Morgan State University Athletics

QUESTION: “Solid victory for the bears last week as you defeated the Hornets can you talk about your teams play in the win?”

LEE HULL: “It was a good win. Delaware State is improved. Coach [Kenny] Carter had those guys ready to play. In the first half I didn’t think we played up to par. We went into halftime [leading] 3-0 and I had to get them going a little bit. In the second half, we came out playing pretty well and ended up winning 26-6. I thought the defense played well through the whole game, and the last three games our defense has been playing very well and they are coming together.”
 
Q: “Well coach your pass defense is second in the conference this season. Can you talk about the defensive personnel and the factors that have led to their output so far.”

LH: “I think the defensive staff has done a great job. We are getting a lot of pressure on the quarterbacks and we had six sacks this week. The pressure helps out the defensive backs, because the quarterbacks don’t have a lot of time to throw the football so our DB’s have to come up with some big plays… they dropped four interceptions they could have had. But the defense is playing with a lot of confidence. They are flying around; things are getting easier for them and they are playing fast.”

Q: “Well coach looking ahead you play Savannah State how do you assess this upcoming matchup?”

LH: “Savannah won last week so they are going to come in on a high. They are a well-coached unit. We didn’t play them last year. We only saw them on film, but they look much improved from last year. They have a lot of young guys (kind of similar to us) on their offense and defensive line, but you can tell they are improving every week and with their victory last week. I expect it to be a tough task. We are 8-0 in our last eight games at home and we want to keep that winning streak going.”

Q: “Savannah State has been pretty much a whipping board over the past years losing 32 straight games. They won last week ending that record and look like an improved team how do you feel about this team now?”

LH: “I saw them on film last year, and compared to this year, it’s night and day. They are a good football team, so obviously they are playing with confidence and I expect those guys to come in here on a high getting that first win last week. I expect them to come in here and play well. We just have to be ready to play and take their best shots.”

Q:  “Coach after loses to Air Force and Illinois State that seems to have prepare you for the MEAC conference schedule how much of a help was that to get this team ready for conference play?”

LH: “It’s a tremendous help playing those type of games. Playing in those type of atmospheres against great teams gets you prepare for the MEAC. The MEAC is a tough conference. Obviously, last year you saw the five-way tie. There are a lot of great teams, so you have to be ready to play every single game and playing those types of teams just better helps prepare you.”

Q: “Last week offensively 250 yards rushing, 143 yards passing. Is that the balance you are looking for this season?”

LH: “The wind was the biggest factor. It was raining and we knew we had to run the ball. We tried to throw the ball, but the ball was moving in the wind. We like to be balanced that’s my scheme I like to be 50/50 but also our offense is predicated on what the defense does and whatever they give us that’s what we will take.”

Q: “At this point four games in what do you need to clean up on your team thus far?”

LH: “I just think that we got to be consistent. We showed the last couple of games that we have yet to play a whole game together, so that’s what we need to do is just be consistent. We are a young football team, so they got to focus for 60 minutes.”

Q: “In regards to the defense, have you been more surprised by their ability to stop the run or their ability to generate the pass rush?”

LH: “I’m not really surprised, but from last year it’s a luxury to have them be able to do both. I didn’t think we did both last year. We didn’t stop the run and we didn’t get a consistent pass rush, so that was what we needed to improve on and they’ve done that this year. So again, I’m not surprised. That was something we focused on in spring and fall camp that we had to be more consistent in the run game, stopping the run and also generating  pass rush.”

Q: “When you look at this game coming up Saturday, because the first game against Virginia Lynchburg didn’t count in the standings, does some part in you look at this as being the home opener for this team?”

LH: “No, Virginia Lynchburg was our home opener. We played the game. Like I said before, there were two teams there, we played a game, there was a score, so that was our home opener. This is our conference home opener if you want to say that, but personally we count that game because we played it. We consider ourselves 3-2 and 2-0 in the conference. We are going to go out and treat this like our conference home opener and play the game.”

Q: “How important is this game in terms of keeping up with Bethune-Cookman and Norfolk State in the MEAC standings?”

LH: “We don’t look at the standings. All we do is go and play one game at a time. I told the guys we are not going to look at the scoreboard, we aren’t going to look at the standings, all we are going to do is play and stay focused. Because again, if you look at the standings and you lose a game, then you’re depressed. Look what happened last year, we lost two games but we still ended up going to the playoffs. So we don’t look at the standings. I don’t even go over the standings. All we do is focus on the next opponent.”