Doug Martin Nov. 1 Press Conference Quotes
11/2/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
Coach Martins Opening Statement
Obviously we are coming off a much better week (than previous weeks). We all have a much better feeling about ourselves. I thought Saturdays came was a real credit to our coach staff. The assistant coaches did a great job preparing the team to play. When you are 1-6 its hard to get a group to play with a lot of emotion and enthusiasm like we did. That was a great job of coaching by our assistant coaches.
Coach Martin comments on the character of the team
The best thing that I saw on Saturday was the character of our players was revealed in front of everybody. We liked what we saw. There really is a good strong heartbeat to this group of football players and to this football program. What our seniors have put in place showed up Saturday. It is going to benefit us for years to come. I think that is a testament to our assistant coaches. Theyve done a great job of staying with these kids and letting them know we believe in them. We havent quit on them and they havent quit on us. Ive been around some 2-6 teams, but Ive never been around that practices like our kids do, has the attitude they do and plays with the passion and enthusiasm they do. I just think there is a real hunger at Kent State to have a good football program. Not only from the players, but from the fans, students and community. Eventually its going to turn. I really see a lot of signs of it turning. These next games become important. We have got to follow it up with more success.
Coach Martin comments on the Kent State student body
One thing I would like to get out especially to the students, we did give a game ball to our student body. They have been awesome this year. The way they showed up, especially early in the year to support us, was fantastic and we did not reward them with wins at that time. I cant thank them enough for the support they have given this football team and we are going to build something special between the students of this university and our football and that is why we gave them a game ball. I hope the word gets out that we did that for them.
Coach Martin comments on the win over Ohio
It makes your feel a little better about yourself. The locker room was very exciting after the game. It was nice to see those guys celebrate because Ive said this all along. This group of players has given me everything that Ive asked. Theyve been great leaders; there have been no problems on or off the field. Theyve done everything, except be rewarded with victories. I told them that they are a group of winners that just havent won games yet, but they are starting to do that. That is why this four game stretch is very important for us. That Ohio win is big.
Coach Martin comments on the teams preparation following a win
It is a lot harder to handle success than it is failure. It is going to be a real test for us. We havent won a road game this year and that was the first thing I mentioned to them after the game that we have to go on the road and prove that we can win on the road. This team this year has not done that. That challenge has been thrown out to them. The opportunity to win two games in a row is something I dont think we did all last year. It seems like whenever you give this particular team a challenge they focus in on it.
Coach Martin on the performance of the defense and the improvement by the unit from last year
They (the defense) have been consistent in every game football game. The job that Coach (defensive coordinator Pete) Rekstis and the defensive staff have done has been remarkable. Especially since its the same players that played defense here last year. They have gone from being next to last or last in the conference to no worse than fourth in any defensive category and we are first in a couple. What that tells you is that those players believe in those coaches and believe in what they are doing. You cant win at any level without good defense. Hopefully we have that in place and we are continuing to play pretty good offense. We have those two things in place if we shore up a few other areas through recruiting and we have some bright days ahead for this football program.
Coach Martin comments on the defensive coaches
Jon Waufords experience in this conference being a coordinator at Miami (OH) is a great asset to Pete (Rekstis). Both of those guys dont have much ego about them. They just want to do well. That is why they work well together. Coach (Zane) Vance who came as our linebacker coach has brought a lot to us also just fundamentally and Larry McDaniel who coaches our outside linebackers has made a great impact. Those guys together have just jelled. They as coaches exude confidence and players tend to emulate their coaches and our players are emulating those guys.
Coach Martin comments on reasons for defenses improvement.
There are two really glaring areas. One is that we are getting pressure on the quarterback with just our front four. We are getting sacks this year which we werent able to do last year. The other thing is that we arent giving up explosion plays. Last year because of our style of defense we blitzed a lot and played man coverage because of that we gave up a lot of big plays. We dont blitz a lot now and we play a lot of zone coverages to keep things in front of us and I think those two areas have been the biggest difference. The area that I would like to continue to see us continue to move forward in is turnovers. We got three Saturday.
Coach Martin comments on teams performance Saturday after halftime
My whole message at halftime was the third quarter. If you look at our third quarter this year. It has absolutely crushed us. Going into that game we had only scored 18 points in the third quarter and we had given up 50 something. That has been an Achilles heal for us. Granted a lot of that stems from the kicking game. Weve missed some field goals and had some turnovers. But, that has been an issue with the team all week. For the first time all year we responded. We scored a touchdown in the third quarter, the defense played well we didnt have any mistakes in the kicking game. Winning that third quarter was huge.
Coach Martin comments on Buffalo
You know every time I watched Buffalo, even last year when they came here and they had only won one game and they played like it was the Super Bowl. Their kids have a lot of character. If you watch them on film, they were winning against Miami 7-6 at halftime. They have great character and I know its going to be a dogfight. I know its going to be a great game. Their DBs are going to play some man coverage get in your face and challenge you to throw the ball over their head. We have got to respond to that and make some big plays in the passing game. They bring a lot of pressure and at times it can be difficult to run on them. Thats going to be an issue as well as stopping their running game. They ran for over 200 years against Marshall. Thats a pretty stout defense and is for real. That is an impressive outing.
Coach Martin comments on the Buffalo offense
Theyve used a lot of different people. Number 22 (Dave Dawson) has a lot of speed; hes a fast guy that catches my eye. They also played with four different quarterbacks. Thats difficult to prepare for. The guy they got now is their best quarterback and he was suspended for a couple of games. Hes a pretty good player and can run and throw.
Coach Martin comments on the offensive consistency
Our offensive line has really played well most of the year. Weve had a lot of consistency and we are playing a lot of young guys. That has defiantly made a difference. Id still like to see us have more explosion plays from the wide receivers. Marcus Hill had some nice runs after the catch and Cameron Bobb and Najah Pruden made a couple of plays. When wide receivers go out and hurt people it helps you all around.The seniors have been through some tough situations and have not faltered. Its like I tell them, the same hammer that breaks glass forges steel. These kids have turned into steel. They have no shattered, their character is intact and they are a great group of guys so I hope our fans will come out and enjoy watching them play in their last home game.
