Bowling Green State University Athletics
Gregg Brandon Press Conference
November 30, 2005 | Football
Nov. 30, 2005
BGSU football coach Gregg Brandon sat down with the local media for an end of the season wrapup of the 2005 campaign.
Expectations to do well are sometimes hard to deal with, how do you think you dealt with your expectations this year?
"Obviously by the results, not well. Any time you are picked to win it all and you don't get that done, you don't meet the expectations. Not so much the expectations set by the media, but the expectations set by our team. It's nice to be perceived as the best team by people outside of the program and you want those accolades, but when you set team goals and you don't meet those team goals that is when you are disappointed and that's where we are right now."
So it's not so much the outside expectations it's the team goals?
"Yes. This team felt they were good enough to win a championship and play in a bowl game again, but we didn't get that done so we are going to evaluate and move on."
As far as the evaluation, do you think there was too much emphasis winning by outscoring other teams?
"I think that is good speculation and would be good water cooler talk. Whether or not I believe that, I don't know. Obviously when you are scoring 44 points a game you are going to win a lot games and that is what we did last year. I'll win football games anyway I can, if it is 3-0 or 44-40, but anytime through the course of the season there are going to be things that show up and you may or may not be where you want to be. There are going to be some inadequacies that show up in your team. Those are the things that we need to fix."
Were those inadequacies most prevalent on defense and in the kicking game?
"We had some problems throughout the season stopping the run against better teams. That is something we need to do a better job of but statistically, and I am not a big statistic guy, you have to look at those things in an evaluation. Statically, we were a better defense in total defense than we were last year. We gave up more yards last year than we did this year. Last year, we gave up more passing yards. This year, we gave up more rushing yards. In scoring defense last year I think we gave up 23 or so and this year 27."
"I think we just need to keep getting better on that side of the ball; keep recruiting good players there, which I think we have done. This last class I think was solid and we redshirted a lot of good young players that can run. That is something we need to continue to do and not ignore the offense."
You have been hurt by several things that you cannot foresee. You can recruit guys and if they don't pan out there is nothing you can do about it.
"I think it is our job as coaches to recruit, and my program philosophy is to recruit character, and not characters. Through the process, it is hard to sort all that out and with the way the rules are now you don't get a lot of time to find out about a kid and there are some kids you take a chance on.
Matt Leininger was supposed to get a year then you would revaluate him, are you going to do this and give him another opportunity to play?
"I think if he is healthy and well, he could certainly come back in the '06 season. Whether or not that is going to occur, I do not know. I talked to him after the game for the first time in maybe six months. We are going to continue to talk."
Looking back at the past season, is there anything that you would have done differently?
"Things that I have control over I don't think I would have done anything different. Maybe I would have exposed our defense early on to more two-back offense looks to get them prepared for the Wisconsin's and the Boise's and those types of people because that is where we struggled. That would probably be the only thing, but whether or not that would have helped us I don't know. There were time where we just weren't good enough. Until we get good enough we have to do some things to overcome those deficiency's."
"You can get all caught up in it and say we were terrible in this phase or that phase but we were still playing in the end for a championship. We were in double overtime and if I went for two in the first overtime maybe we would have won that game and that is beating me up right now."
"Hindsight is 20/20. There were some guys in that situation that said lets go for two because our defense was tired, we hadn't stopped them in the second half, and we had momentum. Everybody felt that we had a play that would have worked. You can kick yourself until you can't kick yourself anymore on that. If we make it we win, great, everybody loves it, if we don't it will be, "Coach, why didn't you kick it and extend the game?" When you are in a close game and you lose, you evaluate every play. There are countless plays through that game that if we won, we wouldn't even care about."
I am not going to second guess myself. I feel fortunate the program is in a position right now to compete for championships. We got bowl eligible with a huge win over Miami. We recovered late in the season from Omar's injury with a win at Kent. Say what you want, but that is a tough road win; we lost Anthony in that game, but we hung in there and our defense responded. Obviosuly we are disappointed we are not playing in a bowl game and not competing for a championship. The program is at a point now where we compete for championships and that is what we are going to continue to do."
"This is just a temporary setback, just a blip on the radar. We didn't get some breaks, but we didn't make some breaks."
There were some improvements in the special teams at the end of the year, is there something you can take from that?
"We led the conference in punt returns and finished second with our net punt. We had the least amount of return yards against us and our kick-off cover improved. A lot of that has to do with the kicker, and we were erratic with that all season. The extra point thing was another reason I contemplated going for two because we had been erratic at that position. We will recruit guys that will perform. We had Suisham so we didn't need to recruit anybody. We thought we had some guys in the program that could perform at that level."
You only played five true freshmen in the last two seasons, is there more depth coming up?
"Like I said earlier, we have some good young players in the program. Last year's recruiting class is really good, I think, and two years ago was pretty good."
"Really, I think, we're 6-5, in the hunt at the end and everybody is upset. I guess that is a good thing."
"In the grand scheme of things we had some recruiting holes. We had some depth issues that I thought were going to manifest themselves last year but Omar shows up and goes off that charts. We were able to mask some of those because we out scored everybody. Eventually the lack of depth, caught us. I think it showed up in special teams. Not to say those kids aren't good players but some of them were not ready. We finished the season the way we started the season, struggling to stop people but still outscoring people."
Are there any other areas you think were exposed for their lack of depth as the season went on?
"Some at linebacker. Teddy (Piepkow) was hurt a good chunk of the season, Jamien Johnson was hurt with the knee and he wasn't himself. Terrel White, I thought really stood out and did a nice job for us. He stood out but we needed more. Timmy Arnold stepped in and did an OK job but he had never been a 60-70 snap guy. The back-ups there weren't ready, now they are going to be ready.
"Both lines did a nice job and I think the O-line and D-line are the strength of our team right now. We recruited well at the offensive line. When we first came here four years ago that was an awful position. There were five and a half guys that could play and we have built that line through the years. Now we have 17 scholarship players that are going to play through the classes. At defensive line, I think we have done that too. Diyral Briggs has stepped up and had a good year for us. Devon Parks has continued to play well. Brad Williams is doing a nice job.
You have really taken a hit at receiver over the last two years?
"We have graduated some really good players. Corey Partidge is a player. Corey got hurt and was banged up all season. I think he is a guy. Marques Parks is a guy and he got hurt. Those kids are good players for us. Ruben is going to be a good player. I think we are going to be okay."
What is happening with Omar?
"He is going through the evaluation process with the NFL and we'll see how that pans out. I would love to have him back. He is a great kid, quality person and certainly an outstanding player. If he decides to move on I will wish him the best. He will have success no matter what he does."
Do you think your defense will benefit from not having it all thrown at them in July?
"No question. It was tough on John (Lovett) not to go through spring ball. Just from a personnel standpoint, I don't think we settled on positions. We had some holes to fill and for him not to have spring football it was tough. People have to deal with those issues it is part of the game."
