Opponent Preview: Incarnate Word
9/5/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
SFA Game Notes • Incarnate Word Game Notes
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Stephen F. Austin opens up its 2014 home schedule on Saturday, September 6th, hosting Southland Conference newcomer Incarnate Word at Homer Bryce Stadium. It begins the start of the 42nd season of Homer Bryce serving as the home venue for the Lumberjacks as SFA looks to build on its six-game winning streak in home openers, dating back to 2008.
The game will be streamed live for free on SFA All-Access, with all broadcasts this season being produced in high definition. SFA fans can also listen to the game on Q107.7 FM or online at Q1077.com with live stats available at SFAJacks.com. In-game Twitter updates can also be found @SFA_Football.
Head coach Clint Conque held his weekly media press conference earlier this week, looking back on the game at Kansas State and previewing this weekend's game against Incarnate Word:
On his thoughts about the Kansas State game:
"Certainly we recognize going into a top-20 environment, it was going to be quite a challenge. It was one of the largest crowds in stadium history at Bill Snyder stadium. Kansas State is an excellent football team, very well coached, very physical, very big and they were everything we thought they would be. I challenged our players throughout the week to prepare to their standard and their expectation and how they wanted play on Saturday and I thought at times we did some things very very well. I thought both of our quarterbacks made plays with both their feet and their arm. I think we ended up 26-39 for 225, unfortunately no touchdowns, but no interceptions, which is maybe as important there. Offensively we were two for two in the red-zone, we executed a two-minute drill and were able to get points. We had three sacks out of our defense. Two of those were just four man pressure against their quarterback and one with edge pressure. We did create a turnover which led to a touchdown. Special teams was very spotty. There were some individuals that stepped up, and we played seven true freshman. As a coach you’re looking for the positives. Certainly we wished we would’ve played well; we were disappointed we didn’t play any better. But we had two drives over seventy yards that led to points, we had another fifty-three yard drive after a turnover so that was encouraging. Defensively, I thought our front four held up pretty well. Kansas State averaged 5.8 yards a play so it wasn’t like they were just gashing us. I don’t think we had a run given up over twenty yards and they didn’t have a pass over twenty-five yards. A lot of times our guys were there to make the plays and they either just out-athleted us or they beat us on the contested ball. With that said I thought they handled the trip well. We knew it was going to be a great challenge. We’re disappointed that we didn’t play with the consistency that we will need to play with. But certainly we are not discouraged because we feel like we have improved since spring practice and we move forward to building the positive things and certainly there are from penalties to alignments to assignments in areas that we have to correct.”
On focus for this week:
"We’ve got to tackle better from a defensive standpoint. They were 62% I believe on third down conversions and we were only 36% so we didn’t stay on the field long enough on offense and we certainly couldn’t get off the field defensively. Again the red zone was good. We were two for two. We’d like to have two touchdowns but we’ll take points there. We forced a punt, we forced three field goals attempts and they missed one, so you build on those things. But we’ve got to get better at situational football, particularly on third down, and then be a little bit more efficient on both sides of the football in the red zone. We did start the game without three of our starters who were suspended for the first half and anytime you take three of your better players off the field that certainly is going to affect your team. But I thought it was a great opportunity for some other young men. We got to see Joshawa West get a catch out of the backfield and make a first down, and I thought David Dane at offensive tackle did an outstanding job. He’ll start again this week at offensive tackle. Hipolito Corporan, his first start here at SFA and he had a pass breakup earlier in the game that prevented a touchdown and played very well in coverage. It was going to be a tough challenge and we recognized that. We’re disappointed that we didn’t play with the level of consistency that we had hoped we would, but at the end of the day you take the positives and you build on them and then you have to address the areas of improvement that need to be made this week.
On using two quarterback at Kansas State:
"That was actually to script, and I feel that both made some really big plays. Zach had a thirty-two yard run that put us in a tight red area. Joe had our first touchdown of the year on I believe on a 20-yard run. Both were plagued a little bit by dropped balls so those numbers could have been better and then there were some bang-bang plays on their sideline that we caught that were just out of bounds. Some of that had to do with alignment issues at receiver and we’ll grow from that. The biggest thing is that we have two fierce competitors there. They’re two good players. I’ve been through a little bit of a two quarterback situations previously. It’s maybe not the ideal situation but when you have two really good football players at any other position, you play them. I think when Joe came in he gave us a spark. Zach came in at the end of the two minute drill and drove us down and just about got us in the endzone and we got points out of that two minute drive. I think it’s a healthy situation, and then we didn’t get to see Hunter Taylor and Hunter had an outstanding camp as well. So we feel like we have three quality quarterbacks and we’re going to continue to play the best players. Nobody says when you play seven or eight wide receivers, why is he playing and why is he not, does he need to play more, so forth and so on. I think whenever you can get good football players on the field you do that and we are very fortunate and blessed. We understand this is a tough season too now. We’ve got a lot tough football games ahead of us and guys are going to get banged up beat up and bruised up and you better be two deep plus, so we feel good about where we are at the quarterback position.”
On the young players that made an impact:
""Justin Owens for sure. Justin, the junior college transfer from Fullerton College hasn’t really been on campus since maybe the middle of July. He made some plays, is a very instinctive player, and he’ll get to start this week at one of the inside line-backer positions next to Collin Garrett. I thought Collin Garret had an outstanding game from the middle backer position, which is new to him, but Justin really stepped up. Ahmad Muhammad, a true freshman safety really threw his body around and made some plays. We’ll see more of him. I was pleased with redshirt freshman Mitchell Zimmerle at defensive end, and then John Franklin the true freshman, his first two plays came in and held the edge and then made a tackle, and then the next play he deflected a pass that Collin intercepted and then that led to points a few plays later. We played seven true freshmen in all. Will Taylor made his first collegiate start in front of 53,000 people in a Big 12 environment the true freshman tight end from Trinity Euless. We’ll build on all these. The experience that our transfers got, our young freshmen, the redshirt freshmen that played, the good and the bad both, it will be positive for them moving forward."
On what to expect from Incarnate Word:
"Well, I’ve known Coach Kennan for a long time. He was the quarterback coach with the Raiders when I was out there back in ’83 so it was a long time ago. We played against Incarnate Word last year at my previous coaching stop, and Larry’s going to have them ready. They got a bad break this week as their watch list quarterback, Trent Britain, broke his ankle, and he’s out for the season. I know that that severely hampered their team in their first game against Sacramento State out of the Big Sky Conference. But Sacramento State is a big football team, excellent skill players, and I think they kind of got after him after that. They settled down late and the back up came in and did a couple of good things. They’ve got good skill people, and most of their offensive lineman are back from last year, as well as I think seven starters on defense. They play extremely hard on defense and then a young man that we are aware of, Caddo their freshman kicker who is the Southland Conference Special Teams Player of the Week is an outstanding two-way player both as a kicker and a punter. That was an area that we were really spotty in this past week against Kansas State, and Kansas State had something to do with that too, but we really need to clean that up. But I’m sure now that their backup quarterback has had a full week for the team to rally around him, and he’s played before so they’ll rally around him and put a great plan together. I lost a quarterback to a broken ankle (last season) and the next week the backup came in and threw for 400 plus yards and five touchdowns. Certainly we want to prevent that this week, but I know that they will have a great plan, and they’ll be prepared, and they’ll rally behind the quarterback, and certainly get in behind that veteran offensive line and lean on those guys a little bit. But we are excited to be home for the next four weeks, five weeks in all when you count the open date, and it certainly gives our team an opportunity to come together. I think the chemistry is really good right now, but we need to really bond together and attempt to build some momentum moving forward before we get into conference play.”
On the first home game at Homer Bryce Stadium:
"There is a lot of tradition here. We get the axe swinging, and the band playing, and the cannon shooting. Several previous times here (as the coach at Central Arkansas), the environment has gotten us, so I hope we can create a lot of energy in our community about our football program, and on our campus. We had lot of momentum coming out of the spring with the successes of our spring sports, particularly in basketball, and you know, we’ve got to do our part too. We need to put a competitive product out there, win football games and create a lot of energy. I hope our students, our community and all of east Texas will come out, but I’m looking forward to coaching our first home game here at Homer Bryce. It was a great environment with a lot of purple last week at Kansas State, but they were cheering against us. Hopefully there is a lot of purple Saturday but this time have them cheering for the ‘Jacks.”
-SFA-
