Mike Bloomgren Press Conference Quotes
9/13/2022 2:13:00 PM | Football
Opening Statement
"Saturday was a good team win. We were really good in all three phases. I'm really proud of the guys for how they responded. I thought we did have some growth from Week One to Week Two. We've said it many times before, the fun is in the winning. It's great to be a part of a victory locker room after a game and see how much fun those guys were having.
Defensively, we had five takeaways, two interceptions, and three fumble recoveries as well as a fourth-down stop. We held (McNeese) to 1-of-10 on third down and had five sacks. We did some really good things. We really imposed our will on that side of the ball. There's a couple of things, like there always will be, to clean up. We're going to work on tackling like, probably, every team in America. We're going to try to get better at that.
Offensively, we converted 63% of our third downs, had 10 explosive (plays) on the day, and, I thought, did some really good things running and passing. Any time you're flirting with 500 yards of total offense, you're doing some good things and showing some good balance.
Special teams-wise, we won the day. Our starting field position after a kick was 33.25 for us and 22.18 for them. It was good, complementary football, and like I said, I'm just really proud of the team.
I think our defense as a whole is really starting to come together. I think when you get penetration the way we do up front, you have guys doing a great job on the back end and then you have guys affecting the running game and doing a great job in coverage. I just think those guys are communicating really well right now. The biggest challenge for the whole team is to keep working on technique and tackling. Technique, tackling, pad-level, those fundamental things that we've just got to keep moving forward with as we're trying to take another big step this week.
We have shifted our focus to a very good Louisiana team. A team that comes in here with the nation's longest winning streak, 15 games in a row. I think Billy Napier did an unbelievable job building that program in a lot of ways from the ground up, and it doesn't seem like they've missed a beat. They're right in here coming into our stadium 2-0. They have a lot of the same schemes on both sides of the ball. They're a little bit different on special teams, but, again, just doing a really good job on every phase of the game. It's going to be an outstanding challenge for us this week. It's one that we are excited about. It's one that we had an outstanding practice yesterday and I expect us to have an outstanding practice today in preparation for it."
On what it was like to come in on Sunday after the win?
"That's just it. We're going to celebrate in that locker room and we're going to celebrate that evening. As a coaching staff, you really turn the page on Sunday. You get all of those meetings out of the way. We talk about it and make any corrections that we need to make going forward. Then you kind of open the camp back up when we have our first team meeting on Monday. We get a chance to kind of celebrate that stuff again. You go through the players of the game. You show some of the great plays on all three phases because I want these guys to see what their teammates are doing. They're such good cheerleaders for each other. Once again, they watch that film, they get the corrections, and an hour later, you're onto the next. Then you're on the practice field practicing."
How important was it for the leaders to step up between Game One and Game Two?
"It was absolutely crucial. Whomever your leaders are, in any organization, they have got to set the tone. The speed of the leaders is the speed of the pack. So, when those guys go out there and go show everyone, this is the tempo we're going to practice at, this is the focus that we're going to have, hopefully, and their coaches have really coached them through the years. But now that we've got great leaders in place, they are doing a great job. I don't know how much we're having to use our voice as coaches to get effort. That makes it a lot of fun."
"Saturday was a good team win. We were really good in all three phases. I'm really proud of the guys for how they responded. I thought we did have some growth from Week One to Week Two. We've said it many times before, the fun is in the winning. It's great to be a part of a victory locker room after a game and see how much fun those guys were having.
Defensively, we had five takeaways, two interceptions, and three fumble recoveries as well as a fourth-down stop. We held (McNeese) to 1-of-10 on third down and had five sacks. We did some really good things. We really imposed our will on that side of the ball. There's a couple of things, like there always will be, to clean up. We're going to work on tackling like, probably, every team in America. We're going to try to get better at that.
Offensively, we converted 63% of our third downs, had 10 explosive (plays) on the day, and, I thought, did some really good things running and passing. Any time you're flirting with 500 yards of total offense, you're doing some good things and showing some good balance.
Special teams-wise, we won the day. Our starting field position after a kick was 33.25 for us and 22.18 for them. It was good, complementary football, and like I said, I'm just really proud of the team.
I think our defense as a whole is really starting to come together. I think when you get penetration the way we do up front, you have guys doing a great job on the back end and then you have guys affecting the running game and doing a great job in coverage. I just think those guys are communicating really well right now. The biggest challenge for the whole team is to keep working on technique and tackling. Technique, tackling, pad-level, those fundamental things that we've just got to keep moving forward with as we're trying to take another big step this week.
We have shifted our focus to a very good Louisiana team. A team that comes in here with the nation's longest winning streak, 15 games in a row. I think Billy Napier did an unbelievable job building that program in a lot of ways from the ground up, and it doesn't seem like they've missed a beat. They're right in here coming into our stadium 2-0. They have a lot of the same schemes on both sides of the ball. They're a little bit different on special teams, but, again, just doing a really good job on every phase of the game. It's going to be an outstanding challenge for us this week. It's one that we are excited about. It's one that we had an outstanding practice yesterday and I expect us to have an outstanding practice today in preparation for it."
On what it was like to come in on Sunday after the win?
"That's just it. We're going to celebrate in that locker room and we're going to celebrate that evening. As a coaching staff, you really turn the page on Sunday. You get all of those meetings out of the way. We talk about it and make any corrections that we need to make going forward. Then you kind of open the camp back up when we have our first team meeting on Monday. We get a chance to kind of celebrate that stuff again. You go through the players of the game. You show some of the great plays on all three phases because I want these guys to see what their teammates are doing. They're such good cheerleaders for each other. Once again, they watch that film, they get the corrections, and an hour later, you're onto the next. Then you're on the practice field practicing."
How important was it for the leaders to step up between Game One and Game Two?
"It was absolutely crucial. Whomever your leaders are, in any organization, they have got to set the tone. The speed of the leaders is the speed of the pack. So, when those guys go out there and go show everyone, this is the tempo we're going to practice at, this is the focus that we're going to have, hopefully, and their coaches have really coached them through the years. But now that we've got great leaders in place, they are doing a great job. I don't know how much we're having to use our voice as coaches to get effort. That makes it a lot of fun."
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