Neal Brown Quotes from Win Over Towson
Opening Statement
(It was a) fun day. I appreciate everyone being here. It was great weather. The fans showed up. We had a good turnout at the man trip, and the crowd filled in. The students filled in. I appreciate everyone coming out and supporting the guys. These types of games are important. I know sometimes you’ll ask why play these types of games, but for the morale of your football team, they’re really important. We were able to sub about three quarters of the way into the second quarter. We were able to play a lot of guys. There’s probably some guys that showed up in that third or fourth quarter that put some stuff on film that may warrant more playing time. Especially on special teams because we subbed a lot on special teams. In general, there’s a lot of time and effort put in by some guys who aren’t marquee names and are developmental-type guys. Maybe they’re young guys in your program or walk-on guys that are the glue (of the team), and for them, they get the opportunity to play on that field in front of a crowd. That’s hugely important, and I think sometimes it’s overlooked. These are types of games that really help that.
Defense (had) a good bounce back game. We really pushed them this week in practice, and we practiced physical on that side of the ball. We really stressed running to the football. We’re going to have to be a group that leans on our front six. We’re going to be as good as they allow us to be. They played more up to the level that we’re expecting, not that we’ve arrived by any means. It’s the level we played at against Pitt with the same determination, same grit, and resilience and all those types of things. They did a nice job there, and they got a takeaway which is something we needed to do.
Offensively, zero turnovers are the main thing we’re looking for. We’ve got a chance offensively. We’ve had three games in a row where we’ve done some really positive things. (They) ran the ball well today, and we wanted to establish that early. (We’re) really pleased that we could get four guys in at quarterback. (We’ve) been working with (freshman quarterback) Nicco (Marchiol) a lot on developmental stuff so he’s had a ton of reps in the last three weeks since the season started.
In special teams, I’m really disappointed in our kickoff. These guys (Towson) do a really good job on the kickoff return. (Towson head coach) Rob’s (Ambrose) been there for a number of years now, but throughout his whole tenure, they’ve done a nice job on kickoff return. Number 0 (redshirt senior wide receiver D’Ago Hunter) is hard to tackle. He’s done a really good job on kickoff return in years past. They haven’t used him up until this point. We worked kickoff more than any special teams unit all week. It’s really disappointing because that’s been a bright spot. We’ve done a really good job the first two games on our kickoff unit, and that was not good. We rebounded and did better, but that was disappointing. It’s a good win, and obviously there’s a short turnaround on this. I stressed that a lot. We’ve got a trophy game on Thursday night (against Virginia Tech) so it’s an opportunity for us to get back even. It’s going to be as big a game as we’ve had.
On rebounding from starting the year 0-2
I think emotionally when you’re dealing with the age group that we’re dealing with, they get over things a lot faster. If you ask about the coaching staff, it’s probably going to take a little bit. Usually, about 48 hours, guys are ready to get going again. I can tune out social media. They can (too). That’s how they live. They see all the negativity earlier in the week. They understand. They have a job to do. (we’ve) really stressed how to overcome things, and it’s about working. They put in the work, and they were able to reap the benefits tonight. We have to continue to grow off of that, especially when we go down to Blacksburg.
On Virginia Tech
We’ll talk about Virginia Tech on Monday. Let’s talk about this one. I respect Virginia Tech. (Head coach) Brent (Pry) will have those guys ready to go. I watched them the first two games, and they’ve played extremely hard, but we’ll talk about that on Monday.
On playing guys
I just need to see the player report. I don’t have the full packet (right now). We played a lot. That was the plan going in. We went through the three deep at receiver. (Redshirt freshman wide receiver) Preston Fox—that’s how you play with the catch he made on Nicco’s pass. I already talked about the quarterbacks. We wanted to run the offense with them. We got all the running backs involved. Two 100-yard rushers which is a big deal, and we were able to give (redshirt freshman running back) Jaylen Anderson his first real work of his career. (Redshirt freshman tight end) Treylan Davis played almost every down at tight end in the second half which we needed to get him work. He had a few hiccups there, and we wanted to get that out of his system. O-line, I think we probably played 12 guys. On defense, we had two d-line and the three d-line in the second half. (Redshirt freshman linebacker) Caden Biser played a lot of snaps, and he continues to get better. We have (senior spear) Jasir Cox with a lot of reps. We have those two young corners with (redshirt freshman cornerback Andrew) Wilson-Lamp and (freshman defensive back Jacolby) Spells. They played the first quarter. We were able to play them a lot. We played a bunch on special teams, too. We wanted to get (redshirt freshman kicker/punter) Dan King some kickoff reps, and we wanted to get (redshirt senior kicker) Parker (Grothaus) the extra point there. He didn’t, but he did come back and get the next one. We played a lot of people, and that was the plan going in.
