Coach Charles Kelly

Q: How you and the staff use the bye week?
A: I felt like our players did a good job last week in practice. We went Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, then our coaches were out recruiting Friday and Saturday. We got a lot of players that we've got to see, that we're recruiting and do some evaluation, but I thought our our players did really good work. In fact, I thought Thursday might have been our best practice that we've had this year. Working on ourselves, working on what we've got to do to be able to get better, to be able to execute on both sides of the ball and in the kicking game. So we got some really good work. We did get a head start on Sam Houston, had a chance to watch them play Thursday night. So it was a good week. We needed it. We just got to get better at little things, and that's what we worked.

Q: Share some thoughts on your opponent this week in Sam Houston.
A: I got a lot of respect for Phil Longo. I've known him for a long time. He's a really good football coach. I think Phil probably, I don't know the exact numbers, but I'm sure he had lower numbers than I had when I got here. He had to replace basically his whole team, or three quarters of his team was gone. So he had to replace a lot of guys. But they have some good football players. I've heard the comments that he's made, and I talked to him back in the summer about just continuity and developing the cohesiveness. But they got good players, a lot of different positions and their staff does a really good job coaching. You watch that game of the night. I mean that game kind of got away from right at the end. But, I mean, it was a good football game all the way through. And so they got players that can make plays and we're going to have to do the things that we have to do to be able to win the game.

Q: What was your evaluation of Caden Creel and where things stand in the quarterback situation?
A: I thought Caden came in and did some really good things. He brought a spark. You can tell he's a natural playmaker. He makes decisions and goes with it. But like I told him after the game, I've had these discussions, as I would with Gavin (Wimsatt) or whoever else played that position, is our number one thing is, we got to be able to take care of the football. We got to protect the football. And I think if he improves in doing that, and keeps on developing he'll be fine The quarterback position is like any other position. When I made the decision to make that change in the game, it wasn't to say that Gavin's not going to be the starting quarterback. It wasn't that. But I do think that position is like any other position is, there's got to be a competition there, and there's an expectation to play at a certain level. Just because you fail on a drive doesn't mean that's final. But right now we'll compete. We'll see who's playing the best throughout practice, both of them are getting reps with the first team, and we'll see how it goes from there.
 
Q: Garrison Rippa seems to have settled into pretty good level of consistency. Talk about him and the job he's done.
A: I really like his approach to the game. It's pretty been pretty well written that I'm as hard on specialist as I am the defensive backs or running backs. Just what I said about the quarterback, his position is no different than any other person on this team. And there's a level of intensity and execution that you have to have and it's probably tougher on these specialists, because they have one shot; they don't have three shots, they don't have three downs. They got one down, and that is their down. They got to make it happen right then. I think he plays with a lot of confidence, but they're saying mistakes that he makes. When he had a kick blocked early in the year, he overstepped, drove the ball too low, but you know what? We corrected it. He fixed it and but I like his mindset. I like where he's at. I got a lot of confidence in him, and I think our team has a lot of confidence in him.

Q: Talk about Emmanuel Oyebadejo and kind of his role in the pass rush.
A: It may be the first time in 35 years coaching that I've ever had a player like Emamnuel that hasn't played a lot of football. I mean, this is the first real football he's played. And he's very intelligent, works extremely hard, and I talk to him about not trying to over-process the game, just play and things will take care of itself. But where he's come through five games is pretty much amazing. Thinking about the experience that he's had. I could tell that when I first got here is the way you pick things up from the first day we got here, from getting in the stance to  what we were asking him to do. And again, I think he's just going to get better and better, and it means a lot to him. And his team means a lot to him. I think he's very grateful for his teammates. He's a very unselfish player. It's not all about him, it's about everybody else. And that's the thing about pass rush is, you have to work together. It's not a one-man show. Everybody has to work together. Sometimes it's going to be your day if it gets if the guy gets flushed out to you. Lot of sometimes in slide protection, you're not getting as much rush. It's going to be somebody else. But when you have the opportunity you want to be able to make the play. But his development has been just, not only as a football player, but a young man. You couldn't find a better guy to coach.

Q: The success you've had on third down, is that something you guys put a lot of focus into?
A: Absolutely. In fact, when I met with the coaches this morning, we talk about keys to the game, what we got to do to win the game and on both sides of the ball, offensively and defensively. One of the big deals is third down offense, third down conversion on defense, getting them off the field on third down. We would have hit our goal against Southern Miss if we hadn't had the substitution penalty. But yes, we spend usually our Tuesday practices are first and second down, second long, and then when we come Wednesday, we spend a majority of our time on third down, and then in the red area, in the red zone, on both sides of the ball. And then, of course, the Thursday practices are kind of combined. Now, when we start playing these midweek games, when I start talking about Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. So, today is a Tuesday practice, I get in my mind but the guys know what to expect, too, and we work a lot good on good against each other in third down those situations. Because the one thing about winning football games is this, because you can look at the stat lines, you can't look at the overall stat lines, just number of yards given up versus the number of yards gained. You look at those, those numbers will lie to you, but when you dig into the things like you talked about, third down efficiency on offense, third down efficiency defensively, how we play in the red zone, all those situations that you play in a football game, that's really what wins the game or the situations. Two minutes to begin the game, two minutes at the end of the half, first two minutes of the second half, the last two minutes of the game. All those situations that you play affect the outcome of the game. So we try to compartmentalize and work on those different things at different times throughout the week. 

Q: You got Thursday then back to back Wednesdays. First time you've ever had this. Is it a little weird to you? 
A: I've never played on a Wednesday night. Played a lot of Thursday night games. Played a Monday night game before. That was tough, because we played, I remember one year at Florida State, we played three games in 12 days. That's hard. We started off on Labor Day. That Labor Day kickoff Classic deal on Monday night. And we didn't get back to Tallahassee till about five o'clock that morning, and then played that next Saturday, and then travel the next week. I mean, that was tough. You just have to separate it. And what we try to, like I said, we look at today is like a Tuesday practice. We're off on Mondays anyway. The players are off, so yesterday was their off day. We'll come back in. They know what to expect. They can tell you the schedule better than I can, but I think that's kind of the way we set it up. And listen, I like it because it gives our university a lot of exposure. It's good for our players. A lot of the guys that I have coached in the past say, Hey, Coach, I'm going to be able to watch you all play Thursday night, or be able to watch you play next Wednesday. So, I think it's good for our university. I think our players enjoy it. And, think the players probably adjust better than the coaches do as far as the scheduling part of it.

Q: It's been a little over a month since you played a Conference USA game. What is your message to the team going into this week for another conference game?
A: It is a huge game, because it is a conference game, but whether it was a conference game or whether we were playing USC, the things that it takes to win the game, it just takes what it takes, no matter if it's conference or not. And I think playing on the road, you got play good defense. You can't give up things on special teams. And you got to protect the football when you go on the road. You got to do those three things. We have a weekend where we don't play on Saturday. I got to watch a lot of college football yesterday in between watching Sam Houston. And it just, it doesn't matter where you play at what league you're in, what conference you're in, where you ranked. It really doesn't matter what it takes to win a game. It just takes and you got to do it. And, yeah, it is important, because our goal is to win every game. That's our goal. So doesn't matter where we're playing at or who we're playing, we got to be able to do those things. I got a lot of respect for all the teams that we play, but our players will tell you it's not about what other teams do. It's about what we do, and we got to make sure we take care of the things that we take care of.

 


Emmanuel Oyebadejo
Q: Talk about the progress that you've made week by week and getting more comfortable playing.
A: The best experience you can get is game experience, and I really find it out playing now. I came a long way over the winter workout, spring ball, full camp, but you know, I still don't think like, I made the progress I did by playing real games and stuff like that. But yeah, there's been a lot of growing pains. Still a lot to learn, a lot to get better at, but I'm really grateful the experience. Like it's helped me come a long way as a football

Q: How big of a transition was it to go from basketball to football. And how big of a transition was it to go from the UK to Jacksonville?
A: Going from basketball to football, I would say this, people look at somebody like me and they think, you know, you big and you fast, you supposed to just be good at football. But, man, especially when I got to Jacksonville State, I realized there's so much more to go into. The basketball part, it definitely helped me going through my teenage years to develop the speed and agility to be a good athlete. But still, it was nothing in comparison to the to the things you have to learn to be able to play football. I'm saying, like, striking with your hands, positioning technique, pass rushing moves, things like that. So yeah, I mean the basketball part, it definitely helped me grow as an athlete, physically. I had to come to Jacksonville, state to be able to be a good football player instead of just a good athlete.
 

Garrison Rippa
Q: How much did hitting that overtime field goal in the New Orleans bowl help your confidence going into year two and now into this year?
A: I'd say it really helped a lot. And the people who don't really get enough credit on that. I got most of the credit for it, but my snapper, Tommy in the bowl game and Cade, still here holding for me, like having Cade and having he's been holding for me since I got here, so really he's just been having that continuity at that position. It really just helps me trust everything more, and that really helped my confidence going into last year, because playing in a game, it's completely different than in practice. I'd like to say that I wasn't nervous, but, man, no, I definitely blacked out for that one. I don't really remember anything up until I was up on the goal post, punching it and falling down. So just having all that experience, it's really helped me gain some confidence going into this year. 

Q: You've been perfect since having your first field goal block this season, how's that feel for you? 
A: Oh, it's mixed emotions. Because, you know, getting one block you don't like it, because you really don't know. Because  I think I put it on frame. I haven't really watched it since that Sunday after we played. But, I'd like to think I'd make it so it's kind of good, but in the same way, I'm, like, disappointed about it, because, I could be perfect actually.