Jax State Football Weekly Press Conference
September 19, 2023
Eastern Michigan Week
 
Head Coach Rich Rodriguez
Opening Statement
"Every game is a big game. We start just five straight midweek games and, it's going to be quite the grind. I think it goes from five days to six days and six days to seven days or something. It's going to hit us pretty quick, but we had a good open week. I thought we got better in a couple of areas and got one or two guys healthy, but unfortunately, we have one or two guys hurt as well from the last game. So we'll, we'll adjust and move on. With it being Homecoming, it should be great weather. It should be a nice crowd against a really good group of five team that's done an amazing job. Coach Creighton has them to where they're a bowl team about every year, so we'll see what happens. 
 
On The QBs
"Well, the way I look at it, we have two starters and we'll see who performs better this week in practice. I wouldn't hesitate to have either one of them start. Logan (Smothers) has done some good things and he's learning but, Zion (Webb) knows our system and he's reliable too. We're probably going to the game plan with both of them in mind and having two starters and figure out who the first guy will be probably by after Thursday practice. We'll, we'll see how they practice."
 
On RB Anwar Lewis' availability
"He's got to be in game shape. He's working really hard. I know he's frustrated but it's been a long process for him and everybody's kind of frustrated because we want him healthy and ready to go. It's no use for us to play anybody that's not 100% or close to 100%. He's better, he's closer there now than he ever has been. This week, today, tomorrow, Thursday, we'll really evaluate him. When you're that inactive with a lower body injury, you lose some of your fundamentals, but a lot of things, you lose in your conditioning, you're not in shape, you're not used to running and the way we do things, everybody's got to be in shape. He's slowly gotten himself into better shape in the last couple of weeks and this will be a big week to see because when he's healthy, 100% he's a really good player. If he's not in shape, he's not ready. At the end of last week, I saw glimpses of him getting better and better and we'll see what happens with him in the next couple of days."
 
On ball security
"Tiu have to make good decisions offensively; you don't want to throw the ball. They have guys that, that are kind of like big safeties and they have good ball skills, so you don't want to give them gifts with just throwing the ball up there because they'll pick it off. That's what they did in the last game, a couple of throws. They were just throwing up there and they went and got them and that's what they thrive on. Like I said, it's ball control and you turned over on offense. We've been good with that for the most part, we have one turnover or something. That's going to be key for us and you don't want to play so conservative that you don't take a chance or two. But at the same time, you know, you can't give them extra possessions because they'll shorten the game and have long drives and limit your possessions."
 
 
 
Kolbi Fuqua, R-Sr., Nickel 
Opening Statement
"we are not talking too much about the last game. We had a rough game and we could have did a lot of things better. We hung in as a whole team going into the half time. During that game we started out a little bit slow, the rain delay definitely hurt us a little because we like to keep the tempo going. As a defense, a lot of things happened in the second half where we weren't locking in our keys and stuff like that. We just had to get in the playbook. It was bye week and we've been studying Eastern Michigan. We have moved on past Coastal Carolina, it was just a game that you had to mark down and learn from and move on."
 
On Eastern Michigan
"They like to run a lot, nothing too special. This is a pretty much, an inside zone team. They like to hit the RPO a little bit. I feel like during this game, our biggest thing is going to be able to stop the run and if we stop the run, It's going to be a very good game. We have to limit their time of possession with the ball and give it back to our offense."
 
On having two weeks to prepare for EMU
"We definitely touched on Eastern Michigan, but it was definitely a week for us to recover and work on fundamentals and stuff like that. We struggled a little bit with the open field tackling as well. We definitely worked on that and touched on it during the week."
 
Malik Jackson, R-Sr., RB
Opening Statement
"Obviously like it's going be a big game. A lot of fans are going to be out there since it's Homecoming, but we can't get caught up in that. we have to play football at the end of the day. We just want come out and do what we do."
 
On Ron Wiggins being out
"I would say kind of hurt us, but we have guys like that in the RB room, so it's just one man down the next man up. I feel like comfortable and all the guys in the room can just come up and take that step. We'll have a run, he'll be on the sideline, so we'll be able to see what he is seeing on the field."
 
On the Coastal Carolina game
"We just have to finish. We were able to drive the ball pretty well and finishing in the red zone. I felt like the team overall played hard and played well. We just have to fix the little kinks."