Jax State Football Press Conference 2026--Eastern Kentucky
9/1/2026 6:45:00 PM | Football
Coach Charles Kelly
Q: Obviously, the excitement of playing at AmFirst Stadium with this group in front of your fans has to be pretty exciting for this team.
A: One of the things we take a lot of pride in is playing here at home. We have a great university, great students, great fan base, former letterman. So it's an opportunity for us to get better and improve, and that's what our job is every day.
Q: Give us an idea on the opponent this week, Eastern Kentucky. What do they bring? Obviously, had a big passing attack last week against Western Carolina.
A: Yeah, they played a good Western Carolina team. I've known Walt Wells, their head coach, for a long time. He's a very good football coach. They're very sound on both sides of the ball, they threw the ball for a little over 300 yards that night. It was relatively close game until right at the end. Western kind of separated from them, but they do a good job with a medium passing game, and they got some good stuff on third down that they do. So, our biggest thing is to focus on us. We got to get better and improve on the things that we've got to improve on.
Q: What are some things that you're looking at that you really want to see some improvement in offensively?
A: I think you're right. What are we looking at? I think when you look as a whole, you've got to notice the problem before you can fix it, like if your car's torn up, if it's the battery and you change something else, you're not going to fix it. I think the main thing was, is we never got in any rhythm, and there were a lot of reasons for that. We're not in the excuse-making business, but we do look for reasons. We had the ball 10 times in that game, 10, possessions offensively. If you take the first possession, the first play, we gain 13,14, yards, get a penalty. So now it goes to second and 11. Creel makes a really good throw. We have a drop, so we have to punt the ball. Seven out of the 10 possessions, we were in second 11 or more. You're not going to develop any consistency when you do that. You can't play from behind the chains. I felt like in the second drive we didn't have a negative play and we went right down the field and scored. On the third drive, bam, bam, bam. We're moving the ball. We have a negative play with a fumble in the backfield. Now it puts us behind the chains, and then you know, minute and 46 seconds left to go in the half. We got the ball on the 20-yard line. We go for it on fourth down, and yes, I would do it again. People say, "Why'd you go for it? Because I'm trying to win the game. But in that minute and 46 second stretch, in my opinion, that was the game because the one thing, if you watch the game, what you got to realize is momentum is so huge in football. Momentum's like a snowball. We had that place quiet. If we score right there, we go up 14-10, and we get the ball in the second half. So the momentum's in our area. But the main thing is we can't have negative plays. We can't have critical penalties, and that's what I meant by detail after the game. We weren't as detailed. Yes, in the stat book, they had more penalties than we did, but ours were critical penalties. We had again that holding penalty was critical. We had a couple on defense. It's not all the offense. I mean, on the first drive, we've got a chance to get off the field on third down, and we're six inches away from making a sack. And we have a guy come out of coverage, and they complete the ball. Well, if we get them three and out, that's another possession. That's 11 possessions in the game, and that is when you play good teams on the road, you can't make those kinds of mistakes, and that's what we have to learn from.
Q: You guys ran the ball a lot last year, and maybe one of your bright spots on the offensive side of the ball Saturday was your running back Jalen Likely. What did you see from him?
A: Yeah, and again, we want to be able to run the ball more. We want to be able to throw the ball more because there were some times early in the game, the pocket was pretty clean, and you know, Caden didn't have his best day, but he was until the end of the game. He got the ball out of his hand, but in the run game, again first play of the game, explosive play. I mean, first offensive play of the season, but we get a holding penalty on that. So that backs you up. That takes what 15 yards off the off the rushing, and then again, when you get behind the chains, it's not as easy to get those guys the ball because you got to get the ball downfield trying to get back in manageable third down situation. So yeah, if we, you know, we we expect his role to expand, but we also feel like we got some other backs. I thought Cedric (Kouemi) played good the first carry of his college career. I mean, he splits his own, runs up. I mean, there were some spots where you can say, hey, if we can do this consistently, we can we can do it at a high level.
Q: What were the bright spots in your eyes on defense?
A: I felt like you know, after we settled down after the first drive, we gave up two touchdowns and four field goals defensively. Both of those touchdown drives, they were explosive plays. We had the explosive run that popped out of there. We missed a tackle. Usually, on an explosive play, it's either a missed tackle or missed assignment. Always comes back to that. That was a missed tackle. I thought overall we tackled pretty decent. The missed tackles we did have, though, were in critical situations, and they turned into big plays. I did think we settled down. I thought at the end of the game, you know, I I don't think it was an issue of our guys playing hard and effort, but you can't just win with effort. You got to be able to execute. We had another interception, but we had a penalty, which was another big play because we get the ball again right there in pretty good field position. So we got some things to build on. We just got our focus this week is what do we have to do to make ourselves better.
Garrison Rippa, K
Q: Could you talk about being a leader?
A: Yeah, I mean, for me, just being a leader starts in our room because we have a lot of different pieces than we did last year. I think we traveled only two returners from last year in the special teams room. So having that, that means we have a lot of different parks that have come in and don't really know how we do things. So being able to take them and kind of show them the way we do stuff and doing things the right way myself, so that I'm teaching them the right way. Kind of that it just starts with me.
Q: The New Orleans Bowl you kicked, you didn't even have any assurance that that would be anything more than just one game kicking here. But it served as a springboard to now being what you've done and what honors you've earned. What's it like looking back to kind of where you were starting and what your attitude was that may have helped catch you here?
A: When I first got the shot, I was just in my head. I'm like, man, I'm really lucky that I get this opportunity. Like, not many people are able to say that they got an opportunity like that. So, just being able to take advantage of that, and then kind of just having the success we had in that game, kind of gave me the confidence that I had. Like, oh, I can you know I can play at this level, and kind of going into the spring and having a really good spring that next spring, and then fall camp, having a really good fall camp, finishing on that note, and then going into the 24 season, and I had some success there. So like, it kind of like Coach Kelly said earlier, you know, momentum snowballs, and you kind of feel that as you keep going, and you just kind of try to stack days, and like basically you take a quarter and you stack it up, and over time, you got a whole stack of quarters, and you're sitting there ready to cash it in.
Caleb Nix, SAF
Q: A lot of guys are back from last year's team. Maybe some starting for the first time. Overall, in your eyes, who stood out to you? What did you guys do well on defense?
A: We played well. It just came down to critical situations. It came down to multiple third downs that we or fourth downs that we didn't execute. It came down to red area and the red zone that we just didn't execute our our plan. I think that we had a few guys play well. I think JQ Brooks for it to be his first game college game ever playing. I think that he handled the moment well. I think that he's got some things that he can learn from, like we all do. But you know, that's tough. Anytime it's your first game, it's a tough challenge. But I think he played well. We ended up playing probably six linebackers, which is good to show the you know the depth that we have in the linebacker room and which we'll need throughout the season.
Q: Could you talk about just as a general team member what you see from Garrison, just helping lead the team?
A: Yeah, I think that the neat part is that our leadership council is the ones who voted on the the captains for the game, and so it shows that Garrison not only has had an impact on special teams, but as offensive guys, that's defensive guys. Like you know he had to have everybody vote for him, so I think that shows the impact he's had on the whole team. I think it's just the you know he's been here one of the longest returning guys, just being his time here at Jax State, so it showed how much time and effort he's put in, how hard he works. I think everybody respects his work ethic, and everybody, you know, respects the standard that he holds for himself. That's the that's the biggest thing. He holds himself to that standard, so makes a lot easier to follow, and it just shows the impact that he's had across all three phases, not just special teams.
Q: Obviously, the excitement of playing at AmFirst Stadium with this group in front of your fans has to be pretty exciting for this team.
A: One of the things we take a lot of pride in is playing here at home. We have a great university, great students, great fan base, former letterman. So it's an opportunity for us to get better and improve, and that's what our job is every day.
Q: Give us an idea on the opponent this week, Eastern Kentucky. What do they bring? Obviously, had a big passing attack last week against Western Carolina.
A: Yeah, they played a good Western Carolina team. I've known Walt Wells, their head coach, for a long time. He's a very good football coach. They're very sound on both sides of the ball, they threw the ball for a little over 300 yards that night. It was relatively close game until right at the end. Western kind of separated from them, but they do a good job with a medium passing game, and they got some good stuff on third down that they do. So, our biggest thing is to focus on us. We got to get better and improve on the things that we've got to improve on.
Q: What are some things that you're looking at that you really want to see some improvement in offensively?
A: I think you're right. What are we looking at? I think when you look as a whole, you've got to notice the problem before you can fix it, like if your car's torn up, if it's the battery and you change something else, you're not going to fix it. I think the main thing was, is we never got in any rhythm, and there were a lot of reasons for that. We're not in the excuse-making business, but we do look for reasons. We had the ball 10 times in that game, 10, possessions offensively. If you take the first possession, the first play, we gain 13,14, yards, get a penalty. So now it goes to second and 11. Creel makes a really good throw. We have a drop, so we have to punt the ball. Seven out of the 10 possessions, we were in second 11 or more. You're not going to develop any consistency when you do that. You can't play from behind the chains. I felt like in the second drive we didn't have a negative play and we went right down the field and scored. On the third drive, bam, bam, bam. We're moving the ball. We have a negative play with a fumble in the backfield. Now it puts us behind the chains, and then you know, minute and 46 seconds left to go in the half. We got the ball on the 20-yard line. We go for it on fourth down, and yes, I would do it again. People say, "Why'd you go for it? Because I'm trying to win the game. But in that minute and 46 second stretch, in my opinion, that was the game because the one thing, if you watch the game, what you got to realize is momentum is so huge in football. Momentum's like a snowball. We had that place quiet. If we score right there, we go up 14-10, and we get the ball in the second half. So the momentum's in our area. But the main thing is we can't have negative plays. We can't have critical penalties, and that's what I meant by detail after the game. We weren't as detailed. Yes, in the stat book, they had more penalties than we did, but ours were critical penalties. We had again that holding penalty was critical. We had a couple on defense. It's not all the offense. I mean, on the first drive, we've got a chance to get off the field on third down, and we're six inches away from making a sack. And we have a guy come out of coverage, and they complete the ball. Well, if we get them three and out, that's another possession. That's 11 possessions in the game, and that is when you play good teams on the road, you can't make those kinds of mistakes, and that's what we have to learn from.
Q: You guys ran the ball a lot last year, and maybe one of your bright spots on the offensive side of the ball Saturday was your running back Jalen Likely. What did you see from him?
A: Yeah, and again, we want to be able to run the ball more. We want to be able to throw the ball more because there were some times early in the game, the pocket was pretty clean, and you know, Caden didn't have his best day, but he was until the end of the game. He got the ball out of his hand, but in the run game, again first play of the game, explosive play. I mean, first offensive play of the season, but we get a holding penalty on that. So that backs you up. That takes what 15 yards off the off the rushing, and then again, when you get behind the chains, it's not as easy to get those guys the ball because you got to get the ball downfield trying to get back in manageable third down situation. So yeah, if we, you know, we we expect his role to expand, but we also feel like we got some other backs. I thought Cedric (Kouemi) played good the first carry of his college career. I mean, he splits his own, runs up. I mean, there were some spots where you can say, hey, if we can do this consistently, we can we can do it at a high level.
Q: What were the bright spots in your eyes on defense?
A: I felt like you know, after we settled down after the first drive, we gave up two touchdowns and four field goals defensively. Both of those touchdown drives, they were explosive plays. We had the explosive run that popped out of there. We missed a tackle. Usually, on an explosive play, it's either a missed tackle or missed assignment. Always comes back to that. That was a missed tackle. I thought overall we tackled pretty decent. The missed tackles we did have, though, were in critical situations, and they turned into big plays. I did think we settled down. I thought at the end of the game, you know, I I don't think it was an issue of our guys playing hard and effort, but you can't just win with effort. You got to be able to execute. We had another interception, but we had a penalty, which was another big play because we get the ball again right there in pretty good field position. So we got some things to build on. We just got our focus this week is what do we have to do to make ourselves better.
Garrison Rippa, K
Q: Could you talk about being a leader?
A: Yeah, I mean, for me, just being a leader starts in our room because we have a lot of different pieces than we did last year. I think we traveled only two returners from last year in the special teams room. So having that, that means we have a lot of different parks that have come in and don't really know how we do things. So being able to take them and kind of show them the way we do stuff and doing things the right way myself, so that I'm teaching them the right way. Kind of that it just starts with me.
Q: The New Orleans Bowl you kicked, you didn't even have any assurance that that would be anything more than just one game kicking here. But it served as a springboard to now being what you've done and what honors you've earned. What's it like looking back to kind of where you were starting and what your attitude was that may have helped catch you here?
A: When I first got the shot, I was just in my head. I'm like, man, I'm really lucky that I get this opportunity. Like, not many people are able to say that they got an opportunity like that. So, just being able to take advantage of that, and then kind of just having the success we had in that game, kind of gave me the confidence that I had. Like, oh, I can you know I can play at this level, and kind of going into the spring and having a really good spring that next spring, and then fall camp, having a really good fall camp, finishing on that note, and then going into the 24 season, and I had some success there. So like, it kind of like Coach Kelly said earlier, you know, momentum snowballs, and you kind of feel that as you keep going, and you just kind of try to stack days, and like basically you take a quarter and you stack it up, and over time, you got a whole stack of quarters, and you're sitting there ready to cash it in.
Caleb Nix, SAF
Q: A lot of guys are back from last year's team. Maybe some starting for the first time. Overall, in your eyes, who stood out to you? What did you guys do well on defense?
A: We played well. It just came down to critical situations. It came down to multiple third downs that we or fourth downs that we didn't execute. It came down to red area and the red zone that we just didn't execute our our plan. I think that we had a few guys play well. I think JQ Brooks for it to be his first game college game ever playing. I think that he handled the moment well. I think that he's got some things that he can learn from, like we all do. But you know, that's tough. Anytime it's your first game, it's a tough challenge. But I think he played well. We ended up playing probably six linebackers, which is good to show the you know the depth that we have in the linebacker room and which we'll need throughout the season.
Q: Could you talk about just as a general team member what you see from Garrison, just helping lead the team?
A: Yeah, I think that the neat part is that our leadership council is the ones who voted on the the captains for the game, and so it shows that Garrison not only has had an impact on special teams, but as offensive guys, that's defensive guys. Like you know he had to have everybody vote for him, so I think that shows the impact he's had on the whole team. I think it's just the you know he's been here one of the longest returning guys, just being his time here at Jax State, so it showed how much time and effort he's put in, how hard he works. I think everybody respects his work ethic, and everybody, you know, respects the standard that he holds for himself. That's the that's the biggest thing. He holds himself to that standard, so makes a lot easier to follow, and it just shows the impact that he's had across all three phases, not just special teams.
Players Mentioned
Tuesday, September 01
Tuesday, August 25
Friday, August 14
Friday, August 14
