Troy University Athletics
Neal Brown Press Conference - South Alabama Game
10/9/2017 2:10:00 PM | Football
Neal Brown Press Conference – October 9, 2017
Welcome on this very wet Monday. Thank y'all for being here.
I want to take a step back before we move on to this week. Congrats to Adam (Prendergast) and his staff, they did a really tremendous job all of last week capitalizing on the opportunity to get national media attention.
It's rivalry week. This is the biggest game on our schedule, I don't make any ifs, ands or buts about it. We put a lot of importance on this. It's the "Battle for the Belt" on Wednesday night on ESPN2. It's the only football game on in all of America. We look forward to showcasing not only our program but our community and our university in this unique setting.
We have a lot of respect for Joey Jones and his staff and what they've done in a really short time with the football program there. They've gone to multiple bowl games, the attendance at Ladd-Peebles has increased and having a player chosen in the second round of the NFL Draft last year. It's really incredible when you just think about their 10-year history of having a program.
Offensively, they have a new coordinator with Richard Owens. I thought he did a really nice job in a tough situation against Louisiana Tech. He's had a couple of weeks now to get more comfortable in that role. He's got a really good offensive background.
Their running back, Xavier Johnson, is a kid that's hurt us the past couple of years. He's a downhill runner that very seldom goes down on first contact. It takes more than one person to tackle him. They have two big receivers in [Malik] Stanley and [Jamarius] Way. They're explosive, and I think they're as good-looking guys as there are in our league playing wide receiver.
Defensively, they're coached by Kane Wommack. He's done a really good job in just his second year. They're pretty multiple, they're aggressive and they run a lot of man coverage. Depth at the defensive line position is what's the most unique about them. Defensive tackle [Tyree] Turner is playing at a high level this year. The guy that sticks out the most to me is Jeremy Reeves. He's playing extremely well and is having a tremendous year. He's a guy that sticks out playing free safety.
It should be a great atmosphere Wednesday night. Our guys are looking forward to it. The last time South was here, they beat us on our home turf to get the Belt in 2015. I think our students are excited. That's the unique thing about this rivalry, the SGAs from the two schools came together and created the idea of the Battle for the Belt. I think it's one of the better trophies in college football.
Alabama is not playing, Auburn is not playing, so this is the only show in town. I hope some of the casual fans come out to Veterans Memorial Stadium and enjoy the game atmosphere that's gotten better every week.
On handling national attention…
I think it was huge for our university. What's unique about Troy is the size of our town and the size of our campus and we play on the highest level. I don't know if you can put a dollar figure on the amount of exposure that it brought to our university.
I think it's a benefit that we didn't play this Saturday, then we don't play until Wednesday and it's a rivalry game. The coaching staffs are familiar with each other. A lot of the players have competed with each other. We have a point to prove as a football program. We did not handle the nation attention last year. Have we matured? I think that's the challenge to our team.
On getting receivers in the end zone…
First of all, we've got to break some tackles and connect on some explosive pass plays. The other thing is we're running the ball better. Quite frankly, there are less things that can go wrong when you run the ball down in there tight. I don't think it's anything that Silvers or anybody is doing.
On players' attitudes…
We've put one (I wouldn't say it was complete) but one football game where all three phases played average or better, and that was at LSU. We're sitting here and 4-1 and, in our other three wins, we did some good things but weren't very consistent. I've talked at length about how bad we played on offense and special teams at Boise. So, we have to continue to get better. I think our best football is out in front of us.
On picking up the pace at home…
I do think it's important for us to play better at home. We've started off strong in both games, but really where it's gone wrong is in the second quarter. It's just not having the instinct to put your foot on the accelerator and try to put people away. That's something we've focused a lot on at practice the last two weeks. I thought we moved the ball better against LSU in the second quarter than we have against anybody but we only got a field goal out of it.
On Sidney Davis' big catch at South last year…
He made two tremendous plays for us last year in end-of-game scenarios – in the South game, and then here against App State. We've got a phrase that we use here with our program, "It all matters." If you consistently do the right thing over and over, play with good fundamentals, do what you're supposed to do and do what your coaches ask you to do, then good things are going to happen. He's a great example of that. I think he's sitting on a really good performance again. He's been playing football all year but hasn't been getting the football as much as he wants to. I think he's going to get his opportunities in this game and moving forward.
On South students traveling here…
I think their students are planning on traveling. I think they're bringing several buses up here. We have to do a good job. Our fans can't just assume that just because we're playing at home that we're going to have a great atmosphere. We've got to do a good job of being ready. I think we need to create a loud atmosphere. Our game management people continue to do a better job each and every week. We're making this a really tough place to play. We have to do our part as a football team and put a better product on the field.
On what Troy needs to do to win…
We have to do a good job of getting multiple hats on Xavier Johnson. He's a guy that we have to stop. We've got to make sure that we don't allow their big, physical wide receivers to get down the field on us. We have to understand that they're going to give us different looks than we've seen all season. We have to know where the Reeves kid is. Everything on their defense kind of funnels through him. So, we have to be aware of where he is on the field.
On saving Chunn up…
We have to continue to manage him. The LSU game is the one exception where he had 30 carries – 32 touches, overall. Up to that point, we had managed him and kept him healthy. Another thing is that we do a good job of managing him through the week. Sean Reagan does a good job of making sure he's in condition, he gets enough work but not too much work. I think he'll tell you he feels a lot better at this point than he did a year ago. Part of that is our offensive line is doing better at getting hats on defenders. He's not getting as many free hits at him as he did last year.
On improvement of the offensive line…
They've continued to improve without question. Offensive linemen are the hardest to recruit and the hardest to develop. We're in year three and if you look at it, we're starting a junior college transfer Steven Rowzee, who's just now starting to understand the demands of Division I football. At left guard, Kirk Kelley redshirted, played a little as a backup and now is a starter in year three. Deontae Crumitie was forced into action as a freshman and wasn't ready, last year started as a true sophomore and now in year three, he looks like an experienced guy and is playing his best football. At right guard, there's Tristan Crowder who's a sophomore. Then we have another true sophomore at right tackle, J.L. Gaston. They've played multiple games in a row, those five are playing the majority of the snaps and their communication is getting better.
On transition to conference play…
We have to continue to get better. Our best is the standard. We have to continue to play at a better level when you get in conference. Everyone is familiar with each other. We're not necessarily going to surprise South with what we're doing. They understand exactly what we're doing on offense, defense and special teams. We work our conference opponents more in the offseason than we did anybody else. We didn't play that well in our conference games down the stretch last year. We've changed some things with how we've practiced week in and week out. Our goal is to get to 2-0 in the conference. The LSU win was great, I'm proud of our guys and I'm excited about the publicity it brought to our university. If we don't follow that up with playing good football in our conference then it really doesn't mean anything.
Welcome on this very wet Monday. Thank y'all for being here.
I want to take a step back before we move on to this week. Congrats to Adam (Prendergast) and his staff, they did a really tremendous job all of last week capitalizing on the opportunity to get national media attention.
It's rivalry week. This is the biggest game on our schedule, I don't make any ifs, ands or buts about it. We put a lot of importance on this. It's the "Battle for the Belt" on Wednesday night on ESPN2. It's the only football game on in all of America. We look forward to showcasing not only our program but our community and our university in this unique setting.
We have a lot of respect for Joey Jones and his staff and what they've done in a really short time with the football program there. They've gone to multiple bowl games, the attendance at Ladd-Peebles has increased and having a player chosen in the second round of the NFL Draft last year. It's really incredible when you just think about their 10-year history of having a program.
Offensively, they have a new coordinator with Richard Owens. I thought he did a really nice job in a tough situation against Louisiana Tech. He's had a couple of weeks now to get more comfortable in that role. He's got a really good offensive background.
Their running back, Xavier Johnson, is a kid that's hurt us the past couple of years. He's a downhill runner that very seldom goes down on first contact. It takes more than one person to tackle him. They have two big receivers in [Malik] Stanley and [Jamarius] Way. They're explosive, and I think they're as good-looking guys as there are in our league playing wide receiver.
Defensively, they're coached by Kane Wommack. He's done a really good job in just his second year. They're pretty multiple, they're aggressive and they run a lot of man coverage. Depth at the defensive line position is what's the most unique about them. Defensive tackle [Tyree] Turner is playing at a high level this year. The guy that sticks out the most to me is Jeremy Reeves. He's playing extremely well and is having a tremendous year. He's a guy that sticks out playing free safety.
It should be a great atmosphere Wednesday night. Our guys are looking forward to it. The last time South was here, they beat us on our home turf to get the Belt in 2015. I think our students are excited. That's the unique thing about this rivalry, the SGAs from the two schools came together and created the idea of the Battle for the Belt. I think it's one of the better trophies in college football.
Alabama is not playing, Auburn is not playing, so this is the only show in town. I hope some of the casual fans come out to Veterans Memorial Stadium and enjoy the game atmosphere that's gotten better every week.
On handling national attention…
I think it was huge for our university. What's unique about Troy is the size of our town and the size of our campus and we play on the highest level. I don't know if you can put a dollar figure on the amount of exposure that it brought to our university.
I think it's a benefit that we didn't play this Saturday, then we don't play until Wednesday and it's a rivalry game. The coaching staffs are familiar with each other. A lot of the players have competed with each other. We have a point to prove as a football program. We did not handle the nation attention last year. Have we matured? I think that's the challenge to our team.
On getting receivers in the end zone…
First of all, we've got to break some tackles and connect on some explosive pass plays. The other thing is we're running the ball better. Quite frankly, there are less things that can go wrong when you run the ball down in there tight. I don't think it's anything that Silvers or anybody is doing.
On players' attitudes…
We've put one (I wouldn't say it was complete) but one football game where all three phases played average or better, and that was at LSU. We're sitting here and 4-1 and, in our other three wins, we did some good things but weren't very consistent. I've talked at length about how bad we played on offense and special teams at Boise. So, we have to continue to get better. I think our best football is out in front of us.
On picking up the pace at home…
I do think it's important for us to play better at home. We've started off strong in both games, but really where it's gone wrong is in the second quarter. It's just not having the instinct to put your foot on the accelerator and try to put people away. That's something we've focused a lot on at practice the last two weeks. I thought we moved the ball better against LSU in the second quarter than we have against anybody but we only got a field goal out of it.
On Sidney Davis' big catch at South last year…
He made two tremendous plays for us last year in end-of-game scenarios – in the South game, and then here against App State. We've got a phrase that we use here with our program, "It all matters." If you consistently do the right thing over and over, play with good fundamentals, do what you're supposed to do and do what your coaches ask you to do, then good things are going to happen. He's a great example of that. I think he's sitting on a really good performance again. He's been playing football all year but hasn't been getting the football as much as he wants to. I think he's going to get his opportunities in this game and moving forward.
On South students traveling here…
I think their students are planning on traveling. I think they're bringing several buses up here. We have to do a good job. Our fans can't just assume that just because we're playing at home that we're going to have a great atmosphere. We've got to do a good job of being ready. I think we need to create a loud atmosphere. Our game management people continue to do a better job each and every week. We're making this a really tough place to play. We have to do our part as a football team and put a better product on the field.
On what Troy needs to do to win…
We have to do a good job of getting multiple hats on Xavier Johnson. He's a guy that we have to stop. We've got to make sure that we don't allow their big, physical wide receivers to get down the field on us. We have to understand that they're going to give us different looks than we've seen all season. We have to know where the Reeves kid is. Everything on their defense kind of funnels through him. So, we have to be aware of where he is on the field.
On saving Chunn up…
We have to continue to manage him. The LSU game is the one exception where he had 30 carries – 32 touches, overall. Up to that point, we had managed him and kept him healthy. Another thing is that we do a good job of managing him through the week. Sean Reagan does a good job of making sure he's in condition, he gets enough work but not too much work. I think he'll tell you he feels a lot better at this point than he did a year ago. Part of that is our offensive line is doing better at getting hats on defenders. He's not getting as many free hits at him as he did last year.
On improvement of the offensive line…
They've continued to improve without question. Offensive linemen are the hardest to recruit and the hardest to develop. We're in year three and if you look at it, we're starting a junior college transfer Steven Rowzee, who's just now starting to understand the demands of Division I football. At left guard, Kirk Kelley redshirted, played a little as a backup and now is a starter in year three. Deontae Crumitie was forced into action as a freshman and wasn't ready, last year started as a true sophomore and now in year three, he looks like an experienced guy and is playing his best football. At right guard, there's Tristan Crowder who's a sophomore. Then we have another true sophomore at right tackle, J.L. Gaston. They've played multiple games in a row, those five are playing the majority of the snaps and their communication is getting better.
On transition to conference play…
We have to continue to get better. Our best is the standard. We have to continue to play at a better level when you get in conference. Everyone is familiar with each other. We're not necessarily going to surprise South with what we're doing. They understand exactly what we're doing on offense, defense and special teams. We work our conference opponents more in the offseason than we did anybody else. We didn't play that well in our conference games down the stretch last year. We've changed some things with how we've practiced week in and week out. Our goal is to get to 2-0 in the conference. The LSU win was great, I'm proud of our guys and I'm excited about the publicity it brought to our university. If we don't follow that up with playing good football in our conference then it really doesn't mean anything.
Players Mentioned
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