Conque’s Comments: ‘Jacks Ready to Host No. 25 McNeese Saturday

The Kickoff
The Stephen F. Austin football team returns to Nacogdoches and the comforts of Homer Bryce Stadium Saturday for a matchup with nationally ranked and Southland Conference perennial powerhouse McNeese. Sponsored by Tipton Ford, the conference tilt will feature the first-place Lumberjacks and the 25th-ranked Cowboys, who sit tied for fifth in the Southland with a 1-1 league mark. It will mark the 14th consecutive year and 16 of the last 17 seasons a ranked opponent has visited Homer Bryce.

Following the Lumberjacks
Saturday's game against McNeese will be streamed live online at ESPN3, available at ESPN3.com or through the ESPN app on mobile devices. Rob Meyers, the voice of the Lumberjacks, will call the game along with color commentator Kevin Langford on Q107.7 FM, available online at Q1077.com as well as through the Lumberjack Sports Network on the TuneIn app. Live stats will be available at SFAJacks.com, complemented by Twitter updates from @SFA_Football.

About the Game
Presented by game sponsor Tipton Ford Lincoln of Nacogdoches, Saturday's matchup will be featured as SFA's annual Parent's Day, one of the largest events on campus that brings parents each fall to take part in their student's experiences. The game will also be held as a purple out as fans are encouraged to wear purple inside Homer Bryce. It will be SFA's third home game of the season and last in the month of September with the 'Jacks returning to Nacogdoches for competition just two additional times this season, on Oct. 21 (Houston Baptist) and Nov. 11 (Nicholls).

AFCA Coach to Cure MD
The Lumberjack coaching staff in Saturday's game will be wearing special arm patches in honor of the American Football Coaches Association's (AFCA) Coach to Cure MD program. This is the 10th year coaches around the country join together to raise funds and awareness for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Fans are encouraged to donate by texting "CURE" to 50555 or visiting CoachtoCureMD.org.

Head Coach Clint Conque's Comments

On last Saturday's win at Abilene Christian:
"Nice win, obviously. I think anytime you can go on the road in this league and win, it's a bonus, it's really tough and it was a really good team win. I thought the offense, the defense and special teams all played well together, worked together. Got into some game management situations later in the game once we got ahead by two or three scores. It was a great environment, it was their (Abilene Christian's) second game in their new stadium, a $60 million set up they have there, nearly 12,000 people and I actually think they sold the game out and was just shy of capacity. So, it was a great environment. It was a really windy west Texas day, 15-20 mph and it did have an impact of the game, particularly on special teams."

"That was fewest points we allowed since my first win here in 2014. I think we beat Incarnate Word and gave up three points in that game, 38-3. We played conservative on their touchdown drive, just trying to make them take the length of the field and burn as much clock, it was one of the management things I was talking about. We might have been able to get out of there with just three points, but I was really pleased with that. Balanced attack on offense really, two hundred rushing, about two and quarter passing. I thought we were fairly efficient there, we created four turnovers on defense and for the second consecutive game we didn't turn the ball over. I'm very proud of that and how we valued the ball. I thought, again, that we played really well in the kicking game. Our punter (Caleb Lewallen), average 40 yards a punt, had a long of 52 and knocked four down inside the 20, two of those maybe inside the three or four. Not very many punt returns because of the wind, or kick-off returns. I thought we won the field position battle, and then I thought we played fairly physical at times. We tackled better and just played cleaner. Defensively, they (ACU) were 1-for-13 on third down conversions. I think they got that one on their last drive, I'm not sure, maybe second to last drive. We did a nice job there.

"All the players were prepared, they played fast as I mentioned, and physical. Obviously, there is a lot of things we've got to work on. We are still very much a work in progress, but we're improving. We played without some front-line guys, did not make the trip or we held, and obviously, there are some other guys that got dinged up. We're working in practice right now and we are getting ready for a great opponent, which I consider as the gold standard over the years in the Southland Conference, and that is McNeese State."

On SFA's defensive play throughout the game
"Well we are in a new scheme, we're getting more comfortable with some aspects of it. I thought we had a really good plan going into the game, of course, the players had to execute the plan. I thought we were more disciplined, I thought we leveraged the football better. There were some man concepts built into our scheme, I thought that we got our eyes in the right place and we ran to the football. One guy got a hit and the next guy was able to get them on the ground. Where the week before, in the second and third quarter against UIW, we probably didn't play our best defensive football. Kids went to work, I thought schematically we did some things out of our front defense that were good; the players got better at it in practice during the week. I think we made the quarterback uncomfortable, with the majority of three-man pressure, and we were able to get our hands on some balls on deflected passes, interceptions and a couple of fumble recoveries. The offense was able to stay on the field, typically you can't score when your offense is on the sideline. Give the credit to the defense, our staff and our players over there having a great plan and executing the plan fairly well."

On the team being able to turn things around in just two weeks
"It is just focus. Ball security, the most important piece of equipment in the stadium is the football. You want to keep it and they want to get it. The first two weeks against SMU and Southern Utah we turned it over a total of four times, you're putting yourself in harm's way when you do that. It led directly to points. We did a nice job the last two weeks of valuing the football and just like I told our guys on offense, our punter is on scholarship. He's got to earn his pay too so it is okay to throw an incomplete pass or we come up short on third down, we'll punt it and go play defense. I just think it is a mindset in focus and the more you emphasize it in practice, the more you talk about it, it ends up being positive when we value the ball. They can see through game situations, that if we don't turn it over, we create a good opportunity for our offense, or certainly we don't give up the field goal position if we have to punt. I've been pleased with Caleb for the most part in our punting game and the coverage in it, we can create a long field instead of the short field. The flip side of that, we got our first turnover against UIW. It was, obviously, a game-changing moment for us and this week it created opportunities for us to go score points."

"I was disappointed; I think we got inside the 30-yard line maybe on two other occasions and didn't score. So, I feel like we left some points on the field Saturday, just poor execution. I do think we played much cleaner, I think we only had two or three fouls total and I think we had five all together, but two of those were delay of games that I took to create field position and opportunities. I think it was just a good, solid, overall team win, but we're still certainly going to have play much better this week at home against a perennial power. They are long, strong, athletic, physical, and they expect to win every week and they've got a really good football team."

-SFA-

Photo by: Hardy Meredith | SFA Photography

Conque’s Comments: ‘Jacks Ready to Host No. 25 McNeese Saturday

9/29/2017 3:02:00 PM | Football

SFA head coach Clint Conque talks about last weekend’s Southland Conference road win at Abilene Christian and previews the Lumberjacks’ matchup with nationally-ranked McNeese

By: Luke Bolanos | Assistant Director of Athletic Media Relations