MONROE, La. – ULM head football coach Todd Berry, linebacker DaCorris
Ford and wide receiver Tavarese Maye met with members of the media Tuesday
afternoon in advance of Saturday’s home contest against South Alabama.
Below are selected quotes from Tuesday’s event and the entire press
conference can be viewed by visiting www.ulmwarhawks.com.
Head Coach Todd Berry
Opening Statement…
“Obviously, it was a great win for us (at Western Kentucky). I really
loved the resiliency of this group of young men. Their work ethic in terms of
preparation and their confidence in each other seemed to show forth. We didn’t
play quite as well as we would have liked. Certainly, we found a way to win and
good teams do that. We came back from down 28-7 and obviously found a way to win
in overtime.”
Western Kentucky:
If at season’s end, it turns out that Saturday’s contest between
Western Kentucky and Louisiana-Monroe was indeed a conference championship
game, the Hilltoppers lost out in the end because they did not play
championship-caliber football.
Critical mistakes at critical junctures factored heavily in the
Hilltoppers’ 43-42 overtime loss at Houchens-Smith Stadium.
A win would have made the Hilltoppers (5-2, 2-1 Sun Belt Conference)
the leader in the league standings and made them bowl eligible with five games
to go.
Instead, a fumble, an interception, a turnover on downs, a special
teams gaffe, penalties and a defensive breakdown on the game’s final play have
sent the Tops back to the drawing board.
“We can’t put our head down and turn the other way,” WKU coach Willie
Taggart said. “We’ve got to suck it up and get back to work and see to it that
it doesn’t happen again. We have a good football team and those losses hurt,
especially a loss like that, but we did it to ourselves. We were up and we
should’ve stayed up.”
North Texas:
There were plenty of signs of progress for North Texas in its win over
Louisiana-Lafayette last week.
Running back Antoinne Jimmerson continued to emerge and came up with
the play of the game, a 78-yard catch-and-run for the decisive touchdown in the
30-23 victory. Linebacker Zach Orr made a series of big plays and was named the
Sun Belt Conference’s Defensive Player of the Week.
What might have been lost in the individual accolades was the Mean
Green’s best overall offensive performance in years in terms of moving the
ball.
UNT racked up a whopping 524 yards of offense, and offensive
coordinator Mike Canales made what appeared to be the perfect call on
Jimmerson’s game-winning touchdown.
Arkansas State:
Seven down, five to go.
Nine days after its second straight conference victory against South
Alabama, Arkansas State now returns to the upper tier of Sun Belt competition
Tuesday against Louisiana-Lafayette at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.
After moving above .500 record for the first time since last season,
the Red Wolves (4-3, 2-1) have had plenty of time to refine their game in all
categories, specifically ball control and the big elephant in the room, special
teams.
Middle Tennessee:
MURFREESBORO — Two recent events at the University of Tennessee got me
thinking about MTSU football.
More succinctly, it jarred the thought processes when it comes to
former Blue Raiders head coach football Boots Donnelly, whose success on the
field and infectious personality off it earned enshrinement into the Tennessee
Sports Hall of Fame.
Fellow members in that Hall are former UT football head coaches and
Vols players Johnny Majors and Phillip Fulmer, who Saturday night was honored
before the UT-Alabama game at Neyland Stadium for his impending induction into
the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame.
Troy:
TROY — Quarterback Corey Robinson’s concussion experience, from a
night’s hospital stay to a game’s worth of sideline sitting, has inspired him.
Robinson said he has been cleared to return Saturday when the Trojans
(4-3, 3-2 Sun Belt) play at Florida Atlantic (1-6, 0-4) and said he considers
himself “a changed person.”
“It really changed my outlook on things,” Robinson said. “I really
changed my thought process about the entire way I’m going to approach football,
the entire way I’m going to approach things from now on until I leave this
place.”
South Alabama:
Before the Jaguars went on to beat Florida Atlantic in their Homecoming
game, Ladd Peebles Stadium was buzzing with thousands of football fans.
Everyone was decked out from head to toe in school colors: red, white, and
blue.
"I love it," said Senior Kaylie Morris. "This is what I
live for. College experience, college football, everybody get together and have
a good time."
This is only their fourth Homecoming game ever, but the passion for the
team and players is evident.
"We've been coming to basketball and baseball games for a long
time," said Bill Newbury, who graduated from South in the 1970s. "We
finally got our football team now, so we're really enjoying that."
"I really just like the whole atmosphere," said Allison
Tanner, a high school student who hopes to one day attend South Alabama.
"I love how excited everyone is, and how everyone just has a lot of school
spirit."
Jags fans consider themselves "professional" tailgaters.
Florida Atlantic:
MOBILE, Ala. — To a man, the few Florida Atlantic players interviewed
after Saturday’s 37-34 double-overtime loss at South Alabama referred to a
common cliché in the game: Football is played for four quarters.
FAU wide receiver William Dukes, whose 119 yards receiving was the
first 100-yard game since 2010 for the Owls, said it best. “We just didn’t play
well in the fourth quarter,” he said. “We need to learn how to finish. We
should have won this game.”
The Owls led by 14 points when Nexon Dorvilius caught quarterback
Graham Wilbert’s 6-yard scoring pass with 14:51 left. It appeared FAU (1-6,
0-4) was on its way to ending a five-game losing streak and getting its first
Sun Belt Conference win of the season.
Florida International:
FIU quarterback Jake Medlock had his best game statistically as a
Panther last week, throwing for 380 yards against Middle Tennessee State. All
those yards, however, couldn’t take away the hurt of a 34-30 loss.
“I would have settled for 1 yard passing, even a half-yard, if that
would have gotten us the win,” Medlock said. “I just want a ‘W.’ That’s all I
want, and it doesn’t matter how we get it.”
Wins have been a rarity for FIU this season; the Panthers are 1-6 with
an 0-3 Sun Belt Conference record.
In the fourth game of this season, Medlock broke his foot against
Louisville and sat out the next two contests against Louisiana-Lafayette and
Arkansas State — both losses.
Louisiana-Lafayette:
It was just a couple days after kicker Hunter Stover had undergone
season-ending knee surgery last November when things got even worse.
UL had just lost to Arkansas State, and for all practical purposes —
save for a complicated combination of unlikely circumstances — the Ragin'
Cajuns had just blown any shot they might have had at claiming even a share of
the 2011 Sun Belt Conference championship.
Arkansas State went on to win the title.
"When I talked to everybody," Stover recalls now, "it
seemed they had a bad taste in their mouth from going up there and not playing
as well as they wanted to."
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