Bowling Green State University Athletics
Scot Loeffler Monday Press Conference Transcript (Texas A&M)
Scot Loeffler Press Conference
Sept. 16, 2024
Bowling Green, Ohio
SCOT LOEFFLER OPENING STATEMENT: Good afternoon. Thanks for coming. Thanks for covering Bowling Green football. [I] appreciate you guys being here. We had a great bye [week]. [We] spent Monday and Wednesday of last week doing a bunch of walkthroughs keeping our mental game up. [We] did a bunch of lifting on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and had two really good full padded practices on Tuesday. It was really beneficial. [The bye] helped get our health back. We'll still have few guys out for this game, but for the most part, we were able to get a little healthy after a really physical battle with Penn State.”
“[I] watched Texas A&M quite a bit this summer and last week. Obviously, we have great respect for Coach [Mike] Elko. He coached here, [and I] had many great games [against] him at Wake Forest and Notre Dame. [He’s a] tremendous football coach. I think he's done a great job. I think they're more disciplined. Obviously, they have talent. I think upfront they're the most powerful, big [and] strong group that we’ll play this year. They're really big and physical up front on the defensive line. I think the offensive line is the same. So, we're going to have our hands full and then obviously dealing with the crowd noise. The good thing is that we were able to be in a really hostile environment last Saturday [at Penn State]. [We’re] super excited to get this week started. Just like I said though, we have a huge challenge in front of us. I think Texas A&M is excellent – definitely a top 20 team, no question about it. We need to get better. We need to keep improving, keep moving the needle of our program and keep doing things our way and keep improving.
QUESTION: With the success of other MAC teams like NIU and Toledo beating Notre Dame and Mississippi State, is this a great opportunity to keep it going and try to pull off a huge upset?
LOEFFLER: Just like I said, we have our hands full. This is a very, very talented [Texas A&M] team and there's some things where they're very, very strong at that is kind of our weaknesses a little bit. We have to find different ways to get things done just because they're big. They're powerful, super strong [and] athletic – everything that you would think of when it comes to an SEC team. Their skill is excellent. I think they can run really well, and I think both quarterbacks [Conner Weigman and Marcel Reed] are problem players. I don't know which one's going to start, but I was really impressed with Reed coming in last week. [He] did a great job in Gainesville [against Florida], and then I've watched Connor for a year now. He's a good player, so we have our hands full. This is an excellent group, and I am proud of the MAC. I think we have good football here. I think we have really good coaches. I think there's some teams that can go and compete against anyone week in and week out. The big thing that we have to do is we have to prepare like savages. We have to get ready. We have to deal with the crowd noise. We have to have a great Tuesday practice, a great Wednesday practice and then a great Friday. We just have to keep getting better.
QUESTION: What are your thoughts on going up against Cashius Howell who transferred from Bowling Green to Texas A&M who you know so well?
LOEFFLER: I'm super happy for Cashius [Howell]. We recruited Cashius. [I] love him and his family. Him and I are super close, and he's doing well down there [at Texas A&M]. I love to watch our guys do well, and he's doing great. [I’m] proud of him.
QUESTION: When players transfer out, do you try to stay in touch with them or follow along how they are doing whenever you can?
LOEFFLER: You do, and you really do your analysis of them whenever in the offseason and follow up, but you're so busy during the season. It's pretty hard to follow all the players that have come and gone. I have 110 [players] to worry about each week and just keep moving the needle of program [and] keep improving.
QUESTION: What needs to happen to try and slow Texas A&M down on the ground as they have one of the best rushing attacks in the country?
LOEFFLER: Just like I said, the two areas … Coach [Mike] Elko's building this thing the right way, and it all begins with the front. I think the five guys on the defensive line are excellent. They're big. They're powerful. They're hard to move. I think the offensive line has really, really come a long way. I know [former Texas A&M offensive line coach] Steve Addazio was there last year. Steve's a really good offensive line coach. I know they have a great base and a great foundation of being fundamentally sound. [Elko] has a great base going. Anytime that your fronts are as good as they are, you have a chance to be a good football team. If you watch the Florida game, they dominated both fronts. They ran the football at will, and they scored a bunch of points [and] took care of the ball. It's a good formula when you can stop the run, run the ball and not turn it over. They're a good team.
QUESTION: Over the weekend, you said on Twitter that the MAC has good players and good coaches. What does that say about the four-hour radius around here that you always talk about and its ability to hang with the power conference teams?
LOEFFLER: We're all developmental programs, and that's fun. It's fun taking a guy … If you really look at the really good MAC teams, they take high school guys, they develop them, and if they stick around, you have a chance to build a good ball club. We have good players in the Midwest. The four-hour radius is excellent. We have really good high school coaches who have people where football is important. We all love football in this part of the country, and I hope this thing doesn't get out of control where we can still recruit kids, develop them, keep them as long as we possibly can. You're not going to keep all of them. That's part of the game now, but in the perfect world, if you stay and develop, you have a chance to develop into a really good football player. In hindsight, I’d look at development. Even whenever we were at the University of Michigan when we went through those nine NFL quarterbacks and from 1986 to 2007, all of them – except [Chad] Henne – didn't play until their third and fourth and fifth years. I really think if you want to be a great player, staying at your college and developing and really working on your trade and having one person develop you, I think that's really, really beneficial. I hope this thing doesn't go from programs to just teams. Programs develop people and that's why I like coaching in the MAC and that's why my hat's off to the guys that do coach in this league because you’re taking guys that are raw. You're making them big. You're making them strong. You're teaching them the game and really taking a guy that isn't a five-star [recruit], that isn't a four-star and making him a really good football player. That’s fun. It's ton of fun.
QUESTION: Is part of the reason the MAC is so competitive because of how much player movement there is in college football where it is hard to develop any sort of consistency with the team?
LOEFFLER: I don't know. That's going to be a great study here over these next five years is how many guys are coming and going. It'll be really interesting to see. You hear Kirby [Smart] who has the best team in the country in Georgia, and he talks about [having] depth problems. Think about that. You have all the resources [and] all the ability to recruit the best players in the country, but you can't keep them all because they all want to play. It used to be you would sit and watch a really good player in front of you. You’d develop, and then you'd walk in and you'd play really, really well. Now [for] a lot of these guys, if they're not walking in and playing right now, they're leaving, and I just don't think that's good for development. I don't think it's good for college football. Heck, the pros don't do it. The pros aren't leaving their NFL team every year. It’s not good for them. I think guys should stay. I really do. I think it's really important that guys stay within their program, but the money's so enticing out there and it's a crazy world but in the big picture, I think long term wise they become better players if they stay within their program.
QUESTION: You said the team prepared a lot in the weight room last week during the bye. How else do you prepare for a team like Texas A&M with their size?
LOEFFLER: I wish we could get strong enough in a week and be as strong as these guys.” (laughter) “That'd be some great magic potion right there, but no. We have to find ways to be different in this game [like] protecting [and] finding ways to be creative in the run schemes because they have such good and powerful guys in their gaps and they're hard to move. Then, we have to be unbelievably gap sound. We have to run to the football. We have to get extra hats at the party. The problem with them is they can equate numbers pretty quick because they have quarterbacks that can run, so they can equate numbers. We’re trying to get an extra hat in the box, and all of a sudden, the numbers are equal because they're running the quarterback. We have a huge challenge in front of us, but to answer your question, it's going to take great preparation. It's going to take totally being locked in and executing a plan flawlessly to give ourselves a chance.”
QUESTION: It seems like the players say that they had a good week of practice or a good week of preparation a lot. Do you think the program has turned a corner in that regard?
LOEFFLER: There's a reason that we were 7-6 last year. Last year, we could go down and we could beat Georgia Tech by 10 and it really wasn't even close, to be quite honest with you. That's not taking anything away from Georgia Tech. We just played really, really well in that football game. Then, we would turn around and play someone that we're supposed to beat and play terrible and find a way to lose. Whenever your habits are inconsistent, when you're up and down, it's hard to win, especially in today's world. It's hard to be consistent. Our concentration right now is completely the process. We're trying to block out the outside world. We’re trying to be the best team and the most selfless group of guys we could possibly be. We're trying to really make an emphasis of being great on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. When you have a bunch of old guys that have that type of mentality, there's no guarantees. You still have to go do it, but it gives you a heck of a lot better chance than having a crummy practice on Tuesday, a great one on Wednesday, a crummy practice on Friday, a great walk through on Saturday – that doesn't work. That's when you're up and down and around. It gives you a chance. That's all I can say.
QUESTION: How is Terion Stewart doing after missing the Penn State game? Is there an update on his availability for Saturday?
LOEFFLER: He’s going great.
QUESTION: Do you have an update on Terion Stewart’s availability for Saturday?
LOEFFLER: We’ll see.
QUESTION: For these kind of games, is there a fine line between playing a star player that you have injured against a talented team like Texas A&M or saving him for the MAC schedule?
LOEFFLER: We didn't save Terion [Stewart]. That was not the case, and I want to make that quite clear. There wasn't one player on the roster last week that didn't play that could have. Terion Stewart was probably 60 percent, maybe closer towards 50 percent, and I just know that whenever you're walking into that lion’s den that we were walking into [at Penn State] where you have a bunch of fast, physical dudes that can tackle and fly to the ball, you could get really hurt really fast being 50%. Do I expect Terion to play? Of course I do. He's going to play this Saturday. He's healthy. He's ready to rock and roll. Yes, to answer your question. I was going to play the old wait until Saturday game, but he's going to play.
QUESTION: Do you think the reason the team did not play as well in the second half against Penn State as the first half was because of the adjustments Penn State made?
LOEFFLER: It was a combination, I think, of both. I think we wore down a little bit in the in the second half. [Penn State] did some things that caused us a little bit of problems. We were able to handle those problems much more efficiently in the first half, and we didn't as well in the second half. We didn't play a bad half, but we didn't play as well as we did in the first half. It just comes down to three or four plays when you're playing people that are that good. We watched the tape, and I think we improved last week to answer your question. That has to be our mindset. When you're playing these big, really good football teams, obviously we're going to go try to win and compete and find a way. These last three weeks is all about moving the needle of our team, getting better and that’s what good football teams do. Some of these teams that are playing inferior opponents, their concentration right now is getting better, and there's no difference with us right now. We need to improve every week and get a little bit better at our trade.
QUESTION: How do you replicate the anticipated crowd noise of 100,000 people in practice?
LOEFFLER: You have a huge headache each day. You're blasting the music. You have golf carts with speakers running around. You have the music playing in the stadium as loud as it can play. Thank goodness this isn't a residential area, because I've been at places where it has been a residential area and [the residents] are not happy at 7 o’clock in the morning when they're hearing Tupac and all this other stuff. You have to practice it. It's loud. This field [Kyle Field] that we're walking into is impressive – very similar to Penn State. [It’s an] awesome environment. They love their football. [It’s] great tradition. This is Texas A&M, and it's great.
QUESTION: How important is the time of possession battle going to be given that Texas A&M possessed the ball for almost 38 minutes against Florida and Bowling Green possessed the ball very well in the first half against Penn State?
LOEFFLER: I think Texas A&M [controlled the clock] a little bit different than what we did [against Penn State]. They totally dominated up front [and] totally ran the ball pretty much at will. They couldn't get stopped. They ran the ball really, really, really well. We had to be a little bit of both, and we had to be great on third down. We were great on third downs. We were able to stay on the field. In this game to give our defense a shot, we're going to have to stay on the field again. That's where, I think, Texas A&M’s formula is so good. They're a great run-stopping defense. They force you to throw the football. They have great pass rushers. They cover well, and then they get you off the field. Then, as soon as they get you off the field, they won't let you back on it. That's a great formula. [I’m] really impressed with Coach [Mike] Elko what he's done with this team in such a short time. I knew there was talent there. He'll make it better. He'll keep moving the needle and making it a super disciplined group. Texas A&M will be a top ten team before we can even blink.