Clawson Presser--Cut People Loose edition

So today, Coach Clawson met with the media....I watched it so you don't have to.

First, Coach was very happy with the effort in Idaho.  As he has mentioned other times, he felt that the team was really ready to play before the game.  In the locker room, he sensed a quiet intensity that has not been evident in the past.  In fact, he said it was one of the better environments he remembers while coaching and he sensed the change on the entire trip.

And, as he said time and time again, it has happened once.  11 to go.

Injury wise, Kyle Bryant is listed at the top of the depth chart at LT.  He missed the Idaho game with a broken hand.  He has been practicing and will be a game time decision, but it sounded like we would keep the Idaho O-line of (L-R) Bojicic, Wharton, Robinson, Flewellyn, Roussos.

Also, Adrien Spencer is 50/50 to play Saturday.

Someone asked about 3rd downs.  He said the defense was very good because they kept Idaho in relatively long conversion attempts, and BG got enough pass rush from base defense to be able to keep guys in coverage and defend.

On offense, he felt like BG did well in third and long but failed in 3rd and short.  He was "disappointed."  We ran the ball well, but not situationally.  He said that 1-2 more first downs in the second half would have been useful.

The two things the team needs to improve on is:

• Breakdowns in the secondary, which were apparently worse than they appeared, as BG was bailed out a couple of times on pass rush and bad passes.
• Short yardage offense.

He said that he was happy with the offensive line play, saying that the line didn't "cut people loose" and thereby introduced the phrase of the day.  We didn't always get great push, but we weren't cutting people loose--ie letting them run around unblocked.

On offense, he placed great emphasis in staying "on schedule."  He has talked about this before...but, basically, while he is happy to get a big run, he is mostly happy to get 2-3 yards.  This keeps us "on schedule" which means that you are going to have 3rd and 4 or less to go, and then you have the chance to run or pass for the first down.

He made the obligatory comments about Morgan State--they have good skill players, use multiple sets on defense, and have a big kick returner.

He also said something interesting about the game planning.  He said we developed the game plan for this game in the spring, which I find hard to believe.  Morgan did things differently against Towson than we expected, so we had to go and rewrite the whole thing.  Just seems like you'd want to know what you had from your own guys before you went making game plans....but, I'm no coach.

Finally, he was asked about the controversy up North with Coach Beckman talking about his difficulties with his players being forced to attend class on the day of a weekday game.  Here's what he said....quickly...referring to adversity.

“Some things not any other football team has had to go through before,” Beckman said.

Coach Clawson was asked about this.  He said...

• He was surprised by Beckman's comments because Clawson had always thought it was a rule that players had to attend class the day of a game.
• BG players have attended class on game days during Clawson's time here, and he assumed that was the rule.

So, perhaps it wasn't unprecedented adversity.