Coach Brock’s Tuesday presser: Air Force (Updated)

Here are a few comments from Army coach Stan Brock from his Tuesday press conference before the Air Force game Saturday. I will update this later.

Opening statement 

“We thought the defense played extremely well in a situation
where they had the ball given to them based on turnovers five times inside the
50-yard line. To come away with seven points, we are very happy with the
defense.

Frank Scappaticci was awarded the Black Death award. His
stats read, he had seven tackles, one assist, three tackles for a loss, a sack,
two quarterback hits, a pass breakup and a caused fumble for our first score.
He ended up with a total of 40 production points, which is outstanding. He
played close to a perfect game and was a huge reason we were able to win.

Offensively, we played well when we needed to. The drive in
the fourth quarter was excellent. It was a great show of character, confidence
and what the team really believes what it can do when they have to. Chip Bowden
grew up a lot and matured a great deal during that period. We were struggling
up to that point and came out and played well.

It was a good win against a really good football team. Louisiana
Tech has some great athletes especially on the defensive side. They have
ability on the offensive side. But we thought their defense was about as good
as we played.”

Looking ahead to the Air Force game

“It’s a big game. We all know that. We are
approaching this game just as we did last week and the only thing we have to
worry about right now is having a good practice here Tuesday. That’s the only
thing we can control. We will let Tuesday take care of itself and move onto
tomorrow when tomorrow arrives. Our No. 1 goal is to go out and have a great
Tuesday practice.

The differences between Army’s option and Air Force’s option

“A lot of ways it’s different. They do a lot of different
things from different formations. They will run similar plays from a lot of
different formations. They are in shotgun quite a bit. I think it’ quite a bit
different I don’t think it’’ similar at all.”

When putting together the triple-option offense how much did Army coaches look at Air Force’s
current offense?

“We looked at it some to get some ideas. We didn’t feel real
strongly about the shotgun formation. We looked at the plays that they run out
of different formations. We looked at it quite a bit but not as much as we
would have old Navy films and Army films and Oklahoma
and Texas
films only because they simply had a year of it. We watched all of last year’s
films. There’s only one year of that style of offense.

On if Army incorporated any of Air Force’s offense into its offense

“Not from what they run now. Maybe from the prior coaching
staff. There’s some of that in there. They are in there. You just wouldn’t
recognize them because they are run out of different formations.”

On the evolution of Army’s running backs

 ”We talked about after the game about their selflessness and
how they go to work every day and how they practice. There’s really a lot of
them. Tony Dace, Pat Mealy. Guys who maybe have a good game and practice and
then maybe they don’t get in the game or get a lot of action the following
week. The most impressive thing is that every Tuesday they go back and go to
work and they are preparing themselves to do whatever it takes, whatever they
have to do to help the team win. I think that’s the attitude that’s really
making the biggest difference.

On Air Force’s defense

“They are very, very good. You watch them play Navy and they
shut Navy down. They really have shut a lot of people down. Jake Paulson at one
point was leading the nation in sacks. They play with a lot of enthusiasm. They
play with a lot of fire. They are very good at what they are doing. This is
going to be the biggest challenge that this offense has faced yet because of
the way that they play and the attitude at which they play. We definitely know
their defense and understand how good they are.”