Coach Crowe's Press Conference Quotes - 11-9

Courtesy of JSUGamecocksports.com

QUOTING JSU HEAD COACH JACK CROWE

On The Southeast Missouri Game
“We were glad to win. There wasn’t a whole lot of satisfaction in the win by the end of the game to be honest with you. So, we really had to step back from it a little bit and look at it in its entirety. We didn’t finish the game very well. Give credit to Southeast Missouri. To be down 21-0 as quickly as they were, I didn’t think their intensity or pace of play dropped off one bit. Us on the other hand, there were just times of real inconsistency. I thought we arrived ready to play. We returned kicks, blocked kicks, covered kicks and made plays on offense and defense. Whatever I said at halftime didn’t have much affect on them, because we didn’t sustain it very well.”

On this week’s game against Tennessee Tech
“We are challenged coming into this week’s game against Tennessee Tech, which has been a very efficient football team. As you look at them statistically, you don’t see a strength and weakness category. They are right there in everything in a median area. They are doing a good job of protecting the ball. They are really playing good football. Usually, when you do that you have an experienced quarterback. Lee Sweeney is a three-year starter who transferred from Louisville. He is a big, strapping, run the game type of player. He has the most productive wide receiver to throw two in Tim Benford. Those two are probably where it starts, but you have got a couple guys with good hands in Henry Sailes, who has been in and out of the line up, and the running back Dontey Gay. Those two guys have made a lot of open field plays for them and at the same time, they have had consistency in the running game and in the passing game. We need to take them out of their rhythm somehow on offense. Defensively, they are very multiple and they do a great job with the schemes and the players are playing more in the system now. They are where they are supposed to be, when they are supposed to be there on offense and defense, and they are making the plays. They are a very sound team, which is a sign of good coaching.

On his own team
“We feel enormously challenged by this team. We feel challenged by ourselves in the way we finished the game last week. This is a very talented football team that still has a high level of motivation. I think they were very disappointed in not finishing the game at a high level. There is nothing lackadaisical about this football team. There are very talented players on this team, that when it doesn’t get done right, they get very frustrated because they expect a lot out of themselves. I expect there own expectations to bring them back and I would expect that it is going to result in us playing the best they have played all year here at the end. The pieces are there. It is not an attitude problem, nor is there a work problem. If anything, it is inconsistent focus by our first and second year players. James Wilkerson came out the game after the opening kick and we didn’t put him back in and Brandt Thomas was out. Everytime we lose one of those core players, the thing has a little less continuity to it. I expect everybody to there by game day. We will have some that will be limited. If there is somebody that is not going to be there it will be disclosed to us on the practice field. Jim Skidmore does a great job, so my expectations are that he will have them all ready to play.”