First, the presser started out with Coach and Jack Carle bantering about the last game at the Rubber Bowl, which, suffice it to say, Coach doesn't have anything good to say about, noting light poles on the field.
Anyhoo, getting down to business, Coach talked quite a bit about the Eastern loss. He was all over the place, and sounded like its still grinding him.
- Film showed lots of untimely mistakes (false starts and offsides).
- A veteran team can's be doing that.
- He conceded that his threat to pull guys out was a "knee jerk reaction" (He did sound really pissed).
He defended him team a little, saying they played hard and had a chance to win the game, which is at least half true. Other times he talked (more than once) about us looking past EMU. If we looked past them, then I have a hard time understanding where the played hard thing comes from.
He also spent a lot of time talking about how EMU came to play because we were picked to win the MAC East. He also said that you can't go by what you see on film...they might play well anyway. (Quick note: giving up watching film could save our team lots of time each week, leaving more time for studying).
Taking a page from the Dan Dakich school, he decided to talk about questionable officiating calls, including the A. Smith interference on the punt and a holding call on Brady Minturn. (Ryan in his Blade blog debunks this a little bit, since we scored on the possession with the holding and shortly after the Smith call. There might have been a momentum switch to get the ball off the muffed punt, however.)
He then acknowledged that it sounded like sour grapes.
He notes that everyone in the conference knows each other, and there are no surprises. He says we went out to Wyoming and didn't know anything about them (hint: watch film).
He says we stood around on D, uncharacteristically. No pressure, no cover.
He said Willie is "hopeful" (new category). He then proceeded talk about how dinged up we are from our pre-season schedule, noting that "it sounds like I'm making excuses, but so what."
In all fairness, he did accept some responsibility for poor playcalling on second down, and for sticking with the philosophy that we would get pressure with four guys. He noted we are going to have to mix up some pressure in order to keep QBs from getting comfortable.
At one point, Coach said that for some of our opponents, beating us is a "career game" which might well have been a sideways shot at Genyk and his team's ridiculous celebration. He refused to comment on the jersey burning, but he did say that Genyk found him under the stadium and Brandon "wasn't real talkative."
There was some more, just to get it in:
- He isn't worried about our poor punt returns, he feels Corey is making smart plays.
- He thought about a hail mary instead of the FG but though Srinisi could make it.
- Our kicker was crying that he missed the FG after the game. This kid is a true warrior.
- He'd like more big plays, but he'd really like more yards on first down (we will test this theory later in the week).
- He is not in panic mode....because we "had a chance to win the game."
Finally, someone asked him if he thought the team had it in them to bounce back. His first, quick reaction was "we'll see." Then he said they did, of course.
A final editorial comment. All of the stuff about looking past EMU, etc, etc. The coaches are supposed to have the team ready to play. Look, upsets happen, but they shouldn't. They should happen to the OTHER guy.
If we can fix it, we are still in OK shape. But, we made it unduly hard on ourselves by not being ready to go against EMU. Injuries happen, teams get dinged out. Didn't have anything to do with the guys we did have jumping offsides.
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