Coach Joey Jones Show Recap 2011-10-11
Bo Bishop from Baumhower’s Restaurant, the host and sponsor of the radio show, said that they will be carrying the Jags game on the TV’s for those who can’t make it out to Ladd-Peebles Stadium on Saturday.
After some technical difficulties, Coach Jones, Coach Antoine and Lee Shirvanian came back on the air, but unbeknown to Mr. Shirvanian we had missed all of his previous conversation with Coach Jones until the “return to air” moment.
Lee picked up with officiating in the game with UTSA. Lee mentioned the intentional grounding call when C.J. Bennett was out of the pocket, being hit and threw the ball to a place where a receiver was in the vicinity. Coach Jones said that that was a bad call and that he thought the referee admitted it afterwards.
The Fuego Mexican Restaurant, Whos Hot segement saw Coach Jones mention Demetre Baker having a break-out game with a big gain during regulation and the game-winning 25 yard run to cap it all off. Defensively Coach Jones recognized Jake Johnson again for another great game and is playing at a very high level for the team. When asked, Coach Jones said that the thought Johnson has NFL potential.
Coach Jones reported during the Orthopedic Group injury report that the Jags came out very well from San Antonio. Brian Krauskopf turned an ankle and is day-to-day right now, but is expected to be ready to play on Saturday. Tremain Smith will fill in for him if he is not ready to go. Probably the best thing was that Coach Jones feels that the young offensive line guys are coming along and that they are developing some depth there.
Coach Jones declined to say anything about Damond Smith’s suspention from the team. He did think it impacted the defense. Gabe Loper was their nickle player and mainly played safety, so a bit last minute they moved him to cornerback to fill in.
Lee asked an email question that stated that Jereme Jones seems to be the most sure-handed receiver on the team and asked why he is not more involved in the offense. Coach Jones said that their offense spreads the ball around alot and tries to get as many players involved as possible. He finished the answer by saying that they take what the defense gives them and don’t try to get any one person the ball.
Lee asked about the receiver rotation. Coach Antoine said that they want to be full speed on every route, so they are going to rotate players fairly often. They start with Lavender and Gardner on the outside with Jones and Walden as their inside guys. He also mentioned that freshman Jake Howton was very good for them and ran routes well.
When asked about how quarterbacks sometimes have go-to receivers, Coach Jones said he does not feel that Bennett has a specific go-to receiver, but does a good job of going through his progression and finding the right guy for the situation.
Another email question asked about getting some freshmen time in the game with Howton and Keels named specificly. They asked if the coaches wanted get them some experience playing or did they see a matchup that they wanted to exploit. Coach Jones said that they are slowly involving J.J. Keels by trying to fit him into certain situations. Ellis Hill fit in well and scored a touchdown. Howton was mentioned before and Hollinger is getting involved more as well.
Another email asked about the number of assistant coaches, previously the team had 10 but now they only have nine. Coach Jones said he will not be adding another coach because NCAA rules for FBS only allows 9 assistant coaches. Coach Jones indicated that they intend to redshirt the JuCo transfer Ceasare Johnson this year. They intend to move him from defensive end to an inside position and that he should be up around 300 lbs by then.
Coach Jones said he felt that the offensive line was the way to go late in the game because he could see the defense with their hands on their hips indicating that they were getting tired. He felt like they were controlling the line of scrimmage and he also felt very good going into overtime because of that. He also said that they had a secret two-point conversion play they could have fell back on that he felt would have caught them by surprise if he felt like they needed to use it.
When asked by Lee if he anticipated the fake punt, Coach Jones said yes, they warned about it in the huddle but on 4th and 1 they were still able to get the yard they needed for the first down.
Another person emailed about how the offense seems to come out and score on their opening possession but then goes a bit flat. Coach Jones said that they only had four possessions in the first half and they scored on two of them for 10 points. They could have scored on another one but an interception at the goal line ended that one. Another part of the question asked if they may be underestimating their opponents to which Coach Jones replied that they are “definitely not underestimating their opponents.”
Yet another email asked about the difference in Bennett’s touchdown to interception ratio and how this season it has almost flipped toward the opposite of last years good run. Coach Jones reiterated what he said a couple weeks ago. He said C.J. has matured and has expanded to the point where he really knows the offense, but he thinks in doing so he has opened to progressing to his third and fourth receivers but to a point tries to make a perfect throw every time to get the ball to the right person which has lead to some turnovers. He has made some great throws, but this is also part of the growing process for his position.
Another caller asked for a Brandon Ross update and if he might make it back this season or if they will try to get him a redshirt. Coach Jones said he has been out on the field some and is looking good and may be as much as 85-90% back. However, they will not play him unless they are sure he is 100% ready. They think if they really push him, that he might be back for the last couple games. But they don’t know if that is in the best interest for him. However they do know he will be back next year.
As for a redshirt, they will have to wait until after the season to petition the NCAA for a sixth year.
The last caller asked about the blocked kick versus UTSA, if that was something they work on every week or if they saw something they could exploit against them. Coach Jones said that they they work on it from time to time, but that they also put in either a punt block or a field goal block or sometimes both when preparing for an opponent.
Previewing UT-Martin coach Jones said that they will be the best team to come into Ladd-Peebles Stadium so far against the Jags. They score lots of points and are very good. They play Division I-AA (FCS) teams every week and do well. They had #9 Jacksonville State beat 23-10 but gave up the lead in the fourth quarter to lose the game. They had Tennessee Tech beat by a couple touchdowns but let them come back late to beat them as well.
Coach Antoine said that they will use lots of different coverages against the Jags. They will have man-to-man, cover 0, cover 1 and more. Some teams will settle into just a couple coverages, but it looks like UT-Martin will use several.
Coach Jones ended the show by asking for a big, loud crowd to come out to Ladd for the game. They want it to be a big advantage playing them in Mobile. So bring people out and get loud.