Sept. 11, 2007

Head coach Joe Novak and Justin Anderson, Jason Onyebuagu, and John Tranchitella met with the media Tuesday afternoon at the Yordon Center to preview this week's MAC opener against Eastern Michigan. Below are selected quotes from the weekly press conference.

Head coach Joe Novak
Opening Statement
"Obviously, we have to bounce back after a disappointing loss. The kids were disappointed last week already. One thing we try to avoid is beating ourselves, and in the two games that we have played we have had the opportunities, we just haven't gotten the job done. We are certainly upset with that and that is something we need to improve on. I thought we made good improvements from week one to week two, but you can't turn the ball over five times and expect the results you are looking for. We have to eliminate these mistakes but I'm not sure how but we are going to get it done."

On losing first two games of the season
"We lost two in a row the last two years and ended up in postseason play. Obviously, that's not the way you want to start. Obviously last year our second loss was to Ohio and that was a critical loss. Compared to last year we are sitting just fine. We are 0-0 in the MAC, so I do not think we are in too bad a shape. As of right now being 0-2 from a coach's perspective, you have to worry about what the players are thinking in terms of confidence. I think with this group they really feel that we made some critical mistakes that killed us. It's not that we aren't good enough, we had the game in our hands Saturday and we let it slip away."

On the injuries to Tim McCarthy and Montell Clanton
"We will just have to play that by ear. It's 99.5% sure that Montell suffered a torn ACL and will likely have surgery so we are pretty sure that he is out for the season. Certainly, Justin Anderson has stepped up and played well in place of Montell. He's going to have help coming out of the back field and catching the ball. I was also happy that we got Chad Spann some carries. He made one mistake of fumbling the ball, but other than that, I feel he did a great job. As for Tim [McCarthy] they are sure that he has a partially torn MCL and PCL and should be out for an extended period of time. They said he should be out 8 to 10 weeks, which is basically the season. We should bank on not having him back. If he does return to the team it will be a bonus. They are thinking that they will not do surgery, but he will have an extended rehab."

On playing Eastern Michigan
"Well when we played them last year it was the last game of the year near Thanksgiving and they were really beat up then. I mean they had a wide receiver playing the quarter back position. Right now they are healthy. It's as good an Eastern team that I have seen on both sides of the ball. I like their quarterback; He's kind of like the kid we played Saturday, he can move the ball up the field, and throw it. They played well against Pittsburgh and their weakness was the fact that Ball State threw the ball about fifty times on them last week. Offensively, they run just about everything. They will run the I-formation for the run and some read offenses. They do a little bit of both."

On opening the MAC schedule
"I really think this Western Division is wide open. We have to get things done. It's a divisional game in the MAC and you only get five of them, so we plan to get things done. If you do business in those five, you don't care about the rest because you have got it. We do have to move on. What's done is done."

On Dan Nicholson "He had a school record 15 completions in a row against Southern Illinois. He made some interception mistakes but he did well overall. There were some tip plays that went their way but he did so many positive things too. However, he has to get better at his decision making. When you hit 15 in a row like that, it tells you that he can be darn good. Dan takes it hard on himself, he knows he makes mistakes and he knows he has to improve. Thank God he had fifteen in a row because he has that to fall back on. Dan puts a lot on his shoulders but I do think he will be fine, I really do. I don't worry about Dan."

John Tranchitella
On replacing Tim McCarthy at middle linebacker
"Tim is a good linebacker and having him hurt has hurt our defense a lot but we have to move on. There are big shoes for me to fill and I am going to try the best I can and my teammates are going to help me with that. We have to move forward from here. Tim played middle linebacker very well and I just have to pick up and run with it and do the best that I can."

On facing Eastern Michigan
"We will worry about this game only and move on from here. It's a divisional game so it's a crucial game to our success this season. We can't take our past success against EMU for granted. If we just focus on that and assume the possibilities, we will lose the game. They are a different team this year with a lot of weapons. We have to take them seriously."

Jason Onyebuagu
On the offensive line
"We came out on Saturday and wanted to improve from the Iowa game. In that game we did not run the ball very well and in this game we rushed for over two hundred yards. I feel that we made drastic improvement, but we will have to change a few things now that Justin [Anderson] is going to be the main guy. We have to make some new visible holes that he can see as opposed to Montell [Clanton] and what he could see."

On Montell Clanton
"I really didn't know that he was badly hurt until the end of the game towards the fourth quarter. It's an adjustment we have to make. We had a pretty good two headed monster with Montell and Justin together, but we are going to have to make some changes now, but that's football. We do have a little more pressure on us now with our running game. Losing Montell is going to inspire our line to work harder to protect Justin because we don't want anyone else getting hurt. We feel that it is our responsibility. We are going to do whatever it takes to start winning football games. We shouldn't panic though. I do not feel that we lost confidence at all. We just need to move on and forget these two losses."

On Dan Nicholson
"Dan's going to be there for us. He will never lose his confidence. He is our leader and he knows his ability to lead this team to get the win. He knows that we believe in him to get the job done."

Justin Anderson
On Montell Clanton's injury
"It's sad. I care for the man as a good friend. I was always rooting for him. He was a big reason for my success and we worked together a lot. He's a tough guy to lose. We worked everyday in practice together and he deserves to be out there too. Losing Montell is a big loss for this team."

On his role change
"I really do not think that my role will change. I will still be doing the same things, I will just be getting the ball a little more. I am not a selfish player though. The ball can go anywhere just as long as we get the "W" and I am as happy as can be."

On the loss to Southern Illinois
"I was shocked more than anything. Coach told us at halftime to go out and throw the hammer down and put a drive together to put this one away. After a while, amazing things were happening and everything was going their way. That's football though, things happen like that. But we have to be able to respond to that. It's an experience that we have to learn from."