Coach Hill Press Conference Transcript

Opening statement:
It feels good to get back in here and get back to another week of work. It always feels good to make corrections after a win, not after a loss. We have a couple of things we need to clean up. The guys were in here this morning. We put the SEMO game to bed and have moved on to Murray State. We're looking forward to being back at home again for Family Weekend. I thought it was a great environment at Saluki Stadium. We're looking forward to another one. I think it's just business as usual. We have to get back and have another good week of practice. I think we were able to do the things we were able to do on Saturday because we were prepared and had a good week of practice. We're looking forward to another good week of preparation. I know Murray State is 0-2, but we can't really be concerned about their record. I think they have a lot of talented players. Any time you have new receivers it takes a couple of games to gel. I think we're going to be prepared for their best effort.

Q: Coming off of a year when there were a lot of close games, how important was it to win a close game on Saturday?
It was really big. The only way to get that feeling is to go out there and do it. It wasn't like everything was pretty on Saturday. Going back to the film, there's a lot of things to clean up. Ultimately, we're in this thing to find a way to win and we were able to do that. That's what I was most proud of. Now we can come in here and make those corrections. Now we're back to Monday. We have a whole new team to prepare for and go out and try to get that exact same feeling we had on Saturday.

Q: There were a lot of penalties on Saturday. How many do you look at as effort plays and do you think you need to change something?
A lot of them were effort plays. We have to continue to be disciplined, and I feel like our team has done that. We were put in some tough spots. Penalties hurt us on Saturday, but there was nothing to make me feel like we weren't mentally or physically into the game or we lost our composure. There were a lot of effort plays. Pass interference every week is still back and forth. It's kind of a 50/50 call. We had a couple of those; but other than that, I thought we played a clean game. Nothing that we're going to get in here and fix. We're going to continue to coach the fundamentals and always play hard.

Q: How happy were you with your pass rush?
Yeah, definitely. A lot of guys played in that front. I think Coach Flyger and Coach Paulson have been doing a great job of rotating those guys and keeping them fresh for four quarters. Then right there at the end TJ (Beelen) did have a really good pass rush on a single block. You have to win your one-on-one matchups. They did a really good job playing some young guys in there. Blake Parzych is another true freshman. He got about 15 snaps on Saturday. He is going to add some depth. There's 7 or 8 guys who are rotating on the defensive line and I feel really good about those guys.

Q: If you had to pick one thing to improve on going into week three what would it be?
I think offensively, you'd like to see us be able to take over the game. We kicked too many field goals. We talk on defense about holding them to field goals. We can't kick a bunch of field goals inside the 20-yard line. We need to go down and score touchdowns. That will be a big emphasis as it is every single week. I think we've done a good job of ball security. That has to continue to happen. I think Josh has done a good job. We talked about him maybe missing a couple of throws, but they were good misses. If he's putting the ball where either we can get it or nobody else can, we can live with that. We need to continue to take care of the football and start scoring touchdowns in the red zone.

Q: Murray State plays a 4-2-5 defense. Is it tough to stretch the perimeter against that?
They do a little bit of everything. They have some athletes over there and some good defensive lineman. We've just go to spread them out and be able to run the football. It will be a challenge. I feel really prepared for what they're going to show us.

Q: Your secondary is banged up. Are you going to get any of those guys back healthy?
I think we will be able to get Roman Tatum back this week, but that is yet to be seen. He's doing good. If he is out there, it will be with a small cast on his hand. It would be great to get Roman out there. James Cesar stepped up and played really well. KJ (McElvaney) stepped up and played really well. Having Craig James healthy is good. He was able to play the entire game. I'm proud of the way we competed on Saturday.

Q: Their quarterback is one of the offensive players in the country.
He's played a lot of football and he's really, really talented. He can throw the football and he can hurt you. He's a good athlete and he's well coached. They're going to figure things out. Whatever is going on as far as timing issues and things like that, they're going to get that figured out. They're going to be practicing, watching film and making corrections like everybody else. We have to be prepared for him to have his best game and be clicking on all cylinders. We have to continue to rush the passer. I think teams have been able to get pressure on him. He's a good player and at any point can have a good game. He threw for almost 370 yards last game. If you take away a couple of those turnovers, he has a huge game. We have a good one coming. Ultimately you want to play against the best. It will be a good challenge for us.

Q: Their running back and tight end are pretty shifty. How important is it to make tackles.
In this offense that they run, it is extremely important. They'll throw the ball around. They're still going to try to throw the ball long. They have playmakers. You have to rally up and gang tackle. They're going to throw completions. We have to keep it in front and make the tackle. I thought a big thing on Saturday was there are a lot of maroons hats to the ball. You have to be great tacklers in a game like this.

Q: How impressed have you been with D.J. Davis?
D.J. just continues to keep getting better. You try to get him the football. I thought SEMO has a really good kicker and that kept him from getting a couple of returns. He's a guy that you'll see on punt and kickoff. He's a valuable piece. As a true freshman, his load will continue to get bigger and bigger. He's a great kid. He's the kind of kid that you want to bring in on your program. He's all in on everything. The fastest way to get on the field as a freshman is if the special teams coordinator loves you. Not only because he's a dynamic returner, but also because he's running down there on kicks and getting tackles. D.J. Davis has a really bright future here.

Q: How big is this game since it's the last non-conference game and you're heading into a bye week.
Its big when you talk about momentum going into conference and a bye week. We have to be locked in in practice, not looking ahead. Everything in this building is 100 percent Murray State. We can't take any game for granted. We won three games last year. We're chasing that feeling in the locker room. The only way to get it is to get back to work and go get it again. We just look forward to this week. Everyone is familiar with the two schools. We've played for a really long time, but it's been a while since we played. I think it's a really good game for us to play. It only makes sense for us to play these games. I'm looking forward to it. I think it's going to be a great challenge.

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Players Mentioned

D.J. Davis

Craig James

Blake Parzych

Roman Tatum

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