FalconBlog--Triumphs and Trials in the BGSU Falcon Nation

Brandon presser

We're back today with another edition of Coach Brandon's press conference. In orange, find smart ass, snarky, and sometimes supportive comments.

BGSU HEAD COACH Gregg Brandon(On moving Erique Dozier to linebacker)"'Bull' Dozier -- that's what my wife called him. He had a really good game (vs. Buffalo), as did Terrel White. I just think he is very athletic and fast, and we wanted to get him closer to the ball -- same thing with (Loren) Hargrove -- and use their athleticism. I like faster linebackers; not necessarily smaller, but I like the speed they bring. They are a little undersized, but I am more into speed than size.

"Dozier is stepping up, Adrian Baker... I have two (potential) redshirt kids in (Brandon) Jackson and (Eugene) Fells that I may end up playing, Jon Jakubowski is a steady guy and can play a couple spots there for us. John Haneline; you know, he started in the middle against Wisconsin and did a good job. The secondary is the problem because they are really young there."

The fact that he's thinking of taking the redshirts off two more guys continues to point toward our efforts to improve the LB corps. I assume the reinforcements are targetted to Hargove's spot. In my opinion, the LB play has been a nice surprise, aided by a good Dline that is eating up some blocks. I am not disappointed in the D at all.

(On the play of Ruben Ruiz)"Yeah, he did a nice job Saturday night. (In addition to the two TD receptions), he had 12 knock-down blocks, which is pretty a good night's work. He filled the need that we had with a loss of Steve Navarro. Then, when he got here, we saw how well he moved in space and caught the ball with the big body that we ended up putting him out there (at receiver). We didn't get a chance to red-shirt him. Had we found him as a freshman, shoot; the time he will get really good is when he is about to graduate."

Ruiz is a player, and a guy we need. The passing was OK on Saturday, and I hope with Corey and Ruben at WR we can do a little better. Didn't notice the blocks, but that is awesome. With our running attack, it is clear that we are getting good blocks from the line, along with Ruiz and Winovich (mentioned later)

(On special teams and the punting game in particular)"We are talking about the obvious stuff, how to do a better job of protecting. The one that got blocked the other night was a high snap; we didn't do a good job at blocking that guy. We have to look at how we are doing that. The same thing happened against Wisconsin, so if we need to tweak the scheme then we will do it. But we blocked the same way last year and that particular deal never showed up. (Alonso) Rojas will keep getting better; he is a talented kid. To put the double duty on him (kicking and punting) Saturday, I think, might have been too much. And then, we don't protect him -- we need to protect on him."

Not much to say here. It is obvious stuff. If was obvious stuff last year, and the fact that the other teams are exploiting a different hole (or "deal") than they did last year isn't really very reassuring. Most teams go game after game with "that particular deal" (ie, blocked punts). As for Rojas taking on double duty, no doubt, that's a tall assignment for a guy in his second game. I don't blame him for what has happened.

(On preaching special teams)"We don't spend an inordinate time on special teams, but we spend enough time on special teams to execute, and what's frustrating is that we're not executing. I don't know if more time is the answer; I think it's a personnel thing that we have to work through. Our kickers have to continue to improve. We need to kick the ball -- on the kickoff they returned (for a score), the kid caught it on a dead run. When the ball was in his hands we had only one guy across the 40. I am just stating the obvious. We have to do a better job in the kicking game, and we will."

It is obvious we have to do a better job. I hope we actually do. This statement could have come from one of last year's press conferences.

(On Florida International)"They are 0-2, but they are right there. They had a couple missed extra points that may have cost them two games. They lost to Middle Tennessee, 7-6, and had a chance to beat South Florida, but lost that one by a point, too. They have a very quick, aggressive defensive. They run a lot of different fronts; they are a very athletic defense."
"Offensively, they tried to run the all against South Florida and didn't have much success. I think they would like to establish the run and they are starting to do that right now. But they have a nice passing game. Their quarterback does a nice job in the west coast system they are running. They have a big-time receiver (Chandler Williams). He returned a punt against South Florida for a touchdown and he caught 10 balls in that game. He is an explosive player and a game-breaking type guy."
"They have some athletes -- they can run around, wreak some havoc on defense and make some plays on offense. We will go down there, look to establish the run like we have and keep working the passing game. I think defensively, we have to keep the ball in front of us and keep tackling."

We should win this game easily, but this team has no gimmees, especially on the road. When FIU sees us on the schedule, they think win as much as we do. An 0-2 with two close losses at home is not an easy assignment, ever.

(Does it surprise you that the running game is ranked among the national leaders?)"We talked about it in the offseason. After Omar (Jacobs) went down, we needed to run the football late in the year and we couldn't. I think that contributed to losing the Akron game; we were so reliant on his ability to throw the football that the running game became an afterthought. Then, P.J. Pope got hurt, and added to it. In the spring, we knew we had to be a physical team again and establish the run."

"We also felt like it really helped our defense (both in terms of) time of possession and the fact that we practiced against it all the time. The deal in the spring was that we were going to become a more physical team overall, because we had difficulty at times last year defending running-oriented teams. To be able to step up against the run and hold Buffalo to 105 yards and Wisconsin to 300 total yards offense (shows) that plan is coming around, which is encouraging."
(Obviously, Freddie Barnes and Anthony Turner have had great success running the ball in the first two games. Does it help that you have other weapons in Dan Macon and Pete Winovich?)"Yes, it gives us more horses. We will continue to involve Macon and give him more carries as we progress. Pete is just such a good blocker; he was just taking guys out, especially when Freddie and AT were in there taking the snap and running. That is a package that has shown up. Whether it is Freddie or AT in there, it's the blocking that we need to have in there (from Pete), but he did get a few carries and did a nice job."

"I think the run Dan had, on the one play on the boundary, really showed his speed, which is why we need to get the ball in his hands. As soon as he got out there, he was past his defender. We need to get him the ball and utilize that speed."

Finally, the positive. We are really running the ball, and Coach deserves credit for developing a running attack that plays on our strength this year. He is right. We lost to Akron because we did not have a running attack that would let us take a new approach with Omar injured. Clearly, we don't have to worry about that this season. In fact, this is the more typical spread attack we will see over the years. If we can put together special teams, pick up a W at CMU or at OU, and go to Akron with only one loss, we got a heck of a shot.