Mike Elko Press Conference Quotes: North Carolina A&T

DURHAM – Duke football head coach Mike Elko met with members of the media on Monday afternoon for his weekly press conference.

The Blue Devils welcome North Carolina A&T to Brooks Field at Wallace Wade Stadium on Saturday. The game will be broadcast on ACC Network Extra with Mike Morgan, Mike Glennon and Jalyn Johnson on the call. Kickoff is slated for 6 p.m. The game can also be heard on the Blue Devil Sports Network from LEARFIELD through the Varsity app or goduke.com

Mike Elko Duke Football Head Coach
(Ref.: Opening Statement)
"It was a great win for our program for us to go on the road and travel to a Big Ten opponent. Certainly, an opponent that we have a lot of respect for but we figured out a way to come out of the game with a win which was something that we were very happy about. I thought our team started fast. I thought we embraced the challenge of having to go up there and be physical. I thought we did that. Obviously, getting out to a 21-point lead was huge. We knew they would keep coming and they did. They kept battling and a lot of respect for their program, but our kids just kept fighting and we kept finding ways to make plays. I thought we made some stops defensively at critical times in the second half. Obviously, the touchdown pass that we got to Jordan Moore was huge. Then we were able to get the big play at the end to seal it and very excited to walk away with a win. 2-0 is a great thing for our program, but now it's on to the next and it'll kind of always be that mantra.

"A couple of guys to just single out from the game. I thought Jaylen Stinson obviously deserves some credit. He had a tremendous game, was both our defensive player of the week and our special teams player of the week making plays all over the field. Then obviously made the huge one to win the game. I thought Brandon Johnson played exceptionally well in the secondary and was responsible for an interception and a fumble recovery that was important. Ja'Mion Franklin was our defensive lineman of the week. I thought he really did a good job controlling the line of scrimmage and helping us. We out rushed them, 221 yards to 76. That was something that we took a lot of pride in. Offensively, Jordan Waters was our player of the game. I thought he ran as hard as we've seen him run and really it could have been either of the two backs. I thought Jaylen Coleman did the same. We finished runs and ran behind our pads the way we want our running backs to do that. Then overall, on our offensive line, I thought we played exceptionally well. I thought we created space, I thought we opened holes. I thought we protected Riley [Leonard] really well. Graham Barton was our offensive lineman of the week. I thought we got some really good performances out of our offensive line. Like I mentioned, Jaylen Stinson was our special teams player of the week, did a really good job in coverage and also we thought made a huge play on the sky kick that he came running up to start the second half and field because I thought that was a little bit of a tricky kick that they put together.

"Moving on to next week, we've got a really good North Carolina A&T program coming in here. Anytime we get a chance to play an in-state program, that creates a little bit more buzz and a little bit more atmosphere. We're certainly excited to host them this week. Coach [Sam] Washington has done a really good job with that program in the last few years. Got a lot of respect for what we see on film. They're very fast, very athletic team. Defensively, they're very similar to what we saw last week, and Coach Washington has been a defensive guy. You know, they are a four-down front. They're going to really make it hard for you to run the football. They're going to pack numbers into the box, so we're going to have to really do a good job with our run schemes and creating movement up front. Offensively they spread you out. They've got really good athletes. They've got a really talented running back. They've kind of been bouncing around two quarterbacks so far to this year, so it'll be interesting to see kind of where they settle on that coming into our game. Last year they took the opening drive and went 20 plays right down the field to take a 7-0 lead on us, so we've got a lot of respect for this team. Our focus is on the now and it's on this game and making sure that we get better every day and come out and play this week to our standard. That's our goal of the week and where we're trying to go."

(Ref.: On the overall assessment of the defense through the opening two weeks)
"I think we're continuing to progress in a good direction for sure. I think we're giving up, 11.5 points a game right now, so that certainly is progress. That's really the biggest thing that we're focused on with this group right now. It's just keeping points off the scoreboard. That's a big emphasis to us. We don't want to give up a bunch of yards. That's never the goal, but that's not going to be the result thought process for this group with who we are and where we are right now. We want to keep points off the scoreboard. I think we've shown an ability to hold up run game defense. I think that's something that's been a huge emphasis. I thought from a physicality standpoint through two weeks we've done that. I think our run defense has been really good. I think for us to hold Northwestern to 2.2 yards a carry is really good. The passing game elevated this past weekend. That was a much better passing game that we went up against. The Hull kid presented a problem. That was something we've got to do a better job with. We've got to be a little bit more sound in our assignments and what we're trying to do from an execution standpoint. We've got to do a better job as coaches of getting us in better positions to be successful. That's kind of the challenge this week, is elevating that part of the defense. But I'm happy with how hard we're playing. I'm happy with how hard we're competing. We just have to make sure that we continue to work and get better every day."

(Ref.: On how the wide receiver room has continued to progress)
"We have weapons in that room and obviously weapons are a huge part of the modern college football era. And so, you know, Jalon [Calhoun] is in a really good headspace right now. I'm just really happy with where he's at. He's competing every day. He's got a really good focus. He's obviously extremely athletic. He always has been. He's gone out and he's made big time plays for us in the game. I thought Eli Pancol's big catch was huge and he's provided that for us both weeks as he's gone out and made some really heavy contested catches. Jordan Moore, obviously Sahmir Hagans has shown up a little bit more week one than week two, but he's been a guy who's been out there for us and Jontavis Robertson and Darrell Harding Jr. are providing us quality snaps. So we feel like we've got six in that room right now that can really go out and be productive and help us."

(Ref.: On being surprised that Jordan Moore has picked up a new position so quickly)
"Yes and no. You never know what it's going to look like. We even talked about it. We were nervous the first day because, you have this tremendous athlete and now he's going to go out at wide receiver. We've all seen that not translate. You didn't know what it was going to look like, but it took us probably about three minutes to realize he was going to transition smooth. Then you put in the fact that he's a tremendous character kid and he's such a hard worker that you just know he's going to get better every time he goes out to practice. He still has a lot to work on and improve just from the techniques and the everyday understanding of being a wide receiver, but he'll continue to work, and he'll continue to get better and I think each week you'll see a different product and a little bit better product."

(Ref.: On the character of Jordan Moore)
"Yeah, I mean, he could have transferred, right? That's what 90 percent of kids seem to want to do nowadays when these things don't go exactly the way they write them up. That's just kind of the world we live in now. He didn't. He jumped at the opportunity to help the team. He jumped at the opportunity to play wide receiver and he believed in what we were talking to him about in terms of even just being the best for his future and what we see him potentially beyond college as. He's jumped at it and he's done a great job."

(Ref.: On the focus of the now and shifting gears toward this weekend after a big win)
"That's what we want to be. I think we started that in the press conference with the whole conversation about how important the now was. It's the reason why that is part of our acronym is because that's the only thing that's ever going to matter, right? You could just look around college football every single weekend and realize that if you don't stay focused on the task at hand, it's very hard to have success. That's just the nature of college football today. So, there's a lot of talented programs out there. A lot of times when you're 2-0, there's a lot more wrong with you than the naked eye sees. When you're 0-2, there's a lot more right with you than the naked eye sees. Every week is its own challenge, and you just have to live into it and become the best you can be."

(Ref.: On the confidence the guys have shown day in and day out)
"Confidence comes from preparation and confidence comes from how much you put in to becoming the best you can become. These kids know they've worked hard. These kids have worked for eight-and-a-half months to get themselves ready for this season. We just keep reminding them of that. The work you've put in is never going to go away. That's where confidence should come from. It shouldn't come from anything else other than, you're fully prepared for the task at hand."

(Ref.: On the balance of teaching moments during big games, but also letting the team celebrate)
"It's just an understanding that that's always going to be the case. Whether you win or lose in the game of football, you put on a tape when you win and you expect every play to be right. It never will be. There's going to be five or six plays that if they had gone another way, would be the reason why you lost. When you lose a football game, you expect to come in and see every play be wrong. That's not what happens either. You see three or four plays where you were this close to making them and you could have won. That's just understanding how football works and making sure that your kids understand that it's a reality. You're always this close from the result being in a different direction. Our job week in and week out is to prepare as hard as we can to make sure that those plays go in our favor. I think preparation plays a role in that. I don't think what happened in that game was luck. I think Jaylen Stinson played extremely hard until the end of that game and popped the ball out and obviously that won us a football game. I don't think things are lucky. I think things happen because of preparation. I think we're preparing really well right now."

(Ref.: On developing more consistency with the offense)
"It's been a couple of things. Starting fast is huge and certainly you can't sustain that. We scored touchdowns on our first three drives. We certainly won't score a touchdown on every drive. So, there's going to be some ebbs and flows of it. What we've got to do a better job of is and we talked about this with the guys this morning is just continuing to be comfortable doing the ordinary things and not getting bored doing what's working. I think when we hit that lull there was a handful of plays where maybe we just didn't keep doing the things at the same level, we had been doing them. I think that's where we've just got to continue to maintain our focus, continue to maintain our edge and just keep pushing through it. The biggest lull was the second quarter. We had the back-to-back three-and-outs in the second quarter. We didn't execute well on those two drives. Then you go back, and you look at the first drive of the second half and we go right down the field and, we have a guy, and we just don't execute the play. I think everybody saw that. We certainly had the ability to turn that into a touchdown and it just didn't go our way. Then we have another drive where we get down there and we just kind of bog up a little bit and we miss a field goal. There were points left on the board even when, we were in a lull. I still think there were points there for us to have. We just didn't execute at the highest level. I told our guys, we're 2-0, we're doing well. We've played at about 60 percent of our ability at this point and if we can continue to push there's a chance we can do something really special."

(Ref.: On if chasing history is providing extra motivation to go 3-0 this week)
"No extra motivation. The reality of it is this and I tell our guys this all the time too, it puts a bigger x on your back. That's all it does. You don't get anything from an advantage standpoint going into next week as a 2-0 football team, other than you get the opponent's full attention. We know we're going to get the best from our opponent. That's what 2-0 gets us. So, to me, it just gets us a bigger challenge. The confidence is growing because of our preparation. I think belief is growing in our program of what we're capable of becoming. I think that's exciting. Those are the things that I spend more time focusing on. Those are the things that I think are really tangible ways that we can become a better team."

(Ref.: On what the biggest thing is heading into an in-state opponent)
"We want to continue to start fast. I think that's the thing that we have done well in both games. I think we've come out of the blocks and started fast. I think we've played our standard of football at a really high level to start each of the first two games. Now what we've got to be able to do is come out, start fast, have success, and then sustain it. That's the challenge. That's what we're working on, but obviously I would love to continue to start fast. I think that's obvious from an advantage standpoint what we'd like to continue to do."

(Ref.: On Ja'Mion Franklin's success throughout camp and the first two weeks)
"I think he's in a much better physical shape than he's ever been in. He's dropped 20 pounds from when we got here. He's training at a really high level. He's practicing really hard. I knew he was talented from high school. I recruited him and signed him at Notre Dame. We always believed he was a talented player. I think we just kind of got back the best version of him and I think you're starting to see that on the field right now."

(Ref.: On the physicality of both fronts and the focus being on Northwestern's offense line)
"I think they took that very personally. I really do. We made sure we reminded them of that quite a bunch. It's no disrespect to anybody, but we want to pride ourselves on being a physical football team. We practice really hard. You guys have been out there. Our practices have become a lot more physical. We want that to be something we can hang our hat on. Obviously, we knew that was the rhetoric, right? We knew that the reason why people thought we were a two-touchdown underdog is because we wouldn't be able to go up there and match a Big Ten team's physicality. We took that personally. Of course, we did."

(Ref.: On John Gelotte seeing his first action this weekend)
"He was good. It's good to get rotation. I think that's one of the things that having John back we're able to get more rotation. That's something we want to be about. I think we're going to be at our best when we're able to play fresh. We've got it going in the backfield, we've got it going at wide receiver, we've got to continue to get that going on the offensive line. Having John back gave us a solid seven-man group that we were able to go out there with. Just as you talk through that group, Jacob Monk's flexibility to be able to play guard and center is really important to us. Jack Burns' flexibility to be able to play guard and center is really important to us. That allows us to really maximize what we're trying to do and then obviously being able to rotate John with Dre Harris and with Graham [Barton], it just keeps everybody playing at a better level because they're fresher as they go through the game. Then I think it allows them to sustain over a 12-game season a lot more because hopefully you don't have that burnout from the snap count."

(Ref.: On how the defense held up to nearly 100 plays)
"We didn't want to be up there in those numbers. I think it was a really interesting game because the way the first half played out. I don't think I would change it, but it just was an awkward one from a snap count standpoint. You know, we went out and we scored really fast and we didn't really have these long, methodical drives like we were able to kind of go down the field and score. Then we had the back-to-back three-and-outs. So really, we had five fairly short drives on offense, three that resulted in touchdowns, right? So that's a good half of football, but they weren't long drives. Then defensively we really did a good job of limiting explosive plays, but we didn't do a great job of getting off the field. We just felt it building on the sideline. When I got in at halftime, I think it was like 46 to 23, is what the snap count was at halftime. We challenged our defensive guys in the locker room at halftime because we knew where it was going and it just was like, 'hey, listen, this is what we trained for. This is what the summers were about. This thing might get up to 100 and we're just going to have to go and we don't have a choice and we're going to have to go.' I don't know that there was anything we could have really done. We tried to manage the clock a little bit in the second half on offense to try to help. We knew part of our advantage was playing a little bit faster. So, it was just a little bit of a balance that we were trying to find. But it just was not what we wanted for sure, but it was something I think we bought into and overcame."

(Ref.: On if there have been any adjustments as a head coach that he has already had to make)
"Sure, a whole bunch of them. I've learned how to function on the sideline through two games. That's been good so far. I've kind of apologized to the referee crew in advance for me getting in anyone's way. I haven't tripped anyone up. I haven't fallen yet, so that's been good. It's a learning curve for me and I'm getting into a little bit better rhythm. I think from a game management standpoint and from just being helpful on the sideline and seeing things and being a guy that can be a positive influence on what we're trying to do. So yeah, I think those would be the areas I'm kind of focused on."

(Ref.: On if there is a certain type of penalty that bugs coaches worse)
"What you don't want is a lot of pre-snap penalties. I think pre-snap penalties show a lack of focus. So, if our guys are lining up offsides, if our guys are jumping offsides, if we've got a lot of motion procedures, if we're targeting people out of bounds, if there's penalties like that in my opinion, we have to do a really good job as coaches of not allowing it to happen. We didn't have many of those. I think we had maybe one offsides on defense that we try to jump a snap count in the two-minute drill. Our penalties were all in flow, right? And so in flow penalties, they're going to happen. You're going to have competitive penalties occur in a game. Obviously, we had too many. We've got to do a better job as coaches of getting them to understand how to be competitive and not commit competitive penalties. But those ones as a coach are certainly a lot easier to manage. I was a little bit more frustrated after the first game, to be honest with you, because I thought we had some procedural problems. I thought we jumped offsides a couple of times. I thought those to me are a lot easier for you to control than tugging on the left shirt of a receiver while you're 40 yards downfield trying to not let him catch a bomb. Those are a lot harder. Those are a lot more competitive."

(Ref.: On the play of the secondary on Saturday)
"I thought there were times where we were tighter in coverage than we've been traditionally. I thought there were times where we were on them and really stopped the passing game. Then there were times where we weren't. There were times where Hull was a problem. I mean, Hull got matched up and they did a good job schematically of getting him matched up, and we could have done a much better job leveraging him. We could have defended screens a lot better. And then there were times in some off yardage situations where we played some zone, and we just didn't execute it the way we would have liked to have executed. So, we've just got to do a better job of coaching them up on. And that's something that's new to these guys. They haven't been a huge zone team. So just trying to get them to understand how that needs to look and how the spacing on the field needs to be. I think that was where some of the really bad spacing plays came from was just us needing to do a better job of coaching them up on zone understanding."

(Ref.: On Riley Leonard's poise against a tougher opponent in Northwestern)
"I thought he played well and managed the game well. I thought we had a different plan. I thought we had to run the ball on the road to be effective in this game, and we were able to do that. It wasn't quite as big in the passing game. He still made some plays and made some throws and I think we had two 100-yard receivers and that's something that we're going to hang our hat on. I'm happy with the way he played and managed the game. We're still doing a good job of protecting the football on that side and so that's important."

(Ref.: On how poetic it was to have a tipped pass intercepted, but also get a big gain off one)
"There was certainly some back and forth breaks on that for sure. We talked about that when we were watching the film. Only when you win the game, they only point out the breaks you got. Certainly, that was a very unlucky interception on our part. It was a deflection that then pops off Eli's head. And that's really what keeps the play alive to allow for it to become an interception. Credit to their kid, he kept fighting and kept playing and he made the play. Then the flip side of that is credit to Jalon Calhoun, because on a ball that's not thrown to him, he keeps competing and he keeps fighting and the ball gets deflected and he runs underneath it and makes a play, you know? So those things tend to balance out a lot more than people think they do over the course of the game."

(Ref.: On the emotions during the game for some Duke coaches who used to coach at Northwestern)
"It's not really a weird dynamic. It's certainly emotional for them and for Coach [Adam] Cushing because he's from Chicago, his wife's from Chicago. He coached at Northwestern for 15 years. He was there when the program got started with Coach [Pat] Fitzgerald and was there all the way through the development of it. So, I'm sure he had a lot of emotions going through it. I know that John's family got together and started when Coach [Kevin] Johns was coaching at Northwestern, and then Coach [Patrick] Dougherty was a GA up there at Northwestern. So, whenever you go back, there's a sentimental feeling, but it doesn't really affect the program as much as it affects those individuals."

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Mike Elko Press Conference Quotes: North Carolina A&T

Players Mentioned

Graham Barton

Jack Burns

Jalon Calhoun

Jaylen Coleman

Ja'Mion Franklin

John Gelotte

Sahmir Hagans

Darrell Harding Jr.

Brandon Johnson

Riley Leonard

Jacob Monk

Jordan Moore

Eli Pancol

Jontavis Robertson

Jaylen Stinson

Jordan Waters

Duke information

Mike Elko Press Conference Quotes: North Carolina A&T

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Players Mentioned

Graham Barton

Jack Burns

Jalon Calhoun

Jaylen Coleman

Ja'Mion Franklin

John Gelotte

Sahmir Hagans

Darrell Harding Jr.

Brandon Johnson

Riley Leonard

Jacob Monk

Jordan Moore

Eli Pancol

Jontavis Robertson

Jaylen Stinson

Jordan Waters

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Duke information