Meesh Powell has used his versatility and experience to stablize a safety unit that lost two players to the NFL. He met with reporters to discuss the state of the defensive back room:
On Zaquan Patterson: It's just like practice. He plays hard and he makes plays, so I wasn't surprised. Nobody on the staff was surprised about how he plays because that's how he practiced. I think that makes it fun. His practice execution becomes the game reality. The whole world got to see the type of player Quan will be.
On his play and the play of the DBs: I've been playing pretty solid, adjusting and playing more in the post. Overall, I think the DB group has done pretty well. We’re still striving to become better and better every single day. We have a standard that we want to exceed every single day and create a new standard day by day.
We have a lot more goals. We want to creae a lot more turnovers and we've got a lot more things we want to accomplish before we say we're doing a super phenomenal job. I’ll say we are playing really good right now, though.
On Ball State: They have a really good receiving core, as well as a tight end. They have a really good run game, as well. They’ve got a veteran O-line, so that O-line is very on point. You’ve got to make sure our fits are right. And they have a really good quarterback, as well. He can run a little bit, but he can throw it anywhere on the field. We're just game planning right now and going out there so we can execute on Saturday.
On preparing extra after the NIU upset of Notre Dame: That's just the standard. When it comes to college football, on any given Saturday any team can go out and beat anybody. Last Saturday was a bit of a whirlwind, seeing certain teams go down. But that's just the nature of college football. It’s very competitive.
We understand that any type of team can come in and, if they do their job and we're not on our job, anything can happen. We've always emphasized that we have our own standard that we play to that we feel is higher than anyone that has for us. If we just keep working on that standard and keep exceeding it and focusing on that, we're going to be really good.
On Zaquan Patterson: It's just like practice. He plays hard and he makes plays, so I wasn't surprised. Nobody on the staff was surprised about how he plays because that's how he practiced. I think that makes it fun. His practice execution becomes the game reality. The whole world got to see the type of player Quan will be.
On his play and the play of the DBs: I've been playing pretty solid, adjusting and playing more in the post. Overall, I think the DB group has done pretty well. We’re still striving to become better and better every single day. We have a standard that we want to exceed every single day and create a new standard day by day.
We have a lot more goals. We want to creae a lot more turnovers and we've got a lot more things we want to accomplish before we say we're doing a super phenomenal job. I’ll say we are playing really good right now, though.
On Ball State: They have a really good receiving core, as well as a tight end. They have a really good run game, as well. They’ve got a veteran O-line, so that O-line is very on point. You’ve got to make sure our fits are right. And they have a really good quarterback, as well. He can run a little bit, but he can throw it anywhere on the field. We're just game planning right now and going out there so we can execute on Saturday.
On preparing extra after the NIU upset of Notre Dame: That's just the standard. When it comes to college football, on any given Saturday any team can go out and beat anybody. Last Saturday was a bit of a whirlwind, seeing certain teams go down. But that's just the nature of college football. It’s very competitive.
We understand that any type of team can come in and, if they do their job and we're not on our job, anything can happen. We've always emphasized that we have our own standard that we play to that we feel is higher than anyone that has for us. If we just keep working on that standard and keep exceeding it and focusing on that, we're going to be really good.
