What Charles Kelly said before Jax State plays FIU

Charles Kelly assigned a book report this week. It was the first one in 36 years of coaching.

The assignment went to kicker Garrison Rippa, who missed a field goal at Ohio in Week 2 and has not missed since. Kelly would not say which book — "I'll let him talk about that" — but the point was about process, not punishment. Kelly has preached all season that anxiety comes from worrying about results instead of executing the task in front of you. Rippa, Kelly said, would be the first to tell you he was worried about the result in the Ohio game. Against Kennesaw State, he was not. Rippa's game-winning field goal — his fifth career game-winner — lifted Jax State to a 27-26 win.

But Kelly drew a sharp line between getting results and winning football games. He opened Friday's press conference by saying the Gamecocks "really didn't win the ball game" against Kennesaw State. "We got the results that we wanted but we didn't win the ball game," Kelly said. "And there's a difference and we've got to learn how to do that."

That distinction matters this week. Kelly called FIU the best team Jax State has played this season — "overall, top to bottom, athletically." He praised FIU head coach Willie Simmons and said the Panthers take the personality of their coach. "They play with a mentality. They play with an edge," Kelly said. "They're probably playing as good as anybody in our conference right now." FIU enters Tuesday's game at 3-2 overall and 1-0 in Conference USA. Jax State is 4-2 and 3-0 in conference play. The Gamecocks are 12-1 in CUSA midweek games since joining the conference in 2023.

Kelly spent a portion of the press conference discussing national attention on the program. He noted that enrollment at Jacksonville State is up for the second consecutive year and credited football's television exposure as one of the university's largest marketing windows. He cited freshman running back Cedric Kouemi as an example — Kouemi watched Jax State play from Maryland last season, liked what he saw and committed. Kelly also addressed the growing spotlight on wide receiver Deondre Johnson and quarterback Caden Creel. Johnson, who stands 6-foot-8, has improved by focusing on "the very little details of the game," Kelly said. Creel, compared on social media to Johnny Manziel for his creativity, has become "a more complete quarterback this year." Kelly's assessment: "I want him on my team when I'm going into a fight."

Kelly confirmed Jax State has scheduled a future game at Indiana and said the decision reflects where the program is headed. "We have a vision for where Jax State, where we want to go athletically," Kelly said. "And in order to do that, you got to be able to schedule the best people." He compared the approach to Bobby Bowden's early years at Florida State, when Bowden traveled the country to play anyone willing to schedule the Seminoles. Kelly also expressed frustration about losing historical rivalries, saying Vice President for Athletics Greg Seitz "has offered every year to play for a long time" against at least one former rival. Kelly identified Kennesaw State and Georgia Southern as current rivalries and said South Alabama and UAB are future ones. "It generates interest in our state," he said.

He also addressed a moment from the Kennesaw State game that drew attention on social media — Kelly walked onto the field to check on an injured Kennesaw State player. "You can win with class and you can lose with humility," Kelly said. "I don't care what team they're on, they're human beings."

Full transcript

On the Kennesaw State win and the difference between "results" and winning:

Coach Kelly: "I am proud of the resilience of our team. I do feel like our team has learned how not to look at the scoreboard cuz it makes no difference in how you should play. We made plays when we needed to make plays but we really didn't win the ball game. We got the results that we wanted but we didn't win the ball game. And there's a difference and we've got to learn how to do that. There's a lot of different situations that come up to do that, but I think part of it is a mentality. We've learned some things, but we've got a long way to go to improve our team and that's what we're focused on right now is what we got to do to get better. From a discipline, execution, competitive character — that's what we've got to do to improve our team."

On FIU and head coach Willie Simmons:

Coach Kelly: "I think that this will be the best team that we've played. Overall, top to bottom, athletically. They take the personality of their coach. Coach Simmons is a really good coach. He's a good man. They're probably playing as good as anybody in our conference right now. I mean, because they play the right way. They play with a mentality. They play with an edge and that's impressive when you watch them on video."

On program visibility and what midweek games do for the university:

Coach Kelly: "I think our athletic program and with us in football, that is one of the — it's one of the largest windows that we have for our university and not only athletically, but just for enrollment. Enrollment's up for second consecutive year because Jax State gets exposure across the country. Even when I was coaching at Auburn, I had people that work there that would watch the midweek games and say, 'Well, you know, I didn't know Jax State had this in their academic program,' but it does create exposure.

"For example, Cedric watched us play in Maryland last year. He watched us how we ran the football and did those things. So that attracted him to what we do. Anything — anytime you have a business or an organization and you want to market, the more people that can see it, the more chances you got of being able to get those people in your program or get those students to our university. And not only for football, but I'm sure on TV the other night they showed the Southerners, how impactful they were. I mean, I don't know what the numbers were, but it looked like we had more people there than they did. There was a lot more red to me. We want to market this university cuz we've got something to be very proud of here."

On Garrison Rippa's book report and the importance of process:

Coach Kelly: "Well, he did a book report. I'll let him talk about that, but he did — first one in 36 years that I've ever assigned. But he did it and I'll let him talk about it later. But it's more of focusing. I don't care whether you're a kicker, whether you're a quarterback, whether you're a defensive back, whether you're a linebacker, whether you're a defensive lineman — it's pretty simple. There's a process that you have to go through to execute your job. And whatever that job is, you have to do it. And you can't worry about results because when you worry about results, now all of a sudden you create anxiety. And I think he'll be the first to tell you in the Ohio game he was worried about the result. Other night, were you worried about a result? No. He just went through the process and that's how you eliminate that. And it sounds simple. It is very simple. It's not easy, but it's simple."

On the national spotlight on Deondre Johnson and Caden Creel:

Coach Kelly: "A lot of our players have created value for themselves. The one thing I will tell you about Deondre — and I think his teammates will tell you — the difference in him right now as opposed to a year ago is he pays attention to the very little details of the game. And I'm not talking about anything extravagant. I mean, catching the ball with your hands above your eyes, extending when you catch the ball. You have an advantage being 6'8. So, use that advantage. But he has worked at that. There's no magic dust that we've put on him. He's gone through that process and done that.

"Caden — we've always felt like Caden could do a lot of things with his athletic ability and he's very instinctive. He can see, he can process. I think he's made himself a more complete quarterback this year. Making himself go through the reads and see those things. And listen, I love Caden. And there's sometimes you see things happen in the play and you say that's number 12 right there. And sometimes you got to live with the good and sometimes you have to live with a little bit of bad. But I want him on my team when I'm going into a fight."

On Luke Gilbert's development at tight end:

Coach Kelly: "First of all, Luke's very quiet. Doesn't say a whole lot. Takes care of his business. When he first got here, he was so athletic — and I thought, I'm going to work this guy linebacker. I did, cuz I thought he could play both ways. I still think he could play both ways. He's that kind of athlete. But when we recruited him — and we believe this — we wanted to be able to have that tight end position to be an integral part of our offense. And we needed to get the ball in his hands. Anytime you have tight ends like himself, it creates matchups. Offensively, that's what you're looking for is the right matchups. And we do a lot of different things with him.

"He can process information. He executes very well and he's a team guy. I think he was one of the first guys I talked to when I got here in recruiting. I don't think I've ever heard the word I come out of his mouth. It's always we. It's always about the team. So, that's something that I don't know that a lot of people know about him."

On winning five games when trailing after the third quarter:

Coach Kelly: "The only time we've really ever talked about fourth quarter is our fourth quarter offseason conditioning. And when these guys hear fourth quarter, they're like, 'Oh,' you know, it's not very pleasurable, but it's something that we have to do. Because you have to create that mental toughness, the toughness and discipline to do things. But I think more than anything is — I know I don't hold my hand up because, listen, you have to play 60 minutes of a game. I think that's more than anything. They have the mindset, okay, we got to play 60 minutes. And again, they don't look at the scoreboard. Doesn't matter. You should play the same way. And hopefully we can improve to where we impose our will a little bit more early in the game. But we just enforce playing 60 minutes."

On whether this year's team is ahead of where last year's team was at 3-3:

Coach Kelly: "It's hard to compare because teams are different. Opponents are different. Everybody's — especially nowadays in college football — everybody's team is different. I know even talking to Jerry Mack the other night, they really didn't know what they had either even through the first few games because of the transition. We have a little bit more consistency, but we have a lot of new guys, too. I don't think you can go off of records so much. You got to just take it game by game and focus on one game at a time, one play at a time. That's kind of where our mindset is."

On preparing for a Tuesday game with one fewer day:

Coach Kelly: "We had this last year and I think going through it — we plan this out months ahead of time once we get the schedule. We have a meeting right when we get the conference schedule and we kind of set our calendar and no matter what the results of the game are we're going to stick with that calendar. I think last year we came off — we were on a short week versus Delaware and we basically taken the same schedule.

"So what we did is when we came back, yesterday was a players day off, coach's work — game plan. We had done some game planning in the off week. We took a day and spent on FIU. So we had a little bit of head start from a game plan. Now today will be like a Tuesday. So today's like a Tuesday practice. Tomorrow will be a Wednesday. Sunday will be a Thursday. Monday will be the home travel day and then we play on Tuesday. I think we try to structure it as much like a normal week so our players can get comfortable with that. I know myself, maybe it's cuz I'm so OCD, but I like things being very consistent."

On scheduling a future game at Indiana and the program's vision:

Coach Kelly: "The main thing right now, I'm focused on this season, but yes, Greg talks to me a lot about future opponents and scheduling, and listen, we have a goal of where we want to get to in our program. And the only way you get to those goals is you have to schedule the best. And I got a lot of respect for Coach Cignetti, what he's done. I would like to, hopefully one day, people would say that we've built our program similar to the way he's done his. So I think when you compete against people like that, it does nothing but help build.

"And I just look back at the history of a lot of places. When coach Bowden first came to Florida State, he went all over the country playing people. It didn't matter where it was at. And we have a vision for where Jax State, where we want to go athletically. And in order to do that, you got to be able to schedule the best people. But we got the best team that we played coming in this week and that's what our focus is."

On lost rivalries and the importance of in-state games:

Coach Kelly: "I promise you the Southerners compete just like we do. And if you've ever watched them practice, which I have — I listen to them and I hear them and I know how many hours they spend — they compete as well. And yes, these rivalries that we've lost through college football, I can promise you this — like you mentioned a couple of those schools, one of those schools in particular, Greg Seitz has offered every year to play for a long time. Because it's good for our state. It's good for the community. It's good for college football.

"Rivalries are — listen, college football is about that. The fans get excited. The students get excited. Kennesaw has become a good rivalry. I mean, we played two times last year and then in the championship game. That's a good rivalry. He's not very far from here. I think Georgia Southern's been a good rivalry. In the future we got South Alabama, UAB. I mean, it generates interest in our state and we got great high school football in this state. We got great coaches. We got great players here and in the surrounding area. All that does is just help football."

On checking on an injured Kennesaw State player:

Coach Kelly: "We compete on both sides. Jerry Mack wants to win the game as bad as Coach Kelly wants to win the game. But I mean, these young men are out there. They're doing everything they can to compete and win. And it is a violent game and we play that way. But you know what? You can win with class and you can lose with humility. And that has nothing to do when a player's injured. Everybody on the field knows it. That was a bad injury and I saw it. I could see it better than they could see from the sideline. I'm not real good with those — I'm not smart enough to be a doctor or trainer, but I just knew it was bad. So, I wanted to go out there and check. And then when Coach Mack walked out there, I said something to him.

"Listen, these athletes that go out, I don't care what sport it is — when as much as they work and compete and do the things that they do, I don't care what team they're on, they're human beings. It's basically to see if he was okay. And they had the same thing happen here last year with a kid over there on their own sideline. But at the end of the day, we all want to win, but we all got in this business as coaches to help student athletes and it doesn't matter what team they're on."

On second-half defensive red zone performance and halftime adjustments:

Coach Kelly: "Everybody wants a magic answer. There's really nothing. Sometimes there's some adjustments that you make. Of course, you always make adjustments at halftime, but more than anything, it's basically refocusing and saying it usually comes down to doing our job and being more focused on doing that.

"Mark asked me the other night which was a very fair question — our struggles before half, two-minute before the game — which is a very fair question. If you look at that, it hasn't been one thing all the time. A couple of times it's been the defense, but a couple of times we had the ball on offense and turned the ball over. The other night we get a huge loss. So we back up and have to punt, which gives them a short field. You can't give people short fields. After the Ohio game it was a special teams play. So it's different things. Even in the red zone — and I told Mark the other night — we work that two-minute situation every week. We'll work it again today. And we work the red zone a lot. But it's usually not a drastic scheme change as it is just focus on the details of what I've got to do. It's usually about doing your job and looking at the right things."