Neal Brown Football Press Conference - Alabama State Game

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Happy Labor Day. Thanks for coming.

We now have a starting point and we're an 0-1 football team, right now. We didn't play well enough on offense or special teams to beat a quality opponent on the road. I'm going to kind of break it down in three phases.

On special teams, we gave up three huge returns, one for a touchdown. We lost the field position battle decisively, and I'm very disappointed. I thought we won games because of special teams last year. They didn't contribute to a win on Saturday.

I'm proud of Bratcher [Underwood]. I thought he stepped up just like I thought he would; he's a competitor. He striped both of those field goals right down the middle. But we got out-played on special teams and it wasn't close.

Defensively, I'm really proud of how our guys competed and played. We played a ton of guys; almost everybody we brought on defense played. We're going to consistently play good defense here. We're going to be great on defense at some point this year. We flew around, we played with passion, we played with energy, and I was proud of those guys because that's how Troy football should look.

We created two turnovers, had four sacks, 12 tackles for loss and we were great on fourth down. Boise didn't convert a single fourth down. We weren't perfect, though. I think some of our success was due to Boise not playing as well as they normally do on offense. I don't believe we've arrived on defense. We have to improve on third downs, especially on third- and-10, where we gave up four big plays and they were able to continue some drives. We have to finish the game better.

Offensive and special teams-wise, we put our defense behind the eight ball some. But we have to be able to come out and get a stop there at the end of the game where we allowed them to get a touchdown on that third down play.

Offensively, I'm extremely disappointed in how we played, and I don't think there's any better way for me to say that. We had three turnovers, six penalties and gave up four sacks. We made about two competitive plays in the game where we made somebody miss or we went up and made a competitive catch. I thought we were poorly coached and executed badly. Outside of Sam Letton, I'm not sure anybody played up to their potential and that's the reality we're in.

With all that said, we fumbled going in to score with a minute to go in the third quarter to tie it up. It was 17-10 and we fumbled going in tao score. It was ruled a touchdown and overturned on replay. I didn't have a good picture of it, I couldn't tell you if it was correct or not. He did fumble. It should've been a pick-six, honestly. I did see an angle where I thought the ball went through the end zone. But that's what it was.

We had the ball, down four, after our defense got a tremendous stop with about seven minutes to go in the game on a fourth and short. We had a chance to go win the game on the road. As bad as we played offensively, we still had a chance. But we didn't get it done. We have to learn from it. We had a chance to win after playing poorly in two of the three phases of the game against the premier team in the Group of Five. But we have to learn from it and move on.

I'm not discouraged, I'm encouraged. Most of the time in life, your greatest lessons are learned from failures. And we failed on Saturday, especially with special teams and offense. I'm looking forward to getting it corrected.

We have a great opportunity on Saturday when we get to come back home in front of our home crowd. I believe our home fans are going to show up and be enthused about this football team. I can promise you that we're going to get better on special teams and offense, and we're going to continue to play at a high level on defense. It's an opportunity for us to get our first win.

If you look at Alabama State, they're a spread team, offensively. They're very multiple, they do a lot of things, their quarterback is athletic and they move the ball well. They shot themselves in the foot on Saturday against Tuskegee. They moved the ball up and down the field and missed some field goals. They really controlled the game with their offense.

Defensively, I've been impressed. They have a new coordinator this year from Tennessee State who was really good, statistically over the last couple of years. They played really sound on Saturday. They cover well at corner, they make plays and they tackle well.

Honestly, we're excited about the opportunity to play Alabama State at home. We could play the University of Alabama, we could play an intrasquad scrimmage, it really doesn't matter at this point. It's about us getting better at all three phases and us playing Troy Football; that's playing with passion, energy, being physical and flying around.

On Melvin Tyus replacing Kris Weatherspoon…
Kris Weatherspoon is out, he didn't practice all fall camp. He'll get back on the practice field this week but he'll remain highly questionable for the game on Saturday. But Melvin Tyus played his best game not only from a production standpoint but he was our best communicator in the secondary. He got our guys lined up and there's probably not a guy that I'm more proud of than Melvin.

On lack of offensive production…
They're good on defense, but we played poorly. I think we had 29 plays of second or third and 10 or longer. You're going to have a hard time beating anybody with those down and distances. Brandon was off, I don't think he had a good feel for the game, at all. But we helped them in a lot of ways and didn't do anything to help ourselves. I don't want to take anything away from Boise because they're really good on defense. Are they good where we shouldn't score a touchdown? I don't know about all that.

On health of the team…
Physically, we came out pretty healthy. We have one guy that may not play this week. I hope offensively we came back to reality because I don't think we've played at a high level offensively in the past couple of games outside the first quarter against Ohio. Sometimes it takes getting hit in the mouth to bounce back and understand that you don't have all the answers and you're not as good as all of the press clippings say you are. I think that's for our offensive staff and our players.

On the fumble-touchback play…
I've looked at it. It was bad ball security. I couldn't tell if they ball went out of the end zone or if it went out before the pylon. To be honest, I didn't dwell on it too much because it was a poor pass; the ball should've been picked off, probably should've been a pick-six.

On the possibility of a sellout crowd Saturday…
I don't know. I'd like to think so. I know our marketing people here have done a really good job. We're going to have a huge pep rally on Thursday. We're going to get out on campus and in the community and try to get as many people here as possible. We have a good football team. I'm sitting here and we got beat 24-13 at Boise, a team that has the best home winning record since 2000, and I'm highly upset with how we played on Saturday.

I'm not over it, I won't be over it on Saturday. Some coaches get up here and say, "It's over, we've got to turn the page," but I'm not turning the page. We're going to remain upset and prepare with an edge and a hunger to not go out and repeat that performance.

I believe in our fans. Over the last two years our fans have stepped up. We have people enthused. This is going to be a football team that our fans can be proud of. I'm excited and wish we could go out there and play right now.

On correcting special team issues…
We've just got to cover. Our kickoff team allowed two big returns. We've been in the top 10 or 12 in kickoff coverage the last two years. Our punt team got exposed; we didn't do a very good job covering. We had guys down there but didn't trigger and make plays. I put a lot of that on myself because we didn't ask them to tackle a returner live. If you look at us last year, we were in the top five in the country in field position and the number one factor in that is special teams. There were probably some things that happened on those kicks that were out of our control and I'm not allowed to get into, but we didn't execute.

On offensive line…
Last year, we were number one in the country in sacks allowed. Some of that is because the offensive line did a really good job. Matt Moore does a really good job down there. A lot of it was because we got the ball out fast and our running backs did a good job of communicating in pass protection. On Saturday, we gave up four sacks. One of them was a bad play call on my part coming off a turnover. Coming off a turnover, we went under center and went for a play action pass and they checkmated us. Some of it was our quarterback just didn't do a good job in the pocket. We had one miscommunication on the huge pick that led to their last touchdown.

On defense at the end of the game…
We were fatigued. I felt like we lost the game in the second quarter if you look at it as a whole. Offensively, I don't think we got a first down until the last drive of the second quarter. When we struggled in the first quarter, I should've immediately gone to what we did in the second half, which was to be more conservative and run-based. We left our defense out way too long. If you look at the number of plays and the time of possession in the second quarter, our defense got fatigued then. We make a huge fourth down stop, then throw a pick on the very next play. They have to go right back on the field after they just had a huge momentum swing. It was like taking the air out of a balloon. But as a defense, we have to answer the bell every time. We didn't answer the bell at the end of the game.

On playing Alabama State…
It's a great opportunity. It's a natural fit. I commend our administration for getting the game done. We're going to play an FCS opponent every year and it makes sense to play Alabama State. I have a lot of respect for what they do. I think they're going to come in here and play with a lot of energy. I don't think they're real pleased with how their first game went either. So I think it's going to be a good football game and a really good atmosphere for the fans.

Troy University Athletics

Neal Brown Football Press Conference - Alabama State Game

Players Mentioned

Sam Letton

Melvin Tyus

Kris Weatherspoon

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