Mississippi State defensive coordinator Matt Brock: Q&A - Arkansas Week

Mississippi State defensive coordinator Matt Brock spoke to the media on Monday ahead of the team’s road tilt with the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Q: What’s it been like this week having guys back in town and focussing on an opponent?

A: It was good to get back out there with them. It was good to get back in the meeting room with them and just get back to work. That’s the biggest thing. I think they’re probably a little bit refreshed. The bye week came at a good time to just get away a little bit for them, so that was a positive. I thought they had energy tonight, were locked in, and just like you said, time to get back to work.

Q: What are the challenges of going against a quarterback like KJ Jefferson?

A: I think it’s pretty obvious, right? He’s big, he’s strong, he’s physical. I mean all you’ve got to do is (look at) the one (play) against Alabama the other night where they’ve got a free blitzer. He hits him, hangs onto him for what feels like 10 seconds, and then he comes out and makes a play, so obviously that’s number one. He throws a good deep ball, obviously he’s an older guy that’s played so he’s been through the battles, and I have great respect for him.

Q: Is this a game where you’ve stressed to guys to play through the whistle, because you don’t know when the play could be over?

A: I mean, you always need to teach that, from snap to whistle where we stress that, but obviously a guy like that can extend plays and you need a lot of hats to gang tackle him. And all of their guys, they do a great job. Their running backs run hard, their offensive line plays physical, plays hard. I mean, they do it the right way, and so yeah, absolutely that has to be stressed.

Q: Obviously you had recruiting responsibilities during the bye week, but how important was this week to center yourself and look at what things are going wrong?

A: Yeah, I think you’ve got to look at self scout with the positives and the negatives and see where we’re at, and so obviously that’s a valuable tool, trying to figure out what we do well, what we’re obviously not doing well, and if we need to make tweaks and adjustments and how to do so in the best way without overloading them, so for sure, that was the first part of the week before the recruiting started.

Q: What are you seeing from Arkansas’ run game outside of KJ Jefferson?

A: I think they’ve got some good players. No. 0 is a good player, he’s electric. No. 7 is a good player, I remember him coming out of high school in Atlanta, and then No. 20 comes in and does a good job for them, too. You’re exactly right, it is by committee. Everybody knows about Rocket (Sanders) and all that, but those other guys do a nice job as well hitting it. They’ve got nice bursts, and they’re kind of a little bit ‘change of pace’ compared to him, but all of them are very capable.

Q: From your point of view, what isn’t translating from practice to games for the defense?

A: I think, if you look at that last game, we start fast, we’re playing well, and then a little adversity hits and its like all or nothing, right? If we’re playing well, we’re playing well, but if we don’t it goes (down), and we’ve got to rectify that. It starts with just each guy doing their job over and over on a consistent basis, so exactly what you said, take it from the practice field and consistently do it. Whether it be tempo, whatever it may be, whatever challenges they present to you, and we’ve got to make sure that we’re getting that done.

Q: In the film you’ve watched this week, was there anything that gave you confidence that this back end of this defense can turn it around in the back half of the season?

A: Yeah, I think so, and again, you talk about the back end it’s like, ‘okay, it’s a break down here, it’s a break down there, it’s on the front, I mean if there’s one thing where we just point our finger at, well that would be an easy fix. It’s got to be a collective effort as an entire defense to get it fixed, so that’s been the real focus for us.

Q: We’ve seen Brice Pollock and Donterry (Russel) get some reps as the weeks progress, any other younger guys that you think are close to breaking through?

A: I think those are the main ones right now. You know, Donterry has obviously done a nice job adding an element of pass rush, but he’s done a nice job in the run game, too. Brice got in a little bit, got his feet we. You know, Brice has all the tools, he’s just got to continually put it together in practice and it’ll translate.

Q: When a defense is going through struggles like this one has, another thing to ask is just how do keep everyone going in the same direction instead of going at each other when there’s issues week after week?

A: I think in general, adversity happens in football, right? So, we’ve got a tough group of guys that can compete, and I think that’s the key, that you focus on doing your job and take care of what you can handle and what you can control, and that’s the approach they take, because there is bright spots. You flip on a tape, there is bright spots, it’s not all negative, and so you’ve got to make sure that you obviously focus on the negative things and get them fixed, but also build on things that should give us confidence.

Q: When you get some guys back from injury defensively, how much will that free you up to do what you went in the season planning to do?

A: It definitely helps, right? If you’re playing different personnels and trying to work towards those guys’ skillsets the best you can, that obviously maybe narrows some things down, so for sure. Obviously, we want to play our base defense, we want to play it the way we’ve played it the last three years, and that’s the goal.

Q: When you have a quarterback like KJ Jefferson, does it change the pressures much at all?

A: I don’t know necessarily if the pressures (change), I mean, the fact is you’ve got to make sure you keep leverage on him. Obviously you want to have, people talk about spies and things like that, that’s everybody’s fix. Well, that’s all good, but you’ve got to decide if you want to rush three and leave the fourth guy as a spy, or how you’re going to do it, right? And obviously that dictates coverage as well, so you’ve just got to make sure you understand your rush lanes and how things should fit together, and cage him correctly.