WKU Football: Recapping the Game 11 Press Conference for Southern Miss
On Monday afternoon, head coach Tyson Helton held his weekly press conference to recap the bye week and preview the crucial matchup…
On Monday afternoon, head coach Tyson Helton held his weekly press conference to recap the bye week and preview the crucial matchup against Southern Miss.
Here is a recap of what he said:
Really excited about traveling down to the Rock
“Very good football team that we’re about to play.”
Statistically, they lead the conference in a lot of areas
“Great challenge for our team”
“Great environment in Hattiesburg, our guys are ready to go”
“The most complete team we’ve played in conference”
“They make it really hard on you”
“We’ve got to play our best football”
“We’ve got a good football team as well”
“We’ve got some momentum coming off the big win over Arkansas”
“We played our best team football against Arkansas”
You’ve got to carry that momentum into Southern Miss
It’s always been a tough place to place (The Rock)
“Our team has done well this season traveling”
“Our team likes traveling and looks forward to traveling to a tough environment”
“Our guys are always up to those challenges. This will be a good test for us”
He’s not afraid to let it rip (USM quarterback Jack Abraham)
“He’s had a lot of success, they do a great job of what they ask him to do”
“He has a great rhythm with his receivers”
They know they’ve got a great quarterback so they put a lot on him
There’s a fine balance between being aggressive and playing smart football
“When you play good football teams and you have several turnovers and they don’t you’re just not going to win the football game”
“We have to find be able to find that balance”
“They do a great job with their run defense”
“We have to be able to establish a sound run game”
“We have to make them honor the run and get some tough yards and that should help us with our passing game”
They’ve done a good job of keeping people one dimensional
“We don’t want to put too much on Ty and put him in bad situations”
I”f we can find the balance and be aggressive we should be able to find success”
“Last week we focused a lot on ourselves”
“What did we not do very well, what did we need to fix”
“It allows you offensively to look at some things you might want to do and gives you more time to do that”
We took advantage of bye week in two areas
“recruiting and focusing on ourselves and where we can get better”
“(offensive line) is the one position where you’ve got so much put on you”
A lot going on there
“We looked at pass protection breakdowns and what we needed to do to fix them”
“Our offensive line play has been very good over the past few weeks but you need to always focus on yourselves and what you can get better at”
Defensively we sat down with Clayton (White)and see what were some explosive plays that people have hit against us over the past 3 to 4 weeks.
“We started repping against those as I’m sure Southern Miss will try to test us in those areas and see if we fixed those problems”
A lot of hard work coming together (Ty Storey’s performance)
He’s found a rhythm
Players know what he’s thinking. He knows what they are thinking
“We’ve got two games left and we’ve got a lot of momentum”
“I’m hoping we haven’t seen Ty’s best football”
“He’s got a lot left in the tank”
He’s very motivated right now
It’s a combination of a lot of hard work and finishing strong.
“(on second bye week) It’s helped us this season. It’s new for me, I’m used to one”
“Normally I would like to keep rolling right into it (the Southern Miss game)”
It worked out well in recruiting. Everyone recognized the WKU brand
Everyone was talking about the Arkansas win
“Normally this part of the season you’d like to keep it rolling”
It’s a unique year
Blueprint never changes (during bye week)
“You don’t change up anything (during bye week)”
Our guys know how to work and what to do and when to do it
They act like pros
“What you do in November they remember”
It’s important to finish strong
It bleeds into the bowl season
Our guys feel that
“That’s a major goal for us, is to look back on the season and say here’s where we were and here’s where we are now and have that sense of pride
“We’re not there yet”
“To talk about it is one thing and to do it is another”
“We’ve got to go out there and do it”
Overall it fascinating to hear how they approached the bye week from a team improvement standpoint and used the momentum from Arkansas win in recruiting. It’s good to hear them emphasize finishing the season strong, let’s hope they get there.
Tune back for a lot more coverage of this week’s game against the Golden Eagles. Helton can beat Brohm’s debut record should he win out. It should be a fun game in Hattiesburg with two of Conference USA’s best.