Norfolk St Post Conference After 23-24 Loss to FAMU in MEAC/SWAC Challenge 2024

well first of all uh you guys got a chance to see an entertaining football game CU um many of you probably didn't expect that but I've been explaining to people we got a good football team and we got to believe that but once that belief kick in Spartans going to be hard to deal with this year and we got a chance to put a lot of people on notice I'm proud of these guys the coaches our program that came a long way we came up one point one point short but what I tell our guys is that I can be excited for victory I'm humble and lost because I always try to find the positives we ran the football and for the most part of the game we stopped the Run we held a really good football team in check for the most of the game and we was in a football game all the way to the to the last horn we didn't make a few plays they made a few plays in the second half and we battled back and we just came away a little short I went for two because I felt like a lot guys started crapping so don't know if we' had enough of gas to finish that football game but when you make that penalty our offense have been playing well and I I can live with that decision cuz we didn't come down here to play a football game we came down here to win a football game and that's the mindset that I've always coach with and that's the mindset I want our guys to play with and even though it was one point short three things I told him we had to we had to do in order to give ourselves a chance we had to win the penalty battle uh that was probably close had to win the turnover B him and I think we did that and we had to play with unbelievable effort and one thing I know anybody that watched this game they cannot question the effort of these young men and that's what I'm most proud of because we owe that to the people that pay to watch them play just to play with great effort and I thought they did that tonight okay we'll take questions for the student athletes we're going to start in the back to with Mr Ricks black hat St your name please Ernest re mmv Sports um K this questions for you um going into this game um what did you see on film that allowed you to just make the moov that you made and and basically take advantage of the running life that you did to me so basically I was just trusting my trusting the process and watching film with uh with my coaches and ex please thank kendri yeah I'm Kendrick Mar ex Sports um how much how much confidence you guys have in in the two conversion play call again I trust my co fully so whatever he whatever decision he make on R Jak McDonald cor 360 Sports uh I'm interested in understanding uh the running game definitely was working uh I'm I'm a little wondering why they're running four passes I mean it was only like four in the first half well you I mean I don't know guys I mean what what I mean what were you watching I mean it's somebody can't stop something why would you go to something else we literally ran the ball down the HBCU national champs throat tonight we bulled him up and down the field all night long in the running game so why would we why would we stop I mean I don't have no stat sheet but I'm quite sure our our rushing yards are something they're not accustomed to if you go look at the stats from a year ago they went top 10 in all categories when it come to defense but I've always said with our football team is that we believe we can run the football on anybody I mean I think our offensive line is one of the best in the country I think our offensive coaches do a great job and I think our offensive coordin naan said we'll take them five yards and we'll take them 10 yards but when you can run the football like that that's why we was in this ball game we kept the ball game close we controlled the time of possession we played winning football winning football ain't pretty but it's winning football football is all about giving your team the best chance to win week in and week out and some weeks you can run the ball some weeks you might have to throw the ball but tonight the running game gave us a chance to win a football game and I'm proud of these guys and how they ran it because that's a that's an emotion that you got to deal with because I coach on defense when somebody can run the football it's tough to deal with because you got to go and do some soul search because that's Pride so just a reminder we are asking questions to the student athletes in the back van and the gentlemen the black shirt next T Bon Wilson Capital Outlook HBCU game day guys the story of last year for Norfolk State the record you know said one thing but all those one score games but this one was a little different I would I would say would you all agree with me that this was just a little bit different this was a little bit closer and it's student yes sir sir they ain't going to say too much is that an answer well last year I say we ain't we ain't dominated as much as we did this year I feel like we was more disciplined but we ain't we didn't finish at this as we started so that's was the difference between this and um I'm Justin FLV from Tomorrow L sports network um this question is for Kevin King um you finished a game with 14 ression yards how do you how does that affect your uh your confidence going into the season after this game um my confidence has boosted a lot because I trust in my old line and trust my reads any additional questions for the athletes all right I don't expect an extended answer but um what was the um if you kind of had to walk away with something that you're most proud of right I know that it was a tough loss but if you had to walk away with thing that you're most proud of tonight what would that be I'll would be most proud of us staying as a team I say the same thing the UN afterwards stay together still better than any question right here blue shirt Rocky Miller HBCU Coaches Corner um as you guys were preparing for this upcoming game this is to the players were you guys concerned about the speed and athleticism that fam you presented today no sir it wasn't one athlete that was better than our athletes we just they was more disciplined they coach from HBC coach how you doing coach he coach guys U I know you guys was playing with a I guess an experienced quarterback using the top guy how much did that hurt you tonight and how much did the game plan cired around but we do got to be very successful in running football it really didn't hurt us cuz we believe in him like he's a very very good quter yeah if y'all was at the Y was allowed to be at the the fall camps and yall would saw how good is we have no worry about what he can do and Y going see what he can do okay all right thank you guys thank all right questions for Coach just a reminder please raise your hand so that we can see it and wait for the mic before you ask a question in the corner back there Earl Earl kitchings quari back Awards coach how would you rate Jaylen Daniels tonight being that he had to come in the way he did because he he look real polished now how would you rate him on the way he played tonight kind of what I expected I didn't have no problem with him being a starting quarterback it's just it's all inh house so when you guys on the outside I know you want a story um I know you looking for a story but Jay Daniel is a good quarterback this I mean what did he show you tonight that that didn't resemble a good quarterback um our offense didn't have one turnover we were pretty good on third down we moved the ball up and down the field uh we executed in the Red Zone the difference in this field in this game was a field goal we we we missed the field goal we had an extra point well that led to me going for two as well so you look at all those things and I think for his first start for the Spartans he's only going to growth in that game confidence you know I know you you probably want to know why we didn't spread the ball around and push it down the field and but it wasn't the game plan the game plan always changes based on what you're able to do and one of the reasons I hire coach Phillips is because he understands that when things are going a certain way we don't have to change we're not just calling plays to call plays it's it's up to them to stop us and I thought he put our quarterback in a good position when it was third and long we didn't press to try to you know push the ball down the field we we called a game that allowed our football team to play as a team a couple blunders and special teams but other than that I thought our football team played well for a lot of the unknowns cuz this was an unknown football game got a lot of question marks new offensive coordinator new defensive coordinator new head coach who calling plays what they doing how they doing it 50 new players or so on the football team and it was a lot of unknowns but for our football team to come into an environment with a lot of unknowns and play up to the speed of the national champions and the defending national champions give ourselves a chance to win a football game I thought we took the next step and I told him we're going to find out y'all don't have to keep asking we're going to find out if the Spartans are able to compete at the highest level HBCU football and you all decide what grade you're going to give and how you go about doing that but we have lot grade as well we're going to go to the back coach how you doing coach uh regie chadman 11 live TV here in Atlanta yes um this event here in Atlanta um obviously maybe not the results you wanted but just the opportunity to come here be in this environment situation um what can you say about just being here in Atlanta how important it is for um HBCU Athletics to have events like this here in the city first of all what they have done with the VX swack challenge is giv us a platform nor state was in the homes of people that don't even know where North State located I looked at it today and I was watching and it said we was minus 13 I was like what they basing that on one thing about people they always think about last year if we base everything on last year how good are we going to really be this year I know last year you know I was a little bit up in my weight but this year I'm down so I don't understand it but I I understand it but at the end of the day I just think that we have a great platform here in Atlanta and we have a chance to Showcase it we we gave our guys an unbelievable experience we took them to the king C we took them to the Hall of Fame and because I believe that the impact is greater than just being football players these guys are going to represent our communities and we want them to be great fathers and great husbands and we have a chance to do that at HBCU where a lot of people don't so we don't we take got time and we invested in these young men and hopefully we'll get a thank you later in life because we do it for them okay to your over here coach um I'm pleased to say this was a great game and I would I would like to say my name is wisdom Anderson ESPN am300 to Zone ihart media Austin Texas what does a result of a game like this do to prepare you for it through the rest of the season you just got to look at what you came up short uh and try not to make those mistakes again and put yourself in a position to come up on the W side of these contest we knew it was going to be challenging we knew he was playing against a football team that that know how to win and we want this game to come down to the fourth quarter and give ourselves a chance to win but we don't like losing but what I always try to get people to understand is that somebody is going to win this football game and somebody's going to lose tonight we would at somebody that lost but if we learn from it we're always winning and that's the thing I always tell our players what did we learn from this game and how can we grow from it cuz we got long season and we feel like we can get a lot better and we can play a lot better what it starts with I believe I think that's what start Jared Hoffman HBC esports.com coach you talked about you know the play of your offensive line everybody's going to look at cavon King and see all of his rushing yards and touchdowns that he scored but talk about the offensive line and the job that he they did to create those open lanes for him to be successful tonight well it don't happen without them and I've talked about the strength of our football team on offense is our offensive line and when you hear fam you talk about their offense they said the strength of their offense is their offensive line well I I also think we're pretty good on the defensive line and they're pretty good on defensive line so this game was about adjustments and I thought our offensive guys made great adjustments so when we came out in the third quarter we took some shots uh they were stack in the box so we pushed the ball down the field U It's All About Numbers you know only 11 guys can go after there so they mean they going to put six on one side of the field so if you're running the football you you always run with the numbers in your favor or you try to get the numbers in your favor so that's where you get the plus one running game with the quarterback you always trying to do things to manipulate the defense you trying to move their eyes you trying to create Lanes both offenses were trying to do the same thing um but one just made a couple plays more than the other one to win the football game but they were pretty identical they really wanted to run the football but they couldn't run the football so they open it up with the short intermediate passing game Crossing routes hitches they hit us with a over route so when you look at those things it Balan itself out that's why it's a onepoint game that's why it's a close football game because when you look at it both teams were evenly matched that's why the entertainment was great for tonight's game and and hopefully that people saw that our program is is one to deserve recognition and credit for where we're going because we're going we're going some places so our last two questions right here and then in back coach Jake McDonald cor 360 Sports it's kind of a two-part question two-part question one uh did F do anything different than you expected them to do and the second part is your defensive line looked like they were able to get pressure but they just couldn't get them down when they needed to they did a lot of the stuff that we saw on film from a year ago and the the quarterback he's a he's a heavy football player he don't look like it but he's a heavy football player he's played a lot of snaps so his experience is it's something that you have to take into account when it come to playing the position um but I I really thought that they were well coach um some of the stories you heard about their teams last year uh they were better disciplined than they were a year ago and as you can see both teams were were fairly low in penalties we pride ourselves on being disciplined and I really respect where their program is and how much success they had and I felt like our guys came to compete at a high level uh they they're a good football team they're going to get better they still trying to figure out the pieces and how to put those pieces together but they have some players they have some players but we do too and that's what I'm more focus on is how can we become better and get better each and every day Ernest re mmv sports coach with there something something about um fam you that you saw previously that gave you all the the approach to come in running the football as much as you did or is that just your offensive identity we can run the football on anybody we believe that all line believe that and you stack the Box we believe we can throw the football on anybody we just believe we have people that can make plays all over the field it's just what are you willing to give up and that's the thing about playing defense in today's game it's hard to stop everything did you watch Georgia Tech play Florida State uh you made a lot of money had you probably put it on Georgia Tech yeah but nobody nobody made that bet a lot of people made that bet they might have picked them you know but that's what this game offers you it offers you a opportunity for the unbelievable to take place the unexpected to happen because young men go out and they get better and they develop and that's what happened that's what you saw tonight you saw a football team that developed in the offseason they got bigger that got stronger that became closer together and they played like a football team and when you play like a football team you're going to always have a chance to win football games now we got to taste victories and we're going to we're going to taste victories this year we we want to be in the conversation in November cuz everybody know our conference is decided in November so you know we got to play the gaunlet well we broke our Gauntlet up this year we only got four late in the year cuz we going to play North Carolina Central early so we know what we got to do in the challenges we Face to get there and we feel like we got a chance as long as we can stay healthy and keep working going one and0 every day trusting the process and believing in each other we like our chances thank you co