Josh Metellus
Josh, can you talk about their rushing attack and how tough it was to stop?
“They did what they did well all season running the ball. They did what they’ve been doing the past couple seasons running the ball. They came in with the mindset that they were going to try to run the ball on us and we knew we had to stop it. We tried to limit it as much as possible but we just couldn’t get it done on the defensive side.”
Why was that? Why did you have so much trouble with them?
“They’re really good at what they do. We were doing what we had to do. Some plays we had guys make mistakes. That’s every football game. People make mistakes, gaps get open, and they would just capitalize on all the little mistakes we made.”
Where do you go from here, Josh, and what do you say to the guys after a loss like this?
“It’s early. It’s week three—third game of the season. We’ve got a lot more football left. As we all know, one game doesn’t define a season in college football. Only place you can go is up from here. We’ve got a lot of things to look forward to. I feel like we played great in the fourth quarter on both sides of the ball so we’ve got a lot to push us into next week.”
Josh, how do you describe the mindset at halftime? Were you guys angry [or] surprised? How would you describe it?
“It’s just like any type of adversity in a football game. You get hit in the mouth, it’s how you respond, how you go back out there. It’s 60 minutes of football. At halftime you’ve only played 30, so we were—at halftime—ready to go back out there and try to fight for the last 30 minutes to get it done.”
When you guys are in there and the game’s over and some of the younger fellas, what did you say to some of your teammates?
“Just everybody keep their head up. Like I said earlier, it’s a long season. We ain’t got nothing to get down about. We played a good team. They played one of their best games probably in the last couple years. We didn’t play our best game.
“So, we’ve got a lot to look forward to. We’ve still got a great team. We’ve all got to trust in each other. We all got each other’s back when somebody falls, so we’ve just got to keep pushing.”
Back to Jonathan [Taylor], you guys did a decent job last year of holding him. What was the difference this year compared to last year?
“The scheme. They came in with a different type of scheme than they did last year. He did a great job of seeing the hole. He’s as good as advertised. He’s a great running back and we weren’t doing a good job tackling, getting him down, limiting him to as much yards he could get after contact.”
How were their schemes different, Josh?
“They ran more of a double counter GT-type of scheme trying to get the cutback lanes. If we overflowed to—say they try to run to the left. If we overflow it, they try to get that cutback through the A gap or something like that.”
[After THE JUMP: Nick Eubanks, Jon Runyan Jr., and Aidan Hutchinson]
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