Football | 10/8/2019 3:54:00 PM

ITTA BENA, Miss. - Mississippi Valley State head coach Vincent Dancy spoke with the media Monday in advance of MVSU's SWAC road matchup with the Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions set for Saturday at 1 p.m.

Head Coach Vincent Dancy

On last week's game vs. VUL:
"I'll tell you what, it's always good to get a win and it was the first win of the season, that was exciting for us to go out and win especially on homecoming when it was a festive crowd, a nice atmosphere around for homecoming, thank the fans for coming out again, alumni, all the support around campus, thank you guys for coming out and helping us gain the win on Saturday."

"It was a win but it wasn't a win that we thought was a good win. We'll take any win but I thought our level of focus wasn't there on Saturday. We came out and we just weren't ourselves for some strange reason. Offensively I think we struggled, probably was the worst performance of this season. defensively you look at the statistics they're there but I don't think we played our best game and we just got to find out a way to regain our focus this week."

"Got a great opponent this week coming up in Arkansas Pine Bluff and we just got to figure out throughout this week how we get our mental preparation back."

On the offense struggling with their passing game:
"Give credit where credit is due, I thought VUL came out with high energy, they played hard, they played physical, tough, and we were just inconsistent, wasn't efficient at all, throwing the ball wasn't consistent, couldn't complete any passes, the passes that we wanted to complete, we really couldn't get anything going and we couldn't get them in a rhythm with the passing game."

"We did a great job running the ball for us but the passing game we struggled in with both quarterbacks so like I said we just gotta find a way and do a better job of executing the plays that are called."

On losing the time of possession, but still winning the game:
"Exactly, and that's something that we normally don't do you know we turn the ball over which gave them great opportunities and put them in position to score, but with the time of possession we just were three-and-out a lot, we couldn't capitalize, and then the times we did score I think it was fourth down, so we just couldn't capitalize, we couldn't get things going offensively, we struggled like I said we weren't focused, we weren't being that same team that we've been being throughout the course of this season. And I don't know what it was Saturday, we just didn't play well or execute at a high level like we normally do, like we normally would."

On being in unmanageable situations on third downs:
"I think it was both, you know sometimes like I said we took two steps forward and we'll get a penalty or something will happen where we go backward and for some reason, we don't, we can't fight ourselves out of those holes when need be and 2-for-17, that was just a poor job on third down and I think they had a better percentage on third-down conversion than we did and like I said it was just a terrible job of execution, you know and all fingers point back to me and the coaches and we just gotta do a better job of putting these guys in better positions to be
better and make plays."

On some of the distractions, his team may have faced playing a Homecoming game:
"That's no excuse you know we expect the crowd, we want the crowd, we want it like that every weekend, you know there's no excuse to perform like that at home. You know we take pride in playing at home, we supposed to win all our home games but just some strange reason I can't, if I could point at it, I'd point at it, but we have to do better at the focus level of playing at home and I thought and it all falls back on us as coaches and we just gotta do a better job and find out a way and why that when it comes to our home games that the level of focus, intensity, the way we play is just not there."

On the quarterback change in the third quarter from Bryant to Totten:
"We just felt like we just needed to make a change at that point, we thought Dejerric was just kinda rattled, seeing things that, doing things that he wouldn't normally do and we just thought that if we maybe just pulled him to the side and let him watch the game from the side and of course we were going back with him but we really wanted to see what Roger Totten could do, what he could do for us moving forward because we do run Dejerric a lot and in this game you know you are one hit away from your backup quarterback so we really wanted to see what we had in Roger but neither one of them performed like we wanted them to perform."

On there being a quarterback battle this week:
"No it's not a battle, you know we gonna go with Dejerric, Dejerric has brought us this way and you know yeah we're 1-4 right now and I don't think we should panic, you know we had a poorly performed game and I think that's our job as coaches and young men to go out there and practice and prepare hard and put ourselves in better positions to be better offensively and defensively."

On their discovery at kick returner:
"No, we knew what Donald Johnson III had. D.J's been with us since last year he just couldn't compete but he could practice with us and we knew what he could do, we're just waiting on him to make those explosive plays and this week he got his turn to start on kickoff returns and you see what the young man can do for us."

On the defensive fumble recovery for an 80-yard touchdown:
"Eric Powell man, week in and week out he's a quiet young man but he makes big plays for us and I guess it was his turn this weekend man, he did a great job of scooping the ball up and scoring it for us, nothing that I don't expect from our defense they've been a turnover machine this whole season and they were due for another touchdown so I was proud of that young man and what happened and proud of the defense for coming through."

On playing UAPB:
"Man, I think Coach Thomas is doing a great job with that program, kind of sort of in the same situation that I'm in you know two young men that's trying to build and create a culture around a program but he's done a marvelous job in his second season to have that team 4-2 right now and beat some big-time opponents and we have our hands, right now we gotta play great, we have to play a great football game to win on Saturday but our young men know it, we see them on film, we understand what they have, they have two of the best dynamic duos at running back in this conference, I believe that hands down, and one of the best receivers in this conference so we have our hands full offensively and defensively they're putting it together right now and they're playing good football and we have to go out and have great practices to beat this team."