Jax State Football Press Conference 2026--Middle Tennessee
9/23/2026 1:41:00 PM | Football
Coach Charles Kelly
Q: You've talked a lot of times throughout the season with this group about momentum. Easy to get it going, hard to hard to stop it once you get going, but it seems like you guys were able to stop some of the moment that Georgia Southern had in that game and work on that second half comeback.
A: There were a lot of things in the first half that we didn't execute very well that put us in those situations, and what we felt like is if we could get those things corrected, we could play a better a better game. I at no time in that game did I feel like we were out of the game. Even and that's what we talk about playing the game, not paying attention to the scoreboard. It doesn't matter what the scoreboard says. You should play the game a certain way. And you know I give a lot of credit to our our players first of all. They're very resilient and they stuck to the process and I give a lot of credit to our coaches for making the adjustments but we've got to learn from that just like we have on a lot of those other games where we have to improve. That that's our focus is what we got to do to improve.
Q: Middle Tennessee serves as the conference opener. Give us an idea what you've seen on film out of the Blue Raiders.
A: Well, first of all, you know, again, I guess because I'm the oldest coach in Conference USA, and according to somebody tweet on my birthday, I'm the 18th oldest coach in the country. So I know a lot of these coaches. I've known them for a long time. So every week I say I have a great amount of respect, but I have a ton of respect for Derek Mason. I've known him for a long time. We were both defensive coordinators at the same time. We've always shared ideas. So I got a lot of respect for him as a coach. I think he's done a really good job. They're a much improved football team. They had a good football team last year. If you look at their record, they lost a ton of one score games in this conference. So he's going to have his team very well prepared. I think they're playing really good at quarterback. You know, Roman (Gagliano) from Opelika High School. So I'm familiar with him. They've got a really good receiver, Cam Lacy, from over in Toccoa, Georgia. He's dynamic. I mean they they're going to do whatever they can to get him the ball. Then on defense, they're very sound in what they do. They make you earn everything. You know Corey Smith just stands out to me on watching their video. He plays linebacker for him. He is sideline to sideline, but they're very good defensively. They're good up front. They're good at linebacker, and they're good in the back end, and they're good in the kicking game. Cam is a punt returner, and he's dangerous with the ball in his hands. So we gotta do the things that we have to do to get better. I know what everybody's saying. Hey, it's the first conference game. Okay, it's you know this and that. All that is, when you talk about it being the first conference game, right? It's still a football game, and that doesn't hide the fact that you got to execute to be able to win the game. It is not about last year. This is not last year's team. Okay, it's not about (last) Saturday night because first thing, and I know we all say it, but it's the truth. Everybody's gonna say great win Saturday night. What you did last year, blah blah blah. All that is is rat poison for these guys. It's it, and you're just feeding it. You're just feeding it, and all of a sudden they think, okay, we did this, we did this, and that has nothing to do with execution. And what we got to do is be able to execute. So, you know, it doesn't matter who we play. I got a ton of respect for this team, but it doesn't matter about anything in the past. It matters what we do for 60 minutes.
Q: In the second half, it just looked like the run game was able to get a lot going. The final drive to be able to pick up the ball, to pick up the first down when everyone knew you were going to have to run it three times, what does it say about the growth of the run game?
A: I think a couple of things right there. I think first of all, I said this on the radio show last night. I think our guys are very well conditioned. I give our coaches a lot of credit. I give Doctor (Will) Wright a lot of credit for that. That's one thing we can control is being the best conditioned team. I think early in the game, I say it again-you play guys seven yards from the line of scrimmage, you got to throw it over their head now, and you might not hit it, but you got to show them that you're going to throw it. So I think as we started getting some passing game going, I think it opened it up for the run game. It's interesting that you said that. I said it in a staff meeting yesterday. To me, that told us a lot about our team. When everybody knows you're going to run it and you can run it, that's what you want to be able to do. So we we still got a long way to go in that area, but again, that's why you got to have balance because those things help the run game open up when you can when you can throw the football as well.
Q: During the off season, you mentioned you wanted the passing game to be more productive, and last three games you've been putting up more yards than you guys did a year ago. Talk about the role that all these new receivers have played in that.
A: I don't think there's any doubt. First of all, I told them last week I thought in the last three weeks they might be the most improved group, and Darius (Cannon) will probably tell you. I've been over there and then the drills, and watching what they were doing, and because I challenge them, because I know they have talent, and and what I like is we're spreading the ball around. One game it may be Darius, one game it may be it may be Deondre (Johnson), it may be Jamill (Williams), it may be Luke Gilbert, it may be Jameson Scissom. We got guys that can make plays. Dylan Gentry made some plays the other night, so I think what what I look for is not the number of yards that you pass for; it's the passing efficiency, because that is a critical factor in winning football games. The number one thing is turnover ratio. If your turnover ratio is good, okay, you're going to win more games than you lose. But if you look at the other critical statistic, this pass efficiency on offense and pass efficiency defense. If you limit people yards per catch, you limit touchdown passes. You limit explosive plays. When you create them on offense, it just gives you a better chance to win because the name of the game in college football, because the way the rules are, it's about how many points you score. That's what it comes down to. It's points per possession. We didn't have the ball that many times other night. I think, but we had 52 plays in the game on offense. We got to get more than that. Now we created some of that on our own. You know, with a turnover and a three and out, you got to move the ball. But it comes down to points per possession. So the efficiency in the passing game is what I'm more excited about than than necessarily yards because again, if they play you a certain way, some days the run game is going to be be there.Â
Q: You don't see a lot of go ahead 75 yard punt returns for a touchdown in the fourth quarter. Just how important is Caleb Nix to this football team?
A: I wouldn't trade Caleb for anybody else. I mean, first of all, he's a super young man, really smart. He's a really good leader. He plays everything. I mean, he is our starting safety. He's on the kickoff team. He's been on the punt team. He holds on field goals. He returns punts, and the truth be known, the guys would tell you if you ask him to, he could be a backup quarterback. He threw for over 3,000 yards in high school, so that's just what kind of athlete he is. But I think because of his work ethic and how he works at everything. I think he's a good influence on the rest of the team, and he's very unselfish. I mean, it just happened to be his time. He'll be the first to tell you the play doesn't care who makes it. It just depends on if you're ready in that moment. But big time players make big time plays in big time games. I'm convinced of that.Â
Q: It's interesting you brought up passing efficiency. Caden (Creel) ranks second the league in that category. His number has gone way up from a year ago. What is it that you guys have done with him or coached him that can help him expand in that area?
A: I think the first thing you got to give the offensive line credit because one of the things that we've been really good with the offensive line this year is protection. He's had clean pockets. The only time I can remember that he hasn't had clean pockets is when we were in extremely long yardage situations or two minute situations. You know we had given up a couple of pressures, so I think he has confidence in the guys up front. The other thing I think that Caden's done is he's trusted his eyes more, learning to take what the defense gives you. I mentioned it before. There's always a stress point in defense. The whole object on offense is to find that stress point, and he's done a good job of that. And I think he's more comfortable. I think Coach Housewright's done a great job with it. I mean, Coach House is a is a heck of a coach now, and good play caller. So he understands what Caden can do. I tell all of our coaches this: our guys are good at a lot of things. Let them be good at what they're good at. Don't ask somebody to do something that they can't do. So I think some of the you know schematics that we do with Caden have helped him as well. But he takes a lot of pride in it. As all our quarterbacks, I mean, I think we got some good young quarterbacks as well that people haven't seen yet. But you know, they can they can do some things as well.
Q: What specifically do you want to see from your team adjust to as you head into conference play?
A: I think the biggest thing is playing a full 60 minutes, executing for 60 minutes, not just playing a full 60 minutes. There's a difference between playing and executing because you can play hard, but if you don't execute, you're not going to get good results. So we've got to be able to execute for 60 minutes in all three phases. I do think our team understands that it is all three phases. I don't think a lot of people realize one out of every six plays in football games and special teams play. It's a lot of plays, and if you don't put the emphasis on it, and you're not focused to the player to do my job in those situations, Â it'll bite youÂ
WR Darius Cannon & DL Quay Hood
Q: You get to have your brother as a teammate this season. What was that process like? Did you play a part in the recruiting process? And how has it been being in the same position group with your brother this year?
QH: It's been good. Yeah, I played a part in the recruiting phase. Â He had nine, nine or 10 sacks at NCAT, so it just feels good playing with him. I played with him in high school. I was actually a left tackle blocking for him. He was running back, and then he played D line. So it just feels good.
Q: Darius, you heard Coach talk a little bit about the involvement of the passing game this season. Now that you've kind of come into your own a little bit off of a breakout game, just talk about your comfort level in this offense and what you guys were able to accomplish on Saturday.
A: Yeah, starting off, we weren't really executing how we were supposed to, and now that everybody's getting comfortable with the offense.
Q: What were the adjustments like, and what was the message at halftime?Â
A: The message that we got from our D line coach was, he asked us, "What was the score? Obviously, a 0-0. We don't care about the score. He just told us to go out there and play our football, spot the ball mentality.Â
Q: Darius, it looks like in the past you grew very, very accustomed to catching a lot of balls. You know what it's like to catch a ball in a game. What did it mean to you on Saturday to get five receptions? Get a little bit back more to what you know what you can do.
DC: It felt real good just getting more comfortable. Like I didn't get the targets in the beginning, but like getting all in one game made me feel like real comfortable with quarterbacking more chemistry going.Â
Q: Coach talked a little bit about how sometimes confidence can become rat poison. So how are you guys taking that as keeping calm, trying to remember what you're sticking to?
DC: I would say you just gotta execute. It can be confidence, but it can also be poison. So you just gotta keep executing.
Q: How hard was it to stay focused when you guys you talked about it a little bit to have that 0-0 mentality when you came back out for the second half. Did it feel like you had a little bit of momentum going in at halftime?
A: Yes. After we got the three and out, it's just like it wasn't really that hard to stay focused because we tried, you know, come back.Â
Â
Q: You've talked a lot of times throughout the season with this group about momentum. Easy to get it going, hard to hard to stop it once you get going, but it seems like you guys were able to stop some of the moment that Georgia Southern had in that game and work on that second half comeback.
A: There were a lot of things in the first half that we didn't execute very well that put us in those situations, and what we felt like is if we could get those things corrected, we could play a better a better game. I at no time in that game did I feel like we were out of the game. Even and that's what we talk about playing the game, not paying attention to the scoreboard. It doesn't matter what the scoreboard says. You should play the game a certain way. And you know I give a lot of credit to our our players first of all. They're very resilient and they stuck to the process and I give a lot of credit to our coaches for making the adjustments but we've got to learn from that just like we have on a lot of those other games where we have to improve. That that's our focus is what we got to do to improve.
Q: Middle Tennessee serves as the conference opener. Give us an idea what you've seen on film out of the Blue Raiders.
A: Well, first of all, you know, again, I guess because I'm the oldest coach in Conference USA, and according to somebody tweet on my birthday, I'm the 18th oldest coach in the country. So I know a lot of these coaches. I've known them for a long time. So every week I say I have a great amount of respect, but I have a ton of respect for Derek Mason. I've known him for a long time. We were both defensive coordinators at the same time. We've always shared ideas. So I got a lot of respect for him as a coach. I think he's done a really good job. They're a much improved football team. They had a good football team last year. If you look at their record, they lost a ton of one score games in this conference. So he's going to have his team very well prepared. I think they're playing really good at quarterback. You know, Roman (Gagliano) from Opelika High School. So I'm familiar with him. They've got a really good receiver, Cam Lacy, from over in Toccoa, Georgia. He's dynamic. I mean they they're going to do whatever they can to get him the ball. Then on defense, they're very sound in what they do. They make you earn everything. You know Corey Smith just stands out to me on watching their video. He plays linebacker for him. He is sideline to sideline, but they're very good defensively. They're good up front. They're good at linebacker, and they're good in the back end, and they're good in the kicking game. Cam is a punt returner, and he's dangerous with the ball in his hands. So we gotta do the things that we have to do to get better. I know what everybody's saying. Hey, it's the first conference game. Okay, it's you know this and that. All that is, when you talk about it being the first conference game, right? It's still a football game, and that doesn't hide the fact that you got to execute to be able to win the game. It is not about last year. This is not last year's team. Okay, it's not about (last) Saturday night because first thing, and I know we all say it, but it's the truth. Everybody's gonna say great win Saturday night. What you did last year, blah blah blah. All that is is rat poison for these guys. It's it, and you're just feeding it. You're just feeding it, and all of a sudden they think, okay, we did this, we did this, and that has nothing to do with execution. And what we got to do is be able to execute. So, you know, it doesn't matter who we play. I got a ton of respect for this team, but it doesn't matter about anything in the past. It matters what we do for 60 minutes.
Q: In the second half, it just looked like the run game was able to get a lot going. The final drive to be able to pick up the ball, to pick up the first down when everyone knew you were going to have to run it three times, what does it say about the growth of the run game?
A: I think a couple of things right there. I think first of all, I said this on the radio show last night. I think our guys are very well conditioned. I give our coaches a lot of credit. I give Doctor (Will) Wright a lot of credit for that. That's one thing we can control is being the best conditioned team. I think early in the game, I say it again-you play guys seven yards from the line of scrimmage, you got to throw it over their head now, and you might not hit it, but you got to show them that you're going to throw it. So I think as we started getting some passing game going, I think it opened it up for the run game. It's interesting that you said that. I said it in a staff meeting yesterday. To me, that told us a lot about our team. When everybody knows you're going to run it and you can run it, that's what you want to be able to do. So we we still got a long way to go in that area, but again, that's why you got to have balance because those things help the run game open up when you can when you can throw the football as well.
Q: During the off season, you mentioned you wanted the passing game to be more productive, and last three games you've been putting up more yards than you guys did a year ago. Talk about the role that all these new receivers have played in that.
A: I don't think there's any doubt. First of all, I told them last week I thought in the last three weeks they might be the most improved group, and Darius (Cannon) will probably tell you. I've been over there and then the drills, and watching what they were doing, and because I challenge them, because I know they have talent, and and what I like is we're spreading the ball around. One game it may be Darius, one game it may be it may be Deondre (Johnson), it may be Jamill (Williams), it may be Luke Gilbert, it may be Jameson Scissom. We got guys that can make plays. Dylan Gentry made some plays the other night, so I think what what I look for is not the number of yards that you pass for; it's the passing efficiency, because that is a critical factor in winning football games. The number one thing is turnover ratio. If your turnover ratio is good, okay, you're going to win more games than you lose. But if you look at the other critical statistic, this pass efficiency on offense and pass efficiency defense. If you limit people yards per catch, you limit touchdown passes. You limit explosive plays. When you create them on offense, it just gives you a better chance to win because the name of the game in college football, because the way the rules are, it's about how many points you score. That's what it comes down to. It's points per possession. We didn't have the ball that many times other night. I think, but we had 52 plays in the game on offense. We got to get more than that. Now we created some of that on our own. You know, with a turnover and a three and out, you got to move the ball. But it comes down to points per possession. So the efficiency in the passing game is what I'm more excited about than than necessarily yards because again, if they play you a certain way, some days the run game is going to be be there.Â
Q: You don't see a lot of go ahead 75 yard punt returns for a touchdown in the fourth quarter. Just how important is Caleb Nix to this football team?
A: I wouldn't trade Caleb for anybody else. I mean, first of all, he's a super young man, really smart. He's a really good leader. He plays everything. I mean, he is our starting safety. He's on the kickoff team. He's been on the punt team. He holds on field goals. He returns punts, and the truth be known, the guys would tell you if you ask him to, he could be a backup quarterback. He threw for over 3,000 yards in high school, so that's just what kind of athlete he is. But I think because of his work ethic and how he works at everything. I think he's a good influence on the rest of the team, and he's very unselfish. I mean, it just happened to be his time. He'll be the first to tell you the play doesn't care who makes it. It just depends on if you're ready in that moment. But big time players make big time plays in big time games. I'm convinced of that.Â
Q: It's interesting you brought up passing efficiency. Caden (Creel) ranks second the league in that category. His number has gone way up from a year ago. What is it that you guys have done with him or coached him that can help him expand in that area?
A: I think the first thing you got to give the offensive line credit because one of the things that we've been really good with the offensive line this year is protection. He's had clean pockets. The only time I can remember that he hasn't had clean pockets is when we were in extremely long yardage situations or two minute situations. You know we had given up a couple of pressures, so I think he has confidence in the guys up front. The other thing I think that Caden's done is he's trusted his eyes more, learning to take what the defense gives you. I mentioned it before. There's always a stress point in defense. The whole object on offense is to find that stress point, and he's done a good job of that. And I think he's more comfortable. I think Coach Housewright's done a great job with it. I mean, Coach House is a is a heck of a coach now, and good play caller. So he understands what Caden can do. I tell all of our coaches this: our guys are good at a lot of things. Let them be good at what they're good at. Don't ask somebody to do something that they can't do. So I think some of the you know schematics that we do with Caden have helped him as well. But he takes a lot of pride in it. As all our quarterbacks, I mean, I think we got some good young quarterbacks as well that people haven't seen yet. But you know, they can they can do some things as well.
Q: What specifically do you want to see from your team adjust to as you head into conference play?
A: I think the biggest thing is playing a full 60 minutes, executing for 60 minutes, not just playing a full 60 minutes. There's a difference between playing and executing because you can play hard, but if you don't execute, you're not going to get good results. So we've got to be able to execute for 60 minutes in all three phases. I do think our team understands that it is all three phases. I don't think a lot of people realize one out of every six plays in football games and special teams play. It's a lot of plays, and if you don't put the emphasis on it, and you're not focused to the player to do my job in those situations, Â it'll bite youÂ
WR Darius Cannon & DL Quay Hood
Q: You get to have your brother as a teammate this season. What was that process like? Did you play a part in the recruiting process? And how has it been being in the same position group with your brother this year?
QH: It's been good. Yeah, I played a part in the recruiting phase. Â He had nine, nine or 10 sacks at NCAT, so it just feels good playing with him. I played with him in high school. I was actually a left tackle blocking for him. He was running back, and then he played D line. So it just feels good.
Q: Darius, you heard Coach talk a little bit about the involvement of the passing game this season. Now that you've kind of come into your own a little bit off of a breakout game, just talk about your comfort level in this offense and what you guys were able to accomplish on Saturday.
A: Yeah, starting off, we weren't really executing how we were supposed to, and now that everybody's getting comfortable with the offense.
Q: What were the adjustments like, and what was the message at halftime?Â
A: The message that we got from our D line coach was, he asked us, "What was the score? Obviously, a 0-0. We don't care about the score. He just told us to go out there and play our football, spot the ball mentality.Â
Q: Darius, it looks like in the past you grew very, very accustomed to catching a lot of balls. You know what it's like to catch a ball in a game. What did it mean to you on Saturday to get five receptions? Get a little bit back more to what you know what you can do.
DC: It felt real good just getting more comfortable. Like I didn't get the targets in the beginning, but like getting all in one game made me feel like real comfortable with quarterbacking more chemistry going.Â
Q: Coach talked a little bit about how sometimes confidence can become rat poison. So how are you guys taking that as keeping calm, trying to remember what you're sticking to?
DC: I would say you just gotta execute. It can be confidence, but it can also be poison. So you just gotta keep executing.
Q: How hard was it to stay focused when you guys you talked about it a little bit to have that 0-0 mentality when you came back out for the second half. Did it feel like you had a little bit of momentum going in at halftime?
A: Yes. After we got the three and out, it's just like it wasn't really that hard to stay focused because we tried, you know, come back.Â
Â
Players Mentioned
WR
/ Football
WR
/ Football
TE
/ Football
DL
/ Football
SAF
/ FootballTuesday, September 22
Sunday, September 20
Tuesday, September 15
Tuesday, September 08
