Bowling Green State University Athletics
Scot Loeffler Monday Press Conference Transcript (Miami (OH) Game)
Scot Loeffler Press Conference
Nov. 12, 2021
Bowling Green, Ohio
LOEFFLER: Good afternoon. Just a quick update, Bryce Brand had a pretty severe eye injury in the Buffalo game. He'll be out for the season He is going to have a small procedure that's going to be done, hopefully, next week. The positive is that his sight in his eye is okay, which is great. But there are some things that he has to do in terms of the bones that they need to clean up and fix. But he's going to be out for the rest of the season. He will be coming back next year, very similar to Ferg. With all that being said. I'll take any questions.
QUESTION: What has to be done these last two weeks to kind of get things back on track?
LOEFFLER: They need to, those guys that are playing behind Bryce or behind Ferg, they’ve got to step up. There's a reason that Bryce and Ferg were the starters, so this is a great opportunity for those guys to step up to produce. And, you know, it's just like I said to our team yesterday, this is a great opportunity for us to get some momentum, get ourselves into a great offseason. These two weeks, we can improve and we can move the needle of our program every week. We've tried to do that. There have only been two disappointing weeks that we've had in terms of improvement. That was Toledo and that was obviously Eastern Michigan. I thought the Toledo game, very similar to my comments after the game, I thought our preparation was fine. I thought our want-to and our will were fine. The fact of the matter is they had some really good players against some of our guys, that was our weakness, right now. Those guys are going to improve, they're going to get better. It was just a tough matchup. We had a hard time getting anything going whatsoever.
QUESTION: Looking back on it, would you have done anything different?
LOEFFLER: We had a great plan going into the game and never could get into it. The defensive front was so disruptive that every protection adjustment that we could use, we tried. Whenever you’re full turning, whenever you’re chipping the ends, wherever you're doubling the three, whenever you're sliding to particular guys, they're still getting home. Our problem was even three-man rush. They were getting home in a three-man rush and that just means their defensive line is really good. We obviously will do a great job filling our holes through the recruiting process, get ready to build a really good team to go compete a heck of a lot better than what we did against them. That was disappointing. Like I said to the team, that’s on myself. The fact of the matter is we weren't big enough. We weren't strong enough. We got to get some holes filled in our program to be able to compete with them.
QUESTION: You said after the game this is the first time experiencing a team physically beating you like that. How has the team responded over the last 36 hours?
LOEFFLER: We haven't experienced the team that was as fast. We can argue that this might have been the most talented team that we played all year. It’s definitely one of the fastest teams that we’ve played all year. And I think our young players, in particular, not necessarily the Karl Brooks that are really strong right now, but our young players that are really playing really got a wake-up call about strength. We need to get bigger, we need to get stronger, and obviously, we need to fill our holes with some guys to make our team better. We made a decision to not go down the 14-15 player transfer portal like a lot of teams have done. We did that for a reason. We needed to make sure that we got a foundation of local football players on our team to establish some type of culture. But we’ve got a good locker room now. Now it's time to fill our holes, get big and strong, and go compete for championships. It’s part of the process. I haven't talked about, you're sitting here going ‘you’ve won three games and you’re talking about you’re going to go compete for a championship.” Well, it's time. The fact of the matter is we knew that we would stink in year one, we knew we’d stink in year two, we'd see the light at the tunnel in year three. We’ve been very competitive. Now it's time to go fill our needs and to get strong and go compete.
QUESTION: Can you put a timetable on that?
LOEFFLER: That’s been the formula from the get-go. Dave laid it out. Obviously, my situation was even different than his, but he's laid it out. He's been dead right. I mean, dead-right. Year one, you're going to stink. Year two, you’re going to stink more. Year three, you're going to win some games that you’re not supposed to win and you’re going to lose games that you're supposed to win. That's been the formula. You see it now. You see a locker room where they finally like each other and know each other's names and love each other. We've got that part going for us now. Now it's time to go fill our needs and go compete and bring Bowling Green back to our standards and expectations. That’s been the plan, in four and five. Year four and five, that’s what needs to be done.
QUESTION: In addition to getting stronger, what kind of needs are you looking to fill moving forward?
LOEFFLER: Well, that's in recruiting. You know, there are some positions that we know can compete for the championship right now, and there are some positions that aren't ready yet. Typically, when you're old, you're not talking about that. We need to get some depth, we need to get old. We're going to start getting old here in year four and five which is perfect. And that's when you win at this level.
QUESTION: What are your thoughts on Terion Stewart’s performance over the last couple weeks?
LOEFFLER: Yeah, he's growing. He's maturing. I love Terion. I have a choice word with him at times to keep him in line, but I love him. I want to see him mature even more. I want to see him continue to do great in school. And obviously, watch him play good football and he will play good football. I'm never worried about Terion with good football. I want to see him grow. He's doing well in school, but I want to see him grow even more so when football's over he can have a great life.
QUESTION: What’s the early outlook on Miami?
LOEFFLER: Very tough, you know Chuck's teams are always tough. Not the most complicated on defense but they play extremely, extremely hard. And he's got the formula and it's taken him some time, five, six years to build that. He's done it the right way. You can see on the film that their culture is right, they don't beat themselves. They're a well-coached football team. He's done a really good job recruiting. He's been a guy that I've asked many questions to when I first got here. How did you do it? How did you build it? He did it the right way. Very similar to how we're doing it. Their program is healthy now.
Nov. 12, 2021
Bowling Green, Ohio
LOEFFLER: Good afternoon. Just a quick update, Bryce Brand had a pretty severe eye injury in the Buffalo game. He'll be out for the season He is going to have a small procedure that's going to be done, hopefully, next week. The positive is that his sight in his eye is okay, which is great. But there are some things that he has to do in terms of the bones that they need to clean up and fix. But he's going to be out for the rest of the season. He will be coming back next year, very similar to Ferg. With all that being said. I'll take any questions.
QUESTION: What has to be done these last two weeks to kind of get things back on track?
LOEFFLER: They need to, those guys that are playing behind Bryce or behind Ferg, they’ve got to step up. There's a reason that Bryce and Ferg were the starters, so this is a great opportunity for those guys to step up to produce. And, you know, it's just like I said to our team yesterday, this is a great opportunity for us to get some momentum, get ourselves into a great offseason. These two weeks, we can improve and we can move the needle of our program every week. We've tried to do that. There have only been two disappointing weeks that we've had in terms of improvement. That was Toledo and that was obviously Eastern Michigan. I thought the Toledo game, very similar to my comments after the game, I thought our preparation was fine. I thought our want-to and our will were fine. The fact of the matter is they had some really good players against some of our guys, that was our weakness, right now. Those guys are going to improve, they're going to get better. It was just a tough matchup. We had a hard time getting anything going whatsoever.
QUESTION: Looking back on it, would you have done anything different?
LOEFFLER: We had a great plan going into the game and never could get into it. The defensive front was so disruptive that every protection adjustment that we could use, we tried. Whenever you’re full turning, whenever you’re chipping the ends, wherever you're doubling the three, whenever you're sliding to particular guys, they're still getting home. Our problem was even three-man rush. They were getting home in a three-man rush and that just means their defensive line is really good. We obviously will do a great job filling our holes through the recruiting process, get ready to build a really good team to go compete a heck of a lot better than what we did against them. That was disappointing. Like I said to the team, that’s on myself. The fact of the matter is we weren't big enough. We weren't strong enough. We got to get some holes filled in our program to be able to compete with them.
QUESTION: You said after the game this is the first time experiencing a team physically beating you like that. How has the team responded over the last 36 hours?
LOEFFLER: We haven't experienced the team that was as fast. We can argue that this might have been the most talented team that we played all year. It’s definitely one of the fastest teams that we’ve played all year. And I think our young players, in particular, not necessarily the Karl Brooks that are really strong right now, but our young players that are really playing really got a wake-up call about strength. We need to get bigger, we need to get stronger, and obviously, we need to fill our holes with some guys to make our team better. We made a decision to not go down the 14-15 player transfer portal like a lot of teams have done. We did that for a reason. We needed to make sure that we got a foundation of local football players on our team to establish some type of culture. But we’ve got a good locker room now. Now it's time to fill our holes, get big and strong, and go compete for championships. It’s part of the process. I haven't talked about, you're sitting here going ‘you’ve won three games and you’re talking about you’re going to go compete for a championship.” Well, it's time. The fact of the matter is we knew that we would stink in year one, we knew we’d stink in year two, we'd see the light at the tunnel in year three. We’ve been very competitive. Now it's time to go fill our needs and to get strong and go compete.
QUESTION: Can you put a timetable on that?
LOEFFLER: That’s been the formula from the get-go. Dave laid it out. Obviously, my situation was even different than his, but he's laid it out. He's been dead right. I mean, dead-right. Year one, you're going to stink. Year two, you’re going to stink more. Year three, you're going to win some games that you’re not supposed to win and you’re going to lose games that you're supposed to win. That's been the formula. You see it now. You see a locker room where they finally like each other and know each other's names and love each other. We've got that part going for us now. Now it's time to go fill our needs and go compete and bring Bowling Green back to our standards and expectations. That’s been the plan, in four and five. Year four and five, that’s what needs to be done.
QUESTION: In addition to getting stronger, what kind of needs are you looking to fill moving forward?
LOEFFLER: Well, that's in recruiting. You know, there are some positions that we know can compete for the championship right now, and there are some positions that aren't ready yet. Typically, when you're old, you're not talking about that. We need to get some depth, we need to get old. We're going to start getting old here in year four and five which is perfect. And that's when you win at this level.
QUESTION: What are your thoughts on Terion Stewart’s performance over the last couple weeks?
LOEFFLER: Yeah, he's growing. He's maturing. I love Terion. I have a choice word with him at times to keep him in line, but I love him. I want to see him mature even more. I want to see him continue to do great in school. And obviously, watch him play good football and he will play good football. I'm never worried about Terion with good football. I want to see him grow. He's doing well in school, but I want to see him grow even more so when football's over he can have a great life.
QUESTION: What’s the early outlook on Miami?
LOEFFLER: Very tough, you know Chuck's teams are always tough. Not the most complicated on defense but they play extremely, extremely hard. And he's got the formula and it's taken him some time, five, six years to build that. He's done it the right way. You can see on the film that their culture is right, they don't beat themselves. They're a well-coached football team. He's done a really good job recruiting. He's been a guy that I've asked many questions to when I first got here. How did you do it? How did you build it? He did it the right way. Very similar to how we're doing it. Their program is healthy now.