Carson-Newman Football Mars Hill Pre-Game Press Release Transcripts
Mike Clowney Opening Statement: We're looking forward to taking a trip, you know, after the game last week, get back on the field, get ready to play. Our kids had a good day, energetic yesterday, so we're looking forward to playing on the road.
Q1: You look at Mars Hill and you think about Tim Clifton. You're going to face some madness offensively. But when you've got a guy like Ty Snelson to do that with, it kind of makes sense. How do you have to prepare for some tricks and oddity as well as an offense that's going to go to tight ends and try to just cram the ball down your throat?
Snelson's a good player and Tim's a good coach. So, Tim's creative enough to find a way to get the ball in the hand of one of his better players. He's always kind of, even playing this league, been a guy that's worked to be creative and do different stuff. You know, both run game, pass game, you never really know what you going to get when you go out there. Tim does a good job.
Q2: You have to go against one of the best running backs in the league, Jerquan Newton. What sticks out about him?
I think the big thing you see is they are going back to doing a lot of stuff with him that they did with Randolph when they had Randolph there. They were very similar. The kid's got good speed, and he sees the hole well. They do a good job of blocking up front and creating gaps. He does a good job of finding them and exploiting them once he sees them
Q3: Defensively, first shutout in six years. Is that the culmination of growth of this unit through the course of the season?
It is. I mean, I think those guys defensively have really worked and you know, we saw kind of spurts and we're still looking for that consistency. But I think it's the accumulation of everything kind of coming together. We really were able to kind of force Erskine to have to take long fields. They only had one short field. We took care of the football then put those guys in a bind. So, a lot of times when things come out one way or another, it's really a team effort.
Q4: How do you build on success looking for back-to-back wins for the first time of this season?
You know, I think the biggest thing is like we talked about all year, the league is just hunting consistency. You're playing a good football team this week, and the biggest thing that you don't want to do is you don't want to go beat yourself. We have to go take care of football. We've got to get off the bus ready to play. We've got to make sure that we don't give up big plays defensively and in the kicking game. We've got to find a way to make plays like we did last week to get short fields.
Q5: Certainly, last year's Mars Hill game comes to mind because you played pretty much even for 57 minutes and there was a three-minute span where I think it was 21 to nothing in their favor at the end of the second quarter. Will you be reminding the team of that or is that something where we kind of let it lie, and let it stand as its own class?
It's like one of those things like you really want to put it to rest. You go back and you figure out the things that you did in that short period to kind of allow them to take that lead in that game, and its critical errors that we made. It goes back to what we talked about before. We don't turn the ball over. We turn it over on kicking game, we turn it over offensively. Just don't give up big plays. We gave a big play to the tight end. That three-minute span was an accumulation of the things that we're talking about that we have to do to be successful. It just happened that they all come within three minutes in a game at that point in time. We just have to make sure we play us solid 60-minute football game.
Q6: A win's great, and a big win's even better. How important is it for, for your group to be able to utilize that depth chart and see some of the guys that are second or third on that depth chart get opportunities on the field and excel when they get their chances?
You know, I think that's the biggest thing you see bring a smile on my face today is just man, like as a player you work so hard to have an opportunity to play. So, to be able to see those guys get on the field and the other guys on the team rally around them, you know, this is a group of guys that's been really super supportive of one another and just to be able to kind of have that moment to where you can see that and they can share that together, I think it's a big plus for our program.
Q7: How has the program changed over the last calendar year? Last year, obviously a very difficult year, but this year feels like things are really progressing, moving forward, people are growing. How has it changed the most?
Yeah, I think when you struggle, you do one or two things. You separate or you find a way to come together, and the group of guys that are here are the guys that decided they want to come together, and they want to grow and develop. Even though there have been some struggles along the road throughout this season, these guys continue to choose one another over what the struggle is. So, we have to continue to do that to grow and develop as a football program. I think eventually, you're still talking about working with a young football team, and I'd say most of these guys are probably sophomores on the field. So over a period of time, man, if these guys continue to stay on track and do what they're doing and don't let distractions get in their way, they have a chance to be a special group.
Q8: I'll talk about one of those young guys. Frank Lee started his career as a basketball player transfer here. What's the key to tapping into his full potential, not just this year, but in the future?
I think his success this past week is just kind of a testament to what he can be. I think you have to be able to learn how to have failure, success, and just grow in both of them. He had some struggles throughout his career here just because he hadn't played a whole lot of football. But the most impressive thing for me was to go hear his interview after the game Saturday and just the maturity that he shows in communicating. That's what's going to help him develop and into being the type of football player that he desires to be.
Q9: On the other side of the ball at running back, you do have a very youthful group, but it's a very deep group overall. A lot of guys have contributed at one point in time this season. What's it like to see the growth with that room over these first couple months?
They're probably the ones that you see the most and it's probably just because Coach Weaver's office is right across the hall from mine. They're there in his office all the time. They come there, they do study hall, so they're doing this experience together. Watching them be able to go out and play together, I'm going to kind of mix them up. TC last week, being able to kind of carry the bulk of their load with Tyree being out and some other guys being out. Then still just to watch TJ King. He's a guy, I'm just being honest on film right now. They kicked the ball to him last year on kickoff return. Then this year, I mean just to be able to develop confidence in him when he is in the game that regards to the situation that he's going to have the potential to perform. That's what coaching to me is about. That's what you really want to see. That's what we talked to them two weeks ago about. We always talk about when the light comes on, you know, that's the moment that you look for in coaching and it is really starting to flicker for some of these guys.
Q10: Talk about that light coming on. Well, Christian Erwin has had kind of an up-and-down career. A really good start to his career, and then I think he said he was four for 12 that second year. He doesn't get the job this year, and then comes out, boots great field goals. Very confident. How much does his development and his story kind of resonate throughout the entire locker room?
You know, I think it's all of us because that's where we say these guys are sophomores where it feels like they've been here a long time because of the Covid thing. That's another thing I think that we experienced is during the Covid year, everyone else was playing with fifth-year seniors and we were playing with first-year freshmen. So those freshmen, like Christian, has been through all of that, but he's still just a sophomore on the field. He basically struggled his freshman year as a kicker. If you start as a freshman, you can pretty much expect kids to struggle as freshmen and that's the situation that we were forced to put him in. But just to kind of see over this year, he's been the kickoff guy and you know, to get interjected into the game, to kick field goals and find that consistency. Same thing, go watch his interview and you see how humble he is about it because the thing that we've learned is success is not guaranteed. It's something that we have to truly go and work for.
Q11: Defensively, Mars Hill, second best run defense in the sack, top-10 in the country in guarding against the rush. What do they do that leads to a successful run defense?
They run; I mean they run. Their linebackers are really good. It is funny because like you talk about maturity of our kids and a couple of our kids came and said coach like they're doing a good job. Those kids, those guys are really good. So, for us to be able to identify that, see that, and know that we need to take our best game to the game on Saturday, they do a good job, they run to the football well.
