Houston: "It's Going To Be A Tremendous Challenge For Us"

James Madison head coach Mike Houston met with the media to discuss his team's season opener against NC State.

Coach, how have your preseason practices gone?
It's been a long, grinding preseason camp... a lot different this year with some of the adjustments, the rules from the NCAA, but I thought our players attacked that and really had a solid preseason camp. We're a much better football team today than we were back at the beginning of August.

I can promise you that everybody's excited and can't wait for Saturday and ready to play somebody else. 

What are the difficulties in preparing for NC State's defense? The personnel they graduated off last year's team. Is it a little bit of an unknown... they may do something different? 
I don't know how much of an unknown it is.

Yes, they did graduate defensive linemen and some couple linebackers, but the guys that they have coming back, all of them played and a lot of them played a lot.  91 and 45 on the d-line were virtually starters last year. Played a ton there.

Three, the linebacker, was probably one of their better defensieve players last year and certainly is again this year.

They have five different guys in the secondary that have started over the last couple of seasons.

You can see them on film. You have a decent idea that in spite of what they graduated from that front, you're going to see a fast, big physical defensive unit.

They have a very aggressive style. Coach Huxtable does a great job. I've known him for a long time. He has a very in-your-face approach to playing on that side of the football, which we respect.

It's going to be a tremendous challenge for us.

Coach, you graduated a significant number of players, great experience. How have you seen that replaced? 
Your seniors each year, that's kind of who you identify each team with. Certainly, we still reference some of the things we've done in the past couple of years and when you do that, you referenced certain guys... all those guys that have been just significant parts of our program for the last several years have been kind of the standard.

You talk about a lot of what they did when referencing what we need, but these players that have had the opportunity now to step in, a lot of those guys have been kind of waiting their turn.

Everybody's excited about the opportunity to get out in the field. We are younger this year, but at the same time, I do think that we have a really solid roster and a bunch of guys that are ready to go out and play. 

Thoughts on the offensive line improvements...
We feel really good about our group right there. 

We feel like we have decent depth, so we don't feel like it's a deal where the next guy in line is not necessarily ready to go. I think Shank has done a great job with that group of developing them, and I think he's done a great job at developing the depth.

I really like our mindset in that room, and I like the way they work. I liked the way they compete. I'm excited to see them out on the field on Saturday. 

What does it mean for an FCS program when it can beat an FBS opponent?
I think credibility is one. It validates the level that your program is functioning at and we've been able to experience that a couple times the past several years.

When I was at The Citadel we were able to knock off South Carolina at South Carolina, and then last year we were able to get a win against East Carolina.  Those were solid wins for our teams, but I think also brought a lot of credibility to our program and the CAA.

Can we do it again this Saturday? I don't know. We'll see. I think we're facing probably a better opponent than either one of those two teams we played there.

North Carolina State, you're talking about one of the top teams in the ACC. You're talking about a team that's receiving votes in the Top 25. You're going to see arguably the best quarterback in the country in the opening game.

It's a little bit of a different animal, but I know our kids are really excited for the opportunity to go down there and play.

Can you provide an update at quarterback? 
One of our quarterbacks will start the game and set the Saturday.

Looking specifically at the interior defensive line for you guys, you're replacing some big names. What have you seen from those guys?
I'm really pleased with the way those guys have worked in and developed.

Adib has done just a great job with developing his body and his size, putting on the weight he needs. He's a very tough player. He has done a really good job of developing his game. 

Mike Green is just a monster. He's a big individual in there in the interior and certainly [a] physical presence. Still young but really excited about his development.

Paris Black has had a solid preseason camp for us and he's obviously a talented player.

They're going to face a very good offensive line on Saturday. When you look at NC State, their center Bradbury is probably one of the best centers in the country, an obvious high-round draft pick in next year's draft.

Then the left tackle, Tyler Jones, was first team All-ACC last year.  He's obviously going to be a guy that plays in the NFL.

You're going to see those guys and the rest of the crew, that's going to be as talented as any offensive front we will see all year. They're very athletic. They can really, really move their feet. They're going to stress our defensive line greatly.  We're going to have to be ready to play at a very high level of Saturday.  

How do you feel about your secondary going into this game?
Well, I think they're going to see one of the top passing attacks in the country.  Not only Finley, but they have three receivers that are three of the better receivers in the ACC.

Harmon was a thousand-yard player last year. Meyers led them in touchdowns last year, and then Louis is a fifth-year guy that's put up some huge numbers.

So not only do you see Finley, but you have a surrounding cast that is as talented as anything we're going to face.

Our secondary, we have some experience back there, and we have some guys that we think have some ability there, but certainly they're going to be challenged greatly on Saturday. 

We've got to be on top of our game and we got to be ready to play. The big thing is we can't make the big mistakes and we've got to keep everything in front of us... just do a great job with our open field tackling against a very good cast in the NC State offense.

Do you like taking on these types of opponents or would you rather play your weight class so to speak?
I'd rather be playing somebody here at home in our stadium that we have a great chance to win against, but at the same time you love these matchups.

I think it's a tough task, and it's something that we're going to have to play very, very well to have a shot to win, but at the same time it's a great opportunity for our program.

We're excited about them because they're the next game, and we're glad to be starting the season.

What are you guys going to do this week to get that crowd noise under control because I know that crowd down there is so loud in that stadium?
Well, it's going to be a great environment to play in and certainly we've been fortunate enough to play in a lot of similar environments the past couple of years. I don't think anything's ever going to be as difficult to play as the Fargo Dome was in 2016.

Our guys have a lot of experience in those kinds of atmospheres. We'll operate on a variety of different counts and everything offensively.  We've been preparing and practiced for the last couple of weeks for the crowd noise and feel very comfortable with the ability of our players to function in that environment.