Mondays with Mickey

Every Monday at Ham's Restaurant, JMU head football coach Mickey Matthews holds a press conference talking about the previous game and the game coming up. It is pretty much the same guys as always media wise, except this time the fans can come and ask questions while dining on Ham's delicacies. (ha).  I think my favorite part of the whole experience is sitting next to these two elderly couples, obvious JMU faithfuls, who have their own opinions about Matthews. I like listening to the old ladies mumble when they disagree with Matthews while slurping their soup that they get every single week. Anyway, here are some of my favorite quotes from Mickey's conference today. I think I will make this a regular post every Monday. Some of the stuff that comes out of this guy's mouth is hilarious.

"The fans need to get to the game quicker. I was really disappointed to see about half the stadium empty. We need home field advantage. Maybe some of our crowd was hanging out with the offense this week because they both didn't show up Saturday." - Regarding the lack of fans getting into their seats on time.

"How we played offense was....deplorable. I think that's the word I would use." - Regarding the complete absence of offense against Liberty.

"At halftime I told them we were extending the halftime from 20 to 30 minutes so they could have an extra 10 minutes to go sign autographs. Then maybe they would be ready to play football" - Again, referring to the mysterious lack of offense.

"He got hit 18 times Saturday. The kid took a lot of punishment. He wasn't running for his life, but I'm sure he slept good that night." - Regarding JMU's defense and their ruthlessness against Liberty QB Mike Brown.

"He should've been nominated for player of the week." - Regarding defensive end D.J. Bryant.

"Scott was a shot in the arm for us offensively."- Regarding Scott Noble and how he was seemingly the only offensive player to make an impact.

"We couldn't make a first down against a stiff wind in the first half. But in the second half I thought we played our best defensive game of the year. We had eight sacks and hit the kid everywhere you can hit them." - Regarding last year's win over Delaware.

"They are nationally ranked in every category. They think they have a national championship team this year. It's the best Delaware team I've seen in years." - Regarding this weekend's tough match-up.

"Quads, hip flexers, knees, I am talking about kickers here, not linebackers." - Regarding his frustration with the injured kickers and how he is perplexed with why they are all hurt at the same time.

So as you can see, Mickey is quite opinionated. I always enjoy his off the cuff comments. And regarding my last post, lets just say the JMU defense must have read it specifically to make me look stupid. Kudos to Liberty though, they definitely humbled us by keeping it such a tight game. Look back later in the week for my thoughts on Delaware, since I seem to be so accurate these days.

-CH