Jamon Brown took his turn at the podium to answer some of the familiar questions from the media Monday during Charlie Strong’s weekly press conference at the University of Louisville.
You know, the questions about the soft schedule, like how do the players stay motivated against undermanned opponents like Temple, the upcoming opponent on Saturday that has yet to win a game in four tries.
Except for a 24-6 loss to Notre Dame, Temple has been competitive in each of those games, losing to undefeated Houston 22-13, Fordham 30-29, and Idaho 26-24. The team has a new coach in Matt Rhule, who previously coached the offensive line for the New York Giants.
“We know we’re going to play a good football team this weekend,” said the soft spoken 6-foot-6, 330-pound offensive lineman, a junior who played at Fern Creek High School. “We have to make sure we’re on top of our game.”
Brown isn’t concerned about his team maintaining its focus. “We hear from the coaches every day,” he said. “We know we’re not the team we can be. We’ve got to keep working. There’s things we need to do to get better on, and that how we’re approaching this game.’
He said it wasn’t difficult staying “humble and hungry” after UofL’s 72-0 win over Florida International. “It was a pretty good win. There’s a lot of things we did right, but there’s some things we did wrong and need to polish up and try to get better.”
He believes the line has made tremendous strides since the beginning of the season. “It’s mostly about communications. We have to make sure that we’re communicating and that we’re all on the same page.”
He noted that quarterback Teddy Bridgewater has high standards for the offensive line.
“There are certain things he expects us not to do, foolish penalties for false starts and things like that. Any time we get some of those, he gets in our ear a little bit and makes sure we stay focused. We don’t want any self-inflicted wounds.
“He doesn’t chew you out of anything. He’s motivational, making it pretty easy for you not to be the guy that makes those mistakes. It’s better to hear from him than the coaches.”