Coach Montgomery’s Weekly Press Conference Quotes
September 04, 2017 | Football
GREENVILLE, N.C. – Second-year ECU Head Football Coach Scottie Montgomery addressed members of the media on Monday prior to Saturday's road game at West Virginia. The following are selected comments:
Opening Statement:
"A quick recap of the JMU game, it was what I thought it was on tape. Our first time starters at all spots struggled. I've got to do a better job, me personally, of managing our emotions before and during the game. The number that stands out is 422 to 80 – our rushing yards on offense versus the rushing yards we allowed. Overall it was a poor performance. The lack of our run game on offense and poor red zone efficiency really started from the beginning. The first play of the game we had what we thought was going to be a big time play, the exact look that our coaches had set up, and we didn't execute it at all. We had a matchup that we really, really liked on the outside that we didn't execute. That kind of leaked into the next play and that leaked into the next series and we didn't get off to a good start on offense.
"On defense, I thought we played hard the first and second quarters and tried to find a pace and rhythm and that is exactly what those guys did, they found a pace and rhythm to be able to give us a chance to win that football game. And offensively, unfortunately, we didn't do anything to give them any boost of energy. Defensively, we had 422 yards of rushing but we had five plays for 300 yards. We talked about from the beginning about eliminating explosive plays. I think that the elimination of those explosive plays in the passing game happened at times because of our pass rush and the elimination of the explosive plays in the run game didn't happen because of our inability to tackle on the third level. I also think that we tried to do a little too much in the third and fourth quarter defensively. We had a couple of players out there that felt the pressure of us not scoring on offense and that's what happens when teams don't necessarily play together. We got out of gaps a couple of times, certain people got out of gaps. It was a collective team loss.
"Special teams were much improved and will be challenged this weekend. There is a couple of things we have got to clean up in special teams, but we will be challenged with a lot of talent and a lot of speed.
On West Virginia:
West Virginia presents a new challenge on offense and they are led by Will Grier. People around here are familiar with the last name and running back Justin Crawford, who is probably one of the most elusive and strongest backs we have seen over the last couple of years. He is a really, really good football player and he has an array of weapons out there on the perimeter as well. So that will be a challenge. Defensively they are three-three stacked with Kyzir White and Al-Rasheed Benton give them the ability to get a lot of speed on the field and get from sideline to sideline, so we are going to have to be ready this weekend. I think the biggest deal is that I feel that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over and expecting a different result. Well we are not going to do the same things over and over. We will have changes; the first change that we are going to have is that, as you can see, Thomas Sirk will be our starter. The next few changes you won't see until we get to game day but there are definitely some things that we have got to do differently. I thought some of our guys came out and competed at a high level with a lot of toughness and then I thought that some people could have played a lot better. Schematically, offensively and defensively, we were presented with the things that we thought we were going to be presented with and that's why it is especially disappointing that we didn't execute any better than we did."
On JMU Having More Open Lanes In The Run Game Than ECU:
"Well, first we knew that we were going to have to stop about four different runs of inside and outside zone with different ways to block different backs. So I really felt like at times in the early part we were trying to find a rhythm of it. We knew the scheme and they did a really good job on the second level with our guards getting up to our backers. For the most part I thought it was just finding where they were. In the second half we started to press a little bit by trying to create turnovers and trying to do this, trying to do that. But we also had an issue because they do such a good job with run-action pass with the tight end through receivers that we wanted to be in a position to stop a big play and play top down in our secondary. I think that is why some of those holes were presented. Some of those gains were six-yard, eight-yard and 10-yard gains versus no-yard gains. I thought our defensive line did a good job in our gaps, for the most part."
On Tyshon Dye Not Getting A Carry Against JMU:
"First down inefficiency, really inefficient on first down, something that we have got to do a much better job at. I definitely want to see a much heavier dose of Tyshon Dye. That is not something that we said -- 'We aren't going to give him the ball, we're not going to even give Derrell (Scott) the ball more.' We were really inefficient on first down. That kind of led from snaps, when you put snaps on the ground and get to second-and-long, when you have penalties to get you to third-and-long versus third-and-four, third-and-five conversions. I think that really took us out of our rhythm. I think that the strategy at defensive back was because there were no spot fouls and 15-yard penalties: hold and grab. I thought that was very evident and they started getting calls on it, it was 15-yard gains but the biggest deal that stopped us from running the football was inefficiency on the first down."
On Takeaways From The West Virginia-Virginia Tech Game:
"I thought they competed at the highest level that they could compete at. I thought that both teams had some opportunities that they missed. I know West Virginia is kind of looking at it now. There were five or six opportunities in the game where they missed and they had it schemed up perfectly and didn't necessarily execute a lot of the times. I think they will be a much better team when we go up there this weekend. So I thought they competed at a high level, especially in that atmosphere."
On WVU's Will Grier Putting Up Big Numbers Against Virginia Tech:
"You know the biggest deal is that you can't give guys like Will that many open spaces to throw the ball. You have got to put pressure on him. You've got to move him off the spot. I thought they moved him off the spot a couple of times but I thought protection in the interior, for the most part, for West Virginia was pretty good. He was able to stand in there and he's not going to miss shots. He might have missed two or three throws in the game, some crossing routs, one where he got out of the pocket and it was a deep post, but he's not going to be missing very many of those."
On Jimmy Williams Actions On The Sidelines Against JMU:
"Jimmy is really emotional and he should have been emotional. A couple of times he was looking to come out of the game because he had run down the field and the people that were responsible for coming in for him didn't necessarily come in one time and he really needed a blow, so it upset him."
On West Virginia Having A Short Week Following Sunday's Physical Game With Virginia Tech:
"We are going to practice. I mean we are going to have to practice a lot. A lot more snaps because of what they present on defense and we are going to practice and try to be physically ready for that game. That is the one thing that I took away from the game on the offensive and defensive front. It was so physical, the whole night. You saw defensive lineman leaving the field and coming back on the field, offensively lineman leaving. You don't really know where you are at after a game like that until two or three days later. So we are going to be fresh when we get there but we know if we can go in and put together a physical game plan as well it's going to challenge them a little bit. I will say that I thought they handled every challenge both offensively and defensively that Virginia Tech threw at them from a physical standpoint. I thought that Virginia Tech had a mindset that they were going to come out and be really physical in a defensive front and really physical in the offensive front and try to run the ball and get established, and West Virginia was there the whole time to answer that call."
On The Atmosphere In Morgantown:
"My biggest concern is today. It really is. It may be good for us to go on the road and have to be in and environment where it's going to be high style. Our guys are going to have to understand that it is Pirates versus everybody and go in there and play well and get away from the distractions of people coming in town or all that. We need to go play well on the road. We haven't played well on the road since I have been here. I understand that so we have to go up there and put together a good product. But it is also going to give us stability to be locked in going into a situation that we know a team is a great football team and we have got to respond."
On Practicing Crowd Noise This Week:
"We always practice with crowd noise when we are on the road. That won't be anything unusual. I think the biggest adjustment in practice that we need to make is that coaches have got to get off the field. You have got to coach in between drives more especially in those atmospheres. People say the non-verbal communication, well there is a lot of verbal communication and it happens on offense or on defense during a game and in crowd situations it is going to be very tough for that to happen."
On Garrett McGhin And The Offensive Line In Practice This Week:
"We are going to make a decision whether we play Garrett at the center or the guard position. We can't start in situations where the ball goes on the ground on second-and-short or third-and-short and just kill the momentum. We really want to see that group grow. I thought that Cortez Herrin and D'Ante Smith would play a lot better. We've got to manage their emotions a little bit better. I think that they were, at least Cortez, was a little uptight to begin the game and just didn't compete at the level that he has competed at all camp. I thought he was a dominant player leaving camp and we didn't necessarily see that out of him so we will settle him down and get him back going."
On What The Deciding Factor Was To Start Sirk This Week:
"Competitive nature, right there. I thought that he gave our team a big boost when he got up off the ground, he could have laid down. Right then I thought that was the spirit of the leader. That moment, when he got up off the ground, it changed everything for me just because I saw a guy that no matter what the situation, he was going to get up and compete for us. It had been a close battle going through camp but it was also clear leaving camp that Gardner (Minshew) was ahead by everything that we put together; the way the team voted for captain everything was all aligned for Gardner to be the deal. But you have got to make decisions in this business or the decisions will be made for you. So I made the decision to put Thomas Sirk in there and Thomas Sirk will be our guy."
On Freshman John Spellacy Against JMU:
"Great. I thought he did great. You put a freshman in there and I thought he did great. He had one snap that was a little bit errant but I thought he did great. He is a tough kid and his mental errors that he had might have been one or two, but we put a guy on that stage in that situation, that would stage frighten a lot of people."
On How He Can Rally The Pirate Nation:
"I don't doubt that there is some panic. For me I told the team and I will just tell everybody, don't blink. And I told the team, everyone on our coaching staff and the people that work on the field; don't blink. If I catch anybody blinking I told them I was going to cut their eyelids off. We are not in a situation with this many games left to go play; smart decisions need to be made. And they had to be made over the last 48 hours and even 36 hours. We are making them and we will be back. I understand that. If anybody knows how important it is for us to come out and be prepared and play it's me, because I felt like we worked extremely hard to get to that first game. In every situation and put those guys in every situation that they were going to be in at games and we saw exactly what we were going see and we failed. But we failed one day, and now we have a whole season in front of us and our guys will be prepared. But we are not going to blink. I'm not going to blink. I'm ready to coach. I know our coaches are fired up right now because we have had more meetings and more time and more late nights, and we have got a lot more to get going. We know exactly where we are as a team right now and that is not where we need to be. There are no concerns right now for me on finding out how we get better. I know what our problems are."
Opening Statement:
"A quick recap of the JMU game, it was what I thought it was on tape. Our first time starters at all spots struggled. I've got to do a better job, me personally, of managing our emotions before and during the game. The number that stands out is 422 to 80 – our rushing yards on offense versus the rushing yards we allowed. Overall it was a poor performance. The lack of our run game on offense and poor red zone efficiency really started from the beginning. The first play of the game we had what we thought was going to be a big time play, the exact look that our coaches had set up, and we didn't execute it at all. We had a matchup that we really, really liked on the outside that we didn't execute. That kind of leaked into the next play and that leaked into the next series and we didn't get off to a good start on offense.
"On defense, I thought we played hard the first and second quarters and tried to find a pace and rhythm and that is exactly what those guys did, they found a pace and rhythm to be able to give us a chance to win that football game. And offensively, unfortunately, we didn't do anything to give them any boost of energy. Defensively, we had 422 yards of rushing but we had five plays for 300 yards. We talked about from the beginning about eliminating explosive plays. I think that the elimination of those explosive plays in the passing game happened at times because of our pass rush and the elimination of the explosive plays in the run game didn't happen because of our inability to tackle on the third level. I also think that we tried to do a little too much in the third and fourth quarter defensively. We had a couple of players out there that felt the pressure of us not scoring on offense and that's what happens when teams don't necessarily play together. We got out of gaps a couple of times, certain people got out of gaps. It was a collective team loss.
"Special teams were much improved and will be challenged this weekend. There is a couple of things we have got to clean up in special teams, but we will be challenged with a lot of talent and a lot of speed.
On West Virginia:
West Virginia presents a new challenge on offense and they are led by Will Grier. People around here are familiar with the last name and running back Justin Crawford, who is probably one of the most elusive and strongest backs we have seen over the last couple of years. He is a really, really good football player and he has an array of weapons out there on the perimeter as well. So that will be a challenge. Defensively they are three-three stacked with Kyzir White and Al-Rasheed Benton give them the ability to get a lot of speed on the field and get from sideline to sideline, so we are going to have to be ready this weekend. I think the biggest deal is that I feel that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over and expecting a different result. Well we are not going to do the same things over and over. We will have changes; the first change that we are going to have is that, as you can see, Thomas Sirk will be our starter. The next few changes you won't see until we get to game day but there are definitely some things that we have got to do differently. I thought some of our guys came out and competed at a high level with a lot of toughness and then I thought that some people could have played a lot better. Schematically, offensively and defensively, we were presented with the things that we thought we were going to be presented with and that's why it is especially disappointing that we didn't execute any better than we did."
On JMU Having More Open Lanes In The Run Game Than ECU:
"Well, first we knew that we were going to have to stop about four different runs of inside and outside zone with different ways to block different backs. So I really felt like at times in the early part we were trying to find a rhythm of it. We knew the scheme and they did a really good job on the second level with our guards getting up to our backers. For the most part I thought it was just finding where they were. In the second half we started to press a little bit by trying to create turnovers and trying to do this, trying to do that. But we also had an issue because they do such a good job with run-action pass with the tight end through receivers that we wanted to be in a position to stop a big play and play top down in our secondary. I think that is why some of those holes were presented. Some of those gains were six-yard, eight-yard and 10-yard gains versus no-yard gains. I thought our defensive line did a good job in our gaps, for the most part."
On Tyshon Dye Not Getting A Carry Against JMU:
"First down inefficiency, really inefficient on first down, something that we have got to do a much better job at. I definitely want to see a much heavier dose of Tyshon Dye. That is not something that we said -- 'We aren't going to give him the ball, we're not going to even give Derrell (Scott) the ball more.' We were really inefficient on first down. That kind of led from snaps, when you put snaps on the ground and get to second-and-long, when you have penalties to get you to third-and-long versus third-and-four, third-and-five conversions. I think that really took us out of our rhythm. I think that the strategy at defensive back was because there were no spot fouls and 15-yard penalties: hold and grab. I thought that was very evident and they started getting calls on it, it was 15-yard gains but the biggest deal that stopped us from running the football was inefficiency on the first down."
On Takeaways From The West Virginia-Virginia Tech Game:
"I thought they competed at the highest level that they could compete at. I thought that both teams had some opportunities that they missed. I know West Virginia is kind of looking at it now. There were five or six opportunities in the game where they missed and they had it schemed up perfectly and didn't necessarily execute a lot of the times. I think they will be a much better team when we go up there this weekend. So I thought they competed at a high level, especially in that atmosphere."
On WVU's Will Grier Putting Up Big Numbers Against Virginia Tech:
"You know the biggest deal is that you can't give guys like Will that many open spaces to throw the ball. You have got to put pressure on him. You've got to move him off the spot. I thought they moved him off the spot a couple of times but I thought protection in the interior, for the most part, for West Virginia was pretty good. He was able to stand in there and he's not going to miss shots. He might have missed two or three throws in the game, some crossing routs, one where he got out of the pocket and it was a deep post, but he's not going to be missing very many of those."
On Jimmy Williams Actions On The Sidelines Against JMU:
"Jimmy is really emotional and he should have been emotional. A couple of times he was looking to come out of the game because he had run down the field and the people that were responsible for coming in for him didn't necessarily come in one time and he really needed a blow, so it upset him."
On West Virginia Having A Short Week Following Sunday's Physical Game With Virginia Tech:
"We are going to practice. I mean we are going to have to practice a lot. A lot more snaps because of what they present on defense and we are going to practice and try to be physically ready for that game. That is the one thing that I took away from the game on the offensive and defensive front. It was so physical, the whole night. You saw defensive lineman leaving the field and coming back on the field, offensively lineman leaving. You don't really know where you are at after a game like that until two or three days later. So we are going to be fresh when we get there but we know if we can go in and put together a physical game plan as well it's going to challenge them a little bit. I will say that I thought they handled every challenge both offensively and defensively that Virginia Tech threw at them from a physical standpoint. I thought that Virginia Tech had a mindset that they were going to come out and be really physical in a defensive front and really physical in the offensive front and try to run the ball and get established, and West Virginia was there the whole time to answer that call."
On The Atmosphere In Morgantown:
"My biggest concern is today. It really is. It may be good for us to go on the road and have to be in and environment where it's going to be high style. Our guys are going to have to understand that it is Pirates versus everybody and go in there and play well and get away from the distractions of people coming in town or all that. We need to go play well on the road. We haven't played well on the road since I have been here. I understand that so we have to go up there and put together a good product. But it is also going to give us stability to be locked in going into a situation that we know a team is a great football team and we have got to respond."
On Practicing Crowd Noise This Week:
"We always practice with crowd noise when we are on the road. That won't be anything unusual. I think the biggest adjustment in practice that we need to make is that coaches have got to get off the field. You have got to coach in between drives more especially in those atmospheres. People say the non-verbal communication, well there is a lot of verbal communication and it happens on offense or on defense during a game and in crowd situations it is going to be very tough for that to happen."
On Garrett McGhin And The Offensive Line In Practice This Week:
"We are going to make a decision whether we play Garrett at the center or the guard position. We can't start in situations where the ball goes on the ground on second-and-short or third-and-short and just kill the momentum. We really want to see that group grow. I thought that Cortez Herrin and D'Ante Smith would play a lot better. We've got to manage their emotions a little bit better. I think that they were, at least Cortez, was a little uptight to begin the game and just didn't compete at the level that he has competed at all camp. I thought he was a dominant player leaving camp and we didn't necessarily see that out of him so we will settle him down and get him back going."
On What The Deciding Factor Was To Start Sirk This Week:
"Competitive nature, right there. I thought that he gave our team a big boost when he got up off the ground, he could have laid down. Right then I thought that was the spirit of the leader. That moment, when he got up off the ground, it changed everything for me just because I saw a guy that no matter what the situation, he was going to get up and compete for us. It had been a close battle going through camp but it was also clear leaving camp that Gardner (Minshew) was ahead by everything that we put together; the way the team voted for captain everything was all aligned for Gardner to be the deal. But you have got to make decisions in this business or the decisions will be made for you. So I made the decision to put Thomas Sirk in there and Thomas Sirk will be our guy."
On Freshman John Spellacy Against JMU:
"Great. I thought he did great. You put a freshman in there and I thought he did great. He had one snap that was a little bit errant but I thought he did great. He is a tough kid and his mental errors that he had might have been one or two, but we put a guy on that stage in that situation, that would stage frighten a lot of people."
On How He Can Rally The Pirate Nation:
"I don't doubt that there is some panic. For me I told the team and I will just tell everybody, don't blink. And I told the team, everyone on our coaching staff and the people that work on the field; don't blink. If I catch anybody blinking I told them I was going to cut their eyelids off. We are not in a situation with this many games left to go play; smart decisions need to be made. And they had to be made over the last 48 hours and even 36 hours. We are making them and we will be back. I understand that. If anybody knows how important it is for us to come out and be prepared and play it's me, because I felt like we worked extremely hard to get to that first game. In every situation and put those guys in every situation that they were going to be in at games and we saw exactly what we were going see and we failed. But we failed one day, and now we have a whole season in front of us and our guys will be prepared. But we are not going to blink. I'm not going to blink. I'm ready to coach. I know our coaches are fired up right now because we have had more meetings and more time and more late nights, and we have got a lot more to get going. We know exactly where we are as a team right now and that is not where we need to be. There are no concerns right now for me on finding out how we get better. I know what our problems are."
Our thoughts and prayers go out to our conference brethren, the Houston Cougars, during their time of need. We encourage those who can, to help support the Hurricane Harvey relief efforts by texting HARVEY to 90999 to make a $10 donation to the Red Cross, visit redcross.org or call 1-800-RED-CROSS.
Players Mentioned
Running Back
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Offensive Line
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Offensive Line
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Quarterback
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Offensive Line
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Offensive Line
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Wide Receiver
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