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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Gregg Brandon Press Conference Quotes
October 05, 2004 | Football
Oct. 5, 2004
Gregg Brandon Press Conference - 10/5/04
Q. Talk about the special teams play.
A. I thought Shaun Suisham was outstanding. He became the school's career scoring leader, and I thought his kickoffs were excellent. He kicked a few of them out, which is what we asked him to do and when he doesn't get it out, he put great hang time on it. We chart all of those [hang times], and a lot of them were over 4 seconds hang time. A couple of them were 4.2, 4.3, which is just outstanding. I mean, I could cover the kick [with that hang time]. He's done a nice job that way. Our kickoff coverage average start was minus 18 or something, so that was a good area for us.
Our punt team has continued to do a great job of covering punts. Nate Fry needs to do a little bit better job of getting the ball down the field. Fry needs to get a little bit more consistent from week to week. Once he does that, I'll start talking about him being a great punter, but right now he's a little bit erratic with consistency. They way our scheme is now, we can get out and cover kicks better, which I like. We made some hay on the punt return with Charles Sharon and Steve Simonton. Steve has moved into the backup corner spot, and it's why we signed him late. He needed to get himself in shape. He needed to learn the defense and get comfortable with the system. We're four games into the season now, getting into MAC play, and he's starting to show up and that is encouraging.
Q. What about Central Michigan's special teams?
A. James King (#24) has a knack for blocking kicks. Dan Bazuin (#93) played against us last year as a true freshman, and I think he has elevated his game now. We're looking for him on tape to figure out where he is lined up because we have to account for him, not only on defense, because he blocked two field goals against Kent that could have tied the game for them. They're doing a good job. I think you measure a team's attitude and heart by their special teams play and they're playing with a lot of heart and intensity. Coach Kelly has got them believing that they can win.
Q. Do your special teams' players enjoy the challenge of playing a good special teams opponent?
A. We challenge our special teams every week. John Bowers coordinates that unit and he does a great job presenting the special teams game plan, such as how to return a kick or block a punt. He looks at that, studies that, and prepares it. We approach that just like offense and defense and look for ways to win football games in the kicking game.
Q. What about Shaun Suisham's improvement?
A. I think Suisham is a very talented kicker. I think a kicker has one thing to do, which is kick the ball through the goal posts and if you're not thinking about doing that, chances are you are going to miss. I didn't have any problem calling on him last year to make field goals; he is just a weapon that way. Where he struggled for us last year was kickoffs. He kicked too many balls out of bounds; it wasn't that they were short. He does a sky kick well, the short one where we go down and try to get a fair catch. He does that well, and we do that in windy conditions, that type of thing. But what he has improved on this year is kicking the ball out [of the back of the endzones], and he did have that quad injury last year and that was a thing that was nagging at him early. And we changed the way we designed our kickoff cover. Before, the first two years that Urban was here, we tried to kick the ball in the corner and squeeze the coverage in there and pin people in there. So, now we line up to kick it out, but don't over kick it because we'll cover it.
Q. You'd feel confident with Suisham if you needed a kick up to how many yards?
A. I'd let him kick a fifty-yarder if the conditions were good. I tell Coach Studrawa just to get it to the 35 yard line, and then we'll make a decision.
Q. What kind of challenges does CMU present?
A. I think Jerry Seymour (CMU's tailback) is a fabulous back. He's like NIU's Garrett Wolfe, maybe even better and we didn't tackle him. So, we need to get around this guy, swarm him, and force them to throw the ball. CMU's quarterback is still just learning his passing game, and we need to force him to learn it another week. I think their offensive line is really good, and they moved the ball on us last year. Three of those five guys are back - the center, the tackle, and one of the guards. They're rushing for about 170-175 yards a game right now.
Q. And defensively?
A. They've got the two guys that we talked about on specials teams, James King and Dan Bazuin, that are good defensive football players. They're running around creating problems on defense. They knocked Joshua Cribbs around last week a little bit, put pressure on him, and sacked him. They present some problems. They're playing hard and they're playing fast. I anticipate that when we go up there because it's Homecoming and they'll be all fired up.
