Scot Loeffler Friday Press Conference Transcript (Toledo Game)

Tarleton State

Sep 5 (Sat)

12 p.m.

Scot Loeffler Press Conference
Nov. 10, 2022
Bowling Green, Ohio

LOEFFLER: Like I said last night, when things go bad, it's my responsibility and when things go right, it's my job to pass that credit to people in our program and things did not go right last night. The plan was to be aggressive and go for as many as four downs as we can to try and keep Kent off the field, and we failed in that area. We were 0-for-6. When you watch the tape, there was huge plays to be made on those fourth down calls and we just didn't execute them, plain and simple. If we made those plays, there's a good chance that we're in the red zone and giving ourselves an opportunity to score and things would have been completely different, but they weren't. That was my decision and I'll own it.

QUESTION: Was there anything leading up to the game that caused the flat start?
LOEFFLER: Not at all. Just like I said, it wasn't flat. We just didn't execute on the critical downs that we needed to execute on. We had 4th and short numerous times, third down and medium. The fourth down and seven right here was a catch and run for a huge gain and we just didn't do it and that's my responsibility. I made those decisions and it didn't work out, plain and simple.

QUESTION: Matt McDonald faced a lot of pressure, was that a miscommunication issue up front?
LOEFFLER: Yeah, they blitzed and twisted much more than what they've shown. At times we handled it well and at times we didn't.

QUESTION: Does it give you confidence that you’ve rallied after big losses before?
LOEFFLER: I think we're a resilient program. We're resilient people. We need to
makes the plays. That's where we're still at right now. There are numerous plays that can be made that make differences in games and at times we make them and at times we don't. The inconsistency of that needs to change for us to win games, like we were in position last night. You know those type of opportunities. So, we'll regroup. You have no choice. You're getting ready to play a rivalry game. There's no choice. You got to get ready to go. As disappointing as last night was, for numerous reasons, you can't go back and change it. I can't go back and change my decision to go for it and be aggressive on fourth down. We’re going to rally the troops, and we're going to go play our hearts out against Toledo. And that's what we're supposed to do.

QUESTION: What does the prep look like going into games on a short week?
LOEFFLER: Fortunately, because of the weekends, we're able to really space out practice quite a bit because you're able. We’ll practice Friday night so it gives our staff all day this afternoon and all day tomorrow to prep and then Saturday late afternoon we'll go and then Sunday is normally our off day for our kids, which would be our Thursday. We’re going to bring them in, meet, have a complete walkthrough and then do our Friday practice on Monday. Fortunately, the weekend gives us a little bit more of an opportunity to space out the preparation because we don't have to go to school.

QUESTION: Does it give you hope knowing that some of your goals are still attainable?
LOEFFLER: Yeah, absolutely. We want to try to find a way to play our best game this coming Tuesday and play our hearts out.

QUESTION: You’ve mentioned Toledo being the most talented team in the MAC, how are you preparing for them?
LOEFFLER: They're a very talented football team. We have to go into this game and handle all the no-talent issues and make the plays when they present themselves. Just like I said, at times we have done that, and we score a bunch of points. And when we don't, we don't score near enough that we would want to. It showed up in the Western Michigan game. That should have been a 35-point outing for us and we didn't make four or five plays that were really key to the whole game and that's what happened last night on fourth down, plain and simple. You execute those plays, it's a different discussion that we're having, but we didn't and it's my responsibility.

QUESTION: Are there any positives from this week you can carry into next?
LOEFFLER: Yeah, how important it is when you're playing good opponents you have to take advantages of the opportunities that you're given because the opportunities are not as numerous as when you're playing an inferior opponent. When you're playing a really good opponent, particularly in rivalry games, you might only get five or six opportunities because they're good. Whenever those five or six opportunities occur, you have to make those plays. That's in any big rivalry game. I could sit here and tell you every single play that was made in the Ohio State-Michigan game from 1993 to 2007. When we were either won or lost the game, it came down to normally three or four plays and that will be no different here this Tuesday night. You're going to get a set amount of opportunities and you got to take advantage of them, especially when you're playing a really talented, good football team.

QUESTION: Matt played well last night. How big of a confidence booster is it for him to have another year of experience under his belt coming into a rivalry game?
LOEFFLER: Yeah, it's really important. He'll sit here and tell you that there were a couple plays that he should have made on fourth down too There absolutely are. I thought he played really well, minus seeing a couple snaps. It's generally typical in a game. Having an older guy is really important. Just like I said, the room for error is so slim that whenever you have a young guy out there, they're generally going to make a few more mistakes than you want them to. Matt’s got to play really well. Every single person in this program's got to play really, really well to give ourselves a chance, the opportunity, to beat a really good, talented football team.

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