Q: Where do you think the team is heading into conference play?
A: Not where we need to be, but I think a team that has certainly grown in different entities each week. Still a team that, in my opinion, has got so much ability and some things that were focal points for us today, and then we grew in some areas that were really a different focal point. This is college football, and I think our ability to grow from week three to week four will be really important. But a team that I appreciated their urgency and the way we played, and the sense of physicality, our details, and those penalties, or our disagreements coming in football.
Q: Coach, Brock Riker played the first two series, and then you made a change in center. What was the reason behind that? And then with Rapp, same. Just give us an update.
A: Both those guys, just kind of dinged up. We really didn't know exactly where we'd be with Brock going into the game. You know, we wanted to at least kind of get him out there. It still didn't feel like he was at 100%. I just didn't feel like it was the right situation to leave him in the game. Plus, I think the other thing is, you know, Vaea has done a really good job, and especially at that center spot, can he go in and execute? I thought he was one of the highlights of today. I thought he played outstanding, and we know you've got two guys that can go in there and play is huge. But obviously, Brock is really, really special to this team, and just more of a precautionary. Really, same thing with Rapp. Rapp could have went back into the football game, and you know, by the by the time where Rap got dinged up, just didn't feel like that was the right situation for the betterment of the football team.
Q: Matt, how would you assess the running game, the running backs, and did any of the four running backs stand out to you today?
A: I think they all kind of had a couple great moments. You know, it was great to see Quinton really had a great moment. I think if you ask Q, Q would tell you maybe one of his best weeks of practice, and I think he took that into the ability to execute at a really high rate on the football field. I think that that would be my beginning piece of it. All four guys really did some great things with the ball in their hand in some critical moments. I thought there was growth, but I also thought there was growth because there was some really good blocking on the perimeter. I think the ability to get the ball out in space and those guys to be able to make some plays happen in space was really awesome, and I thought all those guys did some great things.
Q: Your pass defense through three games, I think you knew the corners and safeties were going to be a team strength, but just the way you can limit teams with a passing game. I think they were one for 15 on third down. The Morrow kid who had gone off the first two games, I think his second catch didn't come till the very end of the game. Just the corner room and the safeties, and what you could kind of do for your defense and your team with that?
A: I still would tell you, I think it starts with defending the run. I think that group is really talented, and they played a lot of football. You know, I think when you talk about Zion playing a lot of football, AC playing a lot of football, Jeremiah Cooper playing a lot of football, Jamo playing a lot of football, Marcus Neal playing a lot of football. Those guys have played a ton, and they have some really talented young guys behind them. It gives you some great rotation. It gives you the ability to rotate fresh bodies in and not expect those guys to play like that for 60 snaps in a game. Still, go back to if you're going to play great pass defense, you got to be able to play great run defense. I feel like that's been probably one of the strengths of how we were better today on first down and second down. I didn't think we were great last week against Temple, and I thought we made a great improvement there, and got ourselves into some passing situations. You got to help those guys out with some pressure.
Q: You guys had some drops today on both sides of the ball and you've been catching the ball anything fairly well up to now.
A: I think so. I'm going to have to go back and look at some of those drops. We dropped a snap, which wasn't very good. The quarterback better start working on it too. I would just say I think we, from offensive standpoint, I thought Koby went up, and I don't know if anybody gets balls as good as that guy. I think Chase's growth has been exceptional. We've made a couple of great plays down the stretch, and then defensively, he had his hands on a ball, had a chance for a great finish. Luke had a chance for a great finish. So obviously, areas that we can all grow. I do think we've caught the ball with a lot of consistency, at least through the early portion of the season.
Q: Coach, I wanted to ask you about a couple of the underrated areas. A few more penalties than in the last couple weeks, but you've been keeping the turnovers to a bare minimum, and then also field positions. Zay Robinson had a really nice day in the return game. How encouraged are you about some of the things you're accomplishing in those areas and in the Big Ten schedule?
A: I think the penalties are really disappointing. Those are things where it's a fundamental technique at the point of attack, and really all of those were, other than one selfish penalty at the end of the football game, which can't happen. When you're talking or playing the way, physically, we want to play, you got to be a lead in the finish, and we weren't that today. Those are things that we're going to have to demand down the road on some of those other areas of complementary football. When you're talking about winning field position, being great special teams, having the ability to just get a first down on a punt return, those things are awesome, and we've been able to do that in the first three games. Can you do that as we continue to go forward? It'll be really interesting to watch as groups grow forward. I think we've got really good players because our belief in special teams and about doing that. And then ball security in the turnover matchup. I think we're now at plus five on the season, which is you know trending to where we need to be. When we talk about how you win football games, it all starts with the ball, and if you can just do that and walk away from a game and win the turnover battle, you've got a chance to be in a really great position to win football games. We're doing some really good things, but as you would want, and I think as we all want, there's got to be a pathway forward, and you see a bigger vision of where this team needs to go, and we have to go forward.
Q: Koby's averaging about 25 yards per catch this season. Now that it's all in film, Big Ten defensive coordinators got to digest that a bit. What does that do to the dynamics of how the team has prepared for you and for him?
A: I think the more guys that you can have that are threatening defensively with the ball, always the better to be, especially if you have a guy that can be shooting the football to those guys in the right moments, the right situations. Koby, I know I've talked about this a lot. None of it surprises me because of how I watch him work. I still tell you, even today, he’ll be the first guy tomorrow morning in the facility and probably beat three fourths of the coaching staff. He's catching the jugs and he's that kind of football player that has this conviction to be great. We talk about this all the time. There's a difference between good intentions and intentionality. Good intentions need to be lead intentionality in your process, and Koby's a guy that lives that. There's some guys that saw his success, and they're joining in now in the mornings. I think that's what great players do. Great players bring others with them, and that's why Koby got a lot of credit. I do think you certainly have to recognize where he's at.
Q: During halftime, you guys honor the 40-year anniversary of the 1986 team. Just want to know how special it is for you to be able to honor a national title team in your first year?
A: It was really rewarding after I got done talking to our team last night. Before I did bed check, I got a chance to at least go over and kind of thank that group. The early parts of me being here, to have these players, these teams that all talk about the things we're talking about. We're talking about how do you be great when it matters the most. What does that look like? And you know that '86 team. It was probably gut wrenchingly hard in '85, right? And you go and you play that game and you lose in the national championship, but you come back and you hear the John Shaffer story and how he had to come back, and it wasn't just handed to him. You watch what that team did through the entirety of the season. Ironically, their second game was at Boston College, and it wasn't really dynamic, but boy, they came back after that, and what they did from that point on in the season, how they won, I think just gives you a great pathway. Instead of making it up, you can show real life facts, and you got these great teams and players that have demanded and can speak that into existence in your own team. How grateful am I? You just pinch yourself sometimes that you get an opportunity to represent that kind of tradition, that kind of history. I appreciate the question.