Head Coach Doug Marrone Press Conference Transcript
Syracuse vs. Colgate
Syracuse vs. Colgate
September 25, 2010
Head Coach Doug Marrone
Carrier Dome – Syracuse, N.Y.
“I just finished talking to the team and I’m excited. Our goal was to be 3-1 at the end of the day. We accomplished that, which we haven’t done in a long period of time. We’re looking forward to getting this game behind us and learning some things. You learn whether you win or lose games. There are some things from this game that we can learn as we move forward during the week, to keep working on fundamentals and techniques we need to use during the course of the year to get better and get into this BIG EAST Conference schedule. I’m excited with where we’re sitting right now, I’m excited with how we’re progressing on all three phases of the game. There are some things to clean up and we’ll have some time to do that.”
On senior running back Delone Carter only having three carries in the first half:
“If you look at the overall game we only had 40-something plays on offense, first half we only had three third downs and were 1-of-3, we didn’t have a lot of snaps. We started off in our no-huddle offense, which was moving very well, but we made some assignment errors when we got close, which was very disappointing, and that hurt the tempo of our offense going in there. It was just a matter of opportunities and what we were looking to get done that his carries were a little less than what they were in the second half. He is not in that particular no-huddle offense.”
On why the team started in no-huddle offense:
“We haven’t been in a real two-minute situation and we haven’t gotten to our no-huddle situation in the games this year. One of the things we wanted to do was get them out there and do it live. At first we went out there and made some plays, then we got into the red zone and tight-five, we missed assignments and we weren’t able to score. It is disappointing but that is why we do it now rather than have it happen later on. We want to get it on tape and look at it and we wanted the players to execute. We planned it all along. Earlier in the week the players knew we were going to do this. It is something we needed to do to make sure we were successful down the road.”
On the whether he was happy with the offensive production despite only holding the ball for six minutes in the first half:
“If I look at the offense, I want to hold the ball the whole time and score every time we get it. So that answer would be no, but offensively when you have 40-something plays, hold the ball 15-minutes and have over 400 yards of offense and score five touchdowns that is pretty good, you’re making plays. Defensively, its like I said all week, this team has a good system. We see it on TV quite often. Georgia Tech has run this style, along with a lot of other teams. You make a play on the fullback and they’re going to give it to the quarterback, you make a play on the quarterback and they give it to the fullback and it was that way back-and-forth with the bubble passes. It is a difficult system to defend and one we have to do a better job with.”
On junior (running back) Antwon Bailey and senior (running back) Delone Carter:
“I’m proud of them for this moment, but there are still a lot of things we have to work on. I’m happy for the players, I want them to enjoy the victory but my most disappointing moment is the no-huddle going down the field and having breakdowns in the red zone. That cannot happen.”
On whether he was frustrated with Colgate holding onto the ball:
“They hit us on a couple of gap responsibilities. Little scheme stuff they have (defensive coordinator Scott) Shafer can tell you about it. They were veer releasing the three-technique, reading the three, sometimes they read the five, so it is one of those situations where if one closes, the other keeps it, if one stays there, they give it to the dive. Hats off to them, I said all week that they do a nice job of that. Do I get frustrated? Absolutely not, because if I get frustrated, then the offense is going to feel that frustration, as well as the rest of the team. I’m more encouraging, looking for them to go three-and-out, give us the ball back on offense. That is pretty much how I am on the sideline.”
On whether he considered kicking a field goal on the opening drive:
“I was going touchdown no matter what. I really felt comfortable and I was upset that we had an assignment mistake down there in the red zone. We had a play that I really felt comfortable with, the fourth down play. I was expecting them to be in man and they pressured us from the weakside, they knocked the Y off and it was a good call by them and a bad call by me. If they were in man in that situation I felt good about that call going into this game, but obviously it didn’t work.”
On the condition of the team a third of the way into the season:
“I’m excited. You’d have to ask them, I can’t speak for the players but I’m happy.”
On the way running back Delone Carter ran:
“He did a nice job. We’ve been focusing on a couple things for him to work on. When you saw that on the field he was able to get outside mostly and not make those hard cuts against the grain he normally does. I was happy to see him get the ball to the outside and take it to the end zone. We have been working on that and we’ve been working on, believe it or not, him being a little slower to the hole to let things develop. Overall as a football team we all have to play with our pads down a little bit more than we are right now. Up front with the line when we’re running a little bit our pads get a little high as the game goes on. That was one of the things I noticed and wrote down with my notes.”
On the overall defensive performance:
“We only gave up one touchdown, so I’m excited about that. I could go down the list. On third down we were 5-of-17, so we did a nice job there. Fourth down, you’re not happy with that because it was 4-of-7 on the full back, quarterback dive giving up that yardage. Forty minutes is a long time for a defense to be on the field. Am I happy they kept them out of the end zone? Absolutely. They have a tough task ahead of themselves seeing a little bit different schemes than they saw during the week. At the end of the day, we’re talking about a football team that needs to get better and better every week, that is going to be the key for us. If we don’t get better then we’re going to struggle, if we continue to get better we’ll be fine.”
On what the team needs to focus on heading into the bye week:
“Penalties, we had five. I always talk about the next win, for us to beat South Florida we need to decrease the penalties. We went down to five, but still had some out there on the field. We did have a turnover, poor call, going in there they brought four weak, we didn’t re-mike it and it was a sack-fumble. We have to make sure that we don’t turn the ball over. We did get a couple of turnovers from our side, which is good. We need to continue on that. We have to do a better job getting the three-and-outs, which have been good to this point. We just have to get better technically, more sound, making tackles, not missing tackles, finishing blocks on the offensive line. We’re looking at it more from a fundamental standpoint. Do we have the scheme to play well the rest of the year? Absolutely, But if you don’t have the technique, that’s what we’re concentrating with our players. From a technical standpoint we need to get better.”
On freshman linebacker Marquis Spruill:
“He is quick, he triggers real well, there are some missed tackles out there, I see flashes of it. Overall performance for a freshman playing his position has been very, very good. He has played very, very well for us. He is disruptive, he’s made some plays, he has some quarterback hits, made some tackles, but again, he leaves his feet sometimes when he needs to run through it. He is a young football player and will continue to get better.”
On tight end Nick Provo’s head injury:
“I do know what happened, I’m probably not going to release it. I know what happened, I’m not going to say it, I’m just going to wait and see when I get back in there where we are. I don’t want rumors to spread.”
On how much speed was a factor in the second half:
“Speed helped us on their outside bubble throws. When they were able to get vertical they did a nice job and anything going East-West our speed got to some of them, but not all of them. Offensively you saw some of that, you saw some missed blocks where a guy was free and we just out-ran him. That is part of the game, there was a little bit of that but I give a lot of credit to Colgate, I didn’t see anyone on that team dogging it, they were going to anything.”
On what he said to the team at halftime:
“It isn’t like when you go in at halftime you wave a magic wand, and I think people think that a lot of times. My approach at halftime is just to be truthful with the football team, we’re in a game, it is 14-0, we might not have liked some of the things we’ve done, yes, no, here or there, but we still have a 14-point lead. I talked to them about making sure when we come out nothing had changed from what we talked about during the week of starting fast. I told them what we need to do, we get the ball first and can take one back. I told them that I was going to leave the locker room for two minutes and the referees will come get them. At the end of the day, this is your football team, I may be the head coach and have the direction and we may have a lot of assistant coaches, but this is your football team. I told them they needed to stay in the locker room and get themselves ready to go out in the second half. That is exactly what happened, (smiling) that is good insight, too.”
On five rushing touchdowns this week as opposed to five passing touchdowns last week:
“I don’t plan that, it isn’t like I have a crystal ball. A lot of it is what the defense gives us. There are some things we missed in both the running game and the passing game that should have been touchdowns. We just go out there and try to run the system, run the offense and let the system take care of itself and let the defense take what we’re going to take.”
