VIDEO: Dave Doeren After E. Kentucky

Here is the FULL VIDEO of Dave Doeren’s press conference after tonight’s 35-0 victory over Eastern Kentucky.  Transcript to follow.

Opening Statement…
As far as the game goes, I’m proud of the defense for the shutout. I don’t know how many three-and-outs we had, what was it eight?  Eight three-and-outs out of their 10 series’ on defense, so I’m really impressed there.  I loved our return game on punt returns.  On punt return tonight, I thought Bra’Lon Cherry did some nice things.  He would have had over 100 yards if it wasn’t for a clip.  Offensively, we we are around 450 rushing and 450 passing after two games, so great balance for two games now.  Great time of possession again offensively.  Third down, both sides of the ball were efficient.  Matt Dayes with back-to-back 100 yard games.  It’s great to get Jalan (McClendon) in the game for Jacoby (Brissett) there at the end.  I thought (Jumichael) Ramos and Jalyen Samuels both showed up and played good games for us catching the football.  The only thing I would have loved to see different would have been a few take aways on defense.  I hate that we fumbled with one of our running backs early in the game.  A lot of guys got to be involved.  It’s a good win anytime you can get a shutout, especially on a team ranked 17th in their league.  It’s a good football team.  They have a big receiver that made plays in the first half and we shut him down in the second, so I thought in the second half we played better than we did in the first.

On which guys will be game in and game out key guys…
Yeah I think so, we’ve got two games of film now, so when it shows up multiple weeks. Bra’Lon (Cherry) has had two good weeks in a row.  Jacoby (Brissett) has had two good weeks in a row.  Obviously, we expected that from him.  Jaylen Samuels and (Jumichael) Ramos.  (Jonathan) Alston had a drop, but he played hard the whole game.  Our offensive line has been pretty consistent.  I’m disappointed in our second team offensive line protection wise at times, but we ran the ball well behind them.  On defense, there are a bunch of guys that played tonight and got in the game.  It will be a good film to watch.  I know we will learn a lot from it, and we will need to with our first road trip coming up.

On Bradley Chubb and BJ Hill…
Yeah, you know what I will have to watch it.  I challenged those guys that we needed more plays in the backfield and we did.  I’m trying to look at their stats here, it looks like they rushed for 35 yards on the night so obviously we won up front for that to happen.  That’s what we expect.  We expect to make plays in the backfield with our front.  Coach Huxtable did some adjusting.  They had a couple new wrinkles with their power scheme that they were running.  They hadn’t showed that in the first game.  D-line for us was a strength last year and we lost those guys.  Seeing Chubb step up and some of the inside guys.  Eurndraus Bryant again had some penetration like he did last week.  It will be fun to watch the tape and see who the most productive guys are.

On Matt Dayes being steady and even keeled…
I wish a lot of guys were like him.  I mean show up, work hard, take pride in your work, get better, and take it personal.  He’s a very competitive guy and intrinsically motivated.  He’s had two great games, and it’s only going to make him better now with Shad coming back.  Those two guys style wise are very different.  It’s going to be hard to defend them.  I’m excited to get those two back in the game moving forward.

On defensive plays at the goal line…
That was great.  That was big.  Anytime you’re in the red zone on defense and you get no points, that’s huge.  I think we had one opportunity in the red zone and we were one for one.  That’s big.  It shows a lot.  It was after a long pass and a face mask penalty and another long pass.  They had three consecutive plays that can kind of get you down and the  to hold them, that’s a big drive right there.

On Jaylen Samuels…
He’s got a lot of skill sets.  He’s built like a fullback at 230 pounds and he can squat over 500 pounds.  He can play that position where he’s blocking people with leverage, but he’s got receiver hands.  It’s weird because in high school he was an H-back who turned into a running back through the course of his high school career.  His senior year, he played running back and wildcat quarterback.  The things we’re doing with him are things he actually did in high school.  We’re fortunate to have a guy that has that many skill sets.  Coach Canada and his staff does a nice job having some versatility in the package to use him.