Rich Rodriguez UT Martin Postgame

We'll go ahead and get started. Questions for Coach, Greg? Evaluation, I mean, I'm sure you can make a nitpick about a few things, 52-7. Yeah, it's, you know, obviously I'll tell more after watching the film. I thought we were efficient offensively, pretty sharp, you know, the first group especially. Defensively, even though they got a shutout, I didn't think we were particularly sharp defensively. You know, we didn't get – I don't know if we got any three and outs. You know, we allowed them to convert some third down stuff. And so it seemed like we were a little bit off at times, you know, defensively. But, you know, they got the shutout. But anyway, there's a lot to work on. But, you know, the best you can be after two games is 2-0. And this was obviously a game we should win, which we did and got control of it early. And we played – I don't know how many guys we played, but we played a lot. I mean, a lot of guys, particularly in the second half. So that was one of the things I was hoping we would be able to do, is to play a lot of guys because they worked really hard and we were able to do that. Do you think it's positive playing a lot of guys? Yeah, no question. It was like, you know, you don't talk about it a whole lot going into the game because you talk about how to win. But you say, man, if we can get a lead and get some of those guys in there, you know, there's no worry about redshirt and freshman or anything like that, right? Because it's all five years to play five. So it was good at least the last couple series on offense. There were a lot of young guys and freshmen in there. That's the program's first 2-0 start since 2018. How important is it to be able to come out and get that type of momentum rolling early in the season? Yeah, I know the schedule obviously gets really – starts getting a whole lot tougher. But the best you can be after two games is 2-0. And I think we made some steps on offense. I'm not sure we made steps on defense. I'll have to watch the film. But Coach Alley and them will get those corrected. We just seem to be, you know, a few things here and there that was kind of off a little bit. So we've got to get a lot of work done in the next 24 hours and get ready to play a really, really good veteran. And I talk about veteran and like they got some grown men on Virginia team in Charlotte. Do you have any other further thoughts on Hawkins' play now seeing two games? Yeah, I thought Mike, you know, he played really – I thought he played really well. He obviously has the ability to make big plays with his feet. You know, I thought he saw the field well. I thought whatever he played, a little more than a half, I thought he was really sharp. And he'll keep – the more experience he gets in our offense, I think the more, you know, comfortable he will even be. But I thought he played well. I guess any quick thoughts on Scottie Fox especially or any of the other quarterbacks you've got? Yeah, Scottie, it was great to see Scottie. Scottie's – we trust him. He knows the offense pretty well. And he's a really competitive guy. And we wanted to see the young guy, Jyron Hewley, in there. And he's got a great skill set. It was a little bit of an ugly touchdown pass, but it worked. But he's got a lot of skill. So it was great to see him have a whole series to himself. Have you been pleased so far with the explosive plays you guys have done in the spring? Yeah, I think, you know, some of it, you know, they're loaded up against the run. And then if you miss – if you hit a pass and they miss an open field tackle it's going to be awful. But we've had – you know, Mike has had some explosive plays. Cam has had some. Amari, I mean, we've had, you know, DJ, Epps. I mean, we're going to need that going forward. But it starts with the run game. We thought we should be able to run, you know, for a few hundred yards against the guys and we did. And some of it, we didn't get probably as many big runs as maybe I thought we could get. But it was – I thought it was a solid performance up front. But our – we've got work to do. We'll hit this field pretty quick tonight, tomorrow, and then get ready for the big game next week. I was going to say it's a neutral site game, but this will be your first one outside of mortar town this season. How does that change your week prep at all? Yeah, it really does change your prep. I mean, Friday we'll travel. Saturday I think it's a night game, right? Yeah. Yeah, so we've got to – that's the only part you've got to wait around all day. I hate that. Wait around all day until you play Saturday night. But the environment, you know, our fans will travel well. Theirs probably will. The environment should be really fantastic. And our guys know they – I think they're ranked, aren't they? You know, they're – yeah, so they'll be ranked. And it's a great test to see where we're at right now. Is your 5-0 at the Green Lake pump block? Well, not a Green Lake to run into the guy. No. So, he's got a Green Lake if he blocks it, I guess you could say. And he did block one. We thought on film that there was, you know, because he's a twitchy guy that he would have a shot. I didn't see what happened on the second one where he ran into him. But that was kind of – that was great to see. I don't know what the odds are, you guys can figure it out. But if you block a punt, the odds of winning the game are like 80% or something. Something kind of crazy. That was good. Rich, you talked about getting some of those 13 guys running back reps. How do you feel like that? Yeah, third and fourth. We played every running back I think that was healthy, got reps. So, Martavius Boswell has practiced well. And I thought he made some nice runs. And Lawrence Autry has been healthy the last week. And he's a bigger guy. And then obviously with Amari and Cam, you know, those guys are continuing to – our offense, so to speak. Even though Cam's an older guy. But we're going to need all those backs, you know, with the kind of eight straight weeks that we have without an open day. Was attacking in the middle of the field something you saw against them, DJ? Well, there were some seam throws that we always look at. But, you know, Mike was – the key on when you're throwing the ball down the seam or what have you, is one, you got to be timely with it and throw it on time. And if you throw it on time, he's got a chance to make a big play. And then you got to be disciplined enough if you're running the route to stay on your landmark on the field. So, you know, DJ did that. Ryan Ward was right on the mark. But the timing for Mike on those seam throws was really on mark. Really on the right time. How do you evaluate defensively in the first half? They don't score, but they had a lot of yards. Yeah, I just didn't think we played that well. You know, I mean, we seemed like we were out of position a time or two. You know, we gave up some third downs. You know, we're – you know, we didn't get any – I don't know how many, if we got any three and outs. Didn't get our hands on the ball a couple times. So it just – I mean, it just – they had zero. But they had, you know, one taken away from on penalty. And then there was something else that they fumbled. So, like I said, there's – I think we got to play better defensively going forward. And correct what we've fixed – what we – we got to fix what we did wrong today. One of the big things on defense that stuck out to me was giving up a lot of chunk plays, especially there in the first half. Can you just talk about how that affects the drive defensively and what you can do going forward to prevent that? Yeah, not give up the chunk plays. Like if you like ask me, like coach, would you rather they have chunk plays or not? I would say I'd rather they not have it. If I would say I'd rather they do have it, you need to check, you know, my mind. Test my head or something. So, no, I don't – again, until I watched the film and talked to the defensive staff, there was just – it just didn't seem like there was – our guys were comfortable at times. You got to give them credit. They did. Jason's a really sharp offensive mind. Jason Simpson's our head coach. I really like him. And he's – you know, he's done this a long time. He's a really sharp guy. And I don't know if they showed us some stuff that we hadn't seen and kind of got us off guard a little bit. But they did a really good job of creating some big plays for them for themselves. You mentioned the chunk plays and the one that got called back. Without looking at the film, do you have any thoughts? Like obviously it got called back, but what happened? No, I don't know. I don't – like I said, I don't – I'm like more in tune with what's going on with the offense during a game and special teams. So I don't know what the call was or if somebody blew a coverage or missed the tackle or whatever it was, it was ugly. You know? But there was too many of the ugly moments. But, you know, our staff on defense will get together and get that fixed because there's – you know, we give up them kind of chunks. Next weekend it won't be pretty. Could you describe your offense the first two games being vanilla, not showing anything? Yeah, pretty – today was going to be really vanilla after we got the lead. You know, so we weren't going to show much of anything. But we're always a little bit – when we're playing well, we're offensively we're pretty vanilla. You know what I mean? Like we're not one to like be overly tricky, so to speak. You know what I mean? If we can run the ball and run it out of the same set or same formation, the same kind of scheme, we'll keep doing it as long as it has effect. So we ran the same play a bunch today. But that's – you know, as long as you can score and win, that's all I worry about. Okay, thank you very much.