UMass FB | Post Game Press Conference vs Eastern Michigan | 08/31/24

open up for questions ah it a hard game you know openers always are because you know to for them they uh lot of new faces a lot of new portal faces and guys that have moved around but uh you know obviously um you know they their quarterback who was in the league at Buffalo obviously you know did a pretty good job of just kind of keeping them keeping them right and keeping them on track you know not that it was anything crazy but he was 17 to 29 with no picks you know in just that limited issue right there no interceptions you know that's a big deal um we had two pis that resulted in uh touchdown drives not necessarily the play but it it it had occurred during two drives and uh that really hurt us I mean that's 14 points and uh you know I thought I thought for the most part for the first three quarters we did a good job in the Run game um pass game got away from us a little bit in the fourth quarter and uh you know two of them were on missed tackles and uh you know you know obviously uh we had some turnovers and uh you not not as much turnover as penalties on the offensive side that derailed us as well so you know when you're playing a team that's you know you're fairly comparable with you know those things become big and uh we were at the low end of the stick with the penalties yeah so on Monday you mentioned um Cole knowing him and knowing him for Buffalo and knowing his strengths uh what makes him so challenging to play against well I I think he's one of the few guys that'll take what you give him uh he's not going to force the ball in into certain areas of the field uh he's going to you're going to give him a you know a short gain he's going to take the short game you're going to give him a a quick sideline route he's going to take the sideline route some guys won't you know they they'll just bypass it and try to HW it down the field and I I think he's uh you know he's a mature guy he's been around the block a little bit and uh you know I thought he uh played with some Poise today were you a little upset I guess about how many hits Tyson took today and I guess how are you feeling about the offensive line they 6X well you know uh that's a big deal you know uh obviously we had a couple guys Nick to uh so uh we got to go back to the drawing board and we also got to go back to the uh training room and make sure we get these guys back healthy um but yeah you know that's it was on good days right there now you know six sacks is not a fun day and usually we respond in that area with our own havoc and today we just didn't we didn't have that there were a couple opportunities we hit the quarterback just as it released the ball on three different plays but there's a difference between hitting them after the ball's released and sacking them or or knocking the ball loose or creating havoc and uh we just didn't do that uh took the offense a little while to to find its sea legs what did you see without looking at the film and was it a con and how much of a concern is a slow start like that well so really it's a it's a tough tough deal um the the one guy that I was somewhat uh pleased with today was Jaylen John I thought he did a good job he had 55 yards rushing and uh he had 42 yards receiving and here's a guy that did nothing a year ago and uh you know back when I was at Arizona in 21 he he he was a you know he was a a solid contributor and I thought he he showed those traits today I thought he did and uh so that was good to see um simps you know had a couple opportun unities to kind of crack it crack it open a little bit um not that he didn't make any plays but you know we need him to be a play maker and uh you know uh unfortunately for us you know he didn't have his best day when we needed him too but at the same time you know uh he'll go back to work I know he's a warrior Soldier and he'll go back to work and uh get this thing right for sure what did what was the difference coming out in the third quarter looked like everybody was a lot more on point than they were than they were in the first half what did you talk about it or was it just no you know what we did when we went in at halftime we talked about the corrections that needed to be made sometimes you know you know I'll be honest with you sometimes that yelling and screaming and all that stuff sometimes it's good and sometimes it's not good today was about guys we got to clean this up stick together and go out out and play the second half of this game because we there's plenty of opportunities left to get back in the game and to win the game and that's not lying that's telling the truth so uh you know that's that's really the approach that we took it wasn't uh you know uh more about you know the Rah speeches there was none of that it was about correcting the mistakes that were made in and uh going about your going going about your business as you went out in the second half coach Tyson with round 30 pass attempts today also over 50 rushing yards off of options Anders were you and Shane planning on using him as much on the ground with his knee there wait a minute now if he wasn't healthy he would not be playing we did not play him at all during the winter time during the springtime at any of those those times did we play him so that he when his moment came here this season he'd be ready to go so you know uh I think we uh we uh did a really good job of uh trying to keep him you know healthy uh get him back healthy and you know you he did take a few hits but he got up and ran right back to the you know the the not the Huddle but you know right back to the offensive zone and went right back to work you know so you know I'm not I just don't want to get into you know he's hurt we we're playing that's not true and I don't want to make that a case Eastern Michigan had uh two scoring drives that were 30 seconds long uh why do you think their their no huddle offense was so effective today uh you know again like I I mentioned to you know we're at the end of the day when you look at it we we were still putting new systems together and new uh schemes together with new Personnel uh you know there was a time last week we we actually put the tape on and there was not one guy that was that was here uh it was all new guys from February on so we're still fighting that a little bit and that's fine we just got to get them get them all on the same page and go about our business so overall how do you think ton play given the protection well I know he's better than what he is but you know and that's what he would say but you know he had 16 rushes for 90 yards it's a pretty good day his long was 33 okay his net obviously was 57 but that happens to most quarterbacks you know they lose a lot of net yards he's 20 for 30 for 177 you know I think that's a pretty solid day you know uh he gets all the accolades he gets all the blame you know but the bottom line is the guy is a warrior and uh I think he's a Sunday player I really do this will be important to keep him healthy and moving on week to week because I I'm I'm kind of excited of what we're going to have as we continue to move forward I think he's going to make significant gains as we move forward can you talk about the Special Teams today know that's something you want to prove on the offseason kicking you know coverage I'll tell you I'm going to be honest as a heart attack our kicker coming into today has been a dude that's all I know I evaluate it I've watched him kick 50 yard field goals I've watched them kick him from the right hash the left hash the middle and here he comes out today you know his first uh time on the you know kicking under pressure in front of an audience so you know the nice thing's going to be on Monday I'm going to just flat out ask them so what are you going to do now you going to roll up or you going to show me the the type of player that you were showing us on a day-to-day basis and uh you know I'm assuming that that's the area of because that's the area that we struggled in I don't know what did we miss six points today you know and that's six at that time that's six significant points but you know we didn't make them so coach the running back room was a pretty big question mark coming into this season losing a couple big transfers last year how do you think that group kind of did today the new transfers did you did you how do you think they did I thought they did pretty well yeah I thought so too you know they're better though you know that's that's the whole thing you know you know the anticipation was I thought we'd get a little bit better play out of those guys as a group I thought the collect collectivity of it was going to make each one of them better and knowing that they they could go all out every snap they take because there's somebody that can come in and give them a blow so we'll just kind of keep working on that but uh you know like I told you I thought Jaylen John you know uh had a pretty damn good day um which is good I thought the other guys were complimentary uh but we got a long way to go for sure you win the opener last year in an impressive game you you dropped the opener this year does it will the second game feel different does it you because you were so optim there was so much optimism coming off the first game I'll be honest with you I'm not La I don't have a lack of optimism if that's what you're asking uh you know I mean hey we didn't we didn't uh we didn't get it done you know uh you I didn't you asked me did I think we were going to have two penalties that were going to lead to touchdown drives on defense no you know did I think we were going to have six sacks that you know anytime that you have a play that takes you back and makes it a a a second and long or a third and long that's difficult stuff you know there's also also times I thought we moved it pretty good but not enough continuity not enough consistency and I'll be honest you need the offense and defense to be complimentary I didn't think there was much of that at all so with the running back room specifically with Brandon didn't see him come back onto the field after that penalty in the second quarter what was the reason for him not coming back on that you know you can't can't do those things you know that's a JV attitude we're not doing that so thanks