Photo by: Maria Lysaker / Rice University
Mike Bloomgren Press Conference Quotes
11/13/2018 3:21:00 PM | Football
Coach Bloomgren held his weekly press conference prior to this weekend's game at LSU.
Opening statement:
"When you look back at our game against (Louisiana) Tech last weekend, it's hard not to see a lot of positives. Skip Holtz has done a great job building that program. I think this is their fifth year qualifying for a bowl. They have some really talented guys. What I love from our team is the effort I saw them play with. The way they went out and tried to do the things we're asking them to do by being physical. Also, some of the playmaking that is a huge deal. Now, I'll tell you, I stand up here every week and I tell you it's a zero sum business. It's all about winning games. But, I really believe we're getting closer to that. So that's exciting to me.
I thought we had opportunities to win the game in the fourth quarter. Anytime you can get it to one score, especially in a conference road game, you have to feel good about it. We're going to get to the point where we finish those. We love being in that position. That's what we're working towards. Getting over that hump. That's a big deal to me. I think our defense has played really, really well for the last six quarters. You have to take your hat off to our defensive coordinator, Brian Smith, and the plan he's put together. It's been really exciting to watch. I think our guys are tackling incredibly well. We're getting the takeaways that we talk about that we need to get for our football program and just overall, we're really doing some great things on defense.
I love that our freshmen are showing up all over the place, but especially on that defense. I think Prudy Calderon is playing better than maybe anyone in our conference in the last five games. In the last five games, he's had four interceptions. Of course, he had two on Saturday. He's just doing some really good things - the way that he is tackling, the way that Treshawn Chamberlain is tackling. Another true freshman in Treshawn, had another turnover in that game. He had the fumble recovery. Again, just some really good things going on the defensive side.
Offensively, I was proud that we were able to run the ball. Not the way we want to, but we took positive steps forward, largely because of Aston Walter. He was running behind his pads, falling forward, running over people and doing not just what the run was blocked to do but getting extra yards for our offense. Again, it's not where we want to be, but certainly not where we were two and three weeks ago. So we're making some strides there.
I thought that Shawn's (Stankavage) pass on the first drive of the third quarter, the one where Austin Walter hauled in and turned into a touchdown, was an unbelievably good throw. On third down, I thought what Austin did with it was spectacular. Not just running the ball down but then not letting the guy who had his hand on his shoulder pad get him out of bounds or on the ground and finishing it. It was another thing that I thought was a really physical play. It's the stuff we need to do and it's an explosive play.
The negatives offensively were really clear. We can't turn the ball over. Shawn is well aware of what our expectation is. He understands that we can't turn the ball over three times and it's unacceptable. We're trying to grow. We're trying to stay in a world of ball security. I thought, again, that we did some really good things. But you look at where we were from a discipline standpoint. I think we had one penalty in the ball game. Our guys are continuing to do that well. That's all good stuff. The way that our guys are working and the way that they are coming in here and doing the things that it takes to win games; it gives me all the hope in the world that we're going to turn that corner. It's so exciting to me. I look at now we've played every team in the West (Division) of Conference USA. I look at it from top to bottom and I think that we can really make some strides and get ourselves in position to win those games. Aside from one, we were in deep water. We were within a score in the fourth quarter in those games. That's exciting stuff. I love the way the guys are working. I love the way they are coming in here and attacking things the way they need to.
This Saturday, we have an opportunity to go into one of the premier venues in college football. Going into Death Valley (at) 6:30 on a Saturday night. I think it's so exciting for our kids. I think everyone has dreamed about it. I dreamed about it as a kid. Getting the chance to go in there and play. It's going to be a ton of fun. The things that we've stressed to them is 'Look. You look at their roster one to 22 and they're going to be more talented than us. They're going to have more guys with stars by their name in terms of recruiting rankings. But every week in college football, you see a team go into one of those places and you see the score on your phone and you go 'Wow, those dudes beat them?' It happens every week. We have to go in there and worry about what we can control. Worry about our jobs and playing the best football we can and we'll be happy with the results.
The thing I also told them we can't do is we can't come out of the tunnel and let Death Valley or Mike the Tiger score points for them. We've got to make them line up across from us, go toe-to-toe and earn everything they get. And we've got to give it back to them. That's what I expect from our guys. I expect it to be a chance for them to go out on a great stage in front of 100,000 people and play their butts off. Try to perform on the highest stage possible against one of the top teams in the Southeastern Conference. It's an incredible opportunity that I'm really looking forward to."
On if you have to protect from getting too overhyped on Saturday?
"I think so. Again, it's a stadium that when you walk out there; it doesn't matter if when I was at Alabama and you walk out there. You walk into that stadium and you're like 'Wow. Let's go. This is awesome.' So yeah, you can't peak too soon is going to be a message. Pre-game warmups we're going to look around and, again, Mike the Tiger is an impressive creature. But, he's not going to score any points. He's not going to get any first downs or make any tackles. But, it's going to be cool to walk in there. I'm excited to take these guys in there."
On what he tells the team about no one believing they can win?
"It's been that situation in the last few weeks. We went into the game against LA Tech, I think we were a 24-point underdog. That's exactly what we talked about in the hotel. Nobody outside of these walls believes we can do it. We know we can. So let's go. Let's just go play football and enjoy every minute."
"When you look back at our game against (Louisiana) Tech last weekend, it's hard not to see a lot of positives. Skip Holtz has done a great job building that program. I think this is their fifth year qualifying for a bowl. They have some really talented guys. What I love from our team is the effort I saw them play with. The way they went out and tried to do the things we're asking them to do by being physical. Also, some of the playmaking that is a huge deal. Now, I'll tell you, I stand up here every week and I tell you it's a zero sum business. It's all about winning games. But, I really believe we're getting closer to that. So that's exciting to me.
I thought we had opportunities to win the game in the fourth quarter. Anytime you can get it to one score, especially in a conference road game, you have to feel good about it. We're going to get to the point where we finish those. We love being in that position. That's what we're working towards. Getting over that hump. That's a big deal to me. I think our defense has played really, really well for the last six quarters. You have to take your hat off to our defensive coordinator, Brian Smith, and the plan he's put together. It's been really exciting to watch. I think our guys are tackling incredibly well. We're getting the takeaways that we talk about that we need to get for our football program and just overall, we're really doing some great things on defense.
I love that our freshmen are showing up all over the place, but especially on that defense. I think Prudy Calderon is playing better than maybe anyone in our conference in the last five games. In the last five games, he's had four interceptions. Of course, he had two on Saturday. He's just doing some really good things - the way that he is tackling, the way that Treshawn Chamberlain is tackling. Another true freshman in Treshawn, had another turnover in that game. He had the fumble recovery. Again, just some really good things going on the defensive side.
Offensively, I was proud that we were able to run the ball. Not the way we want to, but we took positive steps forward, largely because of Aston Walter. He was running behind his pads, falling forward, running over people and doing not just what the run was blocked to do but getting extra yards for our offense. Again, it's not where we want to be, but certainly not where we were two and three weeks ago. So we're making some strides there.
I thought that Shawn's (Stankavage) pass on the first drive of the third quarter, the one where Austin Walter hauled in and turned into a touchdown, was an unbelievably good throw. On third down, I thought what Austin did with it was spectacular. Not just running the ball down but then not letting the guy who had his hand on his shoulder pad get him out of bounds or on the ground and finishing it. It was another thing that I thought was a really physical play. It's the stuff we need to do and it's an explosive play.
The negatives offensively were really clear. We can't turn the ball over. Shawn is well aware of what our expectation is. He understands that we can't turn the ball over three times and it's unacceptable. We're trying to grow. We're trying to stay in a world of ball security. I thought, again, that we did some really good things. But you look at where we were from a discipline standpoint. I think we had one penalty in the ball game. Our guys are continuing to do that well. That's all good stuff. The way that our guys are working and the way that they are coming in here and doing the things that it takes to win games; it gives me all the hope in the world that we're going to turn that corner. It's so exciting to me. I look at now we've played every team in the West (Division) of Conference USA. I look at it from top to bottom and I think that we can really make some strides and get ourselves in position to win those games. Aside from one, we were in deep water. We were within a score in the fourth quarter in those games. That's exciting stuff. I love the way the guys are working. I love the way they are coming in here and attacking things the way they need to.
This Saturday, we have an opportunity to go into one of the premier venues in college football. Going into Death Valley (at) 6:30 on a Saturday night. I think it's so exciting for our kids. I think everyone has dreamed about it. I dreamed about it as a kid. Getting the chance to go in there and play. It's going to be a ton of fun. The things that we've stressed to them is 'Look. You look at their roster one to 22 and they're going to be more talented than us. They're going to have more guys with stars by their name in terms of recruiting rankings. But every week in college football, you see a team go into one of those places and you see the score on your phone and you go 'Wow, those dudes beat them?' It happens every week. We have to go in there and worry about what we can control. Worry about our jobs and playing the best football we can and we'll be happy with the results.
The thing I also told them we can't do is we can't come out of the tunnel and let Death Valley or Mike the Tiger score points for them. We've got to make them line up across from us, go toe-to-toe and earn everything they get. And we've got to give it back to them. That's what I expect from our guys. I expect it to be a chance for them to go out on a great stage in front of 100,000 people and play their butts off. Try to perform on the highest stage possible against one of the top teams in the Southeastern Conference. It's an incredible opportunity that I'm really looking forward to."
On if you have to protect from getting too overhyped on Saturday?
"I think so. Again, it's a stadium that when you walk out there; it doesn't matter if when I was at Alabama and you walk out there. You walk into that stadium and you're like 'Wow. Let's go. This is awesome.' So yeah, you can't peak too soon is going to be a message. Pre-game warmups we're going to look around and, again, Mike the Tiger is an impressive creature. But, he's not going to score any points. He's not going to get any first downs or make any tackles. But, it's going to be cool to walk in there. I'm excited to take these guys in there."
On what he tells the team about no one believing they can win?
"It's been that situation in the last few weeks. We went into the game against LA Tech, I think we were a 24-point underdog. That's exactly what we talked about in the hotel. Nobody outside of these walls believes we can do it. We know we can. So let's go. Let's just go play football and enjoy every minute."
Players Mentioned
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