On what his thoughts are on the game...
"We shot ourselves in the foot a few times, but we increased our next play mentality, stuck together, and never quit. I thought our kids did a good job with that. We can't have the (bad) snaps, obviously, for us to be good. We dropped a punt, and defensively we had to scramble a little bit. We had targeting penalties and with injuries our depth chart is all messed up. The good thing is we got a few guys in there, younger guys who made a few mistakes, but they made a lot more plays than they did mistakes. The best thing about first games are they're over. They're hard to prepare for when you don't play somebody on a consistent offense. In fact, that got us in trouble a little bit in the first half offensively. But we got things going, ironed out, found a way to win."
On taking away the swing pass in the second half...
"Yeah, except for one. It's a cat and mouse game, you know, it really is. Coach Sawvel timed up a couple of them there pretty good where we ended up dropping off people instead of blitzing people, and they still threw the screen. So it was a good job on his part on the playcalling and good job of execution there towards the end."
On Taiyon Devers...
"He's done awfully well in practice. He's got a lot to learn, but as far as a pass rusher, I was talking about I think with Jay and Coach Phelps, I told them 'hey, let's throw him in there.' Got him in there to create the sack and forced fumble, and he's been that explosive throughout fall practice. The more he learns and the more he develops, the more we'll be able to get him off the field."
On if Taiyon Devers is the quickest defensive lineman...
"Probably first step, yeah. You have to get off the ball. He's really long. It's really easy when you make teams have to do one thing. If you make them in a mode where they have to pass all the time, that's right down his alley. He'll make us better."
On if the players were too revved up with the three targeting calls...
"They must be. I don't know if we had one when I was defensive coordinator, maybe one over the last four years. He must have had them a little bit fired up. First off, I'm all for that rule. It's hard. Like Jon (Celestin), he's aiming lower on the quarterback when he scrambles and he goes feet first and that makes him hit him on the head. We just go back and look at film. Everybody's got to lower their target. When they're scrambling, that's when it gets to be an issue with the quarterback. It's a tough call, it really is in that situation. When they're in the pocket, Taiyon has to learn to lower his target on that. But I'm all for the rule and we'll go to work next week on lowering our target a little bit."
On if there was a risk going for two at the end of the game...
"I guess the question is is it a bigger risk if the other team goes back and scores and if they go for two and don't make it. My opinion is 95% of the time, those teams go down and score late, they're going to kick the extra point and go to over time. I would rather take the chance on getting the three yards and ending the game. That's my philosophy on that. We practice that and get our kids to believe that, too. We didn't get the two point this time; the defense did a good job of getting a stop."
On if being conservative at the end of the first half was calculated...
"Yeah, a little bit. You know we got down there, and I just think that having the lead at halftime is a big deal. If all of a sudden we get sacked there at the end, we're out of field goal range. So once we got to field goal range, I'm like, hey, if we break a run through there or something it's different, but to just start dropping back and chucking, we weren't going to do that."
On what was the difference in the late third quarter when they turned it around offensively...
"Well we couldn't get enough possessions in the third quarter. The defense was on the field a little bit, and we dropped that punt. But I thought after the first quarter offensively, we did some awfully good things. They were jumping in some stuff now that's pretty cool, bringing people, so for the first game, I thought it was pretty good. The snaps, like you said, you got to do that. That's got to be 100%. That starts every play. That was disappointing."
On Rodney Smith...
"I thought he did a good job on the inside zone play, and then the stretch play. He's a really good zone stretch player on the edge with the pulling lineman. He's very patient with the blocks and finds where to make the cut. He's a tough kid, and he don't get credit enough for the college football ringer that he is. He'll get after you."
On Smith's role when Brooks comes back...
"We'll be a better football team. That's all I know because we'll be able to keep fresh legs in there all the time. We'll give it to the hot hand. That's what we'll do because we'll have two extremely good running backs."
On if the penalties and bad snaps were first game issues...
"I don't know, we'll see I guess. If we get them solved the second game, I guess they were first game issues."
On how big of an impact losing Rallis and Poock was...
"Well, we moved Jack Lynn to the more. What hurt us more was our substitution packages. That was our starting two edge rushers was those two guys and all of a sudden they're gone. It took us a little bit, but I thought the guys did a good job of getting the people in there that we needed to. But yeah, we weren't planning on that, for sure you know. Like I said, I give Jay credit. Defensively, they did a hell of a job in the second half for how many kids we were missing."
On Mike Sherels being at the game...
"It's obviously good for him, and it's good for football. What that kid's been through, it's good to have him there, great to have him there. You can sit around the house, or you can come in for a couple hours each day and be around football players. It seems like coaches heal a hell of a lot faster when they're around football players and other coaches. It's always good to head to the office. He knows he has a ways to go in terms of recovery, but being around us and the players can help him do that, and he's welcome any time."
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