Mike Bloomgren Press Conference Quotes
10/31/2022 2:34:00 PM | Football
Opening Statement
"Obviously, we're coming off a disappointing loss on Saturday versus Charlotte. My hat's off to their staff and players for coming together and playing the way they did. They played their butts off. Unfortunately, the game didn't go the way we planned. I thought we got outcoached. I thought we got outplayed and out-physicalled, which are things that we never want to be a part of. I told our team that we've got to stay together and we've got to move forward. One of the bonuses of a Thursday night game is that you don't have time to sulk. We were back to meetings and practice last night. The time for licking your wounds is behind us. It's in the rearview mirror as we move forward.
This week is an opportunity to turn the page. We know we have a short week to get ready for a good UTEP team coming in here. I have all the faith in the world that this team will respond and respond in a way that we can be proud of. They're dealing with adversity the right way and trying to find a way to go 1-0 this week. They know that we have all of our goals that we talked about at the beginning of the season, not only still ahead of us, but in our control. That's really cool when you have everything right there. We've got a lot of things going right now and we have to remember that. We have to fall back on the things that put us in position to be 4-4 and giving us a chance to go forward and earn the things that we want to. We've got to talk about the small victories and the accomplishments that we've made because that's how we're going to proceed and get back into the winning column.
This game will be a battle. I don't have any doubt about that. I know how Dana (Dimel) coaches. I know the toughness that he instills in his team and I expect it to be a very, very physical game like it always is between these two teams. You look at them on offense, they are going to run the ball. They are going to run the ball. They are going to run the ball, and then they are going to play-action pass. On defense, I think their defensive coordinator, Bradley Dale Peveto, does a great job. I think he's got some unbelievable experiences when you look back at his resume and see who he's worked under. There's really parts of difference coordinators that you see in the system that he's compiled. It's a lot to deal with, especially on a short week. You look at it and you see the Mike Elko stuff. It's going to look the same from a shell standpoint. Then the ball turns over and somebody blitzes and a safety replaces him in the box. There's all of those things. You see those components. But then you see multiple ways for them to align in the same formations. So there's not really anything advantageous. What I've challenged our coordinators with is that we've got a short week; we've got one true day of practice, so it's got to be a best of week. We've got to go to the things that we've done well in training camp and since and we've got to incorporate those things and make sure that our kids can play fast and have all of the answers that they need for this test.
What I have charged our coaching staff with is never run the same formation twice. If we run the same personnel group, that's fine, but we're not going to be in the same formation. Everything's got to have a different motion, a different shift so things that are very, very easy for us are hopefully difficult for them. Put a lot of dressing on things to see how they can deal with different formations and shits and motions on their short week. We've got to simplify things as much as we can. This game is going to be about blocking and tackling. It's going to be about being the most physical team. It's going to be about imposing our will. Defensively, we're really doing our stuff. We're doing our core."
What kind of response have you noticed from the guys in a short week?
"Kids are so resilient. It's not that they're not hurting, it's just that, when you've got to do a med check at 10 a.m., yesterday, and then you've got to do a lift at 3:30, then you've got dinner at 5:15 and then you have meetings, nobody had time. As coaches we started watching film at 6 p.m. We put the Charlotte game largely to bed. Then we came in at 8 a.m. and we put the plan together all day yesterday. So coaches really didn't have time to breathe, sleep or pout. That's probably a good thing because that was not our best performance."
What were your takeaways after looking at the film?
"There's nobody that participated in that game from a coaching and playing standpoint that doesn't have something they wish they could change in that game, including me. I had a call that I made on fourth down that I wish I could take back. I wish I would have given us a different look, a different play on a critical fourth down call in the game. I talked to (Coach Tuiasosopo) and told him we were going to run against this look. They didn't give us that look and I thought it was still good enough to run and it didn't work out. That falls on me. I hate anytime I do something that hurts the team. But, the performance on defense, they scored touchdowns on seven straight drives. I don't know if in all of our conference games combined we gave up seven touchdowns. It's one of those things where we've got to go back to the drawing board. We've got to look at why this happened. We've got to talk about the technique and what should have happened and we've got to fix it. That's really hard on a short week. That's our charge. We talked about it last night. Everything has to be detailed. Your first step, you eye placement, your hand placement. You've got to make it as game-like as possible, including, like, get your pads down. Those are simple things, but they are harder to do on a short week. In the walk-through, we had to make them understand that they have to be professionals when it comes to taking care of their bodies this week. Our only real practice this week is today. Last night was a Monday and a Tuesday combined (practice) in a walk-through format. So, we're taking care of them. But they can't get away from those details if we want to fix this. I also want them to flush the game after we learn from those lessons. I don't want it to be instilled in their minds any longer than it has to be."
"Obviously, we're coming off a disappointing loss on Saturday versus Charlotte. My hat's off to their staff and players for coming together and playing the way they did. They played their butts off. Unfortunately, the game didn't go the way we planned. I thought we got outcoached. I thought we got outplayed and out-physicalled, which are things that we never want to be a part of. I told our team that we've got to stay together and we've got to move forward. One of the bonuses of a Thursday night game is that you don't have time to sulk. We were back to meetings and practice last night. The time for licking your wounds is behind us. It's in the rearview mirror as we move forward.
This week is an opportunity to turn the page. We know we have a short week to get ready for a good UTEP team coming in here. I have all the faith in the world that this team will respond and respond in a way that we can be proud of. They're dealing with adversity the right way and trying to find a way to go 1-0 this week. They know that we have all of our goals that we talked about at the beginning of the season, not only still ahead of us, but in our control. That's really cool when you have everything right there. We've got a lot of things going right now and we have to remember that. We have to fall back on the things that put us in position to be 4-4 and giving us a chance to go forward and earn the things that we want to. We've got to talk about the small victories and the accomplishments that we've made because that's how we're going to proceed and get back into the winning column.
This game will be a battle. I don't have any doubt about that. I know how Dana (Dimel) coaches. I know the toughness that he instills in his team and I expect it to be a very, very physical game like it always is between these two teams. You look at them on offense, they are going to run the ball. They are going to run the ball. They are going to run the ball, and then they are going to play-action pass. On defense, I think their defensive coordinator, Bradley Dale Peveto, does a great job. I think he's got some unbelievable experiences when you look back at his resume and see who he's worked under. There's really parts of difference coordinators that you see in the system that he's compiled. It's a lot to deal with, especially on a short week. You look at it and you see the Mike Elko stuff. It's going to look the same from a shell standpoint. Then the ball turns over and somebody blitzes and a safety replaces him in the box. There's all of those things. You see those components. But then you see multiple ways for them to align in the same formations. So there's not really anything advantageous. What I've challenged our coordinators with is that we've got a short week; we've got one true day of practice, so it's got to be a best of week. We've got to go to the things that we've done well in training camp and since and we've got to incorporate those things and make sure that our kids can play fast and have all of the answers that they need for this test.
What I have charged our coaching staff with is never run the same formation twice. If we run the same personnel group, that's fine, but we're not going to be in the same formation. Everything's got to have a different motion, a different shift so things that are very, very easy for us are hopefully difficult for them. Put a lot of dressing on things to see how they can deal with different formations and shits and motions on their short week. We've got to simplify things as much as we can. This game is going to be about blocking and tackling. It's going to be about being the most physical team. It's going to be about imposing our will. Defensively, we're really doing our stuff. We're doing our core."
What kind of response have you noticed from the guys in a short week?
"Kids are so resilient. It's not that they're not hurting, it's just that, when you've got to do a med check at 10 a.m., yesterday, and then you've got to do a lift at 3:30, then you've got dinner at 5:15 and then you have meetings, nobody had time. As coaches we started watching film at 6 p.m. We put the Charlotte game largely to bed. Then we came in at 8 a.m. and we put the plan together all day yesterday. So coaches really didn't have time to breathe, sleep or pout. That's probably a good thing because that was not our best performance."
What were your takeaways after looking at the film?
"There's nobody that participated in that game from a coaching and playing standpoint that doesn't have something they wish they could change in that game, including me. I had a call that I made on fourth down that I wish I could take back. I wish I would have given us a different look, a different play on a critical fourth down call in the game. I talked to (Coach Tuiasosopo) and told him we were going to run against this look. They didn't give us that look and I thought it was still good enough to run and it didn't work out. That falls on me. I hate anytime I do something that hurts the team. But, the performance on defense, they scored touchdowns on seven straight drives. I don't know if in all of our conference games combined we gave up seven touchdowns. It's one of those things where we've got to go back to the drawing board. We've got to look at why this happened. We've got to talk about the technique and what should have happened and we've got to fix it. That's really hard on a short week. That's our charge. We talked about it last night. Everything has to be detailed. Your first step, you eye placement, your hand placement. You've got to make it as game-like as possible, including, like, get your pads down. Those are simple things, but they are harder to do on a short week. In the walk-through, we had to make them understand that they have to be professionals when it comes to taking care of their bodies this week. Our only real practice this week is today. Last night was a Monday and a Tuesday combined (practice) in a walk-through format. So, we're taking care of them. But they can't get away from those details if we want to fix this. I also want them to flush the game after we learn from those lessons. I don't want it to be instilled in their minds any longer than it has to be."
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