UConn Football HC Jim Mora talks Syracuse game week
UConn Football head coach Jim Mora met with the media today, as he offered his final thoughts on the win over Central Connecticut State and previewed this weekend’s matchup against Syracuse.
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Full Press Conference Transcript
Coach, just an opening thoughts on week two at Syracuse. Well, it’s a great opportunity to go
play a good football team. We’ve been there before.It’s a tough place to play. I think Fran has done an amazing job in his time there, putting
together a really good football team. So it’s going to be a great challenge for us.
But based on today’s practice, our guys are wired in and they’re ready to accept the challenge.
But it’s going to be difficult. It’s going to reveal a lot.And these are the kind of games that you relish. So we’ve just got to have a great week of
preparation. We’ve got to go out there and we’ve got to play as close to perfect as we can to
have a chance to stay in it with these guys.Malachi [McLean] will not be able to play this week. But our medical team did an amazing job with him
after the game. He was released from the hospital that night.
He’s fine. He’s back with the team. He should be back next week, but he’s not ready to go this
week.I’d rather not talk about it. Yeah, I think it’s something that we’ll just keep it in-house. Well, the
only thing that’s different is players, but schematically they’re the same.
Special teams have a new coordinator, so they’re a little bit different there. But we’ve played
against this scheme before. We’ve played against this coordinator before.
What I see is a big, physical, talented football team. A new quarterback who I think played well,
big receivers, big offensive line, kind of a reconstructed defense per se. They’ve had, I think, six
changes, but they brought in some really good players.They’ve grown their own players. I mean, it’s a hell of a challenge for us. I mean, they’re an ACC
team.I think they beat nine bowl teams last year. I think they ended up 10-3 or something like that. I
mean, they’re pretty darn good.
So we’re just trying to prepare to play the best we can. We don’t talk about it. Every day is a new
day.We live, like I said, kind of right here and focus on being the best we can every day. We make
the corrections on Sunday and Monday, and then we move on to Syracuse. And it’s a whole new
proposition.It’s a whole new journey. It’s a new challenge. And so we just refocus.
We reset. And we believe that confidence comes from hard work, attention to detail, focus,
taking good notes in meetings, going out and having great practices, understanding the game
plan, working hard in the weight room, doing the things that you do have to do off the field to
get yourself ready. And if we do those things consistently, which our guys have shown the
ability to do, then we feel like we can walk on the field with a sense of confidence on Saturday.
And then you have to execute. Then you have to execute against a really good team this week.
Yep, it is, but we don’t approach any game differently than another because I think that’s when
you get the roller coaster effect.And so we’re going to prepare every week to play our best against whoever we play. This week
it just so happens to be a really good Syracuse team, but that can’t affect how we prepare. Like,
you know, we can’t last week prepare at one level, and then this week prepare at another, and
then the next week at another, because that’s an inconsistent football team.
So our focus is always about being the best we can be on that day. And to me, that’s the best
way to do it, especially when you’re dealing with younger players, you know, younger men,
younger adults, you know, teaching them how to stay consistent in their approach to
everything and consistently excellent in their approach to everything. I think that’s the best way
to do it, to build confidence, to build consistency.Yeah, it doesn’t factor in for me, once again. Those are things that I can’t control. They don’t
matter to us.What matters is that at 12:03 we kick it off against Syracuse. I’ll tell you what I do like about it is
that it’s a 53-minute flight. And so for us, that’s better for us in terms of our preparation.
I think it was about like I felt coming off the field, you know. I mean, I love the explosives we put
up. We still left a lot out there.I was disappointed in the penalties, like I said, after the game and some of the big plays that
the penalties erased. I thought defensively, you know, we were a little soft early, and then we
firmed up. I feel we were a little hesitant early, and then we kind of settled in.
But, God, it feels like a long time ago that we watched that film. No, it was about like I thought,
you know. There was some good. There was some bad. There was nothing to be exuberant about. There was nothing to be depressed about.It was just, hey, there’s hope. There’s a lot of things we’ve got to do better, and we’ve got to do
a great job as a coaching staff of putting our players in the right position to do the things they
do well so they have a chance to have success. And that’s our goal every day.
That’s always important to try to do, you know. But you have to earn the right to get in a
position to pressure them. You know, if a team’s running the football at you and getting in the
third and, you know, medium, third to short, then it’s really hard to get where you can pin your
ears back and go after them because it’s not an obvious pass situation.So anytime you can get any team in a third and longer, then you have a chance to, you know,
maybe get after them a little bit more. So you have to earn that right. And it’s no different this
week than any other week.That’s up to us, you know, to take care of the run game, to take care of the short passing game
on first and second down, handle the play action stuff, force some bad throws, you know, make
some plays on the ball, do things like that. So earning the right to rush the pass is something
we’ve got to improve at times. But once again, kind of like everything, just the inconsistency,
you know, the down-to-down lack of precision or certainty is something that has to improve
right now.You know, it would be easy to sit here and say, well, it was the first game, but these guys are
experienced players, all right, and maybe they haven’t played in the system, but they’ve played
football. So we expect to see a big jump in performance as we go through the season, and that
needs to start this week. All over the field, I mean, you know, listen, they replaced a really good
quarterback with a really good quarterback.They’ve got a running back who’s a big bruiser who scored three touchdowns last week. They’re
physical on the front. They’re big and physical at wide receiver.They’ve got active tight ends. You know, they’ve been successful throwing the ball, and we
know they can run the ball. Defensively, they are really good up front.They’ve got a really good defensive line. They’ve got some new linebackers, but they’re big,
physical, and they’re active. I think their secondary is really, really athletic, you know, so I think
their kicking game has always been solid.You know, you see Fran Brown’s personality all over that team. I mean, they’re tough. They’re
hard-nosed.They’re disciplined. They’re gritty. They’re going to get after you.
I mean, he’s a Jersey guy, right, and they play with that attitude. You know, they play with a chip
on their shoulder. So you know that in order to have any success against these guys, you’ve got
to bring your very, very best every single play.All right? Was I boring today? I’m sorry. You guys have a good day. Can’t wait to see them out there next week. Appreciate you guys.
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