Over The Pylon

We’re ridiculously behind schedule this morning, but it was sort of an adventure through uncharted waters and territory on the MAC Conference Call as Stan Parrish had the luxury of answering questions from the media after a game that didn’t get recorded as an “L”. Certainly a long time coming and something that most every other coach has experienced this season, and no matter which side of the fence you fall in the Stan Parrish camp, you have to feel good for the guy. 1st win as a BSU coach, 1st win since 86. That’s a long time coming.

• Stan’s Opening Statement: “Obviously we’re very excited about getting the proverbial monkey off our back. We’ve played a lot of close games this year but we haven’t finished.”
• On Eric Williams: “His injury totally changed our pre-game plan and strategy.”
• On the EMU win propelling the rest of the season: “Any win is a great win, particularly when you’ve been struggling like we have. Now we can move forward. Ohio U is a really good football team. They’re a strong powerful football team. We’ll have our hands full this weekend.”
• Impressions of EMU: “They had a tough loss early in the year with Andy Schmitt. They’ve had to scale back what they do. They played extremely hard against us.”
• On Ron English and his potential success there: He’s done a great job. His pedigree would tell you that. I was very impressed with them against Northwestern and Michigan, both. As the season goes on and you lose games it becomes more a mental thing than a physical thing.
• On EMU’s personnel: When you lose a 5th year guy who’s a really good thrower, you have to start over. These guys from an experience standpoint are not like Schmitt was. Jacory Stone is a very good receiver, they just haven’t been able to get him the ball.”
• On the OU program and what he knows of them: “OU had a good team a year ago and lost a lot of very close games. Very good defensively. Two senior corners. They’re a team that can run and throw the ball. Still obviously very much in the East race. A very strong, very good football team.”
• On preparing for Theo Scott or Boo Jackson this week: “An offense is an offense. Gotta be ready for a lot of different people. We have to get ready to control Ohio U as opposed to an individual. They’re going to be a real contender.”
• On Ohio U’s defensive talent: “They’ve got those two big 300 punders inside, their linebackers are experienced, and their corners are talented. They’ve got a good defense. I’d compare ’em to Temple. They’ve got a lot of big strong guys on defense.”
• On his personal losing streak as a head coach and being done with it now: The streak is a media invention at a different place and at a different time. I kind of had to expect that a little bit. The worst part is it rubs off on your players. [The media] can say what they want about me, but that’s totally irrelevant to the experience I’m in now. I’ve made peace with it. I didn’t like that it rubbed off on our players, because the players associate me with coming here and helping them win. I’m glad they can still feel that way. I’m really happy for the kids and happy the journalists can find something else to write about.”
• On how losses and media attention can snowball into more negativity: “It all snowballs at any level. Last week, I alluded to the Tennessee Titans. You think Jeff Fisher forgot how to coach?”
• On the locker room atmosphere after the win: “I’ve been in a super bowl locker room, i’ve been in a national championship locker room, i’ve been in a conference title locker room, and this one may have been happier than all of ’em.”

Coach Parrish, overall, just sounded relieved. Can’t say I blame him. That monkey, proverbial or otherwise, was becoming a real pain in the ass. Congrats to the Cards, congrats to Parrish, and hopefully #2 comes a whole lot sooner than #1 did.

Filed under: Ball State, ConferenceCalls, MAC |