Scot Loeffler Monday Press Conference Transcript (Murray State Game)

Scot Loeffler Press Conference
Sept. 13, 2021
Bowling Green, Ohio

LOEFFLER: Good afternoon, thank you for coming. My comments after the game were pretty spot-on. There was a lot of effort that occurred in that football game. I thought our kids played extremely hard. There was the want-to to win and we just made a couple of mistakes and those mistakes were at every position, every phase of football. Just like I said, I commented after on the third down and eight, he jumped offsides we took the sack. Should’ve run the ball and kicked a field goal. Obviously, the trick play, if that would have worked we'd all been heroes, if it didn’t were the goats. So, we’re the goats.

It is what it is, it was the right call statistically. It was a 90 percent chance we were going to get the coverage that we anticipated. We got a 2 Fire which they haven't shown, except in the Indiana film, all the way back when he was in Indiana, so that was the only time in the game. But if I could go back and do it all over again, I’d kill the play and get out of it, not put our young football player in that position. To make a long story short, I put him in a bad position. He didn't know how to throw the ball away yet, that's on me 100 percent.
But the thing that I was encouraged with last week is the week of the Tennessee game we did not practice hard at all, not even remotely like an organization that needs to practice to win. And I thought last week we finally did practice well, the intent as well, but the attention to detail and doing things in and out of practice to translate to Saturday did not occur. I received two text messages, one from an offensive leader, one from a defensive leader. In a nutshell, they said that every single thing that you preach about during the week showed up on Saturday. The positives that we saw on the practice field translated right over to the game experience and the negatives that translated, we saw in practice also.

So, as painful as this is, I think the one positive that's going to come out of it is we got our players’ attention. We got our players’ attention in regards to practicing hard, and our attention to detail during the week will give us a much better chance of winning. And stressing to our team, the importance of those details if you, if you do them in practice, there's a 90 percent chance you're going to execute in the game. Nothing’s 100 percent, but when you're a once-in-a-while guy during practice, you're going to be a once-in-a-while guy during a game. That's basically what happened in a nutshell.
I’m extremely excited about this week, another really tough opponent. This is not a typical FCS team. This is a big-time program. I think they're super well-coached in all phases, I watched all three phases. I think they're talented, and they're super disciplined, super well-coached, so we're going to have our hands full. I told our kids we're going to have to play our best game to get a win.

QUESTION: Is a loss like that tougher than a blowout game, if you will, because you’re so close?
LOEFFLER: They’re all hard but that one was really difficult just because of how far we've come. And if you watch from year one to now it's not even close. And we still got holes, I mean we still got to fill some holes. Once we fill those holes, we're going to feel really confident and feel really good about our football team. I was really sad for the kids, more than anything, I thought they played their tails off, all of them did, and they made mistakes, but it was a great effort. But in football, it's the team that makes the most mistakes and we made the most mistakes and that's why we lost the football game.
Yes, I was shot, as well as our staff, as well as our team, but we have a 24-hour rule here, one way or the other. If you win or lose, you got 24 hours to let it go. So, all our focus now is on Murray State.

QUESTION: What was the response like in practice?
LOEFFLER: They’re locked in. We’re running around in basketball gear today, so we'll find out tomorrow. Tuesday is always a huge indicator. Wednesday is a huge indicator. There are some things that I addressed on Thursday, that was just complete immaturity and lack of detail and it showed up. I remember walking off the field and a player overheard me. And he walked up to me after the game and said, ‘You were right on Thursday.’ We addressed it and cleaned it, everything matters. Winning is hard, it is tough, and every single detail is a key one.

QUESTION: Matt [McDonald] gets Offensive Player of the Week. He has a great deal of small victories like that, how do you see that building his confidence and getting guys going?
LOEFFLER: Like I always say, I do think he played, at times, really well in the last ballgame against South Alabama. I thought he played better in the Tennessee game. There were opportunities out here that we missed that he knows that could have changed the difference in the game. And that's why I love coaching the quarterback position. Everyone says, ‘Rah rah rah. You did great.’ And then you're just sitting in there watching the film and going, ‘Okay, there's five or six or seven things that could really make a difference,’ but I thought he played really well these last two weeks.
Like I said, we found some things in the South Alabama game that we would love to have back. Every single person on our team, including myself, wants a few things back. So, when you lose a game like that you always look particularly close to how you could have made a difference. He would tell you the same thing.

QUESTION: When it comes to these really close games, final seconds, is this a thing where the team can learn and practice Monday through Friday, how to win games like that or is it something that they have to experience, and go through those tough moments to get through?

LOEFFLER: Well, I think you’ve got to experience them. Obviously, we put a ton of pressure on our players. But the learning lesson is that everyone walked out and knew why we didn't finish that game. And I know the three plays that I would love to have back, but the players know what occurred during the week. The intent was awesome, but the attention to detail and the immaturity at times were not. As much as this sucks, I wanted those kids to win in the most imaginable way for them.
More importantly, we're going to look back and, as painful as this is, we're going to look back and go, this is really going to help our program down the road. As much as it stinks, and trust me, I hate losing more than anything, but I just know that when you have a young team, the way that we do, sometimes learning the hard way is the most important way.

QUESTION: You mentioned improvements in practice, what are some of those next steps going into Saturday?
LOEFFLER: Attention to detail, without a doubt. Things that we know if we put in something new, and we bust on that, that's helping us as coaches. We need to make sure that that play is game-ready for Saturday or throw it out, but the basics, the fundamentals of the offense and the defense, and the special teams are the core of what we do. If we're busting things that we've been working on for years around here now, that’s how we lose.
That's what occurred in practice last week. Things that are our core, we make mistakes, and they showed up in the game.

QUESTION: Andrew Bench caught that first touchdown, he had a position swap in the offseason. It seems like he's earned Matt’s trust and your trust relatively quickly, what's he done within practices?
LOEFFLER: I think we made a good decision by moving him over. Our defensive line is extremely talented, and he would have played on defense, there's no question about it, but we had a hole there to fill. He’s a true ‘Y’ and his body type fits. He’s working really hard right now, just the things that we were just talking about. The details, every single thing matters, and I think, as soon as he gets that mentality and figures that out, he's going to be a very, very good tight end in this conference. He's a good player now, we need to get him to be really good.

QUESTION: You talked on Saturday about the running game, and this has been a question the last couple of weeks, it's been very quiet. What have they done today, at least for any kind of walkthrough, or any kind of steps forward?
LOEFFLER: I don't know how much it is mentally right now. If you really watch the tape, there's not a ton of missed assignments in the running game. A lot of it has to do with some strength, some age, some experience, and I can handle that right now. We know that’s our weakness right now. With time, that will be our strength. Right now, there's not a lot of missed assignments which my hat's off to those guys. There’s a lot of young guys that are playing positions that old guys should be playing. We're being creative as we can as coaches to help them protect Matt. And we'll have to continue to do that for this year. As soon as we get older and stronger, that run game will kick up, and obviously, you’ve seen how we can throw the ball. Once we are able to run the ball the way that we want to run the ball, along with how we can throw it, this is going to be a really good offense. I wish that I could sit here and go, ‘It was missed assignments, it was that, it was this.’ No, the guy’s a freshman, he's playing against a 22-year-old dude. The offensive line needs to be 21 and 22-year-old dudes. That's the formula of the MAC. We can say what we want. The Big Ten, the SEC, all those great linemen are older. We're going to find ways to help those guys, and I’m proud of their effort. Those guys are selling out, they’re giving it every single thing they have. There are some things that aren't in place right now with age.

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