Murray State University Head Football Coach Matt Griffin addressed the media today at his weekly press conference. Griffin talked about the Tennessee State game, the upcoming game with Indiana State and potential future opponents.
MSU steps back out of conference play Saturday when the team travels to Terre Haute, Ind., for a match-up with Indiana State. Kickoff is scheduled for 11:05 a.m., CT.
The Racers first home game of the Matt Griffin era will be on Sept. 23 when the team faces Illinois State at 6 p.m., at Stewart Stadium.
ON HAVING A DIFFERENT OPPINION OF THE TENNESSEE STATE GAME AFTER A COUPLE OF DAYS: “No, I really don't [have a different opinion]. I've tried very hard, and I learned a couple of lessons early as a head coach, to hold comments about play, scheme and effort until after you've seen the tape. But I've seen enough college football games to know that we gave that game away. The mental errors were as disheartening as anything. Our effort was outstanding. Our kids played hard. We had five critical errors that gave every point to TSU that they had. They didn't do a lot against our defense. We gave it to them.”
ON PLAY OF THE DEFENSE AGAINST TENNESSEE STATE: “We have great confidence in our kids and great confidence in that scheme. We had confidence going into the game. I don't want to try to find excuses, say maybe we were too hyped up, because that is, that's an excuse. It's another opportunity to play college football, you should be hyped up about it. More than anything I'm a little disappointed with a couple of guys, especially with their experience, to make the mistakes that they made. Not only were they critical mistakes, they were critical times in the ball game.”
ON THE PLAY OF QUARTERBACK ZACH BARNARD: “I was extremely pleased. His poise is very good. He's got a great demeanor. He's never too up, he's never down, which is what you want in your quarterback. He did what a young quarterback, who's a great competitor, we're all guilty of this, trying to make a bad play a big play. He throws two interceptions that I know he'd want back. It's a bad play, starts with protection in both cases, we force a ball late and their picked. Other than those two plays right there the kid played well.”
ON WEATHER BARNARD WILL START AGAINST INDIANA STATE: “He is the guy.”
ON OFFENSIVE STRUGGLES IN THE FIRST HALF: “That was more us. We told them going in that no one has really stopped us, except us. We've got to have great focus on that this week. Those were more technique than anything else. It wasn't so much assignment or guys not knowing where to be. When you turn the thing over, you lose momentum and it's hard to swing it back your way.”
ON ROD HARPER'S FUMBLE: “The ball gets batted around a little bit, and he doesn't really lock it away the way he should, there's no doubt. Even in the course of the five yards he works up field it's still not secure. It was a heck of a catch, great concentration to stay with it.”
MAIN CONCERNS GOING INTO THE INDIANA STATE GAME: “Just taking care of us. Great focus on execution, offensively, defensively and in the kicking game. I'm curious to see how we'll come out and practice this afternoon. I'm sure they'll come out with a purpose. They have to come out with a purpose, they gotta understand how important every day of prep is. They did last week. We have to play 60 minutes, can't just play 30. The last two weeks we played okay in the second half, but neither time good enough to win.”
ON INDIANA STATE BEING BETTER THAN ITS RECORD OVER THE LAST TWO YEARS INDICATES: “Without question, much better. I'm really impressed with their quarterback. I think he's a great player. He's an athletic guy, he moves around and throws on the run. He stands in there and makes throws. He makes them go. Their an up tempo offense. They're not exactly what you'd call a two-minute no huddle but they're on the ball going. They've got some kids with experience. There are some guys that are juniors that have been playing for three years. So without question they're going to be better and they're hungry for a win. I know they think us coming to town is going to be the one that breaks their streak, and they should.
ON THE INDIANA STATE DEFENSE: “They've gone to a scheme and that's what they play. As a coach sometimes you try to do too much from a scheme standpoint. I think they're going to try to hang their hat on what they're doing and that's why they're getting better. Their kids know what their doing. The middle backer is a good player. They've got a pretty good safety. He's very active, he gets involved, seems to be a tough player.”
ON MURRAY STATE INJURIES: “We're fairly healthy. We came out of that one okay. We won't get Chris Mauga back until next week, but we didn't lose anybody. A lot of that is based on your conditioning. I think our kids are in good shape. We'll keep them in good shape. We still condition a couple days a week in practice. Injury prevention in this game is just go harder than the other guy. We gotta get them to keep doing that.”
ON JUNIOR CORNERBACK DERRICK PARROTT: “He's an outstanding player. Really both of our corners this week played well. We started Dominic Spinks, this week was his first start. He had an unbelievable interception. Derrick Parrott is just a great football player. He's as steady as we've got. You see him on kickoff returns, he never comes out of the game. He had to come out for a play because he was bleeding from the elbow and he couldn't get back in fast enough. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the kid is a winner. He's a guy we're leaning on. He's quiet, he's very reserved, he's very smart, he's polite, he's a gentleman. I think a lot of him. He's got a son and he takes great care of him at a young age. I couldn't have done that at his age. The kid is really mature. He's a great student. He's a winner in everything he does.”
ON PLAYING THE FIRST THREE GAMES OF THE SEASON ON THE ROAD: “It is what it is. You can complain about it if you want but a true champion is appreciative of what he's got. We've got opportunities to play college football and we're thankful to have that. Where it is, is not up to us right now.”
ON THE GATEWAY CONFERENCE: “They're a good conference from top to bottom. There's no doubt that they've proved that over the last few years. For us to get opposing coaches to say that, to make that same statement about Murray and Eastern Illinois and Eastern Kentucky and others, we've got to start beating that conference. We can't be 1-2 against them year in and year out. We've got to find a way to be 2-1 or 2-0 depending on how many cracks you get at them. It's a very good conference.”
ON EASTERN KENTUCKY'S VICTORY OVER WESTERN KENTUCKY: “I think it's great for our conference. It's great for Eastern Kentucky. They came out and played well. That's a pretty good rivalry. They had a big crowd. To say it's a statement game, you really gotta wait until the end of the season for all those. It's just a great win for them and a great win for the conference.”
ON MURRAY STATE PLAYING WESTERN KENTUCKY IN THE FUTURE: “We'd like to see it happen. I'd like to see it. I know David [Elson, WKU head coach] would like to see it. When you talk to people here in Murray, when you talk to people in Bowling Green, they say that's the rivalry. It's not Eastern and Western, it's Murray and Western. It should be, we're in the same part of the state. We'd like to get to it. If an opportunity arises next year or the year after we have to go take it.”
ON PLAYING SOUTHERN ILLINOIS IN THE FUTURE: “We haven't talked as much about that one, just because it's not as much of a rivalry as Western. But either one, for us to get better, I'm not one for playing Division II teams, I want this team to play in the national championship game, well if you want to get there you've got to play the best in the country. I love what coach Crowe does at Jacksonville State, he's going to play Furman every year. Well that's a top five team, that's where he gauges where his team is at. You have to get yourself to that level. You can't play a bunch of cupcakes and get a false sense of where you are.”
ON ASSIGNMENT BREAKDOWNS ON DEFENSE DURING THE TENNESSEE STATE GAME: “We blew two coverages. The third play of the game, I don't know what better coverage we can be in, we have a safety that blows a gasket, lets a guy run right by him clean. Other than that everything is covered. On the second one, we're in man, we're blitzing, the kid breaks contain, he scrambles and the young linebacker comes off the tailback, goes after the quarterback, he flips it over and it's a 60-yard score. There's a 140 yards, half their offense on two plays. Right now it's all would have, should have could have, that's not what we want to be talking about at these press conferences. We've got to clean those things up. Just five mentals, that's all there is to it."
