Photo by: Savanna Elkins
Mike Norvell Weekly Press Conference Highlights – November 5
Nov 05, 2018 | Football
Opening Statement…
"I first want to start off and congratulate the women's soccer team and Coach (Brooks) Monaghan for an incredible year, winning the American Conference Championship. It's great for our university and that team. The way those young ladies work and practice each and every day, I'm really happy for them and how they are representing our university. I wish them all the best in the national tournament.
Coming off this last game, I was really pleased with our football team to go on the road and get our first road victory. Coming off the bye week, we put a lot of time and focus on ourselves and really prepared ourselves to be able to finish a game like that. We knew we were going to get East Carolina's best effort. They also had a bye week so we knew we would see a couple of unique wrinkles and their quarterback played at a really high level. He was a challenge at times for us. But throughout the entire game, the thing that I was most proud of was the way that our guys responded in every situation. There was adversity that showed up through the game and our guys responded. They played extremely hard from start to finish and that was something that was an absolute necessity.
We were 100-percent ball security on offense and special teams and we were able to create a takeaway with our punt unit. That was a key play in the game. I thought our guys did a good job of being balanced on offense. Running the ball, we had a lot of explosive plays against a defense that wasn't giving up a whole lot of yardage rushing. I thought Brady (White) played one of his best games. He was extremely efficient and was able to push the ball down the field. (Damonte) Coxie had a career game, did some phenomenal things. I was really pleased overall with that side of the ball. There are still a lot of things that we have to continue to build and improve on. I thought we had too many penalties in the game and still some lack of communication that showed up. But our guys were competing at a high level and it was great to leave Greenville with a victory."
On the play of the defense…
"It is something that you have to improve. To play at a high level defensively you have to have 11 guys playing all the same call and be on the same page. As you are playing an elite level athlete, you have to make sure that you are tackling and being relentless to the pursuit of the football. At times we have done a good job of that this year and at others it has not been to the capability of which I think we can play. We are going to continue to work and continue to practice at a high level with that and I believe in the guys that we have."
On the development of Damonte Coxie…
"I think that Damonte (Coxie) has done a great job. Last year he was very productive in the opportunities that he got. This offseason he put a lot of time into his physical development, continuing to understand the offense and trying to build himself into being that go-to receiver. He has shown at a variety of times this season that he is capable of doing that. Saturday was probably his best performance. He was dominant throughout that game and it forced East Carolina to change some things defensively, which opened up some bigger seems in the run game. It was definitely great to see."
On TJ Carter…
"I thought he played a better game this last game. He did a great job of cutting off the vertical route. There were some times in zone coverage when the quarterback was able to get out on us that we softened up our coverage and opened up some things. I thought it was one of his better games, cutting off the vertical ball. Just like every person, there have been highs and lows throughout the season. I think TJ is still competing at a very high level. We are not getting the takeaways that we would hope for but he is continuing to grow and develop. He has an extremely bright future in front of him."
On utilizing Darrell Henderson, Patrick Taylor and Tony Pollard…
"We go into every game trying to take what the defense is going to give us. The best thing with those guys is that they all have a variety of skill-sets. They can do so many things, whether it's lined up in the backfield or as you have seen Tony has done a great job on the perimeter as well. Tony ran for 80 or 90 yards last week, Patrick had a couple of big runs for us and Darrell did what he did. All three of those guys have to impact for us. If we are efficient and effective in what we are doing offensively, it's going to be more opportunities to get the ball in those guys' hands and allow them to be the explosive playmakers that we know they are."
The importance of reaching bowl eligibility…
"It is key for our program. One thing that we strive to do every year is we want to be bowl champions. The first thing you have to do is get there. This week we have an opportunity in front of us that if we can take care of business and focus on this one game, we know that we'll get an opportunity to play an additional game at the end of the year. That's important not only for our seniors to be able to have that experience and say that every year they were here they got a chance to play in a bowl game, but also for the young guys. We utilize those practices to be able to help build them and see them progress and get that experience. We want that to be the standard, every year that you are a part of this program that you get to have that bowl contest at the end of the season."
On Tulsa…
"They have done a really nice job. They changed their defense up a little bit from what they have done in the past. They are utilizing a little more of three high safeties scheme, which is a challenge to be able to attack. You look at their numbers defensively and it is much improved. They are third or fourth in scoring defense in our league and the pass defense is one of the best in the country. It is tough sometimes to find windows but you have to be efficient in every aspect of the concepts that you are trying to run. These guys are going to attack and they have a couple of explosive guys up front that can get to the quarterback. It is really going to be one of those games where you have to be on point in every aspect. They have given trouble to every offense that they have played. You look at the Temple game, it was 30-17 but Temple scored two non-offensive touchdowns. Against Houston, it was tight game going into the fourth quarter. The Texas game was a fourth quarter and one score game. These guys have competed at a high level. South Florida was a one-point game that they lost at the very end. This team is very capable. They have played one of the toughest schedules in our league and you saw last week they dominated UConn in every phase. We are going to have our hands full with this Tulsa team."
"I first want to start off and congratulate the women's soccer team and Coach (Brooks) Monaghan for an incredible year, winning the American Conference Championship. It's great for our university and that team. The way those young ladies work and practice each and every day, I'm really happy for them and how they are representing our university. I wish them all the best in the national tournament.
Coming off this last game, I was really pleased with our football team to go on the road and get our first road victory. Coming off the bye week, we put a lot of time and focus on ourselves and really prepared ourselves to be able to finish a game like that. We knew we were going to get East Carolina's best effort. They also had a bye week so we knew we would see a couple of unique wrinkles and their quarterback played at a really high level. He was a challenge at times for us. But throughout the entire game, the thing that I was most proud of was the way that our guys responded in every situation. There was adversity that showed up through the game and our guys responded. They played extremely hard from start to finish and that was something that was an absolute necessity.
We were 100-percent ball security on offense and special teams and we were able to create a takeaway with our punt unit. That was a key play in the game. I thought our guys did a good job of being balanced on offense. Running the ball, we had a lot of explosive plays against a defense that wasn't giving up a whole lot of yardage rushing. I thought Brady (White) played one of his best games. He was extremely efficient and was able to push the ball down the field. (Damonte) Coxie had a career game, did some phenomenal things. I was really pleased overall with that side of the ball. There are still a lot of things that we have to continue to build and improve on. I thought we had too many penalties in the game and still some lack of communication that showed up. But our guys were competing at a high level and it was great to leave Greenville with a victory."
On the play of the defense…
"It is something that you have to improve. To play at a high level defensively you have to have 11 guys playing all the same call and be on the same page. As you are playing an elite level athlete, you have to make sure that you are tackling and being relentless to the pursuit of the football. At times we have done a good job of that this year and at others it has not been to the capability of which I think we can play. We are going to continue to work and continue to practice at a high level with that and I believe in the guys that we have."
On the development of Damonte Coxie…
"I think that Damonte (Coxie) has done a great job. Last year he was very productive in the opportunities that he got. This offseason he put a lot of time into his physical development, continuing to understand the offense and trying to build himself into being that go-to receiver. He has shown at a variety of times this season that he is capable of doing that. Saturday was probably his best performance. He was dominant throughout that game and it forced East Carolina to change some things defensively, which opened up some bigger seems in the run game. It was definitely great to see."
On TJ Carter…
"I thought he played a better game this last game. He did a great job of cutting off the vertical route. There were some times in zone coverage when the quarterback was able to get out on us that we softened up our coverage and opened up some things. I thought it was one of his better games, cutting off the vertical ball. Just like every person, there have been highs and lows throughout the season. I think TJ is still competing at a very high level. We are not getting the takeaways that we would hope for but he is continuing to grow and develop. He has an extremely bright future in front of him."
On utilizing Darrell Henderson, Patrick Taylor and Tony Pollard…
"We go into every game trying to take what the defense is going to give us. The best thing with those guys is that they all have a variety of skill-sets. They can do so many things, whether it's lined up in the backfield or as you have seen Tony has done a great job on the perimeter as well. Tony ran for 80 or 90 yards last week, Patrick had a couple of big runs for us and Darrell did what he did. All three of those guys have to impact for us. If we are efficient and effective in what we are doing offensively, it's going to be more opportunities to get the ball in those guys' hands and allow them to be the explosive playmakers that we know they are."
The importance of reaching bowl eligibility…
"It is key for our program. One thing that we strive to do every year is we want to be bowl champions. The first thing you have to do is get there. This week we have an opportunity in front of us that if we can take care of business and focus on this one game, we know that we'll get an opportunity to play an additional game at the end of the year. That's important not only for our seniors to be able to have that experience and say that every year they were here they got a chance to play in a bowl game, but also for the young guys. We utilize those practices to be able to help build them and see them progress and get that experience. We want that to be the standard, every year that you are a part of this program that you get to have that bowl contest at the end of the season."
On Tulsa…
"They have done a really nice job. They changed their defense up a little bit from what they have done in the past. They are utilizing a little more of three high safeties scheme, which is a challenge to be able to attack. You look at their numbers defensively and it is much improved. They are third or fourth in scoring defense in our league and the pass defense is one of the best in the country. It is tough sometimes to find windows but you have to be efficient in every aspect of the concepts that you are trying to run. These guys are going to attack and they have a couple of explosive guys up front that can get to the quarterback. It is really going to be one of those games where you have to be on point in every aspect. They have given trouble to every offense that they have played. You look at the Temple game, it was 30-17 but Temple scored two non-offensive touchdowns. Against Houston, it was tight game going into the fourth quarter. The Texas game was a fourth quarter and one score game. These guys have competed at a high level. South Florida was a one-point game that they lost at the very end. This team is very capable. They have played one of the toughest schedules in our league and you saw last week they dominated UConn in every phase. We are going to have our hands full with this Tulsa team."
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