Below is the transcript from the Bobby Wilder Press Conference.
Hey, good afternoon everybody. Thanks for coming. Coming off a disappointing loss to Virginia 28-17. That’s a good football team. They’re well coached, they’re a class operation, and I certainly want to wish Bronco and their team success the rest of the way. I’m really proud of our team, how hard we played, very aggressive. We had a very aggressive approach; we were going to play to win throughout this football game in all situations and I feel like our team did that. What I’ve learned about our football team through the first three weeks is that we are competitive. It doesn’t matter the situation or opponent, we’ll compete, and we’ll do whatever it takes to win in all three phases. We’ve got a lot of competition going right now on our team for positions, for playing time. The additions we’ve added to the program have brought a lot of value. We’re in a really good place right now with our health, our depth, and as I mentioned, the competition for guys working to get on the field.
From the game, I feel like we got off to a great start. Eleven plays, 78-yard drive that took up about 7 ½ minutes of the game. This is the third straight game offensively where we’ve started with a scoring drive. We had the field goal against Norfolk State, the field goal at Virginia Tech, and now this one. Our defense didn’t see the field until midway through the first quarter, which when you’re talking about play counts in the game, that’s one of the big reasons why we’re keeping that play count down on defense. I feel like we were the better team in the first half, we had the 17-7 lead, we had 224 yards to their 66. Our defense was dominant, they were 0-5 on third down, we were getting them off the field. Other than the first half, that long kickoff return, they took six plays to go 30 yards and score, and it was Bryce Perkins having to do what Bryce Perkins does to get a touchdown.
The real turning point in the game came on that kick, we didn’t hit the location and then we didn’t cover it well, and that’s what I feel like turned to momentum in the football game. On special teams, Bailey Cate punted really well, six punts, 42-yard average, the coverage has been outstanding on punt team. Nick Rice made all three of his kicks, he had a really nice kickoff in the second half when we put him in to start the second half. Then the blocked field goal by Keion White was really just tremendous execution by our block team. That’s something we’ve been doing really well through our three games, just tremendous effort. The majority of blocking a kick comes down to effort, but we covered it this morning, I covered it with Ted [Alexander] on Anatomy of a Play and on that particular play we got tremendous push from our front four, Derek Wilder lifted their right guard up, which allowed Keion to get through the gap and get his hand up, and that was certainly a huge play in the football game, and something I feel like we can do more of throughout the season if we can get that kind of effort.
Defensively, 53 total plays. As I mentioned, the drives by the offense, and the amount of time we’re taking on offense is contributing to us being a very good defense right now. Unlike last year where you see the opponent have 80 plays a game, you’re seeing now 53 plays for 244 yards against a very explosive offense, an offense that had explosive plays against Pittsburgh, we learned Pittsburgh is a pretty good team, they just beat UCF, and then against Florida State who just turned around and beat Louisville. I think Virginia’s a very good offensive team and our guys to keep them out of explosive plays. Keion white played his best game, certainly the move to bandit really helped us and allowed us to do more things with Keion coming off the edge in this game. He had six tackles, a sack, 3 ½ tackles for losses, and I felt like he was the best player on the field Saturday night. In the second half, they started to double team him when it was a tight end and a tackle, we were sliding the line to him and trying to get the line to chip off him, which will make us better at pass coverage because now you’re eating up another guy who would be an eligible receiver. We’re going to do some different things with Keion, he’s not just going to stay at bandit into the boundary, we’ll move him around, we’ll try to get him matched up against different offensive linemen. We’re not going to allow teams to scheme him now and always know where he is.
Geronda Hall played a phenomenal game at the nickel, one of his primary responsibilities is to set the edge on the run and he did. He had 10 tackles in this game, he had a number of open field tackles. Lawrence Garner with nine tackles and a couple of really big ones, a huge third down stop that set up that blocked field goal. Then Calvin Brewton for the second game, seven tackles in this game, eight against Virginia Tech, seven in this game. We were able to bring him down in the box as that eighth run defender, and he’s been playing really good physical football for us. Kaleb Ford-Dement. One of the ways you evaluate a corner is how many times does he get his hands on the ball, and this is the second most pass breakups I’ve seen, he had four in this game and they were all big, they were balls down the field. He made a huge play in the first half, when they went for it on fourth and two from their own 48, he broke it up and almost picked it, so he’s playing really good football for us. Overall up front, our front four is playing really good football right now, we’re rolling guys through there, we're playing as many as eight or nine guys, and those guys are really setting the standard. They’re being unselfish, they’re keeping Garner and Young freed up, but they’re handling the line of scrimmage right now, which is really good for us.
Offensively, it was the tale of two halves. We had 34 plays, 244 yards, 17 points in the first half. I thought our quarterback played as good of a half you can play, he was 11-13 for 179 yards and a touchdown, he had a ten-yard run in the first half. And then in the second half, we really got hurt with field position, our average drive start was 17-yard line in the third quarter, then the 22-yard line in the fourth quarter. Of the eight times we had the ball in the second half, five of them we were in third and ten or more, which you can’t be constantly in third and ten when you’re a run and play-action pass offense like we are and that really put us in a bad place on offense. Good overall in the pass game, 16-26 was an improvement, that was something we worked on in the bye week, we knew it was going to be hard to run against UVA, Pitt couldn’t run it against them, Florida State couldn’t run it. If you take out the sacks, we had 100 yards, just not enough consistently to win this football game, particularly in the second half.
This week’s opponent, East Carolina, they’re 2-2. Overall, they lost to two very good teams on the road, North Carolina State and Navy. We have not beaten East Carolina at this point, we’ve played them twice, two very good games, both at their place, so we’re looking forward to having this game at home. Their head coach, they’ve got a new head coach, Mike Houston, who comes from JMU, a good football coach, he’s trying to put a stamp on the football program right now with the things they’re doing. Offensively, Holton Ahlers is a very explosive player, he had a 50-yard TD run against us last year, he’s a duel threat guy, he can throw it and he can run it, so we’re really going to have to do a good job against him. They’re averaging nearly 400 yards a game, so they’re good on offense, good skill guys, solid up front. Defensively, they’re only allowing 23 points, 354 yards at this point, and Turner and Price, their two defensive tackles are as good as we’ll play against this year, those guys are disruptive, they hit the quarterback, they’re really hard to run on, they’re fast and physical on defense. They’re excellent on special teams, they’ve got arguably one of the best kickers in the country in Jake Verity, he’s 9-11 on field goals, he hit that game winner against us last year, and they punt the ball well, Young is averaging 41 yards, so they’re good on teams. This will be a major challenge for us, but we’re excited to be back home, it’s been four weeks since we’ve been at home, which seems like an eternity when you’re in the season to have that amount of time between home games with the two road games and the bye. There’s definitely no place like home, so we’re looking forward to being back home with our fanbase. I’ll gladly take questions.
Q: I would imagine ECU has a lot of the same personnel as they did last year, how are they different schematically under Houston as opposed to last season?
BW: That’s a good question. The number one thing they’re trying to do is become a run first team, last year they were a throw it all over the yard team, they had a different quarterback, they threw the ball for 400 yards against Memphis last year and Central Florida, two of the best teams in the AAC. What Mike is trying to do is get the run game established and throw off the run and that’s what they’re trying to get done right now offensively, I know eventually Mike will be successful, he’s been successful everywhere he’s been, I just hope he’s not successful against us this Saturday.