Skip to main content

Transcript & Video: Bryan Brown, Kei'Trel Clark Talk Notre Dame & Florida State

Louisville offensive coordinator Bryan Brown & cornerback Kei'Trel Clark met with the media to discuss their recent loss to No. 4 Notre Dame as well as their upcoming matchup with Florida State.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville Cardinals (1-4, 0-4 ACC) continue to search for their first conference win of the season, as they find themselves on a four game losing streak most recently extended from a 12-7 loss to the No. 4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (4-0, 3-0 ACC) this past Saturday. Next up, Louisville returns home for the first time in over a month to face the Florida State Seminoles (2-3, 1-3 ACC). Kickoff is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 24 at 12:00 p.m.

Prior to their upcoming matchup, defensive coordinator Bryan Brown & cornerback Kei'Trel Clark took time to meet with the media. He discussed the previous game against the Fighting Irish, previewed the upcoming game against the Seminoles, and more.

Below is the transcript from their press conference as well as the videos:

Defensive Coordinator Bryan Brown

(On the response in practice since returning home from Notre Dame)

It's been pretty solid. The guys are coming off a solid performance this past weekend, holding No. 4 team in the country to 12 points. That gave them a confidence. The one thing we worked on really, really hard this week is getting off the field on third down. That's been our nemesis. We're trying our best to continue to work on that each and every day. The guys are responding, they're excited, they can see some see the light at the end of the tunnel. We're very excited to get out there and going back again on Saturday and hopefully have a better performance.

(On if they want to continue to be an aggressive defense)

Yeah, in a way. It al dictates on the type of offense you're going against. What do they have up front, do they have a solid offensive line, are they average up front, do you want to get after them a little bit? Then you look at coverage-wise, can you match up with the receivers? Do you have to drop another one in coverage, as opposed to playing bit more man (coverage). Me personally, I like to play a good bit of man. I want to man some guys up and bring some pressure. But it's all based on your guys that you have and matchups. That's what it's all about - all about matchups. Each week is something different philosophy wise just because of the team that may present some different problems that another team doesn't. But I still look to play some man and bring some pressure.

(On if making good plays is contageous)

Absolutely. It started on the very first play of the game. Chandler (Jones) started it with this play on a vertical ball. When you see some positivity and some things that go right early on, no doubt that helps the confidence of the whole group. They fed off Chandler, they fed off (Kei'Trel Clark), it's contagious. As well as chasing the football and tackling. I think once you see some positivity go on, no matter what sport you're in - it's like in basketball. Michael Jordan when he hit those six three pointers against Portland in the 1992 (NBA) Finals, and he said it felt like the goal was just big. It's no different in football. When they get to rolling and you're hitting on all cylinders, it gets contagious for sure.

(On if it's getting more difficult to take Monty Montgomery out of the game)

Monty's playing well for us over the majority of the year. When he's in the game, he presents an explosive feature that we just don't have on across the board defensively right now. When he's in the game, he's going to show you what he's got. The thing about Monty, sometimes he may have an MA here and there that may cost us, but overall his grade has been pretty phenomenal each and every week. It is hard to try to keep him off they field, I can tell you that. So what we're doing, we're trying to continue to find ways to get him on the field. We got him on the field on third downs as well. He's gotten a lot more playing time each week, and have an increased playing time this week as well.

(On what it takes to secure interceptions and turnovers)

You get what you emphasize in a way. One of the things we emphasize all last week was tackling. I thought we tackled really well. We had our lowest missed tackle total of the season. What we did last Tuesday that we haven't done since we've been here, we got in full pads and we tackled on Tuesday of last week and we did it yesterday as well. That helped. This week, we did the same thing. We also want to emphasize more on getting turnovers, and trying to punch the ball out as well as trying to get interceptions and making sure we focus on that. Making sure that no matter what, in scout periods, every ball that's in the air - we have to come up with. The guys are focusing on that, and we're continuing to talk to each and every day. Hopefully we'll come up with some turnovers this weekend. We have to win the turnover margin for sure.

(On what has sparked Jared Goldwire's play in the last couple weeks)

Anytime you take something away from a person that they really love, it makes them refocus just a little bit. So he didn't start the Georgia Tech game, and I think he went back to refocusing for sure. You could tell right off the bat, in the Georgia Tech game, he was a man amongst boys. I think that's one thing that sparked him a little bit. He has that mindset right now that nobody's going to block me, and I'm gonna make sure that. That's what we want, and we're just glad that he's playing that way right now.

(On FSU QB and UofL transfer Jordan Travis)

Travis presents a problem. Travis is a kid that has a really, really strong arm. His arm is really strong, it's like a flick of the wrist and he can throw for 40 to 50 yards off his back foot. As well as running the football. He does a really good job in a run game, that QB run game, as well as in a drop back passing game. If something's not there, he's able to step through a B gap or C gap on edge and take it the distance if need be. He's just a hard guy to bring down like a running back. He seems like a very cerebral kid that understands coverages. So we have to do a really good job of of staying in front of receivers, as well as making sure that we hold that pocket to where we don't allow him to escape, and when he does escape we have to do a great job of rallying to him and getting him down.

(On how transfers have helped them)

I think it helps for sure with guys making plays like (Kei'Trel Clark) and Monty (Montgomery) last year and again this year. You look at KJ Cloyd, another kid that's come in and he'll see some playing time more even this weekend. It's key. Anytime you come into a new program and you're trying to build it from basically dirt up, you have to be able to get some transfers. Especially with guys in the portal. We have we lost, I don't know how many it was, 25 - 22 kids that went into the transfer portal. That's a whole recruiting class. So in order to get that depth that you need a little bit right away, and knowing you have to build it, you build your program from high school kids and you want to take some lumps early on. Because if you go in the transfer portal all the time, then the next thing you know you're gonna have to do it over again. You never develop high school kids. So we just want to sprinkle in a couple here and there and build our program to where we're gaining a good bit of high school kids that you can develop for four years Not that there's anything wrong with JUCO guys or transfer guys, that's just what you want to build and you sprinkle those guys in whenever need be.

Cornerback Kei'Trel Clark

(On how practice was after the good performance against Notre Dame)

We've been preaching bringing the energy. So I feel like this week we were bringing a lot of energy to the table because we know that what that energy is gonna lead us to is success. I feel like guys been motivated and more locked in than I've ever seen before. We're bringing a different type of swagger to ourselves also. Just after that game, not being cocky because we still lost and there's no moral victories, but at the end of the day we know what this defense is capable of. There's a lot of motivation going into this game.

(On facing another mobile quarterback in Jordan Travis)

That first game of the season against Western Kentucky, we had a running quarterback - he was pretty mobile. He also did scramble to throw the ball, so we prepare for that a lot. Playing Pitt, he was kind of a running quarterback so we, up to this point, we really are prepared for what we're going to get. Especially with the game plan that Coach Brown has in place for us, I feel really confident that we're gonna have a good game plan according into this one.

(On the close chances to secure interceptions)

Coach Brown, he preaches: get the ball, get the ball no matter what. We have scout period, if the ball is in the air, go get it. No matter what because those opportunities just don't come about like that. When I broke on that ball, it was a pretty ball right there. I should have intercepted it. I've been thinking about it ever since. But, you know, I gotta let it go. All week in practice, we're enforcing getting the ball out, punching the ball out. Turnovers is a thing that we're gonna have to do to put us in a good position to be able to take this one home.

(On the success rate on turnovers in practice)

Whenever the ball's in the air, I can tell that we've been more aggressive. The previous weeks, we pretty much weren't really thinking about getting the ball as much as we should. But we emphasize that even more. So now, when he's when the scout running back is running, we punch in at the ball, trying to get it out. We've actually been having a lot of interceptions and they're getting the ball a lot from the D-line. We actually got some D-lineman getting some interceptions, too. We're pretty confident getting that ball. It all starts with practice.

(On what stands out on film)

Of course I looked at the good things that we did, but also we got to look at the bad things that we did too. Those are the plays that mean the most to the game. We looked at, we saw maybe we didn't hit a couple fits, we missed tackles. For myself, when I think about the game, I made some plays but also missed some plays that were really key moments for us. I should have made those tackles that came to me. Just looking back at the game, I really emphasize tackling, and that's what we have been doing. Monday and Tuesday in practice, we tackled. Make sure we get a good tackle circuit in, so going into the game we're pretty confident in our tackling because that's something that we know that we need to work on.

(Photo of Monty Montgomery: Atlantic Coast Conference)

You can follow us for future coverage by clicking "Follow" on the top righthand corner of the page. Also be sure to like us on Facebook & Twitter:

Facebook - @LouisvilleOnSI

Twitter - @LouisvilleOnSI and Matthew McGavic at @GeneralWasp