Bowling Green Falcons College Football Pregame Quote, 08/22/2024

Alright, thank you for coming. [It‚Äôs] Week One. [We‚Äôre] excited to get started. Before we get going, I’d like to announce who our captains are. On defense, [they‚Äôre] Brock Horn, Jordan Oladokun and Anthony Hawkins. On offense, [they‚Äôre] PaSean Wimberly, Alex Wollschlaeger, and Levi Gazarek. [I‚Äôm] super excited. We couldn’t ask for six better guys to lead our team. They’ve been in the program for four and five years, and they get it. They understand what we expect, and they’re going to do a great job leading our football team.

We had an interesting training camp to say the least. There were signs of us performing at a very high level whenever we could get our whole team on the practice field. It’s been an injury-ridden camp, to say the least. There are a couple injuries that I’m not going to mention that will cause 2-3 players to be out probably for the year. I‚Äôll announce that after the [Fordham] game, but we’re banged up. We need to get our team on the field and have a really good week of practice and get ready for a really good Fordham team. I think this Fordham team is a great challenge. This team ‚Äì they know how to win. They have a great program. They went into Buffalo last year and won, and then two years ago they went into [Ohio U.] and lost on a last-second field goal. [I‚Äôm] very impressed with what they do. We’re going to have to play our best football like normal. The great thing about college football these days is that anyone can win at any moment, so we have to bring our ‚ÄòA‚Äô game like we’ll have to do all 12 weeks [of the season]. Any questions?

QUESTION: With these injuries, will experienced players and/or newcomers have to step up?

LOEFFLER: It’s going to be a combination of both. There are some older guys that have been in the program that are going to have to step up. We’re going to have to move some people around. [It‚Äôs] nothing like we planned to say the least. [It‚Äôs] nothing like what we practiced this summer in terms of personnel, but we’ll have to move some guys around. Some guys will have to step up. The wonderful thing about our offense and defense and special team system is that we are extremely flexible. We can do a lot with who we have. It’s not like we’re set in our ways of when we having to run one style of offense. We’re going to take our personnel. We have good enough players, no question about it, and we need to put them in the right spots. We need to practice really well this week. Just like I said, the concerning piece for me right now, going through training camp, it was very inconsistent and half the reason it was inconsistent is we had half our guys on either side of the ball participating at the same time. So, they really haven’t played together in these last three weeks like you would hope. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get as many guys to ‚Äòthe dance‚Äô as we can. We need to have a great week of practice. Just like I said, this is a really dangerous [Fordham] football team that is coming into ‚ÄòThe Doyt‚Äô and we have to be on our ‚ÄòA‚Äô game.

QUESTION: How do you prepare for Fordham‚Äôs great offense that can put up points?  

LOEFFLER: I think [Fordham‚Äôs] quarterback [CJ Montes] is outstanding. He only, I think, threw one interception last year. They are very unique. They play with tempo. They spread the field. They spread you out. They throw the ball around, and then they hand it to the back. The back [Julius Loughridge] is excellent. We‚Äôre going to have to play really well on defense. The way that I look at playing Fordham kind of reminds me whenever we were going against wishbone teams to be quite honest with you. We have to possess the ball on offense. We have to run the ball. We have to control the clock. We have to keep this Fordham offense off the field, and we have to protect the ball. If you look at Buffalo’s loss [to Fordham] last year, they had four turnovers. There was a punt blocked, and we have to make Fordham earn every single thing that they’re going to get. We‚Äôll have a good game plan for them. We’ll adapt and adjust to our issues, but the good thing is the following week, you have Penn State, then you have a bye. That bye couldn’t have come at a better time, to be quite honest with you. Everything’s going to be dumped into this week. We’re going to be laser-focused on Fordham and adapt and adjust to our situation.

QUESTION: What is the key to getting off to a good start this season? Is there something different this year that you preach to your players?

LOEFFLER: Well, I think our offensive line have really taken giant steps. I’m talking giant steps. They’re playing really hard as a unit. They’re old. They’re big. They’re physical. The whole key offensively for us is going to be No. 1 taking care of the ball. I think we have the ability to run the football. We have quite a few guys that can run the rock, which is really good and then obviously protecting the passer. We need to make sure that our quarterback stays upright this year. I think we have enough skill guys around Connor [Bazelak] to be effective. The thing with Connor is all he has to do is just take care of the ball, take the right foot work, go from one to two to three [and] hit his first open wide receiver. When you have the ability to run the football the way that I think we’re going to be able to run it, it’s going to create great play action. It’s going to be able to create one on one opportunities for him on the perimeter. We just need to take care of the ball.

QUESTION: Are takeaways going to be the highlight of the defense‚Äôs style this year like it was last year? 

LOEFFLER: The thing that I think we do really well in our program is we emphasize the ball. If you really look at last year, it was a tale of two seasons. At the beginning of the year, we were horrific at protecting the ball. Defensively, we were adequate at getting it back at the first half of the season, and then the second half [of the season] we were excellent at protecting the ball and we were ball hawks. We got the ball back defensively. We emphasize it. We have 2-3 periods of practice [and] that’s all we’re doing is concentrating on how to get the ball back and how to protect the ball. That has to carry over ‚Äì all those great drills and all those things that we do year in and year out about the ball ‚Äì it has to show up this fall.

QUESTION: How are this year‚Äôs expectations different than last year‚Äôs and the years before?  

LOEFFLER: Well, ‚ÄòA-One-A‚Äô ‚Äì and it‚Äôs the message that I’ve sent daily to our team. It’s consistency. It’s consistency day in and day out, and how we do business day in and day out is going to determine how many games we’re going to win. If you’re inconsistent [or] if you’re disciplined part of the time, you’re going to get what you deserve. The crazy thing about this game is you can’t cheat the system. You can’t cheat it. If you cheat what you’re doing in training camp [and] if you cheat what you’re doing in the summertime, football gods will pay you back. We need to make sure that we do a great job of being consistent, having discipline and playing together and completely just worrying about what’s important. There are so many things right now in college football that’s out there that are distractions. They’re everywhere, and we have to be disciplined enough to worry about what’s important [and] put the other things to rest that aren‚Äôt important and come out and be selfless and be a team and everything will take care of itself.

QUESTION: How important is it that students come out to create a big crowd during the first game of the season? 

LOEFFLER: I think we’ll have a great crowd. I really do, and I want to encourage everyone to come out. It’s going to be a beautiful evening. It‚Äôs supposed to be a little warm, I heard, but it’s going to be perfect so we need to get all our students [and] all the BG community out here. Our team likes to play in front of people, and I think we’ve done a great job. Our kids have done a great job in the community. They’ve conducted themselves in such a first-class manner. I think people in the community recognize that these kids are good people, They’re good students. They love BG. So, yes, I would love to see as many people come out and support this group. I really like this group in terms of they‚Äôre really good people. They have great parents, and we just have to really, really concentrate on them not being selfish and [we] really have to concentrate on what’s important. Just like I said, [when] we get off-kilter worrying about things that that are out there in the outside world, it can catch you pretty quick.

QUESTION: What does it mean for PaSean Wimberly to be named a team captain despite his injury?

LOEFFLER: That was devastating whenever [PaSean Wimberly] got hurt this spring. It was a non-contact injury. It was like slow motion. You just watched it occur, and you knew that it wasn’t good. The good thing is that his rehab is coming along quite well. He’s running already, which is great. The team loves him. He played with a ton of juice [and] a ton of energy. We call it ‚ÄòThe PaSean Way,‚Äô and we feed off that. Every single time that we’re not playing hard or not doing things the right way, I always refer back to him ‚Äì ‚ÄòAre we doing it his way?‚Äô If we can somehow find a way to be consistent and disciplined and do the things that PaSean did day in and day out, we’re going to be successful. PaSean‚Äôs going to be successful because he is a hardworking, great human being [and] a 3.8 [GPA] student. He does everything right off the field. Having success, there’s no secret sauce. It’s doing things right consistently, being disciplined and working as hard as you possibly can at your trade, and that’s what he does.

QUESTION: With all of the injuries that have happened during training camp, is there a message you send to the team to keep their spirits high and push through it? 

LOEFFLER: I think in every season [injuries] occur. It just occurred a little bit earlier than what it normally does. The injuries that did occur were not caused from over practicing, they weren’t caused from being foolish in terms of rep count. They just happened, unfortunately, but we’ll adapt and adjust. Hopefully, we‚Äôll get some people back this week. The big thing, just like I said, I know we’re going to get enough people back to practice really well. We have to practice well this week, in my opinion.

QUESTION: What’s the process like starting the season on a Thursday? Is it similar to preparing for a Tuesday night MACtion game? 

LOEFFLER: We‚Äôre pros. We‚Äôre pros at it. I mean, I think we’ve had more MACtion games around here. I think we had four last year I want to say. We know the process. I think the big positive [is] it‚Äôs very similar during the MACtion season is that we’re still in training camp. We don’t start school here until Monday, so we have a huge advantage today as our Saturday [practice]. Tomorrow will be our Sunday and Saturday will be our Monday and Tuesday’s practice, which is huge, is on Sunday. We’re going to be able to take advantage of still being in training camp, being able to watch extra film, being able to eat and train properly [and] get sleep. I think [it‚Äôs] really important. That Wednesday practice ‚Äì it‚Äôs always that first practice, the day when classes begin is normally challenging, but we practice in the morning, so we’re going to be able to practice in the morning. Then, the kids go to class. In the old school days when you‚Äôd practice in the afternoon, the kids would wake up in the morning, they would go to class and that first practice ‚Äì I don’t know what it is ‚Äì every single place that I’ve ever coached, the practice is horrific. So, we’re going to be able to avoid our two most important practices of the week without school starting. We need to take advantage of it and practice really well this week.