Click here to watch the Murray State Football with Matt Griffin television show.
Murray State head football coach Matt Griffin met with the local media today for his weekly press conference in the Racer Room in Stewart Stadium. Griffin discussed the Illinois State game, next week's home opener against Lambuth, and correcting some mistakes this week in practice.
The Racers have their home opener against Lambuth on Saturday, Sept. 15. Kickoff time is set for 6 p.m.
Below are the excerpts from Griffin's press conference:
GRIFFIN ON 43-17 LOSS AT #17 ILLINOIS STATE: “Certainly I'm a little disappointed with our effort. I was disappointed with some offensive execution at times. And that's on me, first and foremost, that's what I told the kids yesterday. But at the same time, they're going to understand that the accountability is on all of us. Most importantly, the first 20 minutes of the second half, I was just a little disheartened at how we came out as much physically, as mentally. I was really surprised, to be honest, but we'll fix it. Most second halves I will settle in and watch our personnel. In the first half you get a gauge for what the other people are doing, and at that point there's not much change other than the obvious. (Saturday) I spent most of the second half watching our guys compete and despite what was said in the conversation with our coaches after the game, some thought maybe I was a little rough on them after the game. And then after watching the tapes Sunday, we watched it as a team. Every kid saw every rep. What their side of the ball was doing, what the other side was doing, every kick in the kicking game, and those same coaches came to my office last night and said ?Maybe we were too easy on them after the game.' It's in the past, we have to move on, look forward and get better.”
ON WHAT HE SAW ON THE TAPE: “Offensively, we talked about some of the execution stuff and when you're not getting combos in the run game to the right linebacker ? that is very fundamental football. We're not doing that. There's a loss of concentration or lack thereof. It's really hard to put a finger on. I know this ? we made a change a week too late at one of those spots and we probably should have made it sooner because the kid came in and played well.”
ON HIGH AMOUNT OF PENALTIES (9) AGAINST ILLINOIS STATE: “I'm really taken by that and that factored into the post-game also, and it factored into yesterday. Nine is unacceptable. We have a creed as to what Racer pride is and it's unconditional effort, smart play, and physical play. We didn't exemplify any of those three. Again, those are things I can control as a coach. I'll take the blame for all of it, but it will get corrected. (On illegal procedure penalties) It's a lack of discipline. We're not sitting in. The thing is, three of them came on our offensive tackles. They're worried about a speed rush to the outside. We don't care about speed rushes to the outside ? the quarterback is going to step up underneath that. There's no reason for doing it ? there really isn't. Another thing is that we did not see a defensive play with the same speed as we saw the week before (against Louisville). We'll address it. It's been addressed once and it will be addressed all throughout this week.”
ON CONCERNS ABOUT QUARTERBACK JEFF EHRHARDT CARRYING THE BALL 22 TIMES AGAINST ILLINOIS STATE: “No, not at all. He's a tough kid. That's what we expect from our quarterbacks. There's a lot of guys I'm pleased with ? a lot of guys have played well and he's one of them. He's still got things he can clean up. There's a bunch of stuff that comes with being a young quarterback. For example, when he starts stepping up in that pocket and keeping his eyes downfield, there's two or three home runs (we could have made). It's easy to sit there on tape and say you missed them, but having played the position, I know this: when you get pressured throughout the course of the game, and you get hit a few more times, your eyes don't stay downfield as long as they should. That's just human nature. It's a whole bunch of clean-up, but I know he's going to get better. He's a solid kid.”
ON KICKOFF RETURNS/COVERAGE AGAINST ILLINOIS STATE: “We went late in the game and tried to put two guys in, and one of them drops one. We have to clean it up. Again, the surprise there is that I think we had more guys that had the deer-in-the-headlights kind of look than we did the week before. Why? I wish I could tell you. It certainly wasn't the atmosphere; we played up in Louisville. Again, I'm going to put that on me first. Maybe our practice week and preparation wasn't as good as it needed to be. On coverage, we blew two assignments early. We didn't follow some keys. It's as fundamental as fundamental gets. It's got to be corrected. I think their average field position was our 45 or 46, and our average was our own 24, 25. That's a big part of the game. Those are areas that were addressed yesterday, we'll clean them up. We'll change personnel in the spots we feel we need to. You've heard me say we brag on our kicking game and the pride we take in it and that was not evident Saturday night.”
ON DeANGELO NELSON, WHO IS SECOND ON THE TEAM WITH 82 RECEIVING YARDS: “He's a solid player and a solid kid. The guy just plays hard all the time. He made a couple of great catches ? the one vertical down in the red zone he was catching it while he was getting hit in the ribs. It didn't even faze him, the kid falls off him. He's been one of our steadiest improvement guys over the last 19, 20 months.”
ON COMING HOME AFTER TWO LONG ROAD TRIPS: “It will be just great not to get on a bus this Friday. It's great to be home. I really do expect a great crowd. I already had some phone calls yesterday from some folks, they shared their tailgating plans and whatnot. We have the new surface, people will be excited about that. I know we're excited about it. And that's where we practice everyday. It is great to be home, no doubt about that. I don't care who we play.”
ON RACERS OPPONENT SATURDAY, THE LAMBUTH EAGLES: “They play awful hard, there's no doubt about that. The first game of the year they played a pretty good team out of Chicago ? St. Xavier ? and they got beat pretty good. They played hard for 60 minutes. Then they went to Union College in Kentucky last week and really two big special teams plays win them the game, they win 48-44. It was significant there because they took a beating in their first game and they bounced back with a big win, couple in the fact that that win was on the road. They're a good football team. Coach (Vic) Wallace has been there for an extended period of time (15 years) and he's built a program. They're going to come in here ready to play and if we're not at our best, and if we had the lapses we had this past Saturday, there might be some more disappointed faces come Saturday night.”
ON PROBLEMS ON MSU'S RUSH DEFENSE: “When you look at some of our defensive clips, we have some misalignments. That's as shocking to me as any mistakes we have made. First play of the (Illinois State) game, we have a run blitz on, and we called their first five plays, I think we had four-out-of-five, and we had the right blitzes on and we don't execute them. In those spots, if you do (execute), we're blowing those plays up for minus-1 (yards), minus-2, or zero. Instead, they're getting 10, 15, 20 yard gains. It goes back to our execution and I've tried to be consistent with our kids and with everyone here in saying we try to focus more on us than anybody else. And that for me personally was as disappointing Saturday night as anything. We focused on us last week. We went through and did the things that we needed to do to win that ballgame and then the lights went on and for whatever reason, we didn't execute in spots. Maybe we're not putting as much pressure on guys as far as competition, I don't know. But we're going to do some different things this week.”
ON TAYLOR LANIGAN, WHO HAD A GAME-HIGH 13 TACKLES AGAINST ILLINOIS STATE: “Well, he had 13 tackles, and we may move Taylor this week to a different spot, we don't know. We have to get him more involved in some areas that he can help us athletically. That might create more competition at spots. Taylor, pound-for-pound, is one of the strongest kids I have ever coached, and he's also one of the fastest. I think out of high school, he was the runner-up in the 100 meter in Florida, and that's in the whole state and they always have guys who can run. He's a real good athlete and he's only a sophomore. As coaches, I know early in the game (Saturday), he made a couple of mistakes alignment-wise, and again that's unacceptable and that's on us, but when he really starts to get it, I think he's going to be even better than what you saw (Saturday). We just have to keep pressing him. Competition makes us all better. Taking away kids' reps makes them better. And that's what we have to do this week.”
ON UPDATE ON INJURED SENIOR LINEBACKER NATHAN WILLIAMS: “I really don't (have an update). We're not going to have him this week, I know that. Today is his second opinion day. It's a tough one. I hate to see him sitting. That's just the way it is ? that's the nature of the game.”
ON FRESHMAN ZACH KUTCH MAKING HIS FIRST COLLEGIATE START IN PLACE OF WILLIAMS: “At times, he wasn't quite sure (of alignments), as most freshmen are in those situations. But I tell you what, that kid runs. And he will hit you. He's six-foot tall, and he plays hard, he really does. I love the kid's motor. He loves the game of football. It's that patience thing again ? we have to be leery of it and just bring him along. He played well.”
ON DERRICK TOWNSEL NOT HAVING A RECEPTION AGAINST ILLINOIS STATE: “We didn't do a good job of getting him the ball enough. (The box score) listed a rush because it ends up being a lateral, that little swing screen, but I tell you what, he makes a few of their kids look as if they're in junior high and he's in the NFL with his stick-step. He is so fluent of an athlete. (Not getting the ball to him) was the first thing Coach (Mickey) Fein said to me after the game and we have to do a better job there as coaches. We have to get him the ball early and just make his presence felt because we've got some threats on the outside. The defense can't take away one without getting to somebody else. That one's on me. He's also in some special teams situations. One rep, he kind of hesitated and he's probably got a shot at a blocked punt in the second half, he just got through a little bit late and it just goes back to repetitions in the game and trusting what's going to happen. We'll try and put him in those same spots this week because he may not have the fastest 40 (yard dash time) on paper, but I tell you what, when you put him in a game situation, he might be our fastest kid.”
ON FRESHMAN ANTOINNE LIGHTFOOT'S PLAY ON SPECIAL TEAMS: “It was (freshman mistakes), but we don't want to use youth as an excuse for poor play. The kid's fast. I think the world of that kid. There's about a 10 minute lapse where we fair catch the ball on the 2, and that was too bad. He's trying to do too much, like most young kids. For that, you have to love him. The guy wants to win so badly. I love him on punt return because he's fearless. We just can't make those same mistakes, we have to be smart. But back to the 10 minute lapse, he comes out and misaligns and we have to burn a time out. On a kickoff return, if he just follows the fullback like he's supposed to, he may score, he may go 80 yards for a touchdown. But he will see it on tape and keep learning. I couldn't ask for a better kid's demeanor. I know this: when you get after a group after a tough loss, those guys who stand in front of you and look you in the eye and follow you, they're with you. He was one of those guys right there in the front. He'll be alright.”
ON JOSH JONES NOT HAVING A CARRY AGAINST ILLINOIS STATE: “The other two guys (Charlie Jordan and Paul McKinnis) probably practiced a little bit better and I didn't think there was a need to go. They were both in the flow of the game. Right now those two guys are practicing better. There's only so many touches there out of the backfield and I don't know how they will get split this week. We'll just wait and see.”
ON JORDAN FINDING HIS RHYTHM AGAINST ILLINOIS STATE: “He had a few more touches (than the Louisville game). I can't stress this enough ? it's amazing how competition makes us better. It's just amazing. Obviously, his growth (played a factor). He's a year in (the program) and he knows. But he's another guy who has some improving to do and we're going to make sure he does. He loves to play. (The running backs) are a good group.”
ON TWO BLOCKED EXTRA POINT ATTEMPTS AGAINST ILLINOIS STATE: “That's just gritty play. That team right there, our Block 1 group, lets us turn the momentum right back to us. Our defensive coaches coach that group and I think in my five years as a head coach, that's as good as I've seen. We have three, four, five and I think in my second year at Tennessee-Martin we had six through the course of the year and that's a lot of blocked Point After Attempts and field goals. I also think that not a lot of folks spend time going live in practice, but we finish every Tuesday with five live kicks with our field goal team and the block team. We did have a miscue though, we fell asleep and had two guys punch out early and we're lucky to get a holding call or else they have a fake field goal that goes for a touchdown. But, I love the effort of the group and that's all it was. Will Roach, Austen Lane, just doing what they do every play and that's playing hard.”
