CMU vs. Syracuse Postgame Quotes
9/13/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 13, 2014
Central Michigan Head Coach Dan Enos
Opening statement
"Went from the penthouse to the outhouse pretty quick. It was humbling today - that was a good football team and beat us in all three phases, really. We have to move forward from here. "
Inability to run the ball
"We weren't efficient running it. We weren't consistent - there weren't enough consistent plays. We had three, four-yard plays. We weren't very good at pass protection, quarterback or wide out - so that's a bad combination. A lot of it had to do with the way they played - I thought they played very well. You could tell they had another week to prepare."
Pressure on Rush, was it more than you expected?
"No - I said that all week. They blitzed 60 to 70 percent of the snaps. It's feast or famine - it was feast for them."
What do you think of Jesse Kroll's performance today?
"Good. He made some plays - he made some mistakes too. He's a playmaker and we know that about him. He's got great size and body control. He is about the only one on offensive who made explosive plays for us today."
Is game planning for a mobile quarterback one of the tougher things?
"I thought he [Terrel Hunt] threw it well. I think that was the big difference. He mad a couple plays in running the ball, but his ability to make some of those throws on third down, especially, that's the one thing you haven't seen him do over the course of time. He did that today and I have to give him credit."
With running backs that did play today, were they prepared for today's game?
"Yes - they were. We get them all ready all week. They all get a ton of reps. We always plan everything like someone is going to get hurt the first series of the game. And then what are we going to do. We plan as a coaching staff. I hate to be so morbid sometimes, but that's what we have to do - preparing. That's why we wanted Devon Spalding, Amari Coleman and Mitch Stanitzek to play in these nonconference games so when we get to our MAC game, we have these guys ready to go and the game won't be too big from them."
Syracuse Head Coach Scott Shafer
Opening Statement:
"First off, I thought we had a very good victory today against a well coached, disciplined Central Michigan team. I was extremely pleased with the job our coaching staff did in the last two weeks since the Villanova game. We came with a bad taste out of our mouth even though we lucked our way into a victory in game one, I thought we definitely earned this victory today. I really challenged the defense to play well on stopping the run. Coach Bullough, Coach Daoust, Coach Reed, Coach Lea did a heck of a job getting those kids ready to play. 26 yards rushing I think unofficially … which is just a phenomenal job by those coaches and by those players obviously. I'm really looking forward to getting this video up because I want to look at it and I'm hoping it's going to look how I think it's going to look. A physical football team that our fan base can say, 'Okay they're back, they're playing physical, tough hard-nosed football the way Syracuse kids should, and will in the future.' So that's the first part. Offensively great job, 289 yards rushing, great job. I thought we took care of the football, which was key. It was great to see so many kids get to play and be apart of a productive victory. A lot of running backs playing on the field, a lot of people in personnel substitution situations getting on the field, so it was a great team victory and we understand we have a great challenge in front of us, going into the Maryland game.
How much of the play calling was, maybe lets get a little bit of confidence back in Terrel- those three scores for him on his own.
"It really wasn't that way, it was just run our offense and run it better than the week before. As simple as that."
Coach talk about the play of your defensive line, they seemed to come up big early.
"Yeah they seemed good, I liked some of the schematic things that Coach Bullough and the staff put in against a two-back team that was running a lot of lead plays both to the strong and weak side, and it all starts up front. When you look at the productivity that some of the linebackers had especially in the first half because I think we had some TFL productivity out of the linebackers and I know Dyshawn made a lot of tackles as well. But it all starts up front. Those kids don't always get the credit unless it's sacks, but the hard numbers that are really well worth pointing out are the numbers that go unseen; taking on double teams, pressing the line of scrimmage, making the ball go sideways so the linebackers and secondary can clean things up. So I was pleased with the way the defensive line played. It was a good job, anytime you can hold them to 26 yards rushing that's a great job and I couldn't be more pleased with those men up front."
Your defense also putting points on the board, how nice is it to take the pressure off the offense for a couple of drives?
"It's great, we always talk about being greater than the offensive side of the ball on the kicking game but on defense you can be extremely creative as well. You'd like to create turnovers and to see us create that turnover and take it back was a big deal. And we had to come up with some interceptions.
Coming off the Villanova game, not a complete performance, offense, defense, special teams. Will you comment on the big turn around?
"Well I think our coaching staff, my assistant coaches did a great job. We kept our thumbs on them good and hard. We were physical, we had a lot of physical practices. I'm not going to tell you the kids were feeling good coming into this game, I know they were sore. But that's what we have to be at Syracuse, we have to be a tough football team and I think at times we showed that today. We're going to have to take it to a new level to reach our goals as we go week in and week out. But I was pleased with what the coaches did, with what the players did in their preparation and the way they worked at it, when we were hard on them. I think that we need to stay true to that formula as we get into this Maryland game plan.
Did you have to do any scrambling when you heard Rawls wasn't going to play?
"No, when I heard he wasn't going to play I didn't even want to say anything to the kids because they were really juiced up to play him and try to slow him down and unfortunately we weren't able to play against him."
Central Michigan vs. Syracuse
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Central Michigan Head Coach Dan Enos
Opening statement
"Went from the penthouse to the outhouse pretty quick. It was humbling today - that was a good football team and beat us in all three phases, really. We have to move forward from here. "
Inability to run the ball
"We weren't efficient running it. We weren't consistent - there weren't enough consistent plays. We had three, four-yard plays. We weren't very good at pass protection, quarterback or wide out - so that's a bad combination. A lot of it had to do with the way they played - I thought they played very well. You could tell they had another week to prepare."
Pressure on Rush, was it more than you expected?
"No - I said that all week. They blitzed 60 to 70 percent of the snaps. It's feast or famine - it was feast for them."
What do you think of Jesse Kroll's performance today?
"Good. He made some plays - he made some mistakes too. He's a playmaker and we know that about him. He's got great size and body control. He is about the only one on offensive who made explosive plays for us today."
Is game planning for a mobile quarterback one of the tougher things?
"I thought he [Terrel Hunt] threw it well. I think that was the big difference. He mad a couple plays in running the ball, but his ability to make some of those throws on third down, especially, that's the one thing you haven't seen him do over the course of time. He did that today and I have to give him credit."
With running backs that did play today, were they prepared for today's game?
"Yes - they were. We get them all ready all week. They all get a ton of reps. We always plan everything like someone is going to get hurt the first series of the game. And then what are we going to do. We plan as a coaching staff. I hate to be so morbid sometimes, but that's what we have to do - preparing. That's why we wanted Devon Spalding, Amari Coleman and Mitch Stanitzek to play in these nonconference games so when we get to our MAC game, we have these guys ready to go and the game won't be too big from them."
Syracuse Head Coach Scott Shafer
Opening Statement:
"First off, I thought we had a very good victory today against a well coached, disciplined Central Michigan team. I was extremely pleased with the job our coaching staff did in the last two weeks since the Villanova game. We came with a bad taste out of our mouth even though we lucked our way into a victory in game one, I thought we definitely earned this victory today. I really challenged the defense to play well on stopping the run. Coach Bullough, Coach Daoust, Coach Reed, Coach Lea did a heck of a job getting those kids ready to play. 26 yards rushing I think unofficially … which is just a phenomenal job by those coaches and by those players obviously. I'm really looking forward to getting this video up because I want to look at it and I'm hoping it's going to look how I think it's going to look. A physical football team that our fan base can say, 'Okay they're back, they're playing physical, tough hard-nosed football the way Syracuse kids should, and will in the future.' So that's the first part. Offensively great job, 289 yards rushing, great job. I thought we took care of the football, which was key. It was great to see so many kids get to play and be apart of a productive victory. A lot of running backs playing on the field, a lot of people in personnel substitution situations getting on the field, so it was a great team victory and we understand we have a great challenge in front of us, going into the Maryland game.
How much of the play calling was, maybe lets get a little bit of confidence back in Terrel- those three scores for him on his own.
"It really wasn't that way, it was just run our offense and run it better than the week before. As simple as that."
Coach talk about the play of your defensive line, they seemed to come up big early.
"Yeah they seemed good, I liked some of the schematic things that Coach Bullough and the staff put in against a two-back team that was running a lot of lead plays both to the strong and weak side, and it all starts up front. When you look at the productivity that some of the linebackers had especially in the first half because I think we had some TFL productivity out of the linebackers and I know Dyshawn made a lot of tackles as well. But it all starts up front. Those kids don't always get the credit unless it's sacks, but the hard numbers that are really well worth pointing out are the numbers that go unseen; taking on double teams, pressing the line of scrimmage, making the ball go sideways so the linebackers and secondary can clean things up. So I was pleased with the way the defensive line played. It was a good job, anytime you can hold them to 26 yards rushing that's a great job and I couldn't be more pleased with those men up front."
Your defense also putting points on the board, how nice is it to take the pressure off the offense for a couple of drives?
"It's great, we always talk about being greater than the offensive side of the ball on the kicking game but on defense you can be extremely creative as well. You'd like to create turnovers and to see us create that turnover and take it back was a big deal. And we had to come up with some interceptions.
Coming off the Villanova game, not a complete performance, offense, defense, special teams. Will you comment on the big turn around?
"Well I think our coaching staff, my assistant coaches did a great job. We kept our thumbs on them good and hard. We were physical, we had a lot of physical practices. I'm not going to tell you the kids were feeling good coming into this game, I know they were sore. But that's what we have to be at Syracuse, we have to be a tough football team and I think at times we showed that today. We're going to have to take it to a new level to reach our goals as we go week in and week out. But I was pleased with what the coaches did, with what the players did in their preparation and the way they worked at it, when we were hard on them. I think that we need to stay true to that formula as we get into this Maryland game plan.
Did you have to do any scrambling when you heard Rawls wasn't going to play?
"No, when I heard he wasn't going to play I didn't even want to say anything to the kids because they were really juiced up to play him and try to slow him down and unfortunately we weren't able to play against him."
Players Mentioned
DB
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WR
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RB
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DE
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