Morgan State University Athletics

QUESTION … Talk about that matchup against North Carolina Central.
DONALD HILL-ELEY – “It was a great contest against two MEAC schools. We had a chance to get out on them early, which caused them to break from their offense a little bit. They had to play from behind, which kind of threw them out of rhythm. We were able to get some turnovers and keep it (the ball) away from them. They have a deadly special teams unit that gave us a fits all day on kickoff returns and we were just fortunate enough to get in there and get out of with a victory.“

Q – Well coach obviously there has been a turnaround for this team, from your perspective as coach, what do you tribute the turnaround to?

HILL – “It’s just growth; we started out the same way we are now. We have about 16 freshmen playing. We had six games early on and those freshmen had a chance to get some experience. After the bye week, we just congratulated all of them on not being freshmen on the field anymore and living off of the experience that they have. Now they are making plays within the confinements of the scheme, not turning the ball over, and not getting excessive penalties. It’s just playing all-around in all three phases, playing well enough to win it collectively.”

Q – Looking ahead this week you face Howard, talk about the rivalry as well as the pending matchup.

HILL – “It’s always a hard fought battle against Howard especially going down there to play. It’s a tough stadium to play in, the crowd is right there on you, and then its 30 minutes up the road. The last couple of years it’s gone down to the last play. It’s their homecoming and again I’m quite sure there student athletes will be up and their fans will be out. Our work will be cut out for us. We just have to go out there and make sure we continue to keep the possessions, not turn the ball over and not get any fouls that cause us to hurt the team. Once again it’ll be another hard fought contest between two good MEAC teams.”

Q – Can you talk about the significance of Saturday’s win in terms of keeping you guys still alive in the MEAC race?

HILL – “It was a great win for us. As we’ve said before, we want to do well in conference play. You want to do well in all of your games, but as we were waiting on maturity from these guys, we wanted to do well in the conference. That win keeps us elevated in the top echelon of the conference and keeping things in perspective for whatever may happen.