Neal Brown Press Conference - LSU Game - Troy University Athletics

Thank y'all for being here. I know I tell you that every Monday, but I know there's other things you could be doing.

Two things I want to hit on before we get rolling. We had an honorary captain at the game on Saturday, two-year old Raeleigh Jane McCartha. She's undergoing cancer treatment and really our team was inspired by her story and her fight and I want to recognize her.

Ben Abercrombie, the player from Hoover that plays for Harvard and was hurt in his first college football game, is experiencing some paralysis right now. The Hoover community is doing "Stand UP for Ben" today. Our team and our staff send our thoughts and prayers to him and want everybody to keep him in your thoughts and prayers, as well.

On Akron game…
Going back to Saturday. I want to thank our fans. I said this after the game and I meant it. Veterans Memorial Stadium has turned into a really great atmosphere for college football. The one thing good about the lightning delay is Coach Bobby Bowden came in the field house to get out of the heat a little bit. I was able to have a conversation with him and he talked about how much Troy had changed. He drives through Troy going from Tallahassee to Birmingham and how he'd seen the University change. It brought some perspective on how far we've come. The two home games we've had proved that our gameday atmosphere has done a complete 180. This is a great place for college football because of our students. I appreciate them showing up.

I'm proud of our guys for finding a way to win. So many times, teams that don't play very well lose the game. I think for us to win the game when we didn't play well in any phase shows that we've got a little something about us. I'm not sure that we would have won the game a year ago. And we played better football last year than we have at any point this year but we didn't finish games real strong last year. We've done that now two weeks in a row.

If you go back through those final stages, we got a big stop there on defense. We took the ball and went 97 yards. I don't know how many 97-yard game-winning drives there have been in our history, but I'm going to guess not a whole lot. I thought Brandon [Silvers] did a great job and Deondre [Douglas] made a couple of great plays there down the stretch.

On special teams, we've had issues place kicking. You all see that. We've missed a PAT for the second week in a row and missed a 32-yard field goal, which should never happen at this level. We had two penalties take away big punt returns and kickoff returns.

Positively, Bratcher Underwood did a great job kicking off. We had four touchbacks and they had negative one kickoff return yards in the game. Our return teams did a really nice job, and we would've had starting field position well above the 30 if it wasn't for one penalty.

Defensively, we didn't do a very good job of getting off the field in the second half. I think we extended four drives with penalties in the second half. We allowed too many third-down conversions and we're better than that. That should not happen. We lack a consistent pass rush. Zo Bridges gave us a little something in the second half but consistently, we haven't had a good pass rush.

Positives, we had three takeaways. We went back-to-back weeks without a takeaway and had three against Akron. They only averaged 2.8 yards per carry and that's a good running back. We only allowed 17 points and I thought red zone defense was the story of the game. We held them in the red zone to two scores out of five opportunities and that's the reason we won the game, if you're looking for one statistic.

Offensively, we had seven penalties. Poor on third down because of a lot of self-inflicted wounds. We had five drops in the game and zero points off turnovers. We really had an opportunity to blow that game open in the second quarter for the second week in a row but lacked the killer instinct to put them away.

The positives are the 97-yard game-winning drive. That showed the ability that we have. We averaged 6.2 yards per carry and had 10 explosive plays.

It was a good win over a well-coached team. I thought Coach (Terry) Bowden had his team ready to go. They did a really good job defensively after the first quarter. We didn't play very well, but we found a way to win. We have to coach better, we have to play more disciplined and move forward.

On LSU week…
We have LSU up next. LSU looks about like what you would think LSU looks like. They are what they always are, one of the most athletic teams in the country.

Defensively, they are led by one of the top defensive coordinators in the country, Coach [Dave] Aranda. They're big up front with a three-man front. Coach Pete Jenkins, who's kind of the guru of defensive line, came out of retirement to coach those guys. They're big and rush the edge, led by Arden Key. They're young in the secondary, but they are talented.

On offense, Matt Canada is the offensive coordinator, who's really been innovative over the last several years. They put you in a bind with motions and shifts. I think [Danny] Etling is playing his best football right now. [Derrius] Guice is one of the top running backs in the country, if not the best running back.

Our team is excited, we're going to play in one of the top venues in the country. I've had the privilege to play and coach there. It's an exciting atmosphere and our guys are looking forward to it. We've got to play our best game of the year. That doesn't mean we have to be perfect, just that we've got to play a more complete game than we have so far.

On learning from the 2008 loss at LSU…
We had a good plan going into that game. We obviously should've won the game. They were better than us, let's not kid ourselves. Our quarterback Levi Brown played extremely well. Jerrel Jernigan was one of the best players, if not the best player on the field that day. In the second half, we just dropped the football. We weren't able to run against them, that's why we threw the ball 71 times. It just so happened that on our 70^th pass we got called for holding. We didn't really protect any different than we did the other 69 times but got called for holding on the 70^th. We had the chance to potentially win the game.

On finishing games better in 2017…
Well we have some talent. Our coaches put them in those situations in practice. We practice the four-minute drill that we used against New Mexico State. The two-minute drill that we executed the other night with no timeouts was like most of our practice situations that we do with zero timeouts. If you go back and look at most of our touchdown drives, they hover right around two minutes, anyways. So, we didn't really function any different than we did most of the night, we just caught the ball and executed better.

On nerve factor...
I think there's always nerves. There's nerves when you go play any game. Our guys are not going to be intimidated because they've all played in tough venues. We've played in several tough ones since I came back to be the coach here. Those are opportunities that our guys relish. There are some things we have to plan for, as far as crowd noise. But I don't think our guys will be intimidated by any means.

On how to beat LSU…
We have to stop their running game. We have to at least limit their big plays. We can't give up big balls over our heads. Offensively, we've got to hold on to the football. The speed of the game is going to be so much different than what we've experienced through our first four games. Our guys are going to get hit from the side and from behind more than we've been hit any time this year. We've got to generate ways to run it. If they can pin their ears back and rush the passer, we're going to struggle.

On getting the ball out quickly…
We won't be able to protect these guys as well as we've protected the guys we've played so far this year. This is the best pass rushing team that we'll play all year. That's no disrespect to anybody in our league, that's just the way it is. They have Arden Key who may be the number one pick in the NFL Draft. Probably one of Brandon's best strengths is that he gets the ball out of his hand. We're not going to change what we do and our guys have to make plays. We've got the pieces to be a really productive offense regardless of who we're playing. We just have to go out and do it.

On playing to potential…
We're 3-1. I don't think we're playing anywhere close to our potential. I don't think we've played our best football in any phase. Our attention to detail is lacking. I'm disappointed in the penalties. By no means do I sit here and think that 28 penalties should've been called in that game. That's on the ridiculous side. We were guilty of our fair share, too many. We need to play more consistent and pay more attention to detail. We're either going to do that or LSU is going to do it for us. We're getting ready to go down and play one of the top teams in the country.

On spark from playing big team…
I don't think it matters who you play. Football is so much different dynamically than other sports. You play 12 games, maybe 13 and a bowl game or 14 and a playoff spot, but you have to get yourself ready to go. It doesn't matter if you're playing Alabama State or LSU, you better get ready to go. The things that Division I football players have to go through now to play is such a time demand. Our guys are going to be excited because it is LSU. It is one of the premier programs in the country and we get to play in one of the premier venues in the country. We'll have a little extra pep in our step on Saturday. If we don't get that pep in our step until Saturday, then it's not going to matter. The only way we go down with a chance at success is if we practice well starting today. If we're consistent in our approach, prepare our minds, prepare our bodies and paying attention to details, then we have a chance. If we just think we're going to show up and all of the sudden the energy in that stadium will light a fire in us, that's not going to happen.

Troy University Athletics

Neal Brown Press Conference - LSU Game

Players Mentioned

Zo Bridges

Bratcher Underwood

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