First game jitters and adjustments
On if there were rusty parts, playing in Jay Johnson's offense for the first time...
"Yeah, definitely. There definitely were some rusty parts. It's good to come out with a W. Those aren't easy to come by, by any means. That's the most important part right there. But it was good to stretch the ball downfield a little bit. We weren't able to come up with a couple plays. We had a pass interference on one, so that was good. But overall, I had a lot of fun playing out there tonight."
On if some players were too amped, with all the penalties and bad snaps...
"Yeah, you could definitely say that. I think it's a mixture of being a little bit too amped and a little bit nervous. We got a couple guys on the offensive line there that haven't played in this type of setting before. We got some young receivers as well that haven't played before. Unfortunately, you don't have preseason games like the NFL does where you'll be able to get adjusted to things like that. To be able to win a game against a team like Oregon State and have that sloppiness there, that will definitely help us moving forward."
Freshman
On Tyler Johnson...
"I've been really impressed with him. He's a heck of a player. Really athletic kid, does a great job catching the football, and I think that showed a lot tonight. I think the one that stood out to me the most is right out of his break, he was able to get his head snapped around and catch the ball over on their sideline. He's a good competitor. The lights aren't too big for him. He can get out there and play."
On the impact of having true freshman step in and play right away...
"It is big, especially when you're playing a major conference team like that...I think both the defense and offense helped each other out in a lot of different situations. When you can play good team football like that, it shows a lot about the character on this team. You know we're all in this thing together."
Experience
On if coming from behind before helped him this time...
"I think so. When you get in those situations in practice and two minute drill and whatever it may be, I've never had any doubt that crosses my mind that I won't score in this two minute drive. That's just the way I feel. I like to have the ball in my hand in those moments and make those plays. I didn't really even realize it was a comeback victory, to be honest with you, until you mentioned it."
On if he's comfortable at this point in his career not getting into a passing rhythm early...
"I think it all just kind of depends on what we're going against in a certain week. I know this week with Oregon State having a new defensive coordinator, we had a set set of plays we wanted to run in order to see what their defense was going to do, to put us in some manageable situations right away and get a feel for what was going on. A lot of those plays weren't passing plays to begin that. But when we do want to turn that on, I think it's an easy thing to do. We've been there before. We can pick them apart all the way down the field, I think."
More quotes from Mitch Leidner:
On if his foot and past injuries was in his mind at all...
"It's been in my mind quite a bit lately actually. Especially with what happened to Teddy Bridgewater, I hate to bring it up, but you can't not think about that as a quarterback and be like 'holy cow, that's terrible.' I feel so bad for him. That's something that's just a non-contact type of thing, too. You can't take any moment for granted out there. You get this great opportunity to play football. You got to go out there and play every single down. You have to play every single down like it's your last because you never know."
On how he thinks he did with reads and presnap decisions...
"I thought it was good. There were a few that I missed on, no question there. Then there was a few where I thought I hit it right on the nose, and we could get a good play out of it. Their three down front, there were some things that were difficult. I'd like to think that when I made some checks out there, they liked to blitz from the opposite side that I thought they were coming from, but I don't really know. I'm lucky to have a good running back like Rodney Smith to make me right in some of those situations."
On passing Rickey Foggie in career rushing touchdowns...
"I guess that's definitely a really good record to have, especially with a guy like Rickey Foggie. I got a lot of respect for him. I got to know him throughout my Gopher career, impressive player. To be able to put up a number like that, I guess, is huge, but all the credit goes to the guys up front and the guys on the edge. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't be able to get in the endzone.
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