Scot Loeffler Friday Press Conference Transcript (Western Michigan Game)

Scot Loeffler Press Conference
Oct. 28, 2022
Bowling Green, Ohio

LOEFFLER: Good afternoon. Thank you for coming. Happy Monday. It's a Monday in Bowling Green’s world and Happy Friday for all the people that aren't in the Bowling Green world right now. Really like the schedule with this MACtion coming up, in terms of preparation time. We're gonna go outside. today is our Monday practice, we're gonna go outside this evening and be under the lights to adjust to the lighting. Saturday will be our Tuesday practice, Sunday will be our Wednesday, and we'll go from there. But really like the time that you can use on the weekend for preparation. And we're going to need it. This Western Michigan team, I think is very good. They're very equivalent to Miami of Ohio. The Miami of Ohio and Western Michigan game looked very similar to the Miami game and Bowling Green game. I think it's a very comparable opponent and it's gonna be an exciting night in the Doyt on Wednesday night. It's gonna be a beautiful evening. Absolutely perfect for football and we need all the community, and we need all the students out for this game. This is a big game for our program and just like I said, it's not gonna be a sideways rain and wind and snow like it normally is at this time. We're gonna have a beautiful evening. I think the game time temperature will be right around 58 degrees. I think it's gonna be an unbelievable opportunity for people to get out and watch our team play.

QUESTION: Karl Brooks leads the country in sacks. Can you sum up how big the front seven has been?
LOEFFLER: I know that Karl is the leader in the country in sacks, but I think it's a total defensive effort. Our team, when they're getting sacks, that means we're covering well. And that means that a linebacker or defensive end is doing a great job with his gap to create an opportunity for a one-on-one spin move, bull rush or whatever technique we're using. So as excited as I am for Carl, I'm more excited for our defense. I think sacks are very equivalent to touchdown passes and completions. It takes a whole effort of the unit. And super excited for our unit.

QUESTION: Sami Sir was named MAC East Special Teams Player of the Week. How big was his performance last week?
LOEFFLER: Absolutely critical. We said that he had to punt better, and he did. I thought he punted exceptional. We’re gonna need that. Field position this time of year is critical. The month of November, Lord knows the weather that we're gonna get. It's nice for him to get into a groove and that whole punt team to get into a groove to be quite honest with you.

QUESTION: Yesterday, Terion Stewart tweeted about coming back in January. Are you able to say anything about that?
LOEFFLER: I did not read his tweet. I know that Terion is working on some things, personally, that he has to handle. And I'm hoping to goodness that we will see him in January.

QUESTION: You talk about playing in different seasons. Does the approach fundamentally change?
LOEFFLER: No, I think everything stays the same. We have reduced the contact that we're doing in practice just because it's that time of year. Our guys are beat up. I think the bye week or the long week or whatever you call this really came at the right time. We had some guys that were banged up that we're gonna get back. But our pace and how we approach business needs to upgrade, to be quite honest with you. Besides taking the some of the physical contact out of practice, our pace, our rhythm, how we do business needs to get upgraded. This is gonna be the toughest part of our schedule in my opinion. Western Michigan, just like I said, it's very difficult prep on defense. They do a lot of things. I think Tim's a really good offensive coach and he's got extra time to work on our defense, so he'll do a great job. I think there's special teams are good. We've got our work cut out for us and we need to make sure that we're using every single second of time for preparation. We've used these last couple days to really dive into Western inside and out to gain a little bit more time on them, because we're gonna need it. I think this is a really quality opponent. We gotta play our best. That's who we are. All these games are the same. I hate sounding like a broken record, but they really are. Everyone's the same. Anyone can win. It's the team that takes care of the football, makes the most explosions, runs the ball well enough and can stop the run. We've got a tough, tough week ahead of us for sure.

QUESTION: How exciting is it to have Derek van der Merwe as the new athletic director?
LOEFFLER: I've known Derek, just like I said, since my first job and known him for quite some time. He's hired some of my friends in head coaching roles, and he's a guy that is gonna bring energy. He's a very smart guy, just like I said. He played football at Central Michigan, was a walk on, became a captain, played for Herb Deromedi. He knows what the MAC and knows what football's supposed to look like in the MAC. Herb’s one of the icons of this league. We've gotta work really well together and upgrade some things and do the very best we can at Bowling Green and try to make Bowling Green the best we possibly can.

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