Scot Loeffler Monday Press Conference Transcript (Marshall Game)

Scot Loeffler Press Conference
Sept. 12, 2022
Bowling Green, Ohio

LOEFFLER: Good afternoon, hope you guys are doing well. After watching the tape, there was a ton of positive. We won the turnover battle, won the explosion battle, and it's the first time in my career, whenever you win the turnover battle and win the explosion battle, you lose the football game. I thought offensively, we made tremendous strides on 3rd down. Right over 50% in the red area, we were 6-of-7. We blocked a punt and with all that being said, when you when the daily double, which is the turnover battle, the explosion battle, you’re generally 85% win. And then when you block a punt, the odds go up even more. But when you evaluate the tape, there was some critical errors in the wrong times, plain and simple. The snap over the head, just like I said, no one wanted to do that whatsoever. The missed field goal. That was a 10 point swing in the first half. We had some critical penalties in two-minute situations on defense, which kept the drives alive. And you know, whenever you're a two-point play from the 18-yard line, the statistical odds of converting on that are about slim to zero and we just didn't finish. Quarterback made a hell of a throw at that time and the moral of the story is there were some really, really positive things and what we have to do is coaches and players is get rid of the critical errors that are happening absolutely at the perfect wrong time.

QUESTION: What's the overall morale like physically, mentally, emotionally coming off of game that goes four and half hours like that?
LOEFFLER: Yeah, that was a long stretch to say the least. I think our kids battled. I thought we executed on offense in the second half. We finally looked like the way that we've been seeing our team execute, which was a huge positive. Threw five touchdown passes, ran one. I think Matt was a Player of the Week in the MAC. There was a lot of positive and just like I said, if you really watched the tape, there was a lot of good things done in all three phases. We have got to get rid of those critical errors at the absolute wrong time and that's what happened, plain and simple.

QUESTION: The offensive line took some hits from a health standpoint. What’s the overall status for those guys looking to return this week?
LOEFFLER: We're banged up on offense and that was another reason that I was happy with our team. We're down two running backs essentially, we’re down a few lineman, we’re down last game two wide receivers, one was a starter and one has a significant role on our team. I thought they battled, and I thought guys stepped up and just like I said, I thought in the second half we finally saw what our offense can do. We had explosion plays. We ran the ball consistently. We stayed on the field on 3rd down. We executed in the red. There were some positives from that end for sure.

QUESTION: When you look at Marshall, what they're able to do on the road in South Bend, how do you kind of regroup and prepare for them for Saturday?
LOEFFLER: At the beginning of the season, not even in the beginning season, whenever we started our prep work in the winter time and in the summer time for these four opponents, we all thought that, arguably, Marshall could be the best team that we play all year long. They’re fast, they went down the transfer portal in some areas where they had some holes and to be quite honest with you in all three phases, they're loaded. They're a very good football team. It doesn't shock you one bit that they beat Notre Dame.
It just shows you right now in college football, it doesn't matter what emblem is on your helmet right now, it really doesn't, just because of how crazy the transfer portal is. If we would have pulled this game out, everyone would have went, ‘My gosh, I can't believe you went into seven overtimes with EKU.’ Well go watch the Eastern Michigan tape. Go watch that tape against EKU. They're good football team. I mean, they are. They would be highly competitive in our conference. So, the emblem on the helmet doesn't matter. What we gotta do is we gotta play our best football. They've got more talent than we do. There's no question about that, but we gotta do all the little things really well to give ourselves a chance.

QUESTION: Talk about just the front seven and how impressed you are with their play.
LOEFFLER: That's the frustrating part. You know, when you look at the explosion plays that EKU had, there were minimal. We had 13 on offense, I wanna say, and on defense it was six. It wasn't even close. There were sacks. And like I said, I've never really seen this ever before in terms of, we made absolutely the wrong mistakes absolutely at the wrong time, and that's what cost us plain and simple.

QUESTION: Are you pleased with the secondary play?
LOEFFLER: I thought they did quite well at times. There's no doubt about it. I thought they made some big plays. The quarterback’s good. I mean, that quarterback is a very good football player who's accurate. The throw that he made on the two-point play, it was absolutely perfect. You couldn't have thrown a better ball. Guys were in position to make the play and the fact of the matter is we just didn't. But I don't know if you could have. I mean, the guy went up, he high-pointed the ball. The throw, if it was one inch right or left, the ball’s batted down. They made a hell of a play to their credit.

QUESTION: You mentioned the mistakes at the most inopportune times. How do you correct that?
LOEFFLER: It's all repetition. It's constantly reinforcing that in practice and not jumping offsides on 3rd down. We had two critical, critical penalties of jumping offsides on 3rd down. Did those guys wanna jump offsides? No, but they did, and it really hurt us in terms of being able to stop them and those two-minute drives.

QUESTION: What do you feel going to be the biggest key on Saturday in terms of being competitive with Marshall?
LOEFFLER: We gotta do a lot right now. Just looking at their talent, this is equivalent to playing a Big Ten team. You don't walk into South Bend and dominate the game the way they did if you're just average. That was not just a fluke. This Marshall team is a very, very good football team. They've got a ton of talent. They play extremely hard. To their coach’s credit, they play hard in all three phases. You're gonna have to make some big plays on offense and hang on on defense and find a way to, just like we've been doing, on special teams to make a play that's a difference-maker in the game.

QUESTION: Can you talk about PaSean blocking another punt?
LOEFFLER: That was great. PaSean, again going back to he does everything right in practice all the time, and when you get players that do that all the time, good things are gonna happen to them. It's just not coincidence that he's blocking punts on Saturday. He does it during the week. He's full speed every single day, he's in here doing extra. Those type of players always find a way to be successful. I'm really, really excited about him and happy for him and he’s been doing a great job.

QUESTION: How does the offense continue forward now that they have got that performance under their belt?
LOEFFLER: I think consistency, that's what we need to do. We were as consistent as we've been during training camp. I didn't think we played worth a damn offensively against UCLA. Beginning of the first half I didn’t think we protected the passer well and we didn't run the ball consistently. Then I think they responded really well in the second half. We got to see how they can play. We've got explosive players on the perimeter. Thank goodness we've got depth at running back, considering our situation of having our top two guys out. I thought JP (Jaison Patterson) and Nick Mosley and mostly TK (Ta’ron Keith) really stepped up. But thank goodness we've got some depth at that position because it's really, really hard, particularly in the MAC, to overcome your first two running backs being out.

QUESTION: In terms of the overall message to the team, did you have to say anything after the loss?
LOEFFLER: We wanna win every game. You're down 14, finally we came back. I think that's the first time we've ever come back since I've been here. And they came back. They stayed together. They found a way and we were really hoping that the game would have been over in regulation, 38-31, but it wasn't, and I thought they battled back and forth. Great in the two point plays. And they see it on tape. They see themselves doing a lot of good things, but they also go, ‘Gosh, if we wouldn't have made that one critical error at that one particular moment, this game’s over.’ That's where we need to take the next step, no question about it. But I also encouraged them and Alex Bayer encouraged them. You go back and you look, in 2015, the last time we won the championship, we were 1-3 in the first four games. We let one slip away in 2015 and found a way to win the Mid-American Championship. You know Kent State, whenever they made a run at it on our side, they were 1-3 starting out. It's a challenge in the MAC, there's no doubt about it, and you have to find a way to improve, try to sneak as many wins as you possibly can in these first four games, then go play for the MAC championship. That's why we do what we do. But obviously we want to win them all. But considering some of the teams that you play, that's not always the case.

QUESTION: Do you guys prep for that many two-point plays?
LOEFFLER: We absolutely did. We were down to one more left to be quite honest with you then we were in pure scramble mode. I went to Max (Warner) and I go, ‘Max, we've got one more in our backpack on the right hash. If not, let's get our best short yardage plays together, goal line plays together, and we were preparing for if we had to exhaust that last one. We practice, it was obvious. We executed them all. We practice them hard. We practice them hard in the summertime for situations like that.

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Recent Results