Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Head Coach Dale Lennon press conference transcript
09/14/2015 | 12:00:00 | Football
By Tony McDaniel
SIUSalukis.com
Opening Statement:
"We're going into an off week here. You never know when a good time for an off week is. I think this is a good time for us. We're coming off two games where we're very disappointed to be sitting at 0-2 at this point in time. We've looked at the numbers, and we've been able to pinpoint a few things we've got to work on and improve upon that, the biggest factor being the turnover ratio. We'll be practicing in the morning the next three days. Finishing up Friday with a very light practice, and then we'll start preparation for Liberty come Sunday evening."
Q: How do you go about correcting the turnover situation?
"Looking at where we're at, it's kind of the good news and bad news, and they're the same thing. The bad news is we're two plays away from being 2-0; the good news is we're two plays away from being 2-0. Right now we're averaging 4.9 yards per carry. We're averaging 14.1 per catch. We're getting 7.2 yards per play. Those numbers are pretty significant. We lead the opponents in every offensive category. We're doing well in the special teams categories. The one area that we're not doing well is the turnover margin. We're -9 on the season. I went and looked at the Missouri Valley as whole and where those teams were, and every Missouri Valley team right now is in the plus category except one. Missouri State is at -2. For us, it's pretty simple to identify what we need to work on. It's not an athletic thing; it's not a scheme thing; it's not that physically we're not capable of doing it. It's that we've got to take better care of the football. And not just on the offensive side. The other statistic that we have to be better at is, we've got to get the takeaways. Right now, we have zero takeaways, and we've had opportunities to have the takeaways. You look at the Indiana game; we had our hands on the ball three times. All those could've been significant plays as far as the outcome is concerned. The SEMO game, that last drive that SEMO scored, we had a ball in the gut of our corner. It was right there for the catching. Two plays later they scored. So, if you look at the three touchdowns that SEMO achieved, two were off of turnovers on us and the one, if we'd make that pick, probably would've never happened. So, what we need to do is get back to the fundamentals. We've got to take better care of the football. That starts at the quarterback position. Of the nine turnovers—and there's really eight; the ninth turnover is off the last play of the game—five directly with the quarterback being involved, two with the receiver carrying the ball and then one with the running back. So, just to make the emphasis again, most of those we're preventable turnovers. We've just got to make better decisions and be aware that that stat is pretty darn significant, and we've just got to honor that stat some more."
Q: There's no question that Mark (Iannotti) has improved this year, but are you guys relying on him too much offensively right now?
"Mark reminds me of Brett Favre. He's just one of those quarterbacks that I love his demeanor. He thinks he can do anything. Also, that's his weakness; he thinks he can do anything. A couple of those throwaways he should not have done. He has to have a better feel for the game. Even the first pick-six against us, he made the wrong read. That should have been a give; that was a run-pass read. So just paying attention to the fine details. He's getting better and those are game-type things that occur, but those are all correctible, too. His game is at a high level right now, so we've just got to make sure we clean up some of the other poor decisions that he's made. We're not trying to fix something that's not fixable. This is very correctable, and I think it's very attainable. Same thing on defense, we have to be able to take advantage of opportunities when they're there. When you're getting both hands on the football, you have to catch that ball; you have to turn it into a pick. If on Saturday night we just have one of those happen, we probably win the game. If we have one less turnover, we probably win the game. Those are the number that we're dealing with. That will be an emphasis on the week, and you just try to emphasize it to a point. You've just got to see how it happens in a game. I like the things we're doing offensively. I thought our defense really took a step forward. Some of our young players I thought played very well, so that's encouraging. Our special teams, I think are doing what we need them do right now. There's reason for optimism; it's just disappointing that we're sitting here at 0-2. That's where you hope a game like the SEMO game will be that motivation, that focus, that wake-up call, whatever you want to call it. We've got to do all the things right."
Q: How do you make a positive out of this?
"Talk about feeling as bad as you can feel after a game and disappointed and all of the negative emotions, that's not good. So what are you going to do? Are you going to sit here and sulk or are you going to learn from it and realize here's what we've got to do to get better? That was the message to the team. I think when I went through the team and presented what every single Missouri Valley football team's turnover margin is as of today and they saw Western Illinois at +4, North Dakota State at +4, South Dakota State at +4, Youngstown at +3 and you go down the list. It became evident that this is an area we're just not doing it."
 | That's where the concern is, it's how you bounce back from it and pick yourself back up. I think everyone knows there's a lot of football left to be played. I told the team, 'All I'm worried about is the attitude of the team in this room.' Dale Lennon |
Q: Mark (Iannotti) is such a happy-go-lucky guy. How do you think that kind of attitude will play into his resiliency?
"I hope it does. I don't want him to be a different quarterback. He just needs to make better decisions. There are certain things we can help with coaching-wise. The one turnover, supposedly the defensive lineman jumped so the ball was snapped quickly hoping we'd have a free play downfield. Well, they didn't rule him offside. So now we there the ball and we've got an interception. You can't do that. So even just doing that quick snap, is it worth having that in there? Because we're not always going to see it the way the officials see it. The one was just a miscommunication with the receiver. They were playing deep thirds. Mark was supposed to come off low, he didn't see the deep thirds and he ended up throwing. Their guy made an incredible catch on the sideline; you have to give him credit on that one. But if we make the correct read, we're fine. We're not turning the ball over. That's the game. It was a very physical game. One thing we can do better, we didn't get (Matt) McIntosh into the game. We need to have him as part of our game plan, too. He can help Mark with his production. I think that will be something that will be part of the formula."
Q: You mentioned putting McIntosh into the game plan. Do you think we'll see him a lot against Liberty?
"A lot is a debatable word. Just seeing him and the success that he has, there's a lot of factors that go into it. He's a good quarterback. He's very athletic. SEMO was keying on Iannotti. Mark only averaged 2.2 yards per carry—some of that was sacks, so it's not always accurate when you look at run production, but I think Matt can be a good change-up when you throw him in now and then as we do with DeSomer."
Q: What was the team's reaction to a loss like that?
"As a competitor, it's like getting kicked in the gut. The wind is knocked out of you, especially when you know you're that close, when you know it's self inflicted; it's the disappointment factor, you can throw a hundred different descriptives in there that are all not good. That's where the concern is, it's how you bounce back from it and pick yourself back up. I think everyone knows there's a lot of football left to be played. I told the team, 'All I'm worried about is the attitude of the team in this room.' We can control that. Whatever the outside thinks, they can think what they want to think. But we've got nine football games to prove we're a good football team. The teams we're playing down the stretch are all good, which I like. I think playing a team like Liberty is the right team for us to have on the schedule. I think we'll be that type of team that when we play a highly ranked team, our level play is going to be at that level."
Q: Will the off week make the team hungry for the next game?
"I think it will. It's a chance too for us to come together this week. We're going to have some fun with our practices. This isn't going to be a situation where we're just going to beat the tar out of them because we lost a football game. We're going to turn some of our young guys loose and see what they're capable of doing and get our older guys rested up and feeling good about their game. A lot of them will be in a coaching role during the course of the week, too. I want us going into the Sunday evening practice can't-waiting to get on that field. I do think the timing of this off week is good for us."
Q: Can you talk about Deondre Barnett's impact this season?
"Deondre is a work in progress. You're seeing him make plays, and he has a lot of football left to learn. He didn't start playing football until his junior year of high school, and we knew coming out of high school that he had some good athletic talent. Coach Hill had been recruiting that area, and when we heard he was available to transfer out, we immediately jumped at it. Each week he plays, his level of play should improve. He has that athleticism. What he needs now is just a little bit of outside linebacker savvy, being comfortable with the defensive schemes that we're asking him to play. He's very emotional. He's the cheerleader on the sideline, getting the rest of the team fired up. He's not afraid to speak his mind, which is good. He leads us every Saturday morning in a prayer. He's an interesting guy."
Q: Has Daquan Isom exceeded the initial expectations?
"I can't tell you he exceeds our expectations because we thought he was going to be pretty special. We thought he'd be able to help us at the running back position this year. To think of that as a high school player coming up, our expectations were pretty high. What we didn't know was how fast he could learn the system. That's where he's exceeded our expectation. He's picked up on the offense at a very good level. So our confidence of putting him in the game and him doing the right thing is fairly high. He's still learning and he's still young. There's so much of the game that he has to experience, but the athletic talent is there, and that's where it all starts."
