Head Coach Doug Martin Discusses Upcoming Game With Louisiana-Lafayette
9/15/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
9/15 Transcript of Doug Martin's Weekly Press Conference
Opening Statement:
“This is going to be a tough football game this Saturday. If you watched anything of Lafayette playing Illinois, they played a terrific defensive football game; a really aggressive, blitzing style of defense. They're probably going to bring pressure at least 50% of the time. Illinois had a really hard time with it, and they shut down a really good Illinois offense that day. Offensively, their quarterback [Michael] Desormeaux runs just as well as [Kent State QB] Julian [Edelman], really does a nice job of throwing the football and can create a lot of things. They have a running back (Tyrell Fenroy) who is their school's leading rusher. I think he just broke that record last week. It's really kind of mirror images on the offensive side of the ball. This is going to be a tough test. It's a tough place to play.”
On defending a spread offense operated by a mobile QB like Desormeaux:
“It's a challenge because of the quarterback, really. If that kid keeps it, he can hurt you. He had some long runs against Illinois, a long touchdown run. You've got to play the running back, but at the same time, you've got to assign somebody to the quarterback, too. It's like option football.”
On injury status of RB Eugene Jarvis and TE Jameson Konz:
“He [Jarvis] turned his ankle a little bit early in the game. He kept playing, but then it looked like he was getting a little bit sore. I felt like we could rest him and get away with it. We wanted to play Andre [Flowers] and [Jacquise] Terry really badly, and we got to do that. I think he could have played had we needed him. We'll see how he is. Jameson just hasn't healed yet with the ankle injury. He's still out with that, and he's not been full speed. I've never been any place where there's that many ankle injuries or it takes that long to heal up from one.”
On importance of winning the turnover battle:
“Iowa goes out and plays Iowa State last weekend, and they can only score 10 offensive points. We put 28 on them (Iowa State), which I think shows the productivity we have offensively. But, we keep taking points off the board. We had 21 points we could have had up there if not for turnovers, and the same thing this Saturday. We had at least 14 points that we should have had. The other side of it that's really frustrating is right now our defense is not causing any turnovers. We've only got two turnovers in three games. By the same token, our offense is not benefiting from having a short field.”
