Scot Loeffler Friday Press Conference Transcript (Michigan Game)

Scot Loeffler Press Conference
Sept. 11, 2023
Bowling Green, Ohio

LOEFFLER: Good afternoon. And I'd like to begin by giving our condolences and prayers to all the people that lost their life on 9/11. And we also want to thank all those first responders that were so courageous to help their fellow citizens. We started our team meeting this morning by watching 2 videos of 911 and it's fascinating when you look at it. Some lot of these guys weren't even alive when that occurred, but we thought as a staff that it's important to educate our players on that horrific day and we also wanted to send a message that if you remember our country became super united after that incident and it just shows you when a country is united, when a business united, when a teams united, you generally can overcome anything. So that's how we started our team meeting, and it was full of gratitude and thankfulness for all the people that that helped others that day. We've watched all the Michigan film. There are playoff team coach Harbaugh and his staff. I really believe done a wonderful job recruiting some of the best talent that I've seen at Michigan. They're super well coached. They're developed and most importantly, they play the game the way it's supposed to be played. They play with great effort and great technique, so we've got our hands full. We look forward to the challenge, super excited for our kids to go into that great stadium and compete versus a national championship type of team.

QUESTION: On the emotions of going up against your Alma Mater
LOEFFLER: I think it's right now more than anything, and I think that's the way our staff feels. There's a lot of guys on our staff that it had the opportunity to go to Michigan and the way that we look at it is we're super grateful for giving us an opportunity to earn a degree. Super grateful to got to play a game that we love. Tremendously grateful for all the relationships that we have from that place. I say this all the time, I learned this from Gary Moeller the first week I was in in camp, he said, “You'll never be able to repay Michigan back from what Michigan's going to do for you.” And that's the message that we try to teach our players here. I mean, our players are never going to be able to repay back Bowling Green for what Bowling Green's going to do for them so that with all the transfer portal with all the NIL at the end of the day, the things that are important in college football still are education, playing as a team, playing a game that we love and the relationships that we build and then obviously winning championships.

QUESTION: On facing the highest ranked opponent in BG football history and the opportunity for this program
LOEFFLER: Yeah, they're good. They're great, just like I said at the beginning, there's not a position on the field that you see that has weakness. I think they're way better than they were last year. I think they're physical. I think they run to the ball really well. They're violent, super athletic. I think JJ is outstanding. The offensive line reminds me of the of the five that we had in 1999. That all went in the first round. They were very good football team and very well coached and the thing that's most impressive is how they play. They play hard and we got to go in there and play our best football we've got to be creative. There's a there's some mismatch problems that we're going to have, and we've got to be able to adapt and adjust to all their strengths and do what we do well, try to eliminate a couple things that they do excellent and go gives ourselves a chance to go compete.

QUESTION: On the preparation for the environment that is going to be on Saturday
LOEFFLER: It's a great it's one of those special places to play and you got to be able to manage the noise. You got to be able to use silent cadence, which is difficult. Fortunately, I hate silent cadence. You got to do it, but you know, fortunately, this will be the only game that I think will have to use it, which is great. I still like using the old school cadence, but yeah, you've got to be able to manage the environment. You got to handle the crowd noise. You got to walk into there and you know, respect that there's 112 people in there. But at the end of the day, after the first snap, its playing football, you generally start losing sight of the fans and how big the place is, and you know our kids walked into a an awesome environment down in Tennessee and I thought they handled it quite well and we got a walk in there. Handle it environment. Really lock in on what we need to do. And go play our best game.

QUESTION: On JJ McCarthy’s performance so far this season
LOEFFLER: He's really good. Yeah, he's really come a long way, too. I think the quarterback coach and obviously Coach Harbaugh being a quarterback guy has done an excellent job with him. He's got a lot of weapons around him, and the running game is ridiculous. The offensive line is their strength, without a doubt, and JJ can sit back there and whenever you watch them, it's like a skelly. I mean literally they protect really well the receivers do a great job of creating separation. They find the holes in the zones, they create separation in man coverage and he's accurate and athletic and he can make plays with his feet. He's one of those special ones at that position. There's no question about that. He'll fall into those great quarterbacks that walk through those doors.

QUESTION: On how the defense can slow down against Michigan’s offense
LOEFFLER: Well, you got to stop something or try to stop something. And obviously, whenever you can stop the run game, which is a challenge at itself, they get into 12 personnel and 22 personnel and they go back to some old school NFL power style runs that to be quite honest with you, not a lot of people run anymore and they're hard to fit. So, you got to try to slow down their run game and try to get them in a situation where it's at least a one-dimensional game.

QUESTION: On the challenge of working against a secondary like they have with Mike Sainristill and Will Johnson
LOEFFLER: Yeah, and they're not even playing. I don't think the two All Americans have stepped on the field yet. They're loaded in the back end. That's what's impressive they’re powerful, they play with their hands really well, the linebackers can run, but their secondary I think is one of the better secondaries that I've ever seen. When I was there some excellent, excellent guys in the back end. I think there was talented as they've had there.

QUESTION: On the memories of being at Michigan
LOEFFLER: The people without a doubt. And it all started with Coach Schembechler, Coach Schembechler is from my hometown. It's probably the biggest reason that I want to Michigan. Believe it or not, all my life I was a Buckeye and Coach Schembechler was really the reason why I probably went there and then obviously Coach Moeller recruiting me. Lloyd Carr, who I consider a father figure without a doubt and the ties that you know Coach Schembechler had to Doyt Perry, I think is really cool. You look at the Harbaugh family Jack was here, Jack and Jackie, I believe met here. Jim and John lived the some of their youth here, went to St. Aloysius. My roommate in college is the defensive line coach there, Mike Elston who is a great man and great memories. Mike Hart and Ron Bellamy, I coached. They are their running back and receiver coaches. Dave Ablauf who is the media guy, Phil Johnson, who's now the head trainer, Phil Bromley, still the video guy. So, there's a lot of people that are still there whenever I was fortunate to be in those doors so it's a special place. Probably the reason why I love our alum and our former players so much here at BG, they remind me, love my teammates here. Whenever you talk to a BG guy that's played at BG, they're the same way as my teammates. They love their school. They appreciate what they had they give back and that's why I love our alums so much here they are awesome. They love BG. They appreciate BG and my teammates feel the same way about where I played.
QUESTION: On the coaching staff providing the once in a lifetime opportunity to play at the Big House
LOEFLLER: It's a special week and all that, but at the end of the day it's football game. You got to go in you got to prepare like heck and you know this challenge that we're going to have is that I want to have the best Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday practice we've had and these last two weeks we have not put those back to back. We played well this previous weekend, but we were the better opponent. And when you're playing the teams that we're about ready to walk into, you're walking into next week, OU, you're walking into Georgia Tech, you're walking to Miami, Buffalo. You got to be on point. So, I really think this week of practice is going to be really important for the rest of our season. Not only just Michigan, you mentioned it on Saturday.

QUESTION: On being locked in the past two days
LOEFLLER: We always find out where we're at in the week Tuesday. That is a slug fest here. It's old school. You go put the pads on and go practice football like you're supposed to practice football. And so tomorrow is going to be really preparative. I thought today meetings went well, we got to come out and have a really good plan against a really, really good team and try to stop a few things that they do super well and played some strengths that we have and see what happens.

QUESTION: On having a quarterback that has played in the Big Ten before
LOEFFLER: It's huge. I think he's thrown 38 passes. I think against Michigan when he was at Indiana, he played at Indiana, though it wasn't in the Big House. So that's the only thing. But he's played in some really big games and Cam last year played at Mississippi State, which is probably one of the most hostile, annoying, god awful environment you could ever play in. And so, our kids have handled playing in big environments and just like I said, you'll run on that field, you see it for a second and then as a football player, you start just playing football.

QUESTION: On spreading the ball against Eastern Illinois and having the playmakers involved
LOEFFLER: It was great, I think 14 people on offense touched the ball, the two quarterbacks six running backs, six receivers. Yeah, something of that nature was close. It was six receivers and tight ends. It was six running backs and the two quarterbacks, I think it was 14, but that's the way that we love to play ball is to be able to spread it around, but there's going to be times that OJ is going to have 10 catches for 300 yards in the next week he's going to have two. I mean, that's football. There's sometimes that you game plan certain throws for certain guys. I believe whenever Jerry Rice's last game, I think they targeted him or wanted to target him like 30 times in the first half and I think he had one catch. So, a lot is predicated on what the defense gives you. So obviously we try to put the ball in people's hands that we think can make plays, but also what they do well and there's certain games that certain routes are better than others, so obviously different people are going to touch the ball.

QUESTION: On how encouraging defensively, how the pass rush been through the past two games
LOEFFLER: I really didn't watch a lot of during the game, Eastern Illinois scheme. I was really focused on our effort on defense and watching them how they played. And I walked out of the game very concerned that we didn't put enough pressure on the passer. And I remember after watching the tape, they were in a ton of full, full seven man slide protections, which those are very hard to get home with. And so, I felt much better the of how we've been rushing the passer, especially after watching all the seven-man full turn protections that that Eastern Illinois gave our defense. So I think we did right, we played a bunch of coverage, we dropped eight and drop eight and you've got seven man pass protection there's only three wide outs that can catch the ball and you got eight guys drop and then coverage. I thought Mo had a good plan for them.

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