The Western Kentucky football team resumed preparations for Louisiana-Monroe on Monday night at Houchens-Smith Stadium. Comments below from offensive coordinator Jeff Brohm, junior corner back Cam Thomas, sophomore defensive end Gavin Rocker and redshirt freshman offensive lineman Forrest Lamp.

Jeff Brohm

    Short week: “We’ve went to work right away on Louisiana-Monroe and put the game behind us as soon as the other game was over. Short week you can’t enjoy the win as much, you gotta move on and we’ve kinda worked extra this week to get things ready. Our players have to work to get fresh as much as they can, but we also have a lot of work to do.

“I think right now we have the right attitude, but we just have to continue to work everyday.”

   ULM defense: “They’re gonna give you a lot of different looks and that’s kinda what they do on defense. It’s gonna be different every time. Not really one snap will be the same.

“We’ve gotta be able to do things efficiently, be able to react on the run, be able to still play fast, be able to come downhill, be able to get the ball in our playmakers’ hands and take care of the football while we’re doing it.

“The little things remain the same that we have to do, but we have to play fast and be smart and be really focused in on what’s going on.”

    The deep ball: “No, we’re working on it. Without question we’re working on it. You want to try to find ways to make big plays, especially in the passing game, and we have not done that. But we are working extremely hard on it and we’re trying to get better at it every single day and it’s just gotta eventually take place.

“I think it all comes from receivers running routes full speed and sharply and crisply, the quarterback taking a good drop, throwing it out there on time and the line protecting. I think we haven’t had a combination of all three of those things happen, but we are working extremely hard on it.”

    Doughty’s interception: “It was a miscommunication, but at the time, we cannot throw the ball unless the guy is open. I think he just anticipated that his receiver would be there. We have to be just a little smarter with the ball.

“I think he played better, played more efficient and he was able to run the ball twice. Those are things he has to do for us. He’s gotta be able to tuck the ball and run and get us yards when the play breaks down, when they drop eight guys or nine guys, when we have a guy beat and he’s gotta step up in the pocket – and that’s at every level. No matter how athletic you are or how good a runner you are, you have to make plays with your feet and he has to continue to do that and get better at it.

“We tell him all the time, ‘We’re gonna need three to six runs from you’, and we finally got two – but it was his first two. He’s still working hard on it, we gotta take care of the ball, we gotta throw it to our guys when they’re open and when they’re not, he’s gotta run and get yards.”

   ULM blitzes: “There’s a lot of things that are gonna take place. We have to find ways to get the ball out quick, we have to find ways to max protect and throw it deep and try to help them out a bit where they don’t always have to be in a five-man protection or a six-man protection.

“We  have to find ways to help them a little bit, to really push the ball up the field. But we’re working hard on those things. I think our line has played extremely hard, we haven’t rotated extremely hard, so they’ve played the whole game. They’re the warriors up front who get no credit, but they go to battle everyday and they’ve got to continue to do that for us.

“That’s one of strengths right now, is them just fighting hard the entire game and then handing it off to our running back and him taking it on his shoulders and leading us into the end zone.”

 Excited to run the ball: “We’re licking our chops to get out there on the road and try to win on the road. We’ve won our home games if you count, especially, the Nashville game. We need to go on the road and play well and we’ve gotta develop some consistency in the offense at every position and develop some playmakers, too, to make some big plays.

“It’ll be a good test for us. These guys have numerous upsets the last so many years, so they’re an excellent team and we gotta be ready to go.”

    Doughty’s injury affects his runs? “I’m sure there’s probably a subtle factor in his head with that, but I think he’s gotta understand, ‘Hey, you’re healed up, you’re gonna get hurt more just standing in there and taking shots.’ You gotta be able to have a feel for the pocket, you gotta have some pocket presence and be able to move and slide and get up in there and avoid the pressure, run, get yards – not that he’s gotta take on tackles, but he’s gotta run, get yards, find a seam and then stay low and protect himself once he does.

“But he can do it. I think he realizes that now. He knew after the game that, ‘Hey, I should’ve been doing that all along.’ He’s just gotta continue to learn, continue to get better at it and that’s what we’re gonna need from him on offense.”

Cam Thomas

 Kolton Browning: “He’s definitely a factor for their team. He’s a great player, we got the utmost respect for him. Hope he gets better. But now we just gotta focus on the two quarterbacks they have now.”

    The ULM rivalry: “We go into it, we owe ‘em, that’s how we feel. We just gotta play our game. We can’t get too involved with the rivalry or who they are, we just gotta work this game that we’ve been coached.”

   ULM wideouts: “We’re just focusing on all the receivers. As a unit, we gotta come out and play each receiver the way that we’ve been coached. That’s what we plan on doing, just doing our 1-11 and then, basically, creating opportunities to get turnovers and get the ball back to our offense.”

    ULM’s other QBs: “It’s not harder to prepare for the quarterbacks, we got film on the wide receivers that we’re playing against the running backs that we’re playing against and things like that.

“Kolton Browning was the quarterback, but right now it’s just focusing on things outside of the quarterback, because whoever the quarterback is, we still gotta cover and we still gotta defend the run and things like that.”

 Short week: “Just grind, basically. There’s really no way of physically getting back, except for the cold tank, things that we normally do. But mentally, it’s a short week, so you just gotta make that transition and get ready.”

Gavin Rocker

    Playing upright: “It was an option team, so we just kinda had to give a new look, or whatever, which made the defensive ends kinda have to move to kind of an outside linebacker position. It was comfortable, it was fine. Helped us win.”

 Tough going from option, back to normal? “Nah. I mean, the triple-option’s just one time a year, for the most part, so it’ll just be getting back to the basics.”

    Short week: “The thing is you just try to get ready as much as you can better than the other team. You gotta work on recovery in practice and practice wisely and make sure you get your rest.”

Forrest Lamp

 O-line confidence: “We’re pretty confident, we’ve had a couple good games. The loss at South Alabama and to Tennessee really hurt, but bouncing back really helped out.”

    Helping Max Halpin at center: “They moved me to tackle, so I wasn’t really able to help him much. The two guards, Luis (Polanco) and Cam (Clemmons) did a lot.”

 ULM a preseason favorite: “Yeah, it made us mad that they were favorited to win the league, so, I mean, it gives us a little bit of an edge. It’s excited to go down there and play the game.”

    Switching positions: “I mean, I played tackle during the spring when Cam was out with the shoulder injury. It wasn’t too bad because I went from spring, and then went camp started I went to guard and then back to tackle. It wasn’t that bad at all.”

    ULM’s run defense: “Yeah, especially when they run the 3-3. That should open up the run a lot.

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