Troy University Athletics
Neal Brown Press Conference - Georgia State Game
10/16/2017 1:54:00 PM | Football
Neal Brown
Monday Press Conference – Georgia State
Good afternoon. Thanks for being here.
Football is an extremely humbling game, as we found out last week. Several other teams found out as well. I'm very disappointed in our performance last week; I talked in detail about that after the game. I'm not going to spend a ton of time on it.
I'm disappointed in how we played on offense and special teams – it was not pretty. Defensively, we played well enough to win the game. It wasn't our best but we did play good enough to win that game.
That loss hurt and it should. We're going to see what we're about this week. Adversity can do one of two things; it tears you apart or makes you stronger. I have full confidence in this team and these coaches that we'll bounce back and be stronger. We're going to prepare better this week and perform better Saturday afternoon than we did the previous week.
Georgia State is a really good football team. Shawn Elliott is a guy that we've thought really highly of for a long time. He was at Appalachian State, then he was at South Carolina as the offensive line coach and the interim head coach there.
They started off with two losses and have rebounded with three quality road wins. His team will be excited about going home and playing for the first time since opening weekend.
Offensively, they're led by Travis Trickett who was formerly the offensive coordinator at FAU and Samford. They are getting better each and every week. They're littered across the conference player of the week awards.
Their quarterback is Connor Manning and I think he may be the most improved player in our conference. He is really playing at a high level. He threw for over 300 yards here last year in the second half. You can see his confidence continuing to grow.
The receiver Penny Hart was all-conference as a freshman before having an injury last year. He had a huge game against ULM last week. Their tight end, Ari Werts, hurt us last year. Their backs get the ball in a variety of ways and may be our toughest test defensively.
Defensive coordinator is Nate Fuqua, he and I are from the same hometown. He's a year younger than me so I've known him since my freshman year of high school. He was a great player then went to Wofford and had an outstanding playing career there. He worked his way up to a defensive coordinator role there and they're in the hunt every year.
They play the run extremely well. They have maybe the best corner tandem in our conference. They've played together, now, for three years and do as good of a job at covering as anybody in our league.
I think they're playing with as much confidence as anybody in our league. They've won three road games in a row and are tied for first in our conference, right now. They have our full attention.
Our guys are going to be excited and they better be. We're going to play better football moving forward. I think it's a unique experience, we get to play at their new stadium. I've been there for a World Series and multiple Braves games so I'm looking forward to playing the second football game in that stadium's history.
On preparation…
We didn't turn the page until last night. I think it's important that we got away from football for a couple of days. We brought them in on Thursday and then turned the page on Sunday. I think you look at it, when you have a disappointing performance, you either completely put it to bed or you use it as a teaching tool. There were numerous teaching tools in that football game. We're 4-2 through six games and still have half our season left. We better learn from those mistakes we made and get better.
On college football upsets…
I'm going to be completely honest. I was so miserable that I didn't watch one live down of college football. I was so miserable that I haven't been on social media, I haven't watched any sports television. I do know this: college football is really unpredictable. I think any time you're dealing with 17-22 year olds, there are going to be surprises.
If you look at a team like Alabama and how consistent they've been, it's really remarkable. I don't need to sing the praises of Nick Saban because he is the top coach in college football right now. But what he does with his staff and his players getting them ready to play each and every week is outstanding. The competition they have in all of their position rooms drives them to be extremely competitive.
On Jordan Chunn…
We're expecting him to play. He had a leg injury that caused him to miss the second half. That probably hurt us because we had to throw the ball a little bit more than we wanted to in the second half. The other running backs just didn't get as much work as he did last week in preparation.
If he doesn't play, we don't expect our production to drop off at that position. Whether it's Jamarius [Henderson], Josh Anderson or B.J. Smith, they're going to have a full week of preparation.
On kicking position…
We're going to try (Tyler) Sumpter in there. He's done a great job for us punting, which is still his number one focus. They don't need to be long field goals but when we get the ball inside the 15, we need to be able to make those. He did a good job in high school of kicking field goals so we're going to give him an opportunity this week.
Monday Press Conference – Georgia State
Good afternoon. Thanks for being here.
Football is an extremely humbling game, as we found out last week. Several other teams found out as well. I'm very disappointed in our performance last week; I talked in detail about that after the game. I'm not going to spend a ton of time on it.
I'm disappointed in how we played on offense and special teams – it was not pretty. Defensively, we played well enough to win the game. It wasn't our best but we did play good enough to win that game.
That loss hurt and it should. We're going to see what we're about this week. Adversity can do one of two things; it tears you apart or makes you stronger. I have full confidence in this team and these coaches that we'll bounce back and be stronger. We're going to prepare better this week and perform better Saturday afternoon than we did the previous week.
Georgia State is a really good football team. Shawn Elliott is a guy that we've thought really highly of for a long time. He was at Appalachian State, then he was at South Carolina as the offensive line coach and the interim head coach there.
They started off with two losses and have rebounded with three quality road wins. His team will be excited about going home and playing for the first time since opening weekend.
Offensively, they're led by Travis Trickett who was formerly the offensive coordinator at FAU and Samford. They are getting better each and every week. They're littered across the conference player of the week awards.
Their quarterback is Connor Manning and I think he may be the most improved player in our conference. He is really playing at a high level. He threw for over 300 yards here last year in the second half. You can see his confidence continuing to grow.
The receiver Penny Hart was all-conference as a freshman before having an injury last year. He had a huge game against ULM last week. Their tight end, Ari Werts, hurt us last year. Their backs get the ball in a variety of ways and may be our toughest test defensively.
Defensive coordinator is Nate Fuqua, he and I are from the same hometown. He's a year younger than me so I've known him since my freshman year of high school. He was a great player then went to Wofford and had an outstanding playing career there. He worked his way up to a defensive coordinator role there and they're in the hunt every year.
They play the run extremely well. They have maybe the best corner tandem in our conference. They've played together, now, for three years and do as good of a job at covering as anybody in our league.
I think they're playing with as much confidence as anybody in our league. They've won three road games in a row and are tied for first in our conference, right now. They have our full attention.
Our guys are going to be excited and they better be. We're going to play better football moving forward. I think it's a unique experience, we get to play at their new stadium. I've been there for a World Series and multiple Braves games so I'm looking forward to playing the second football game in that stadium's history.
On preparation…
We didn't turn the page until last night. I think it's important that we got away from football for a couple of days. We brought them in on Thursday and then turned the page on Sunday. I think you look at it, when you have a disappointing performance, you either completely put it to bed or you use it as a teaching tool. There were numerous teaching tools in that football game. We're 4-2 through six games and still have half our season left. We better learn from those mistakes we made and get better.
On college football upsets…
I'm going to be completely honest. I was so miserable that I didn't watch one live down of college football. I was so miserable that I haven't been on social media, I haven't watched any sports television. I do know this: college football is really unpredictable. I think any time you're dealing with 17-22 year olds, there are going to be surprises.
If you look at a team like Alabama and how consistent they've been, it's really remarkable. I don't need to sing the praises of Nick Saban because he is the top coach in college football right now. But what he does with his staff and his players getting them ready to play each and every week is outstanding. The competition they have in all of their position rooms drives them to be extremely competitive.
On Jordan Chunn…
We're expecting him to play. He had a leg injury that caused him to miss the second half. That probably hurt us because we had to throw the ball a little bit more than we wanted to in the second half. The other running backs just didn't get as much work as he did last week in preparation.
If he doesn't play, we don't expect our production to drop off at that position. Whether it's Jamarius [Henderson], Josh Anderson or B.J. Smith, they're going to have a full week of preparation.
On kicking position…
We're going to try (Tyler) Sumpter in there. He's done a great job for us punting, which is still his number one focus. They don't need to be long field goals but when we get the ball inside the 15, we need to be able to make those. He did a good job in high school of kicking field goals so we're going to give him an opportunity this week.
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