Sept. 6, 2005
Head coach Frank Tavani
On last week's win at Marist:
Obviously there were a lot of things in the game that didn't make the head coach happy - the pre-snap penalties, the turnovers, all the things you talk about being your worst nightmare going into a situation like that. Marist was a much-improved team with more speed and athleticism. They came out and made some big plays to keep the game interesting. On the plus side for us, we really answered the bell on both sides of the ball when we needed to.
We really need to have that sense of urgency all the time. Some of our offensive linemen got their feet wet in there, and did a nice job. An adjustment we're making will be Joel Miner, who will start at left guard now. We generally try to use three guards and three tackles throughout the season, but that group is still coming together.
As we said going in, we planned on using three or four tailbacks, which we did before the end of the first quarter. Jonathan Hurt came in big and strong, making some big plays for us. He broke some tackles, had a few nice runs and just had an awful lot of good things to show for him. (Hurt was named the starter for Saturday's game with Richmond)
Making no excuses, we were very careful and conservative with what we did up at Marist. We implemented the basics and went with a pretty basic game plan. For the most part, it was successful in the end. There's certainly no disappointment on our part coming out with a win.
On Richmond:
Now we have to step up to Richmond's level. As we saw last year, they are athletic and extremely good team speed. They present an awful lot of issues to you, including an entirely new defensive look than they had last year. There will be eight or nine men on the line of scrimmage, and they'll just match-up with you. We've had a knack to play up to opponents' levels and we'll continue to do that.
On the Richmond quarterback situation:
Coach Clawson is breaking two guys in and getting used to his new system. Some of the wide receivers that we saw last year are still on the roster, but they're not in the two-deep since they've been replaced in the starting lineup with transfers. They are certainly in the scholarship mode of turning a program around quickly. They will probably be a better football team than what we saw last year.
On Lafayette's tailbacks combining for 191 yards last week:
It's redundant, but I always say run the ball and stop the run. That's still my personal philosophy and always will be. If we can run there tailbacks for 200 yards a game, the head coach will be happy. As far as who's getting the ball, you kind of go with the flow of the game. I want to keep our guys fresh and hungry. On Saturday, as soon as I pulled one out, all three were hungry to get back in. If we can maintain that kind of rotation and keep our ground game, we'll keep adding to the package.
On junior linebacker Justin Stovall:
We're waiting for x-ray results on his ankle. It's a bad sprain. I hate to speculate his time out, because he's a tough kid. As soon as I say he'll be out three weeks, he'll be back in three days. He will miss a minimum two games, which is going to hard on special teams and at linebacker since he was our first guy in. Like anything else, we have to turn to the next guy up and that's Andy Roman. He's a freshman, but he can play football.
