Marshall Week Football Media Availability

Opening Statement
“We’ve got Marshall here at 7:30 at Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday night. We’re looking forward to getting back on the field.

“They’ve got a good football team. Offensively, schematically, they’re very similar to us, especially in the run game. I’ve got a lot of respect for Coach (Doc) Holliday and the job he has done at Marshall. Defensively, they are really fast. They run extremely well. They’ve got nine starters back from a year ago. They play extremely well in space. They’ve got a nice pressure package. We’ve got to be dial in and focused on the different looks they give you. Mostly, they’re a four-down (lineman) team, but they give you some different looks. Special teams, they’ve got a lot of team speed. We’re going to have to play well in space and certainly step our game up.”

On the possibilities surrounding Hurricane Florence
“We’re ready to go Saturday night at 7:32 (for the) kick. We’re in great hands in this state with Governor (Henry) McMaster and President (Harris) Pastides here at the university and Coach (Ray) Tanner. I’m preparing for a football game, and obviously my thoughts and prayers are with the people on our coast and the North Carolina coast and whoever this storm may affect. As far as I’m concerned, that’s where we’re headed.”

On any lingering issues from the Georgia loss last week
“We’ve moved on. Every week is a season. Our focus in on Marshall.”

On the team’s current injury situation outside of D.J. Wonnum
“We should be fine. Everybody is good. Jovaughn Gwyn, I announced that Sunday night. Chavis Dawkins is back. (He) practiced today and looked good, moved well. He practiced Sunday night and moved well… I wouldn’t say Mon (Denson) is 100 percent, but he’s probably 85 percent and can help us. He’s still battling back from the hamstring, and I believe that’s it.”

On the ways the athletic department is helping the families of student-athletes who may be affected by Hurricane Florence
“All of our players’ families on the coast, we’re trying to make sure they have a place here in Columbia. The School Opportunity Fund can handle that. (It’s) no different than, I believe, it was last year when the hurricane hit South Florida, we offered all of our players’ families (the) opportunity within the entire athletic department, for their families to evacuate and come to Columbia. We’re in the process of doing that right now.”

On the team’s new up-tempo offense after two games
“I would agree with what you started out saying, that it’s a very small sample size. We were very efficient our first ball game. We should have been. Then we needed to play better last week, and we’ll continue to press forward with what we’re doing. I do like the fact that we’re able to play at a faster tempo. We’ve utilized that, and it’s been effective. We need to continue to improve in some areas. We needed to run the ball more last week, but when you call RPOs, and you’re reading the linebacker, and he flows, you had a called run. Sometimes you get a little out-of-whack numbers-wise as you’re calling the game. That’s something we need to do a better job playing attention to.

On issues tackling defensively last week and how the team has adjusted practice, if at all
“We did miss some tackles, but normally that happens against good teams. At the end of the day, we didn’t communicate very well, and that puts you in a position to not make the tackle. So to me, it was more of a communication issue and an urgency to the line issue. We didn’t practice any differently than we normally do (Tuesday). We did a lot more good-on-good work, because there’s a lot of carryover between what Marshall does and what we do. So we decided we need to do more good-on-good work. If there had been a huge discrepancy with what we did schematically, we probably wouldn’t have done that. Looking at their tape on offense and defense, we felt like it would be better for us to work a lot more against each other, and that’s what we did today. We need to communicate better. We need to get the call. We need to relay the call throughout the entire defense. We work with crowd noise all the time, but it’s different on game day. It’s the first time we’ve been in that situation, and our crowd was awesome. They gave us a great boost, but we’ve got to communicate better.”

On the conversation between him and offensive coordinator Bryan McClendon after the Georgia game
“The first thing he said was ‘we need to be more hardheaded in the run game. We needed to stay with the run more in the second quarter.’ Then he started in on the third quarter and I said ‘whoa whoa whoa, the defense has got to make a stop. You can’t start shouldering blame on everything.’ You can’t do that as a coordinator. It’s a team game, and we’ve got to play better on the defensive side of the ball. Now, we need to convert 3rd-and-2 and 3rd-and-1 on the first two drives of the second half. Those were productive conversations, and we need to get better. That’s on me.”

On Marshall’s contingency plans in case travel becomes difficult
“Coach Tanner and their athletic director have talked, and they’ve got a plane flight planned for Friday afternoon. If there is bad weather, they’ve got buses ready and available.”

On his defensive line and if there is concern in terms of size and experience with D.J. Wonnum out
“Yes. Obviously, Georgia attacked us on the edges. That was something you saw on the first series and realized what was going to happen. We’ve got to do a better job of holding the point on the edges. We’ve looked at some different lineups as far as setting better edges and finding ways to do that.”

On the changes in defensive line rotation that come from D.J. Wonnum’s absence
“It will increase Bryson (Allen-Williams’) percentage of playing the buck position. Then you’ve got Aaron (Sterling) and Shameik (Blackshear) at the end position. Keir Thomas can go outside and play the end. Daniel Fennell can play the end. Then it increases Danny’s and Brad (Johnson’s) reps at the buck.”

On the ways the university’s closure affects the team’s weekly routine
“It doesn’t change. The 20-hour rule is still in effect. That’s on the players if they want to watch extra film, and we’ll have a bunch that will do that.”