Below is the transcript for the Bobby Wilder press conference.
Coming off a difficult loss to a very good FAU football team in a game that I was really proud of how we battled back in this football game. We were down 26-7 at halftime, we got the score to 32-27 with 12 minutes to go, at that point we just could not get a stop. We had an interception when a tight end fell down on a route on the sideline that led to a score, difficult way to end a football game but I really liked the way we battled back in this game.
Going into the game, I was concerned about how our players would react coming off of the difficult loss at East Carolina, and also this being our fourth of six games on the road. We started the game that way, we gave up a long scoring drive and then we got stopped offensively on a fourth and one on their 13, which was the only time we got stopped in the red zone. After that we scored four touchdowns in the red zone but we had a slow start to this football game.Special teams wise this was not our best effort.
We have been playing so well on special teams and the big one was we allowed a game changing kickoff return for a touchdown; at a point in the game where we had cut the lead to 26-21 in the third quarter, we were dominating that quarter, we had all the momentum, we just hit Fulgham on a remarkable catch for a touchdown and we allowed 100 yard kickoff return where we got split right down the middle. That put the score back up to 32-21 and then a coupe drives later on special teams, Isaiah Harper returns a kickoff return 84 yards for a touchdown and then we have a holding penalty. That was a 14 point swing just on the kickoff return. We did punt well in this game against a excellent punt return unit. We didn’t allow any return yards and we averaged 40 yards per punt.
Defensively too many points in yards against an outstanding offense. I felt like this was the best set of skill players we played against all year, the combination of the quarterback, the running back who is outstanding, the tight end and both wide receivers. We did not do a good job consistently in this game and what’s most frustrating is in the third quarter I felt like we were dominant on defense. They had 62 total yards in the third quarter, we didn’t allow any points, we were controlling the ball on offense, we got a couple stops on defense. That’s what makes it even more frustrating right now with our defense and over the next six games defensively the focus is on improving our run fits and we need to play much better in coverage in terms of recognizing routes and that’s something we’re going to work very hard on.
Offensively, we were very good in the pass game. We were 39-51 for 390 yards, two touchdowns against what I feel like was a very good defense. We did have the two interceptions. Fulgham in this game, I felt like he played his best game of the year and he played tremendous against Virginia Tech. He had 10 catches for 151 yards, a number of contested catches in this game. Duhart was consistently good again, eight catches for 100 yards and Isaiah Harper pitched in with eight catches. LaRussa continues to play at a high level, this is his third consecutive game where he’s thrown the ball extremely well. I felt like offensively we protected better in this football game than we did against East Carolina which shows how few sacks. We only had one sack in this football game, they brought a lot of pressure in this game so much better. The emergence of Kesean Strong was very good to see, he had 21 carries for 99 yards and three touchdowns. He had another six catches for 50 yards and a touchdown. He’s finally getting closer to being healthy, he’s still not 100% off that hamstring but what he showed us in this football game was impressive. Unfortunately Jeremy Cox sprained his ankle again before the half and did not play in the second half. I’m hopeful that he will be back this week because the plan going into the season was that was going to be the one two punch and we have not had them for a complete game to this point.
This week’s opponent, Marshall, is 3-2, and 1-1 in the league, they beat WKU on the road, they lost at home Friday night against a good Middle Tennessee team. Doc Holiday I feel like is one of the outstanding coaches in our league there. Consistently a very good program and have been since we joined C-USA. Offensively they are going for 380 yards a game, 26 points, they throw the ball extremely well. Defensively they’ve got the number two rush defense in the league. A couple of outstanding linebackers and they’re very dangerous in the return game on special teams. So going into this football game number one we’re excited to be home for four of the next six games, it just feels like we’ve been on the road all year. We played very well at home so I’m excited about that. We’re frustrated right now to be 1-5 especially when that one win is over a nationally ranked Virginia Tech team. We know our record should be better at this point and we’re going to turn the page start the second half of the season with a goal to have an outstanding second half of the season and I will gladly take questions.
Q: What has made Marshall’s run defense so effective and how do you hope to offset that?
A: the number one thing is the players. They have an outstanding front seven. They scheme to get the eighth guy in the box whether they bring the safety from the weak or strong side or they’ll insert the corner based on formation. They’re outstanding with their line movements but the number one reason is their two inside linebackers, they play downhill. They’re aggressive downhill players. That’s an area that we’re going to need to be really good in this week with runs where we’ve got to come up with a couple of different things schematically to try and get those linebackers on the move. Similar to what we tried to do against FAU, both of those inside backers are very good.