Brandon Presser--"S on your chest" edition

If you want to be a good football player,
do not try to do this!!!

Please.

Here's Coach's weekly presser. My (limited this week) set of wiseass and uninformed comments are in orange.


HEAD COACH Gregg Brandon
On playing another Big Ten team with another good running game:
"They've got a couple of backs with [Javon] Ringer and [Jehuu] Caulcrick, who is 255 pounds. Their offensive line averages 313 a man and is 1,565 pounds across the board and they'll all be geeked up because they got a big win, so they're going to think that they're going to have to play lights out to beat Bowling Green."

Yeah, MSU is not f***ing around. They whupped ass against a lousy UAB team, and will use their size on us. They scored the first six times they had the ball. It will be an excellent test for our team.

Is fatigue a concern, because in the second half it seemed Minnesota wore you down with their rotating players in and out:
"You know I thought that in the second half, but after watching the film it wasn't true. We made some assignment busts on defense that hurt us. ... There were some times when our interior defensive linemen were in the wrong gaps and it created some creases in there. That was the long touchdown run. The screen that they scored on, we blitzed right into it and we didn't get our safety down in the right position to take it away. It was a good call for that blitz. I think they caught us there, but I don't know if they wore us out. I think the guy that got after us -- we knew could run, but I thought he did a good job in the second half -- was [Adam] Weber. He reminded me of when we use to run Josh [Harris] quite and a bit and then what we did last year with AT [Anthony Turner]. That's the same style of offense and what they run up there. The same three plays that Anthony went in and ran for a touchdown, they ran those plays the whole second half and they moved the ball."

This is interesting. I assumed we were tired. In a way, this answer feels worse, because you figure OU won't wear us down like Minnesota did. This means we are repeating last year's mistakes. Hopefully, we can fix it.

Q: Was there a reason for not using Anthony in the second half?

"No particular reason. It's just that Tyler [Sheehan] is the starting quarterback, and that's who we are going to play and who we are going with."

Hmm. Well, we weren't going anywhere, so maybe a little change of pace might have opened things up. But, let there be no doubt. Sheehan is the man.

The change-up worked pretty nicely when Anthony Turner came in. Is that something where he can keep the defense more off balance in the red zone?
"Yeah, when you get down in there, things get compressed inside the 10-yard line. I think you have to have the ability to run the football down in there. Tyler can obviously throw it down there, but I think as a change-up, when you run that quarterback down in there, people have to account for them. You saw what happened with us; we struggled to account for [Adam] Weber. That's really a 12th guy out there. No one accounts for the quarterback in a shotgun running game and ever since Northwestern put that package in back in 2001 and had great success with it, people have been doing it. People had been doing it before, but that's when it really got national exposure."

Why doesn't anyone account for the QB in the shotgun? Anyone? That seems stupid. Both teams have 11 guys. Having said that, Turner could be dangerous down there, though once in a while, we'll need a throw to keep them honest. I hope we can keep using him to get wicked red-zone efficiency.

Is it a matter of inexperience yet on the defense or not making the right reads?
"I just think some guys were thinking that they could make the play and its one of those things you have to keep working on in all phases. You can't have an `S' on your chest. (So, don't even think about it. You're not Superman. You'd have x-ray vision then, and you'd be all bending steel rods and shit. And your real parents could never go to a game. Think about that). You're not going to make every play because it's designed for 11 guys and if all 11 guys do their responsibility, great things are going to happen more often than not. When a guy doesn't take care of his responsibility, big plays are going to occur, and that's what happened. Big plays get exposed when you're playing a Big Ten team. I think if that would've been a team like say, Minnesota-Duluth, who knows, the guy might have fallen down and we might have [given up] a five-yard gain and not a 50-yard gain."

I think this is a good point. I don't know for a fact that guys from Duluth are more likely to fall down, but it seems likely. More importantly, our conference opponents are going to be a little more forgiving. Hopefully, we can learn to make fewer mistakes, and we might have a pretty good little MAC D.

On Adrian Baker, an ex walk-on who is on scholarship now and is on the two-deep:
"He's a great kid with a great work ethic; a 'yes sir' or 'no sir' type of guy who is a great leader for the young players. He's an older guy who has been in the Navy and been around the world a little bit. He brings a lot to the table that way, and is a great character kid."

How did he end up at BG?
"Well, he just enrolled in school here and decided to come out for football. We gave him a shot as a walk-on and he earned a scholarship after this past spring."

This is an awesome story. Go Adrian!

Back to Tyler for a minute ... how does his start at Minnesota compare to Omar Jacobs' first start at Oklahoma?
"It was better because we won. It's comparable, though, because they were both on the road and it was loud, but Oklahoma was as big as you're going to get. Minnesota is big, but it isn't Oklahoma. It was big for Tyler to make the plays there in the end and throughout the game, but the last couple of plays there with the touchdown to [Marques] Parks where he was getting pressured and kept retreating to draw the rush and make the throw [were impressive]. Then the two-point play was just a shot. He just drilled that ball."

Yeah, that was my initial reaction--Oklahoma was the #1 team in the country when we played them, were they not? Minnesota is barely the best team in Minnesota (don't forget Duluth). Juuuuust kidding. It was still a big time environment, with a big, loud crowd and real fast Big 10 athletes. And he made plays. Coach is right---that 2-pointer was a rocket.

Were you expecting a blitz on that last touchdown?
"Oh yeah. The play was called for that; for Tyler to keep retreating. It wasn't a screen; it was a crossing thing where it was intended to have guys crossing with defenders running into each other."

All joking aside, I thought we had a pretty good game plan given that their coach had no track record.

Was it a big step for Tyler to not have any real bad decisions with reads in this game?
"He did a great job managing the game. That's what we talk about with our quarterbacks all the time. Play within yourself, play within the system and do things that way. Don't put that `S' on your chest. (There is it again. I've seen our team play and never really thought this was our biggest problem, but he's the coach.) If it's not open, burn it or chuck it down or scramble for yardage and then slide. I'd like to see him slide a little bit because he got waxed a couple of times."

It seemed like last year he had a tendency to hang on to the ball a little too long, wouldn't you say?
"Well, like I've said before, I don't think last year is a fair evaluation of the kid. When he came in the games, it was tough situations. He didn't start any games, and we were behind and needed a pick-me-up. For a true freshman to come into those situations, it is going to be tough. We didn't protect him on occasion last year and wasn't as comfortable as he is now. He's had a whole off-season now to learn the system, to practice in it in spring ball and camp, and I think you're seeing some of the results of that."

He's clearly a new man. Looks even better than during the spring game. Now, to see him do it every week.

It seems like the quarterback position has been your baby ever since you've gotten here. What do you like to do to help groom these quarterbacks?
"It's not so much me, I think it's more the fact that we've just had talented kids here. I've always believed that a quarterback can lead you to a championship if he's a good player. You know, we aren't asking the right guard to take us down the field. It's your quarterback, whether he's making throws or managing the offense or whatever. I'm going to keep recruiting quarterbacks till I find one that can win a championship and if I have to recruit 10 of them, I'm going to recruit 10 of them. It's just real important to have a great triggerman."

nm

How much freedom do you feel you have now with your play calling?
"We had a lot of things that we ran Saturday night that we couldn't have even come close to running last year."

No shit. You could tell that right away. Don't read this Anthony.

Will Corey Partridge be ready to go Saturday?
"I hope so. We'll see, We'll see how he practices tonight [Monday] and tomorrow and we'll make that call later."

Let's not push it. Let's win the MAC. We are off next week, and he could be healed by the time the hated Owls arrive in town.

Has it been tough seeing Corey struggle with injuries throughout his career?
"Yeah, it's been tough on him, I think, and it's been tough on us. The kid really wants to be an everyday guy for us, and he hasn't been fortunate enough to do that yet. His injury wasn't anything on him; he was just running the punt back and tweaked his ankle. It's one of those things where it seems like he has had those throughout his career and that has been nagged by those, but there is nothing that he can do about it from where I sit. You know, after his freshman year I thought that some of his stuff could've been prevented by him hitting the weight room and he did that, and that injury Saturday night had nothing to do weight training, its just an injury."

Let's hope he stays healthy, because when he does, no one seems to be able to guard him. Almost like he has something on his chest....ah, never mind.