Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU Football Quotes
September 12, 2006 | Football
Sept. 12, 2006
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University football team, after a triple-overtime win, now heads to Miami, Fla., for a Saturday (Sept. 16) game vs. Florida International University. On Tuesday afternoon (Sept. 12), Falcon head coach Gregg Brandon and several BGSU student-athletes sat down to field a few questions from members of the media ...
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."
(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."
(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."
(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."
(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."
(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."
LINEBACKER Terrel White
(On Saturday night, did you realize you had as many tackles as you did?)
"During the game, I did not really notice that I had that many until Erique [Dozier] told me after the game. I was just happy to be on the field and be around the ball."
(How did it feel to get back on the field?)
"It was great. Before the game I was very excited. It is my senior year -- every game matters."
(Do you feel like the linebackers are starting to come around?)
"We are real athletic right now. We knew we were the question mark of the defense (coming into the year) -- we put it on ourselves to make plays."
LINEBACKER Erique Dozier
(On his play in the Buffalo game)
"I'm tired, but I had a lot of fun. We worked real hard on defense and reached a lot of our goals."
(How do you feel the linebackers are playing?) "We are getting there. We still have a long way to go, but we are coming along. We need to get off the blocks a bit better and tackle better, but we are coming along."
