making sure that we’re sound in everything we do. Maine is a good football team. I don’t know if they need to do that to stay in the game. They may feel that way. I know that we’re getting the best of what they have with a team that is improving from week-to-week.”
On whether he addresses the difference in level of opponents:
“I don’t address the difference in levels with the players. I’m more concentrated on our football team and what we do. I look at scheme and technique in whether what we’re doing will be able to defeat the best player we play against or the best team that we play against, that is how we evaluate ourselves. From a coaching perspective you do that because you never want a team that plays to the level of competition. We always want to exceed our expectations and have the players play at a higher level than what they’re being coached to do. Every week our focus is on the fact we’re playing the best team in the country. That is how I look at it.”
On whether he is considering any personnel changes:
“What we’re looking at is not necessarily replacing anything personnel-wise, but focusing on the development stage, knowing that we do lack depth. What we have to do is take the good young players we have who are starting on special teams and develop them to the point that they fit in our personnel groupings. What we’re preparing for is that as the season goes on and we lose players (to injury), we have players to step up and keep our plan in place. That is how we’re looking at it. You might see other people on the field, but that isn’t an indication of someone not playing well, it is more about preparing this team as we go along in the season to become better and increase the participation of the younger players. When I say younger players I don’t mean by age, just the people who haven’t played.”
On whether Prince-Tyson Gulley would be an example of a younger player:
“Yes, like a (Prince-)Tyson Gulley, (running back) Jerome Smith, we get a look at (wide receiver) Adrian Flemming this week. We have some young offensive lineman, with Macky MacPherson, what will his role be, if something happens do we want to move (Ryan Bartholomew) to guard or put Adam Rosner in or put Macky in. With Sean Hickey at the swing tackle, do we want to put (Ian Allport) or (Andrew) Phillips in, that is what I’m talking about with what we’re looking at. We’re just making sure those younger players are developing. Right now we have two backs and Gulley is probably the more progressed of the younger backs but in my mind it is very difficult to go through the schedule we have with just two running backs. If we do, that is great, and then we have people ready to go, but if we don’t, I don’t want to sit here four or five weeks from now and limit ourselves because we have a player who doesn’t have a lot of experience. We’re developing the team to get better each week and we’re developing the consistency to win.”
On (wide receiver) Adrian Flemming returning to practice:
“He is back, he is going to practice and we’ll see how he fits in. We’re still looking for Cody Morgan, Marcus Sales, and Dorian Graham, who did a very nice job on special teams, to see what their roles will be because you’re not going to get through a season with three wide receivers. We want those guys to step up and they’ll have an opportunity.”
On whether the team is sturdy enough to withstand the Washington loss:
“That is what we build a team for. Yes is the answer to that question.”
On how much the Washington loss shook the team:
“It hurt. Anytime you lose a game it hurts. If it doesn’t hurt, then you don’t have the right culture. It is like anything else in life, how you deal with adversity, how you deal with failure and how you come back from that. These are the things we’ve implemented in our program from the beginning. You’re damn right I’m worried if after we lose a game it doesn’t hurt, but it hurt, and it hurt everyone when you know you could have done things to win the game. Then there comes a point where you have to learn what has gone on, cut out what everyone around you is going to say, face it and focus on your next opponent knowing that you control what you do. That is an important message and one that has been delivered to our players. We expect them to come back, give us their best effort and get ready to win a game and go above .500.”
On whether the next two weeks will be a challenge with Maine and Colgate coming up:
“If we were a top team that had won consistently for a long period of time some people refer to these games as trap games. You take them for granted. We’re not even close to that stage. For us, with the direction we have as a football program, we’re playing the best team in the country this week. That is exactly how it is put to the players and exactly how we prepare for it. I’ve never looked at it any other way as a player or a coach.”
On how much of the offensive playbook he controls and how much (quarterbacks/passing game coach) Nathaniel Hackett controls:
“Again, we both have been brought up in the same system with the same beliefs and philosophy, it is all on the same page.”
On the 30th anniversary of the Carrier Dome opening:
“If you go back and research the history of it you’ll talk about a young (Coach MacPherson) coming from Cleveland at the time that when he saw the Carrier Dome he saw it as an opportunity in recruiting to really get players here and get the best players to have a successful program. It is really amazing how it came to being here on our campus and not at the state fairgrounds, that was more of a political aspect with the Chancellor and the governor of New York. You have to go back and research that. I love playing in the Carrier Dome, I’ve made no bones about it. The Dome is a tremendous advantage for our football team to play at home. If anything we’re welcoming the fact that we’re home now, starting off on the road the first two games is a challenge. We’re happy to come home. We’re happy to come back to our fans and our stadium. I love our fans. I guarantee you we’ll have a louder crowd in this game then we will any games on the road.”
On managing the players emotions entering the first home game:
“You don’t wait until it happens. We’ve created a structure and discipline in our programs from when the players first arrived. We don’t tend to put it into football games, but we put it more toward dealing with adversity in life. They have the tools to make sure they’re able to deal with these situations then they learn and move on. We need to make sure we put our best foot forward, our job is to go out and win and get over .500.”
