Sept. 30, 2002
“Na’Shan Goddard is going to move up at center (for C.J. Frye) and I feel confident even though he is a red-shirt freshman he is going to play reasonably well. He’s a fine athlete and played pretty well when he got in there on Saturday.”
“One guy who is really playing well on offense for us is Hart Turner. He’s added an awful lot to this offensive football team. Losing your two guards and center, it makes it really critical.
“At linebacker, either Darel Slay or Ricardo Hurley will move up for us there. You just don’t lose your leading tackler (Lance Laury) and one of the leader’s in the conference and say will move this guy there etc. So it’s like starting over. One of the two that starts will have only been here since we started in August.”
“Looking at Mississippi State, they have always played us very well in the past but they present more problems this year then ever before. You know Joe Lee Dunn is going to come at you from every angle possible. We have been fortunate the last two years to have some semblance of an offense with experience people. Now we have to replace three people on the offensive line and go up against them seems a bit unfair. Pass protection and running with 60 percent of a new offensive line is difficult.”
“Corey Banks played junior college football with Corey Jenkins. I was impressed with him last year, he is an excellent cover man. They are one of the top pass defenses in the conference. That is for two reasons. They get tremendous pressure and have good cover people.”
“Offensively I think it is a better offensive team with Kevin Fant at quarterback. He is a tall guy with a very good touch. They have two great receivers in Terrell Grindle and Justin Jenkins. (Justin) Griffith is their fullback and a very excellent receiver out of the backfield. Dontae Walker is a senior at running back and their offensive line is always big.”
“It’s good to be back home, another conference game. We’re going into the seven toughest games in a row that I have ever encountered as a football coach. The only one we’re looking at is Mississippi State. This is the one time I wish we played at night.”
“We have to look at long range stability in the offensive line. We haven’t had a whole offensive line together for a whole game the entire year.”
“Middle linebacker is critical. Mario Haggan is so critical to Mississippi State as much as Lance Laury is for us. Being the middle linebacker he has to coordinate us. Lance has played exceptionally well for us in five week, so it hurts. However, (Jeremiah) Garrison is playing well as is (Jermaine) Lemon.”
“I think we have to take a good strong look at the possibility of (Michael) Ages and (Troy) Williamson on the field at the same time. Michael Ages really has had an excellent senior year. He’s been injured much since he came here but he has really stepped up. Troy Williamson is just a natural out there. The difficulty this week is that we will face bump and run coverage and man press. I don’t know if we can give them time to get open.”
