Below is the transcript for the Bobby Wilder press conference.
Good afternoon everybody, good afternoon to all our 12th Monarchs out there in Monarch Nation. Coming off an extremely disappointing and frustrating, 28-20 loss to a good FIU team on Saturday night, Sunday morning.
It was frustrating in the fact that we were leading in this game 17-0 and we were playing the way I felt we were capable of playing. What we need to do is be able to play that way for 60 minutes. There were a lot of good things that came out of this game for our football team. Particularly our special teams that we were consistent throughout the game. Our special teams were good all 60 minutes in this game. Defensively, for two quarters, the first and the fourth, I felt like we were a very good football team and offensively in the first half having 306 yards and 20 points in one half of football. What we need to do is be consistent throughout the football game. I mentioned special teams being consistently good, we kicked the ball well and we punted the ball well. Brad Davis put the ball down in the end zone. We had a couple touchbacks the three returns they had we tackled them inside the 20. We punted the ball well, Bailey Cate had four punts in this game that were down in the 20. One of them on the one-yard line. So our coverage teams were excellent in this game. Return unit, we had a couple explosive returns in this game, Isaiah Harper had a return to the plus side of the field and he and Darrell Brown had excellent punt returns in this game. So overall, with our special teams other than that one missed field goal I thought it was an outstanding effort.
Defensively, we were dominant the first 22 minutes, then we had the glaring breakdown. We had a breakdown in our pass coverage, a miscommunication with our corner. On a third and 10 when our corner should’ve been sinking back playing a deep third, we were about to get a sack on the quarterback and we were in that position where we gave up an easy touchdown pass where it takes it from 17-0 to 17-7. We had two coverage breakdowns in this game that led to two touchdowns we paid dearly for both of those coverage breakdown. It’s something that can be fixed, it will be fixed. Fourteen of the 28 points they scored were off two coverage breakdowns in this football game that really hurt us. We had a couple of outstanding performances in this game, Lawrence Garner had 16 tackles in this game, he’s now fifth in the nation after two games. This is a guy who’s a young player for us, a redshirt sophomore. Then Oshane Ximines had a very impactful game. Not only did he have six tackles he had two sacks, two forced fumbles. He forced them to adjust to how they were protecting. Those guys played at a really high level and we need more guys to be impactful right now on defense.
Offensively, that first half performance was outstanding 306 yards, 37 plays, 20 points. Then we had to sit for a couple of hours with a delay then we had to come out in the third quarter, FIU ran a 19 play drive to start. So we only had the ball for two possesions in the third quarter and they were both three and out. We can’t be three and out in that situation. We need to get back in a rhythm and get it going, which we did not. We have to improve our run game, at this point we are not getting enough out of our run game. Kesean Strong was out and injured, Jeremy Cox also with the ankle. We’re going to look at both the freshmen this week at practice, Davis and Knight because we need to get something going in the run game and that’s everybody, everybody involved in offense. We need to look at all those guys, personnel wise so we can improve that part of it.
This weeks opponent is Charlotte, 1-1, coming off a loss to a very good Appalachian State team. This past weekend, they’re a good football team, they play hard, they’re physical, they’re very good in all three areas, all three schemes. They’re doing an excellent job on special teams right now. This is a game we’ll really need to play well in and most importantly the theme for our team this week is play 60 minutes of football. We played excellent football against FIU in spurts, which is so frustrating right now for all of us coaches and players was how well we played in spurts during this game and when you play good football teams, they’re going to come up with answers and come back at you. We need to be able to answer that this weekend and play for a good 60 minutes and in practice we’ll build on what we did well and make the corrections we need to make.
Ed Miller: Bobby, what do you see as the key to playing better over 60 minutes? I know you’ve worked at camp a lot on conditions, it’s not a conditioning thing it’s more of a execution thing at this point?
Bobby Wilder: Yeah it’s really execution. It’s all of us, coaches and players. We’ve got to execute better and particularly in those critical downs, the third downs. I’ll give you an example, on their long 19-play drive to start the second half. We had two third and three and two fourth and one situations and both fourth and one we had the back tackled in the backfield and he breaks the tackle. In those critical situations, we have got to make those plays. When you’re in a close ball game and you’re playing a good team, that gets magnified when you don’t make those type of plays in those situations. Those are examples of areas we need to improve on. We’ve got to execute better in those critical situations. Like I’ve told the team, that’s our second football game and our first game at home. We played a good team but we need to learn from that. We’ll put them in similar situations in practice this week so we can keep working on that but much improved from week one to week two overall with our team. It’s these couple critical situations that we need to play better in.