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DIVISION I FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: JACKSONVILLE STATE VS NORTH DAKOTA STATEJanuary 9, 2016John GrassEli JenkinsChris LandrumFrisco, Texas North Dakota State 37, Jacksonville State 10 THE MODERATOR: Coach, great season. Congratulations on the season. What is your overview today? COACH GRASS: It's not our best day, of course. We'd like to have played a lot better. It's been a long time since we've been held to 20 yards offense and turned over four times, so we definitely did not play our best. But take my hat off to North Dakota State. They played a great game and played really well. They've been here for a reason. They're that good. Actually, we just didn't give them a good game today. So the Gamecocks didn't play very well. But that's not how I want to remember this bunch. We played well through the season, and it was great to get here. I think our guys showed a lot of heart and class in the second half. To have the first half that we had to get behind 24-0 and then to rebound and get back in the game and make it a little bit of a game there in the third quarter and first of the fourth quarter, that showed a lot of character out of our team as well. But take my hat off to North Dakota State. Five in a row is a pretty special deal for them to have done that. Q. Coach, how did it affect your game plan only getting one drive offensively in the first quarter, if at all? COACH GRASS: I think it's big when you get a drive against them and they were able to keep the football away from us. There is one thing I said before the game was ever played, the turnovers were going to be big. Third downs were going to be crucial. We just couldn't get off on third down defensively. Defensively they kept the ball away from us pretty much most of the game. We weren't able to convert on third downs, we had a couple penalties on third downs that really hurt us. I thought the punt, when we decided to punt, it was 4th and six inches, and our two gunners had a chance to make a play on the ball and get them inside the one. We don't make that play and get back out on the 20, and they flip the field right back on you and get points out of that drive. I thought that was a huge turning point in the game. Like I said, we're kind of out of sync, out of rhythm offensively in the first half for whatever reason. It's been a long time since we threw it for 57 yards passing, so we're usually better through there. But like I said, today they made some good plays. Q. Chris, have you guys seen an offense this season quite like theirs in terms of their ability to extend drives and eat up clock? CHRIS LANDRUM: No, we haven't. I mean, we knew coming in that one of our things that we had to do to win the football game was get off the field on third down and get our offense on the field. The first half especially we didn't get off the field on third downs and we didn't get our offense the ball enough. We credit North Dakota State for that. They're a great offense. We knew coming into it we had to stop them on third downs and not let them sustain drives. But they did it. They did a great job with it. Q. Chris, what were your impressions of Wentz, especially his ability to get out of the pocket and run when he was pressured? CHRIS LANDRUM: I mean, a lot of their passes we saw on film of him. He stayed in the pocket, but when the pocket broke down we knew he was a mobile quarterback. We knew he was a good quarterback runner from their run game. I mean, coming into the game, we knew that. So it wasn't really a surprise. We just didn't do a good job of pressuring him for one thing up front. We've just got to give our DBs a chance. We didn't give him a chance up front pressuring him at all. He had all day. When he didn't have all day, he made plays and got us out of the pocket and made great throws. I credit North Dakota State for that too. COACH GRASS: I'll say this about Wentz, too, I should have said it in the opening remarks. I seen him out there in the hall and I couldn't see him on the field because there were too many people on the field. I commend him. I still say I was glad he got it play the game, his last college game. He's definitely a top 5 quarterback going into the draft. He had a great day. He played phenomenal. He made every throw he needed to make, and he was on the money. So for a guy that hasn't played in 10, 11 weeks, he came out there like he was right in sink and played really well. He's going to be a good pro quarterback. He can get the job done. He does run the ball very well. He scrambles and on design quarterback runs, so he's every bit as good as advertised, for sure. Q. Eli, what was North Dakota State doing from a defensive standpoint that made it tough for the passing game to get going today? ELI JENKINS: We just got behind. The turnovers were crucial. I threw an interception early in the game and we fumbled, so just playing from behind kind of pressured us. They made great plays. Some plays I was amazed of, the guy diving for the interception, that was a great play. I knew 49 was a great player. He made a great play on the ball. It was just we kind of shot ourselves in the foot. Throws were there, I missed some throws that usually I make nine out of ten times I mean, just playing from behind really just killed us. Q. Eli, can you explain what happened on the one fumble where it appeared you were trying to hand it off? What happened on the execution of that hand off? ELI JENKINS: We've got plays that we've got an option to run the ball or throw the ball in the same place. So I had seen something. I seen the outside linebacker kind of get out of there, so I wanted to hand the ball off. It was just a miscommunication with me and the running back. We just -- me and the running back got to know what's going on. I should have let him know that maybe I was going to hand the ball off. It was just a miscommunication. Just bad luck on our half. Q. John, a couple big picture questions. One, just getting here for the program, sum up what that means. Also, Buster finished with the OVC single-season rushing record today. I was wondering if you could address that too? COACH GRASS: Huge for Buster and our offensive line. I think you can commend our offensive line on that. He's been outstanding throughout the playoffs and really consistently through his career. He's done everything we've asked him to do. He's grown as a person as well as a player. I'm glad he got the honor of breaking that single-season record. What an accomplishment for him, our offense and offensive line. I think getting here it's huge. First time you're talking about a program three years ago that had not won an FCS playoff game, and to be sitting in a National Championship Game is where our dreams and goals were. And we got here. We just didn't play very well, and we lost the game. So our goal will still be the same, to get back here and we want to win. So you ain't going to be happy unless you win your last one. So it's pretty tough walking in that dressing room and addressing our guys after that because our guys really felt like we were going to win this game. We didn't feel like we were going to lose this game. Like I said, you can handle that if you play your very best and you get beat by a great team. If you get beat by a great team and you don't play very well, you don't feel very good. So that's kind of where we're at. Q. Coach, I think it was easy for the media, for fans to talk about the experience factor coming into this game and perhaps the first half reflected that. Would you say so the way the first half went? COACH GRASS: I don't know. I think our guys were as ready to play. I don't think really the environment bothered them at all. I don't know if it was -- I kind of question myself, because I blame myself. I've got to do a better job of getting them ready to play. That's where I'll look in the mirror tonight and try to figure out what I did wrong. I don't know if there's a layoff of the three weeks, because we were just hitting on all cylinders coming out of the semifinal game. I thought we handled the three weeks pretty good. I'll evaluate that and next time here, question some of that stuff. But I think you can ask the guys. I think we're about as ready as we can play, maybe a little too ready. I don't know. We've been waiting and anticipating 11 o'clock to get here and waiting on it, and I think we may have pressed a little bit. That's one of the things I'll evaluate as well and we'll sit back and kind of reflect on it. But I do think the experience they have of getting here and doing it multiple times -- I've said it before, their guys when the playoffs start, you can look at them on film. They're a different team. They know how to win the games. Q. As a follow-up, you were discussing some of your players. You have a returning player in Eli, you have Chris moving on. Can you reflect on next year what you have coming back? COACH GRASS: First thing, the guys we're losing, our seniors, man, class acts. The things they've done for our programs. They've put bricks in the foundation at Jacksonville State. They're the winningest class that's ever come through in FCS football in the history of the program. They've done things off the field. It's been spectacular. They're going to be great, great men. They're going to be great husbands and fathers one day, and that's what I look forward to seeing what the next 20 to 30 years holds for these guys. They're going to be great members of society and great leaders, because they're winners. There is no doubt in my mind about them. They're winners. Q. Eli, you guys had your way with offenses almost all year. Was there a difference with physicality, quickness, anything to do on NDSU? ELI JENKINS: We knew North Dakota State was a great football team, great defense. We watched film, we watched all their film. They play hard, play fast, they get to the ball. But it was all about us. It was all about how he with played. If we played the way we played all season, the outcome of the game would have been different, and we didn't do that. I mean, I feel like I didn't play like I usually play. I feel like I didn't play up to my standards, and that was the reason why we lost this game. I mean, it should have been different. I mean, we're a great offense and I'm proud of our offense the way we played all season, but we just weren't clicking today. I don't know why, but it just didn't click. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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