Bryan Brown, YaYa Diaby Preview NC State

Louisville football defensive coordinator Bryan Brown and defensive end YaYa Diaby met with the media to discuss their recent win vs. Boston College, as well as their upcoming matchup vs. NC State.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Fueled by a fervent running game and their best defensive performance of the season, Louisville (4-3, 2-2 ACC) was able to snap a two-game losing streak, and capture a home victory against Boston College.

Next up, the Cardinals are heading back on the road to face a reeling NC State, who will be looking to rebound from a loss at Miami that snapped a four-game win streak. Kickoff against the Wolfpack is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 30 at 7:30 p.m. EST.

Prior to their upcoming matchup, defensive coordinator Bryan Brown and defensive end YaYa Diaby took time to meet with the media. They discussed the previous game against Boston College, previewed the upcoming game at NC State, and more.

Below is the transcript from their press conference, as well as the videos:

Defensive Coordinator Bryan Brown

(On how proud he was of his unit to see them perform the way they did against Boston College)

Extremely proud. We've been seeing our guys every day come over here and work. We see it from inside, and we just know that even after that Virginia loss, that Sunday's practice and that off week's practice was tremendous. The guys still believe, and understand what we're trying to get accomplished. A play here, or a here play there, we were a couple plays away from winning both of those games (Wake Forest and Virginia), and sitting here 6-1. We know we have a really good football team, and the guys came out there and played hard, executed, and came out with a win. I was very pleased with those guys, and hopefully continue that trend going forward.

(On what he's seeing out of Dorian Jones and Jaylin Alderman, as they step up in place of Monty Montgomery)

I saw growth, number one. They still make some mistakes, but when they made the mistakes, they made them full speed, and the rest of the guys played off of them, and was able to make plays. We really had two drives in the game that we wish would have back, the one they scored a touchdown on, and the one where they drove down and we actually got the interception on in that fourth quarter. But other than that, man, I'm proud of those guys. They're coming along each and every day, they're over here eager to learn as much as they possibly can, always asking coach D-Nic (Derek Nicholson) questions about things they see on film, whether it's practice or from an opposing team's game field. I'm excited about those guys, and just glad that they came along and performed well on Saturday.

(On Josh Minkins and his role in the safety room)

I's big for the safety rule, number one. To be able to have a guy that we most definitely can trust to go in a game, and to do their job. Like I told you guys last time, we're playing 90 some-odd snaps a game on some, and 80-plus snaps. Most of those safeties play almost every last one of them, in all the games that we played previously. That's huge for that group. But for Minkins, from where he came from, had a really good offseason starting in January, and then he just had a freak accident. That hindered him for all of spring ball, all of summer. Once he got going, it was it was a little bit of trials and tribulations to get him back going in the right direction. But he fought. He fought every day, and wanted to continue to learn. In the last two and a half weeks, he has been practicing lights out. When somebody is practicing lights out, you have no choice but to play them. We were able to get him in the game, and he came up with a huge play in that fourth quarter with an interception. Not only that, he fit the run game correctly, and had a couple of tackles. That's a big key for us as well. Just so happy for him, and glad that he's able to contribute.

(On if there will be more of an effort moving forward to get young guys more snaps)

Absolutely. They have four games to play, and so we're trying to figure out which four games is it? We know that those guys have some talent, we know that they are a little bit further away from where we would like for them to be in order to play in a lot of games for us from a mental standpoint. Ryheem Craig came in, and gave us some great minutes. He's hard to pass protect against. He can come off it is really, really quick, and does a great job of bending, and doing we ask him to do. Very, very pleased with him coming in, and having that huge play. 

(On what they have to do to become a more consistent defense)

I think just execution. There may be one guy within the scheme of the defense that's not doing exactly the right thing, and then it looks like, "what kind of defense is this?" That's the thing. Then I got to help them sometimes, too, with some certain calls. Like in the Virginia game, I should have brought a little bit more pressure in the second half and the fourth quarter, so I got to help them with that, and to be able to help kind of force things, in a way, from a play calling standpoint. Then the thing is, you lose Monty Montgomery - one of your best players on this defense, if not the best. So we lost some packages, and had to go back in - once we got into the off week - to be able to put those back in, and manipulate some guys, and put guys in certain spots to where he would be, to try to help us to where we were last year: being one of the top defenses in ACC. I think we're there now, as far as getting the pieces where they need to be. Now we got to continue to practice those things, and execute, and hopefully continue to move forward to being that dominant defense that we know that we can be.

(On how they balance adjusting schemes with playing so many new guys)

One thing I do, I try to talk to the guys and ask them, "what do you feel comfortable with?", especially the young guys. It's not like having just Monty and CJ (Avery) out there, and I can call anything on the playbook with those guys. I have to go to those young guys and ask them, "what do you feel more comfortable with, within what we have in so far?" Those are the things that are tailored toward the top seat of the play calling sheet. That helps. It helps those guys, because if that's what they feel comfortable with, then that's what I'm gonna call. That's what we got to continue to do throughout the season, and I think we'll continue to get better as the season progresses.

(On where their game plan against NC State even starts, with how many weapons they have)

Oh, man. Me personally, I always start up front. I always start with offensive line in mind. See what type of combination, and things they have - whether it's rotation, or just how they run block, pass technique, all that stuff. That's where we start with, and then I'll work my way to the quarterback, and running back, receivers and so forth. They have a really good offense. The offensive line does a great job opening the holes for (Zonovan) Knight and (Ricky) Person, for sure. They do a really good job of pass protecting, as well, for Devin Leary. When I say he's a quarterback that throws the football on the money, and has great timing with his receivers, he exemplifies that every single week. You can tell he was an elite 11 quarterback for a reason. We have our we have our work cut out for us again this week, like we have every week. We look forward to the challenge, but these guys are a really good football team, and they're coached real well.

(On the secondary building off of their performance against Boston College, and if they can translate that in the NC State game)

I hope so. I think anytime that you have some success on the football field, then that should translate into the next couple of practices. We've had a really good week of practice overall, and I think it'll carry over to the next game. Guys look forward to competing again, and going out and showing that we can be one of the best defenses in this country. We look forward to Saturday.

Defensive End YaYa Diaby

(On how important the Boston College game was for the defense)

Coming into that game, it was like "their running game is the power of their team". So as a D-line, as a front seven, we took that upon of ourselves to make sure that we prepare as hard as we can, and we went into that game really high. We were up for the challenge for that game.

(On if he is healthy)

Oh, yeah, I'm good. That was just the first game. I got through that after the first game.

(On what stands out about NC State on film)

They're a pretty good team. It's gonna be a pretty good test, a test for our whole defense. We've been preparing really well, and I'm excited to play

(On their emotions during the BC game)

We just wanted more. Last game, it was just one of those games that we knew that we we didn't play as well, against Virginia, and we needed to play well against BC.

(On what they have to do to become a more consistent defense)

We just have to finish. We start very well, and we just have to play all four quarters, all 60 minutes. I believe our defense is really elite, and if we play all four quarters, we'll win a lot.

(On how they stay locked in for all four quarters)

Staying locked in and staying focused. Last game, we kind of lost focus because we had a good lead on them, and we kind of lost focus. Going into Boston College, we said we got to finish, and none of that dancing and stuff. Just stay locked in.

(On what the BC game does for their confidence)

It's just a nice little boost. We just got to keep working, and just learn off of last week, and just keep getting better, and not not get complacent.

(On the defensive pressure sent on third downs)

Yeah, that was a good a good thing from Coach Brown. He dialed up some really good pressures. As we bring pressure, it's kind of hard for teams to convert on us on third down.

(On seeing Ryheem Craig get his first career sack)

It was very exciting. As soon as he got the sack, he came over to the sideline and I tackled him because of excitement. I was really excited for him. He's really worked on his pass rush. For it to show in the game, it was really exciting.

(Photo of YaYa Diaby via University of Louisville Athletics)

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