Oct. 15 Dean Pees Weekly Press Conference Quotes
10/15/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
- "We're playing a really good football team this week in Connecticut. We need to correct the mistakes we made last week and look to get better."
On the Marshall game
"The players were very upset that they were getting beat and giving up big plays early on. We went into that game thinking we had a chance to beatthem and compete with them. But our defense didn't give our team thechance to win. We did on offense, and played better on special teams. The desire was there as was the effort but the execution on defense wasn't.It's that simple. If you score 33 points on Marshall, you hope you've got a chance to win. We basically played them closer than that in years past, but didn't have the offensive production that we had (Saturday)."On the tailback situation
"Right now it will be week to week. I don't know if we are going to have anyone step up and say 'I'm the guy.' I think they all have theirqualities, so we are going to have to use what they give us."On the receivers
"I really think, we've got a bunch of good young receivers. I don't think we have a bad one, they are all capable of catching the ball and makingplays. There is a lot of depth and some guys have been making really good catches. I am really happy with the way the receivers are progressing."On the team's pass defense against Marshall
"Any receiver could have caught the balls early in the game, the guys were wide open. We busted coverage early. We were confused at the beginning of the game and made some real critical errors on the defensive side that hurt us later on. We made mistakes and we've got to find out why it happened. Some of it was that guys didn't hear because the crowd was getting into it. I added a little more to package for Marshall, and maybe I added too much, and they are a little young. Each week I tweak stuff, and this week Imight have tweaked too much. If they are confused, it's no good."On fixing the problems
"I don't think it's a personnel issue. We played really good two straight weeks, all of a sudden you have a bad week and all of a sudden everyone's a bad player. If you have bad players, you've have bad players the past few weeks. You got to sit back and ask why you played bad games. Why did we play so well and then in contrast so poorly? There is a reason and you've got to dig into that reason."On Connecticut quarterback Dan Orlovsky
"This guy is really accurate. He's big, elusive, accurate but has adifferent style (than others Kent State has faced this season). He's not a roll-out quarterback. He reminds me of former Stanford quarterback Steve Stenstrom. Good size, athletic, fast and can throw many different balls."On the evolution of the quarterbacks
"I just think guys started to get bigger in the mid-80s, the (Bernie)Kosar-type of player. Now though they are getting more athletic. Now you are getting Michael Vicks who are big, strong and mobile. It's just like point guards in basketball who are now 6-5 where they used to be 6-0, 6-1. It's the evolution of sports, people just keep getting bigger and faster."On stereotypes in player positions in sports
"The mold has been broken that you can do different things and get awayfrom stereotypes. Coaches have matured. It's like Josh (Cribbs). The big schools said he wasn't big enough to be a quarterback. Since he's 6-1, 190 pounds, he's got to be a defensive back. The only way you tell a guy heisn't going to play a position, is if talent dictates it."On Cribbs' maturation
"That's just maturity. When you get married and become a father and have a family, your life changes because of your new responsibilities. Youunderstand other people better once you've been in their shoes. A lot of times as an athlete you don't understand where a coach or adult is coming from, but once you have, you have a deeper respect for those people. InJosh's case, being a father and husband and provider has made him a better quarterback."
