Jerry Mack sat down with the Owls beat — OK, it’s only one KSU employee and the student newspaper — this afternoon to answer questions leading into Sam Houston game week. Before his Owls head over to Texas, Mack gave an update on Rickie Collins, touched on the 24-team playoff, explained his mindset during the lengthy losing streak, and more.
Side note: That Jerry Mack Coaches Club hoodie is fire. I have no choice but to respect Mack for wearing his own merch like a WWE wrestler.
If you want to read everything from Mack’s press conference, I spent some time at lunch transcribing his answers at lunch today and have those listed below. Totally normal behavior. If you’d prefer to watch the Zoom on your own, here’s the link from KSU Owls dot com:
Opening statement:
One of the things that jumps out to me about [Sam Houston] is that they have some dynamic receivers. These guys are fast. They catch the ball and accelerate. They can catch vertical throws down the field. They’re playing two different quarterbacks. Consistently, both of those guys have shown an ability to go and execute the gameplan and throw the ball down the field with some accuracy.
They get after you on defense. When you look across the board defensively, those guys play hard. They gave Jacksonville State all they could handle for about a good half of football and then the game kinda separated a little bit. For the most part, you see guys who don’t bust a lot of assignments. You see guys that are straining to the football. Hasn’t quite worked the way they’ve wanted it to this year, but to be honest with you, they’ve been in these games a lot and been very close.
We have to do a great job of going down there - it’s a road game. On the road in Conference USA, it’s hard to win football games. We’re gonna have to have a great week of prep. We’re gonna have to go down there, playing at a time we normally don’t play at, and go out there and execute our gameplan as well.
Injury update on Rickie Collins:
Right now, he’s day-to-day. He’s at practice today, moving around. Obviously it was a light day so we didn’t do very much. It’s truly going to be day-to-day. We’ll assess as the week goes on, put him in some drills and do some different things to kinda see what that range of motion looks, how much zip he has on the ball, how he’s taking to all the things we’re asking him to do. It’s truly a day-to-day mindset right now with Rickie.
On defensive tackle Jaiden Grimes, who was named CUSA DPOTW:
Jaiden Grimes had a great last 8 days. He had a great week of practice last week. He was named a team captain, to come out and represent our team going in to the Delaware game, and then you see he ends up making Conference USA defensive player of the week. The last 7/8 days for Jaiden have been extraordinary.
He’s really playing to a level I always knew he could play at. We went into the season saying we lost our top rush end last year. Where were some of those pressures going to come from? Leading CUSA from an interior defensive lineman, that’s exactly where I thought it would come from this year. Some of that push up front that he provides, it collapses the pocket - it’s not always going to necessarily equal sacks, but it does get the quarterback off that spot, it does make them feel uncomfortable back there and that’s what we wanted to do last week. It’s just so exciting to see him playing to his potential like I always knew he could.
Whether or not he expected TE Reed Jesiolowski to see an uptick in usage:
Reed has always been a guy who’s had a workers mentality. He comes to work, a lunchpail guy. He’s going to put forward the dirty work in the blocking schemes and being an in-line blocker. He’s done a good job of learning our offense and continuing to grow in what we ask him to do. It’s a little different style than what he’s accustomed to and what he’s been exposed to.
Reed is always a part of the gameplan as far as the passing game. It just so happens some of those throws on Saturday - more of those throws - came his way. When those throws came, he executed and he did a good job of capitalizing. Wish he would’ve not bobbled the pass in the corner of the end zone for the touchdown, but at the end of the day he came up with a big 60+ yard touchdown to kinda put us in a better position. Excited about him taking a big step in the pass receiving game. It would be great to see him get even more involved but a lot of that is dictated by the defensive style and what they’re doing and how the game transpires for his opportunity.
How he handled the losing streak and tried to right the ship:
It’s been a difficult season. This is something, like life, just a new journey, something I had never experienced before. Especially those six losses in a row. I think the biggest thing is we tell the guys all the time, you gotta learn how to overcome adversity. And the only way to truly overcome adversity is to go through adversity. You can talk about it, you can watch all the motivational videos that you want, but at the end of the day, you have to get a chance to look at your character, look at who you truly are as a man, and figure out what you need to do to rectify the situation. That’s what we did, that’s what I did. I looked at internally how could I continue to help these coaches, help these players be the best version of themselves.
I knew it wasn’t going to be a storm that lasted forever, because I know that we are doing things the right way. It’s a process that’s tried and true and proven. I’ve been successful before doing it this way, and we’ll continue to be successful doing it the best way that I know how. I really had to take a look in the mirror, lean on some mentors, lean on the Bible, and those things all transpired the way it’s supposed to and broke that streak against Middle Tennessee. Now, we’ve put two back to backs together. We’re just going to continue to stay the process. Whatever’s supposed to happen is going to continue to happen, but I know the processes, I know we got the right people in the building, I know we got the right team, I know we got the right players in the right spots. We just gotta continue to stay the course and continue to grind like we’ve been doing these last couple weeks and try to come out with one more point than the other team.
His take on today’s news of a 24-team playoff format:
Personally, I don’t know if it affects us a whole lot. It’s still probably one spot for the G5/G6 to get in those playoffs. It gives some of those teams in some of those bigger conferences one more spot in those playoffs. It’s still going to be challenging for our level to consistently get in those playoffs. I like the idea of playing conference champions in the G6 - CUSA and the Sun Belt and all those different leagues. Honestly, I don’t think it affects us a whole lot.
What Mack thinks made the difference over the last couple weeks:
You never really know, to be honest with you. I know offensively we had been doing some things pretty good, we had been flashing a lot. There were a lot of flashes. We tried to really focus on the last few weeks just trying to make an emphasis on being consistent, not just flashing. We felt like, when we play our style of football to the best of our ability, I think we can score points in all phases of the game. I think we are a good football team in a lot of different phases when we are consistent. That is what happened the last couple weeks. We have been playing a more consistent brand of football. The previous weeks, we just weren’t as consistent. There were a lot of things, whether it was offense, defense or special teams, that they didn’t do enough of those same habits over and over and over again.
It only takes one or two more plays in all phases of the game. One or two more blocks here, one or two more third- or fourth-down conversions, or one or two more third-down situations where the defense gets them off the field. That’s really what the difference has been. It’s not any magic that we put forward. It’s really about a focus on trying to be more consistent play in and play out, then carrying it over to the next week to be more consistent week in and week out.
