Below is the transcript from the Bobby Wilder Press Conference.
Hey, good afternoon everyone. We’re coming off a tough game at Marshall this week, Marshall’s a really good football team, they were picked preseason No. 1 in the east. This is a team that lost by a touchdown at Boise State, who’s undefeated. They lost to a 5-1 Cincinnati team. They’re a good football team, and I feel like in the fourth quarter, we were right there. It was a one-score game. We just needed to make one more play in all three phases in the fourth quarter. One more play on offense, one more play on defense, one more play on special teams to get this bad taste out of our mouth. We’re sitting here as a 1-5 football team that’s been in every game we’ve played. When you look at our conference, we’re the only team that’s done that, that’s played the type of non-league schedule we had and has been in every single game in the fourth quarter. Even the best teams in the league, everybody’s been blown out by somebody from a Power Five. We’ve battled, we’re right there, we just need that one more play to get over the hump. I told our team yesterday to try to keep their heads up and keep them working, “we’re the best 1-5 team in America.” I’m the head football coach of the best 1-5 team in America. That’s not what we want to be. We want to be 5-1 right now, but you are what your record says you are, and this team is young, they keep battling, they keep working, I just met with our leadership counsel this morning, they want to practice longer, they want to practice harder, they want more competition within each other. That’s how you build a team and build they’re confidence, which is what we need at this point.
My perspective from the game, I felt like we played hard in all three phases. We battled back from down 14-0, we had it 17-10 at the half, 24-17 in the third. Messiah deWeaver came in at quarterback and definitely gave us a spark off the bench with that 44-yard touchdown pass to Aaron Moore, which was a very well executed play. This team has just got to get to the point where we can finish games, we’re going to work hard at that this week.
Our special teams, this was the game of the year for our special teams. Bailey Cate was exceptional punting, he had a 43-yard average, he put three inside the 20, the coverage was really good. Kickoff returns, we saw Blake Watson, he had three returns for 166 yards, he averaged 55 yards a return, and most importantly he set up 10 points for our offense with that huge return at the half, we kicked a field goal with no time left, and then another big one in the third quarter. Nick Rice was outstanding, his placement on kickoffs, the 39-yard field goal before the half, certainly something to build on. The unit that was carrying us was our PAT block unit which has had a couple of blocks, but now we can add some other teams, and the guys have got a real sense of pride in what they’re doing.
Defensively, as Coach Blackwell said, this was the first game we just did not do a good job playing the scheme. What I mean by that is that our gap fits weren’t sound. On both sides of the ball you’ve got an A gap, B gap, C gap, and D gap, and we did not fit our gaps. Particularly in the run game, because nobody has had success running the ball against us this year, and this game we allowed 236 yards in the run and it was primarily our fits on defense. Two of their four touchdowns were well disguised specialty plays that they executed very well. I think the thing we were most disappointed with was that we allowed a 10-play, 77-yard drive that chewed up six minutes of the clock from 10 minutes to four in the fourth quarter. Nine of those ten plays were runs for 70 yards, which has not happened. We talked yesterday with our defense, and it’s not going to happen again. Marshall was balanced, they’re the only team in our league that goes over 200-yards for both running and passing, and they did that to us. In terms of our pass defense, I thought our corner safeties were outstanding down the field. We got hurt by letting the quarterback out of the pocket. A majority of their plays that were successful in the pass game were him on the run. This is the first game in a month that we haven’t been at 70% or better on third down. They were 8-16 on third down, which is why they had 78 plays. If you go back to Virginia, they had 53 plays and we were off the field in the first 10 third downs in that game. It was disappointing from our standpoint. A lot of it had to do with letting the quarterback out of the pocket.
Offensively, the number one goal right now is to create more explosive plays on the run and the pass. We had zero turnovers, which I’m pleased with. In six games, we’ve had seven turnovers at this point. We’re doing a good job protecting the ball, we’re not creating enough explosive plays. I was encouraged by three of our young wide receivers who had explosive plays in this game. I mentioned Moore with the touchdown, Savedge and Fitzgerald had explosive plays, so those younger guys are coming, they’re starting to gain some confidence, we just need to create more of that, and that’s what we’ll work on, because right now in the run game we’re seeing so much eight and nine men in the box. People are not concerned with our ability to press the ball down the field in the pass game, and that’s something we need to continue to improve on. It was better in this game, it’s got to be better next week. Then we had far too many sacks. That’s a combination of protection, routes, we had a couple of missed assignments on routes where the quarterback held the ball for too long, and then quarterback has to throw the ball away. We’ll work hard at that this week.
This week’s opponent, UAB is 5-1. Bill Clark has done an outstanding job with that team. They’ve won 16 of their last 20 games, they’re the defending league champs. Offensively, they’ve got a good balance, they go for 400 a game, they throw for 250. Tyler Johnston, the quarterback, is returning from last year, he completed 62% of his passes, he’s thrown 10 interceptions, he threw four of them in the Western Kentucky game, which is the best team they’ve played this year. Their running back is by committee and their outstanding at the wideout, Watkins, Parham, and Mitchell all go for over 17 yards per catch. They’re big and physical up front. Defensively, the front seven is the best we’ve seen so far. This year, they lead the league in scoring defense, rushing defense, passing defense, and total defense. They’re making it really hard on their opponents to move the ball. This will be a major challenge for us, but one that I’m excited about, to go play the defending league champions. This is the type of game that can turn a season around. We’ll have a great weak of practice, we’ll work hard with a big emphasis on finishing up what we need to take care of in the fourth quarter. I will gladly take questions.
Q: How do you handle the quarterbacks this week? Do you grade them again, split them even, or did Messiah do enough to get the edge?
BW: Messiah was really good coming in. Unfortunately, the reps Stone was in, we did not play well around him. We had a lot of breakdowns, especially on the plays he got sacked. We’ll go into it; we’re feeling really good about what Messiah accomplished when he came into the game. We’ll grade them in practice, Messiah will get a lot more reps this week with the 1s. But I still feel strongly that we need to develop both of our quarterbacks. This isn’t a situation like it was in 2015, where Shuler Bentley was the quarterback and he just wasn’t playing well, and then David Washington comes in and lights it up against Charlotte, throws for over 300 yards, where you can look at it and say there’s a one and a two now. We want to keep developing both guys, but I’m really pleased with the balls Messiah threw when he came in. We ran the right routes, we had protection, and the one thing he did was throw catchable balls. I know that sounds really fundamental, but when you’re getting blitzed and its one-on-one coverage, and the one Aaron Moore caught was great coverage. We tell the quarterbacks that they’ve got to be able to get his hands on it, and he threw so they could get their hands on it. I’m pleased with the way Messiah performed, and we’ll keep working hard to develop both of those guys.