Bowling Green State University Athletics
Urban Meyer Press Conference
October 24, 2001 | Football
Oct. 24, 2001
I tell you what I thought of last week going into that game, we were a very wounded football team going into that game. And I tried to stay as positive as I could with the players, but it's hard to when basically Andy Sahm did not practice until Thursday and Josh Harris did not practice at all.
We have been very good against the rush. We have spent so much time and so much energy to force people to throw the ball and at times that has hurt. So I really got to take my hat off to Tommy Thigpen and Tim Beckman. The preparation is as important as anything, and I think coach Thigpen and Beckman and those two corners, were challenged. Janssen Patten had struggled a little bit and Keon Newson never started before and both did a great job.
A lot of positives came out of this the most important is we are 5-2 going into the bye week. A bye week, could not happen at a better time. We are going to need every ounce of preparation we can to get ready to play Miami. The record proves they are the best, if not he best team in the MAC East, them and Marshall, they are the top two. That QB is outstanding, so that's where we are at.
Are you a fan of bye weeks?
Yes, you always look for that on the schedule, you know as a coach or assistant coach, certainly as a head coach you always know its coming. I told all of the coaches and players to expect absolute and complete exhaustion by the time of the bye week because there is no time. I asked them and demanded them to just give as hard as you can.
It's amazing what motivates 18-22 year olds, the fact that they did not have to get up early Monday morning for video sessions and all the other stuff we do with them. As they are running off the field at Akron, you think they would be cheering and saying "great we are 5-2 and this and this," but all of them kept saying, "we finally get to sleep."
