Ruston, La. – The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs dismantled the Blue Raiders on Thursday night via a historic offensive night for the Dawgs.
Following that loss, MTSU head coach Derek Mason met with the media and answered a few questions. Here’s a quick recap of everything that was talked about.
Mason’s Opening Statement
“First, I want to say hats off to Coach Cumby; his team played quickly and physically. For us, common mistakes continue, some of the same stuff, too, and that’s on me. We have to protect the ball, we have to do a better job of setting edges and defensively, just understanding what they were doing. The ball was coming out fast; they did a good job on first down to make it second and short; they ended up doing very well on third down because of it.”
“I thought we didn’t do enough to get the ball back to our offense, and as I look at it in totality, I see that we made plays early but lost the momentum and couldn’t get it back. That’s been the story of this football team throughout the season, but it’ll be a fast turnaround, so we have to get ready for Kennesaw State.”
Mason on building on a fast start offensively
“I felt like the offensive gameplan was exactly what we wanted it to be. Unfortunately, many things happened, like the Omari [Kelly] fumble and then the ball going through his hands for an interception. At times, we lacked in critical moments and didn’t make the plays we could make.”
“This is one that when our guys look at the tape, it’s all around. It’s not one person, it’s not one thing; it’s a lot of different things happening at different times that lead to bad results. It was a good start but a bad group effort all the way around, and when you look at it as a head coach, you think you’re prepared well, but it wasn’t well enough, and that’s on me.”
Mason, on the quick turnaround to Kennesaw State
“We’ve got a five-day turnaround; we play on Tuesday. I’m going to watch it, our coaches will watch it, and I think we’ve got to make real decisions about guys and who’s playing. I know many guys have rotated in, but the reality is that to play the game the way you need it to be played, it has to be physical. Not only does it have to be played tough but also intelligently, and tonight we didn’t play very intelligent football.”
“We talked to our guys, and we’re going to flush this; we’re going to get ready to play Kennesaw [State], and we’ve got to get a win.”
The Blue Raiders will take the field this Tuesday at home against the Owls. Kickoff is set for 7 PM CT.
