Nick Hill Press Conference Transcript

Head coach Nick Hill met with the media Monday to discuss last week's Homecoming win over No. 15 Illinois State, the upcoming game at Indiana State, playmakers, and much more. Below is a partial transcript.

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OPENING STATEMENT

After watching the film from the weekend, obviously it was a good game for us. Anytime you win, you have to enjoy it. That was no different on Saturday. It was good to see how the guys responded, coming off a tough week. These were two totally different games two weeks in a row. We got beat by 35 points, and then we were able to win by 35 points. That says a lot about the guys in the room and their commitment to each other to figure out a way to come and flip the script and play their best football game. Now the challenge is keeping it going. Confidence-wise, they see what type of team they can be, but we also know what type of league this is. If you don't prepare and come to work and execute and do the things necessary to win a football game, the next team on your schedule will beat you, and this week is no different. We're ready for a tough Indiana State team. I have a ton of respect for those guys. They've had a few really tough games. They could have a few wins. They've played a lot of teams really close. They went to Liberty and had a short field goal blocked to win on the road in front of 20,000 people. This is a good football team that's looking for their first win, and it's their Homecoming. It's on the road, and our focus won't be any different than what it has been.

When you watched the film, did you think you were more physical (against Illinois State) than you had been in previous weeks?

I think so. We won the line of scrimmage. We were physical on the edges. We were physical at the wide receiver position. Not only that, but also on special teams. We played physical and we have to continue to do that. We have some physical football players. We were able to get our players the ball in space. On defense, our defensive line set the tone. They were physical and ran around. It wasn't just one or two players. That stat sheet was filled with people playing hard, flying around and playing fast.

It seems like your team has a lot of playmakers and other teams can't key on just one guy.

That's what you hope for. We have playmakers all over the field. If you just have one or two, especially by the middle of the season, teams have your film and know how you're trying to get it to them. You can't do the same things week after week. It sounds good, but they're going to do something to stop you. If you have more answers out there on the field, you can do different things to set things up. Then again, a lot of times it comes down to those guys being good players and winning their one-on-one matchup.

When Sam Straub is clicking, he makes the coaches look pretty good.

That's a credit to him. He had a good week of practice. That sounds boring, but that's where it starts as a quarterback. We challenged him to be critical of himself in practice. That's what the best ones do. It means something to you on Thursday, 'I want to know what my passing percentage is.' We charted every throw. That translates to Saturday. Completions, completions, completions. That's something I learned a lot during my short time (for the Green Bay Packers). You're never going to get in trouble for a completion. I don't care if it goes for negative-2 yards. It was caught by a playmaker on the perimeter. We're getting our playmakers the ball. Just keep the ball in play. Eventually, we have playmakers who will make that guy miss. Next time it will go for a 15-yard gain, or we take our shots in one-on-ones. Two of them might be incompletions or good plays by the defense, but we catch one like Ralph had, and those are good plays for us. Sam did a great job of giving our guys a shot on the go balls. Even the ones that were broken up, those were bang-bang plays. They weren't overthrown; we call those long foul balls. In baseball, if you hit a deep one and it goes foul at the end, that counts as a strike. If it looks pretty for a little while and lands out of bounds on a fade route, we want our guys to have a chance to touch it on every pass. Sam really valued the football on Saturday and did a good job.

Your defense did a good job on Saturday with five forced turnovers and five 3-and-outs. How do you build on that?

Every week is a new challenge. It's a new set of what the team is doing. Each team has its own strengths. They saw what you did last week to different formations and how you lined up, and they're going to have a new way to attack it. Each week creates its own problems and its own strengths. We know what our strength is on defense; we're athletic. We have to run to the football. Those standards never change week-to-week. You still have to win one-on-one matchups. You have to get off your block and tackle well. We tackled well on Saturday. Those fundamental detail things. Then, you have lock into the game plan and understand what they're trying to do in different situations and what they're trying to take advantage of. Indiana State causes problems. They like to shift and motion and play with a few tight ends, a few different personnel groupings. Our safeties and linebackers have to get us lined up, shifts and trades, make sure we're lined up in the right gap, and not let that confusion get us out of place. That's what they're trying to do. We have to be sharp this week and locked into the game plan.

Your starting receiver Raphael Leonard was lined up on your punt team. How do you decide who is on which special teams units?

You do that in recruiting. Especially this week, when you're on the road and can only dress 60 guys, if you're one of the seven receivers, you better be playing on special teams, especially if you're No. 5, 6 or 7. If you're not getting any reps at wide receiver, then you're just standing over there. You have to play. You have to be on punt block, holding up someone for Craig (James). You're an athlete. You have to learn how to play all positions. You have to know how to block. D.J. Davis had a tackle for a 1-yard loss as a gunner on punt. It was a big play in the football game. I like to have speed out on the field. If you have speed, you can create a lot of problems.

Do you know what kind of team you have?

I think we know. This is a big week for us to see the mental makeup. We lost three games and our backs were against the wall. Our guys have shown they play well like that. We said as a group that this was a must-win this week. If we're sitting here at 0-3 (MVFC) and 2-4 (overall), this is a different press conference, a different mentality. We would still be playing, but what's on the line? We were on the road and got beat, then we came back with the approach to get a big win. Now we're going on the road. Can you do it two weeks in a row? We have to wait and see on that. I have confidence in this group that they do. Through six games, we're still learning about our guys some. We have a lot of young guys out there playing. We have learned as coaches what we can do well and not do well. Let's get our guys in the right position. This is a big test for us. We're going on the road after a big win. Can we keep the momentum going? Can we play well with high expectations on the road in the Missouri Valley against a team on their Homecoming? We will see if we have the mental makeup to do that.

What have you seen from Indiana State's different quarterbacks?

We've played Harker, and he's just a gamer. He's fun to watch on film. He makes things happen. The other one likes to sit in the pocket. He has a strong arm. They do a good job. They have their scheme and they stick to it. Harker came here and beat us here on Homecoming. He made plays to do that and hurt us in spots. Whoever plays, we will be ready for. They have played both of them in the last couple weeks, so we will have to be ready for both.

Is there a specific focus in practice this week?

No. Our plan doesn't change. The message is always the same. They know the keys to victory. We have six keys to victory, and I think (Saturday vs. Illinois State) was the first time since I've been a head coach that we swept all six. We got five turnovers and don't turn it over. If you look at all the stats in the history of football, that's probably the lopsided victory. If we would have turned it over five times and not created any turnovers, we probably would have lost the football game. They understand that. We beat them in explosive plays. We beat them in starting field position. Net punt was big for us, besides (Sam Straub's). It's the same thing. It's fundamentals. It's the same tackling circuit and turnover circuit. It's the same routine things that we have to continue to get better at.

Indiana State's schedule has been brutal, but they've been in some close games. What have they done when they've been competitive?

They're aggressive on defense. They have played well in all the games. Even in the first quarter at South Dakota, they drove down the field and kicked a field goal. They're up 3-0. South Dakota scored, and (Indiana State) drove right back down the field and got into the red zone and kicked another field goal. They move the football. I'm telling you; they're a good football team. That's the focus that we have. They had a shootout against Liberty, and Liberty had just beaten Baylor. We lost our first five games in the conference last year, and we felt like we had a good team, then we beat two ranked teams at the end of the season. (Indiana State) is a good team. They have played the top two teams in our league, North Dakota State and South Dakota. It's a tough league. We won't even pay attention to what their record is. We're a 3-3 team and 1-2 in the league. We'll dive into this team as hard as we've ever dug into any game. We will be prepared. They do a lot of good things on both sides of the football.