Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Coach Lennon football press conference transcript
10/06/2014 | 12:00:00 | Football
SIU head coach Dale Lennon met with the media on Monday to discuss the upcoming game against North Dakota State. SIU takes on the No. 1-ranked Bison on Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Fargodome.
By Elizabeth Robinson
SIUSalukis.com
Opening Statement
It’s an exciting week. You work hard and you try to put yourself and your team into position to be in the big games, and we’ve got one in front of us. It’s game seven—still a lot of football to be played after this—but this one will definitely let us know where we’re at.
Q: Does the way Western Illinois was able to play North Dakota State so tough this weekend give you confidence heading into the game?
A: Everyone does the score comparison, but the reality is our league is good and that’s going to be a pretty common occurrence is there’s going to be a lot of close games that are going to be played, a lot of battles that go down to the fourth quarter and it’s just the nature of the league. We feel that we’re at that level where we can compete with this league and therefore that’s why we have to be ready to play our best game on Saturday and that’s what we’re preparing for.
Q: What will it take to win?
A: You have to play four quarters. We’re sitting at 5-1, but we can get a lot better. You look at our game from South Dakota, from Western – there are a lot of areas that we need to coach up and be better at the execution phase of it. That’s probably the biggest thing – I believe we can do a much better job executing the offense and defense, and we’ll need to do that on Saturday to be in that game.
Q: What did Western do so well to limit North Dakota State’s scoring on Saturday?
A: There’s a familiarity with those two programs; the coaches have been in each other’s staff meetings. The Western Illinois defense, number one, is pretty good. I was saying that a couple weeks ago. They run a similar defense to what North Dakota State runs, so they had a pretty good feel for what gave that offense issues. It was a pretty good chess match going back and forth between Western Illinois and North Dakota State. North Dakota State wasn’t at the top of their game either. They left points on the field. There were times they were in the red zone and didn’t get points. They had turnovers, things that can usually get you beat and almost did get them beat.
Q: North Dakota State lost 12 starters and has a new coach. What’s the biggest difference with this year’s team?
A: Right now, not a whole lot. They really made a strong statement when they took it to Iowa State in the fashion they did. Their game with Montana was very impressive. But even there, they settled for five field goals instead of getting touchdowns. There’s not a lot of obvious changes from the past three years. To beat them, you have to go out there and physically do it, and you have to have some breaks go your way.
Q: When you look at them, who drives their offense?
A: Everything starts with the line, and they replaced quite a few of the five starters up front, and they’re doing well. They’re creating some very nice holes, they have three good running backs, so they have a good committee there that’s capable of moving the ball north or south. They’re very physical in their running style so you need to get a lot of hands on them otherwise they’re going to get their four, five or six yards and they’ll bust a big one on you. Their quarterback, Carson Wentz, he’s good. He’s an athlete. I coached his father when I was at Northern State and did a home visit. We tried to recruit Carson here, but that’s a whole other story.
Q: How different is he from Brock Jensen?
A: That’s tough to compare, but I think his arm strength is better, and I think he’s more athletic. He’s a guy that’s a difference maker at the quarterback spot. He runs well enough where he can hurt you with his feet, and he’s not afraid to throw the ball. He’ll throw that cross-field pass and go the extra yardage to get there and he’ll do it. He’ll also do the Brett Favre type passes where he’s tossing the ball underhanded or just flicking it out there trying to get it to his receivers. He has a good feel for the game.
Q: NDSU is 48-2 in their last 50 games, but both losses were in the Fargodome. Do you just need to go into Fargo with fearless attitude into an environment like that?
A: You can’t think about stats because that will get in your head. You have to focus on the game on the field. Once the game starts, all those stats disappear, and it just comes down to the execution of that play that you’re in. That’s the mentality that we have to have. We can’t be listening to what the media are saying. We can’t be listening to what the fans are saying. We have to be working on our game and try to get it to the level where it’s competitive.
Q: Two years ago, SIU was leading NDSU at the Fargodome in fourth quarter. Do you guys take anything away from that for a game like this?
A: I’ve always liked coaching in domes. I was a dome coach at University of North Dakota, so through the years you learn a few things that can help you prepare for it. And it’s more mentally than physically, just kind of knowing what the experience is going to be like and then have some fun with it. I think it’s a great atmosphere going there. They put on an incredible show, and the fans are going to be as energetic as any fans that you’ll find in college football, period. How can that not get you fired up?
Q: How have you prepared your guys for the noise, and how much have you used the silent count this year?
A: We haven’t had a need for the silent count. Even when we played Purdue, that wasn’t even close to what we’ll be experiencing on Saturday. We’ll have some learning curves early in the week. Fargo makes it difficult place to play. It’s not just third down there when they’re bringing the noise. They’re bringing it on first down, second down and third down. So there isn’t much difference between the third down and the first down when your offense is trying to take the snaps. I think that makes the Fargodome a very unique place to play, because I don’t know too many venues in the country that have that type of atmosphere.
Q: You’ve had a good road team last couple of seasons – is this group capable of continuing that?
A: Being on the road, I kind of enjoy it. It’s something that doesn’t concern us. We have a good routine. Our guys know what to expect with the road trips. This will be our first fly trip, so it’s a little different than what we’d normally do, but a lot of times the flights are even quicker than the bus trips, so we’ll handle the trip as it comes.
Q: Some of your best defenses have scored a lot on defense - do you feel like you’re doing everything you need to do to prevent those types of plays?
A: Don’t get too caught up in stats. This defense, we may not be creating the type of turnovers, but we’re getting the ball back to the offense in good fashion. Sometimes if you get a quick 3-and-out, that’s a good thing. We need to improve our turnover numbers – that’s definitely a number that we’re concerned about. We want to force turnovers. We want to be optimistic, but at the same time, anytime your offense has the ball, your defense has done its job as far as getting it to them in a quick fashion.
Q: What’s your impression of Colten Heagle? Are they using him differently than they have in the past?
A: No, their safeties have always been incredible. I think it’s part of the package that they run, but both him and Christian Dudzik are good. They’re really good. They’ve been playing that package for a while. They’re extremely active. They trigger so fast. That’s the thing that amazes me, just how fast they can trigger and react on a play and still have their reads in tact. Whatever they’re doing, they’re coaching those kids up pretty well.
Q: Does that make them more susceptible to a screen or reverse?
A: It impresses me because they’re never out of position. You try to put them in situation where they’ll bite on something they shouldn’t, and it’s tough to get them out of position. That’s what makes them that good on defense when you’re that solid at the safety position.
Q: Are their safety positions closer to the line of scrimmage than you’d normally see?
A: The key word that I’m using here is trigger. He triggers, and he’s at 10-to-12 yards many times just like everyone else. When he triggers, he has good closing speed, he’s a good athlete, and he’s very confident in his tackles. You will not see him miss many tackles in the open field. So that allows them defensively to do a few more things because they have safeties that are capable of performing at that level.
Q: When you look at film from the South Dakota game, how efficient was (Mark) Iannotti?
A: The first half wasn’t his best half, and the second half was a lot better. The second half performance is what we need to see from him. There’s going to be a lot of pressure on Mark with this game just because of the environment and having to do some things with a silent count. This is the next step in his progression.
Q: MyCole (Pruitt) is over 100 yards in three straight games – he’s clearly doing something right.
A: What makes that statistic even more impressive is the fact that he’s doing that from the tight end position. We will line him up wide, but he’s getting those catches after lining up as a tight end, too. The majority of his day is spent blocking and working the run blocks in the schemes we’re asking him to do, and then when it’s his turn to step up and make the plays he’s been ready to do that. I think that’s what makes MyCole’s statistics extremely impressive: It’s being done from the tight end position.
Q: Is there any differential last game between how you grade the offensive line in the first half or the second half?
A: There are always factors involved. The first half is always going to be a little more challenging. You don’t know what you’re going to see. Each team is preparing for each other, and they’re not doing exactly the same things that they’ve been doing up to that game. So there has to be a little bit of adjustment that has to go on from the first half to the second half. Same thing defensively. Offense makes a point of changing up their formations, their plays, giving you different looks that you haven’t seen or prepared for, so that’s always the challenge in the fist half. Usually by the second half you settle down, and you’ve made note of the changes, and you’ve been able to adapt. In theory, your team should be looking better in the second half because they’re more aware of what the opposition is doing on the other side of the field. The South Dakota game was a perfect example of that. By the second half, our guys were doing a pretty impressive job up at the line.
Q: Injury report?
A: Injury-wise, we haven’t lost anyone. We should get a couple guys back here. We’ll see where we’re at on Tuesday or Wednesday. The big thing now that we need to deal with is our travel team. We’ve been traveling with a bigger number than the conference allows, so now we need to cut our numbers down to what the conference allows, which is 60 guys.
Q: Blocks that Wirth was using in the game…some of the blocks he just got the guy moving the other way, he didn’t blast off the line, he just took him out of the play.
A: Just because you’re 6-8 and 350 pounds doesn’t mean you’re a good offensive lineman. You need technique. You need some savvy. You just need to know how to be effective and what’s required of that play, and you go out and execute the block and what’s been taught to you. That’s where Coach O’Boyle does such a good job is just the technique part that our linemen are doing. He’s giving them a chance to be successful, regardless off their size and abilities.
