Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Head Coach Dale Lennon press conference transcript
10/05/2015 | 12:00:00 | Football
By Tony McDaniel
SIUSalukis.com
Opening Statement:
Another opportunity, another big week for us. The key for us is to take a good look at the game at Western Illinois and learn some things there. Hopefully we can take that step that we need to take as a program in order for us to get that next win. That will be the challenge. It definitely was a heartbreaking loss at Macomb, but it's something we need to learn from and move on, so that's what we're doing.
Q: What was the biggest positive from putting yourself in a position to win in a game on the road?
The positive is we're playing exciting football. If you've been to our first four games, you've probably left thinking, ‘Wow, what a game.' In fact, that was the first thing I said to Bob Nielson after walking across the field to meet him was, "Wow, what a game." It was back and forth. There were lead changes. There were guys making plays. That's what you love about college football. Now, we've just got to find a way to get on the plus side of that and get the win. We know we can make the plays. It's just the finish part we've got to come through with.
Q: You mentioned after watching film you learned some lessons. What were some of the lessons you learned from Western?
Right now, we're not doing well at the start. In the first quarter, we came out, had a three-and-out, had to punt and gave them good field position and four plays later they scored a touchdown. We come out in the third quarter, same situation. They get the ball, go down and score. We get the ball, throw an interception and they go down and score in one play. You're looking at a short span there where we've given up 21 points. It's a focus thing. We have to be prepared. We have to come out ready to play and that hurt us. Once we regrouped and got back into it we were able to play. It's something that we're definitely addressing. Some of it could be our youthfulness, but there are enough veterans in there. We have to be locked in and ready from the get go. Sometimes you might be too hyped up. Those are things that we have addressed, and we just have to get better at it.
Q: How much do you put on your senior leadership?
We put a lot on the senior leadership. If you look at our team, we can be considered as fairly young. I read an article about Missouri State and their youth and how they had 12 or 16 players that are freshmen or sophomores at the one or two spot on the depth chart. Well we're at 20 players that are either freshman or sophomores at the one or two spot on the depth chart. The senior leadership has to set the tone. They show how it's done and how we prepare and that goes all the way through into the weekend. Just to mentally prepare for the game, experience helps.
Q: When you've lost three or four games, how do you keep spirits high?
You keep everything front of you. A lot of these guys have played a lot of football in their lives. The expression I've been telling the guys is every week is a season. That's pretty much what we have to do. This week coming up for us is a big, big week for us. This is our season right now that we're getting ready for. We have to put proper emphasis on it. You can't have any let down from one week to the next. You have to prepare the same way we did for Liberty. We have to have it this week preparing for Missouri State. It's just that sense of urgency that has to happen. We've still got a lot of football in front of us, so hanging our head would be ridiculous at this point. We just have to go to work and get better.
Q: What do you know about Dave Steckel, the first year coach at Missouri State?
I met coach Steckel in 1984. We were both young coaches trying to figure out where we were going to go in our careers and our paths crossed as a friend type thing. I've kept track of him. He's kept track of me. We've never coached against each other, so this will be kind of new. We've got a lot of similar coaching friends. I like Dave. He's a good person. He coaches the game the way it should be coached, and he's had a lot of success. You like seeing good things happen to good guys.
Q: What's noteworthy about the offense and defense they run?
Defensively, it won't be a whole lot different than what we just saw at Western Illinois. There's going to be some carry over there. It's a 4-3 defense. Western Illinois's defense gave us some issues, so there are some issues there we need to address. Offensively, they're running the system that most colleges are running right now. Lots of shotgun, lots of zone read-type offense and option runs. It's a difficult offense to defend; they try to spread you out. They have quite a few players returning from last year. They have quite a few skilled players at the running back core, at the receiving core. They definitely have the capabilities of hitting the big play on you.
Q: Your defense was able to capitalize on some turnovers. How confident are you that you're team will be able to do that on an every game basis?
You have to. We've got to win the turnover battle, because if we don't, we'll get beat. That's just such a big part, and we've got to get points off of them. Turnovers mean nothing if you don't get points off of them.
Q: How important is it to keep Daquan Isom involved in the offense?
It's important, but you've got to give Western Illinois credit. They did a very good job taking away the perimeter game and a lot of the plays where Daquan has had some success running. It was tough sledding. That's why our quarterback carried the ball more. You need to remember our quarterbacks are a big part of the run game. When some people analyze it they say your running backs only had so many yards, but we only had one yard less that Western Illinois running the ball. So we had some success running the ball; it's just our quarterbacks were a big part of that also. That goes back to a defense, what they're taking away or giving. There are just some days your quarterback will have more carries than the running back will have.
Q: Does this really feel like a 1-3 football team?
That's the reality of it; we're 1-3. I don't want our guys thinking anything different. We have to get to 2-3. We know we're capable, but I don't want to have that false confidence that we're at a level where we're not. I want us being hungry. I want us having an edge to what were doing where were taking care of what we're doing and you don't leave it to the last play of the game to decide the outcome.
