Jacksonville State Football
Weekly Press Conference
September 3, 2024 – Louisville Week
 
Head Coach Rich Rodriguez
 
Opening comments
"The key word is a great opportunity for our players be in a great venue against a really good team (Louisville). Our guys know the challenge in front of them, and I think they'll give great effort, great focus all week by getting the chance to play Louisville, who I think is, probably the best team in the ACC, at least one of the best teams and I think they played for the championship last year, and Coach (Jeff) Brohm and his staff do a great job."
 
On Louisville
"They've got an experienced quarterback. He's been around a bit and a lot of respect for him, and he's been a proven guy, and they've got really good skilled players. In the first game they got up so big, so early, it was kind of hard to judge, and for the most of the second half didn't show a whole lot because they didn't have to. It'll be a very, very talented team that plays hard and like I said, they've got good players across the board, but we do too. We've got good players and it'll be a fun game."
 
On moving past the last game
"Normally, it's just the 24-hour rule. Whether you win or lose, you take 24 hours to really evaluate what you did well, what you didn't do well. We probably took a little more than 24 hours just because we had the extra day, but beyond that, you've got to move on. If you linger on, whether it's good or bad, it's going to affect in the next game. I think our guys have done a good job of that. After a couple days, we got back to work, we had a little walk through Saturday and had what I thought a pretty good Sunday practice. For today and tomorrow, I'll see where their focus and attention is, but I would be shocked if our guys aren't ready to play another game. The sooner you play another game, the better you can get the last one out of out of your mind, so to speak. There was some mental, some physical and there's a little combination of everything - coaching wise, we've got to fix some things we're doing. Defensively,  we had a busted coverage or got in the wrong gap, or offensively we may not been perfect in our technique or some of the things we need to do. I don't want to say that's typical first game stuff, because we shouldn't have had that in any game, but at the same time, we've got to get better and I know we can play better than what we did in the opening game."
 
On the quarterback position
"We still have, in my opinion, two starting quarterbacks, and in Logan (Smothers) and Tyler (Huff). I am not sure who the first one is going to be out there just yet. Then Zion (Turner) is ready to go and we also have Caden Creel and Te'Sean Smoot, so we have some depth at quarterback. There wasn't a good game for us in the first game from anybody.  I've got a lot of confidence in those guys, all of our quarterbacks and they can play some really good football."
 
 
Michael Pettway, R-Jr., WR
 
On the long TD against Coastal Carolina
"It looked like it was cover zero, cover one, outside leverage with safety health. was at We just had a little slant route and as soon as I broke, the ball was already thrown and I just did what I could do after the after that."
 
On blocking down field
"I just try to be a team player. I want the ball, running backs want the ball, the receivers want the ball. In order for us to win, we have to win as a team, so if I have to block on every play  a whole drive, then I guess that's what I have to."
 
On playing Louisville
"It's just awesome. It's the biggest stage of it all, so I know a lot of guys are ready to play. I know I'm ready to play. We're just excited to just get on the road. You really, just have to stay calm during everything if things go good, things go bad, you can't really let the moment get too big, and you just kind of got to stay level-headed."
 
On moving forward
"It's really kind of self-explanatory. We watch the film, we learn from our mistakes and make corrections and move on. Like coach said, the 24-hour rule, we don't sit there and we don't dwell on it. It's in the past and it's already happened. The best that we can do is just learn from our mistakes and be better."
 
 
Laletia Hale, R-Sr., LB
 
On learning from the first game
"We learned that we have got to communicate a lot on our aspects and do our job. We play hard all the time, but we just have to learn that doing our job and making plays within your job is key. A small mistake can lead to big things, and they snowball."
 
On having the ability to look at plays on IPad
"You get to see the numbers and everything that's going on, also the leverage. As a linebacker, you see how the line is moving. and things. Things can move fast during the game, and you could be trying to get a check, but when you get to see that on the sideline, it'll slow a lot of things down."
 
On playing Louisville
"What excites me is just going out there to compete and play. I don't think about it too much when we play Power 4 teams, because I'm just used to it. I'm used to playing those different teams. I do know it's opportunity and people are going to see what you did during the big game. I'm going try to keep our guys up and remind them of that every day, because it is a big opportunity and we have to perform."