FalconBlog--Triumphs and Trials in the BGSU Falcon Nation

Brandon Presser
Coach Brandon kicked off his first season presser today. As always, we run the transcript here from BGSU, and add my own comments below in Orange.

BGSU COACH Gregg Brandon
(Does Buffalo have momentum right now?)
"Absolutely. I mean, they have won a game and we haven't."

Can't argue with that. It's starting out like Mr. Obvious Day.

(How good is Buffalo's defense?) "Who knows? I don't know. I think they have some quality players on defense. I think number 2 (Ramon Guzman) and number 20 (Kareem Byrom) are good players. They have some quick defensive down people; it's like anyone else in Division I: you have to block them. If you don't block them, we are going to have problems."

You can see where all that coaching-like training pays off. If you don't block them, you're going to have problems. I'm hoping we are planning on blocking them, though. That should be the next step.

(On being worried about the amount of tackles the backfield had in the Wisconsin game)
"No, only when the corners are involved, the safeties in our scheme are linebackers anyway. It's not uncommon to see safeties leading their team in tackles."

"There were a lot of things we were doing with their closed tight end formation where they did not have a split receiver where Kenny (Lewis) was rolled up in the support, and if they went that way he would be (in effect) a linebacker."

I think our line actually played pretty well. The LBs were the weak spot (the real ones, not those safeties who just ACT like LBs).

(What other areas did you see that need improvement?)
"Defensively, we still need to tackle better. It was hard to get our arms around those backs. It was hard for one guy to bring them down, and that was encouraging (that we were able to contain them). I didn't see enough of that last year (in the game at Wisconsin) that I did Saturday night."

"When one guy missed a tackle, there were four or five guys getting there. I think their longest run was 14 or 15 yards. We didn't give up the explosion play on defense, which to me is very encouraging."

"We only gave up 21 points on defense, in my mind -- we forced the short field twice and they scored. They didn't have to go very far. We had the blocked punt in the end zone for a touchdown and then they had the ball inside the 10 (after a long punt return)."

"We had a goal line stand which I thought was tremendous, but overall we needed to tackle better. Our secondary gave up some throws that we have to fight though because we are so young."

Falcon fans everywhere applaud this statement. Indeed, we have to tackle better or we're never going to improve. We have not tackled well in a long time, and I don't think we tackled well Saturday. Still, we played quicker and seemed to be in better position, so I'm hoping against lesser competition we might also have improved tackling.

(On being in better shape than last year)
"We were a much more physically prepared team this time around because of the nature of our spring and fall camps. We had the attitude of becoming a much more physical football team and not relying so much on the passing of our quarterback -- we fell into that trap last year."

"Because of relying on our quarterback (last year), it made our defense tentative, and I didn't see that tentative defense Saturday night."

(On being upset with penalties)
"We jumped offsides and had a delay of game with a snap out. We had a 'hut-hut-HUT!' call where we tried to get them to jump offsides, and then we jump offsides. Those types of things just gnaw at you. When you know when you execute those things it's great, because now you are looking at first and five instead of first and 15. We're still going to do that stuff; I am not going to give up on that stuff. We are going to demand that kids concentrate and get that stuff done."

Of course, we all love it when things gnaw at Coach. It's when things don't seem to gnaw at him that it bothers us.

(On Anthony Turner starting against Buffalo)
"We had limited passes last week and we are going to open the field up this week. (We will look for) more down-the-field throws with Anthony and let him cut loose a little bit, and I think that will help the running game."

No QB controversey here. None at all. Frankly, this is the right thing to do. Everyone is focused on how much better Barnes was this year compared to what Turner was last year. The real question is how Turner is this year. I think he gives us more of a throwing threat and the kind of offensive game plan you can make a living on.

(Will Freddie Barnes start against Buffalo?)"Potentially. We kind of have a new position for him, called the P. It's a a personnel group that we have had in the past. We may run some of that, or he can play running back, or be put in the slot and be a receiver. It's like what we evolved into with P.J. Pope a few years ago. He was a great running back for us but it turned out that he was a great receiver too. And, we were able to put him into the slot and he could work from there. Freddie is that type of kid, but the whole thing is that he can't get lost. He still has to play quarterback, because he still is our backup quarterback,. That creates kind of a dilemma as far as reps in practice."

"Freddie spent all preseason taking reps at quarterback, because we knew he would start the Wisconsin game. So, what you are going to see Saturday is (Freddie on) three days of practice (for the new role)."

Call it P. Call it slash. There is room for Freddie on the offense even with AT back. Having said that, they can't put a full set of plays in for him because he needs to get reps at QB in case he's needed. A dilemma indeed. I hope we at least get him into some deception and trickeration. I think the whole idea makes us hard to prepare for. I also think BG fans will be disappointed with how little he sees the field on Saturday.

(On filling the position of Terrel White)
"We moved (John) Haneline inside and then Loren (Hargrove) played the will. Haneline is going to move back to will, and he and Loren are going to play will and Terrel is going to play mike, so that just gives us more depth and quality of depth."

"Cody Basler did a nice job at mike, too; he was big on the goal-line stand. He did a good job in the kicking game as well; he will back up Terrell, too."

"I thought (Erique) Dozier had a nice game and thought he may have had the best game of our defenders."

We need the linebackers to pick the pace up. As noted in the off-season, we robbed the d-backfield to put players at LB, and I'm not sure it really paid off too much the first week. Meanwhile, Wisconsin doesn't really torch anyone with the pass, so the D-backs didn't really have to deliver.

(On the new rules for the 2006 season)
"On the fumble call, I challenged it and took a timeout. But they came over and told me they were going to review it anyway, and I said, 'The heck you were; they were getting ready to snap the ball.' If I hadn't have called a timeout, they would have snapped it. Then later on when we were fourth and five and took a timeout, they came over and said I still had two timeouts left (since BG did not lose a timeout after the earlier play was reviewed and overturned)."

(Does the game seem shorter to you?)
"No, there aren't as many plays, but we weren't trying to run a lot of plays. We weren't trying to go fast."

(On the punting game)
"On the blocked punt, we had a guy out to block the guy who blocked it and we didn't execute. That guy came so fast and blew right by the right back and it was too late. We struggled to block No. 2 (Jonathan Casillas) all day on offense. On the first punt, he lined up the same way and he almost got it. I remember telling the coaches; I said 'Hey, there is number two, and he is coming off the edge, and when we punt it again what are we going to do?"

"When I was coaching at Northwestern, we were playing Illinois. They had Simeon Rice and Kevin Hardy, and those are offense-changing players. If you don't have a scheme for those guys they will wreak havoc all day in your backfield. You don't see a lot of those guys in the MAC."

"Well, that's what we needed to do for that guy and we didn't do it, and he overpowered us and blocked the punt. And then I think Alonso (Rojas) was rattled after that, because he took a shot on that and landed hard. We can't have that happen to our freshman punter. That's my deal; I have to fix that and manage that, knowing where their people who can wreak havoc are, whether it's offense, defense or kicking. That's on me."

Coach accepts responsibility like the leader he is. I'm not sure it was really his fault, but he's taking responsibility--again, something that fans were frustrated with last year when he seemed to blame many other things, right back to Urban Meyer. The punting game is hurting us, however (for the second straight year), and there is no reason for us not to execute better than that. The relavence of Simeon Rice to last Saturday's game is lost on me.