Boise State Broncos College Football Pregame Quote, 09/25/2023

Welcome, hope you guys are off to a great start to your week. Big start to the week for us, we have another huge challenge as we move into our next game against Memphis. That is a top 25 tight team that we’re going to play there. They very well could have beat Missouri last week. They have played very strong on both sides of the ball to start this season.

An offense that has shown to be explosive and be able to move the ball down the field in the pass game and in the run game. And a defense that has been very aggressive at the line of scrimmage. With their defensive front and their defense all around creating a lot of TFLs, creating havoc on the line of scrimmage, this will be one of the best defensive fronts that we play against this year. You can see that on film from all the opponents that they’ve played against.

They do a great job in coverage, playing with the front end and the back end together and the different things they do with their cover four and their cover three defenses and the pressures they bring along with it.

Getting back here after our last game, after a Friday game and having a Saturday to be able to get our minds and our bodies rested. As we push forward, we had a great practice yesterday, just a little bit longer than usual to work on some things that obviously we talked about after the game in terms of some certain fundamentals, in particular tackling and making sure that we get off to a good start with the week and creating the habits necessary as we move into the week and how we practice and ultimately how we’ll play in the game.

We’re excited about where the team is at right now. It was a huge win for us last week on the road, first conference game. Working towards our goal and now it’s obviously we’ve flipped the page and have moved on to this next opponent who’s going to bring a lot of challenges.

Andy, I think before you said you’ll go a day early if it’s two time zones. This is one time zone, but it’s kind of on the cusp there. Why are you guys going on Thursday?

Typically, yes, but it’s not necessarily just two time zones, but it’s the length of the travel and the amount of hours you spend on a flight. The players being able to get that travel in just a little bit earlier than we normally would gives them, gives us time to get there and get their bodies ready to roll. It’s nothing out of the ordinary that we’ve done when we’ve traveled this far east.

Another returning starter quarterback, I think it’s his third year starting. All of them have been a little bit different. So what does Henigen bring to the table for them and what does he do maybe better than some of the other ones we’ve seen?

What we’ve seen in our film studies as far as that he’s efficient at getting the ball out quick. There are schemes that allow him to take the free access throws, the way they create free access, and or how coverage is playing. He’s able to see those things and get the ball out pretty quick, disperses it around the field. He has top targets that he likes to go to. I mean, their wide receiver corps is big, they’re fast. They have the ability to stretch the field vertically, but as well as spreading the ball around to the tailback. And getting him his touches not just out of the backfield, but in the pass game as well.

What was it like going back and watching some of Ashton [Jeanty]’s runs in that last game? I mean, getting by a few yards or missed yards after contact as well, what was it like going back and watching that?

Obviously, congrats to Ashton for getting player of the week in our conference. As we said, he was a workhorse the other night. But it also comes down to the O-line play, the tight ends, and the wide receivers block him. Ashton did a great job of attacking space when it was there, and when it wasn’t, he ran behind his pads. He ran really hard the other night. It was exciting to see. He was able to be explosive in the run game and we were still able to get him the ball in the pass game as well. He had a lot of touches in that game.

Was there any one play you looked back on, and just kind of like, man, how did he do that?

The one that was really impressive was there late in the game when he was one-on-one with the linebacker in the hole. We needed a first down as we were in the four minute to continue to chew up the clock, and it was him and the linebacker in the hole. He got the best of them and obviously was able to keep the chains moving. That was pretty impressive.

On play-to-play against particular schemes, you’re going to have to make somebody miss or you are going to have to be able to go in tight quarters like that, be able to run behind your pads, and he was able to do that.

I think for you guys, third down’s been a little bit of a struggle. I think you’re 84th in the country. What are you seeing on third down in terms of trying to get off the field?

Yeah, so it’s a combination of what we’re doing in the pre-snap. It is always about what we’re doing in the pre-snap to create different pictures once the ball’s snapped. And that goes in line, it’s not just the coverage, it’s the front, it’s the pressure. Being able to get the quarterback off his spot, being able to maintain the pocket as well within our leverages and our rush lanes. Then, obviously, being able to execute our coverage techniques. I guess it’s common sense, but I mean, defensively some of the issues you guys are facing.

How much, if you could get off on third down more often, I mean, get off the field, how much- That’s always, we call them money downs for a reason.

That’s always a primary goal on both sides of the ball. What we need to continue to do is just grow a little bit each and every week within this. We’re obviously getting off the field on third downs. We’ve been able to do that in the past successfully. We know what that recipe looks like. As coaches, we’ll do a better job making sure that we’re in line and we’re preparing that way with what we’re doing in the meeting rooms and taking it to the field.

You guys talk about Ashton being a workhorse. That’s a word that we love to use in the media. And you’re going to map things out game to game every Saturday. But is what he did on Saturday or this past week sustainable or do you need a more established one from other people?

That’s always the question, right? But it’s from game to game what’s successful. When you’re in a game and you’re having success doing certain things, I don’t think you go away from it, right? So, yes, do we have other options and do we need to get those going? But again, once when we’re in a game, we’re not going to stop doing something that is successful. That’s the way the game played out the other night. And thankfully so, the line of scrimmage, our offensive front played really well, the wide receivers blocked well. But yes, being able to target some other guys, I mean, that’s always a part of the game plan.

Last week in this exact meeting, you were asked about offensive identity. And then after the game on, after the San Diego State game, you said we’re going to run to win. Do you see this team pushing the run more and more each week from here on out?

When you get into a game like that and you’re having the success that you do in the run game, there’s no reason to go away from it. Being able to build off of what you’re doing in the run game now, that’s a big part of it, right? So we’re not going to go into the game saying we are going to run the ball and that is all we are going to do. But naturally by the course of the game and what’s successful, what someone’s having a hard time stopping, you’re not going to go away from that.

This week there’s going to be a huge emphasis on how it all comes together with the wide receivers, the quarterbacks. Obviously, protection is at a premium when you’re passing the ball. This week we’re facing a defensive front that could very well be the best we’ve seen all season. Again, TFL wise, there’s a reason why they’re successful on third downs in the passing down situations. So we’re going to have a huge challenge up front with our protections. Then it comes down to us getting our timing in the passing game and really bringing that together. It’s going to be a huge deal this week in practice with how we’re running our routes, the speed off the ball, the timing. Obviously for both sides with the wide receivers and the quarterbacks making sure that we’re on point, and we have to trust that we’re going to be where we need to be in so that we can execute in the game.

I mean, was that something you thought was off on Saturday or on Friday?

Well, we got a little more press coverage and tighter coverage than what was shown on film. Now naturally, we have to be able to handle whatever coverages we’re getting. But there were still some opportunities that we felt like we left on the field that we have to be able to see things and be more efficient with the ball and getting the ball out on time. Again, that’s going to be a huge part this week. We’re going to have to get the ball out on time because of the defensive front we’re facing. So each and every week you play a different opponent, they’re going to present different challenges. But the overall is that, yes, we do want to continue to grow forward within the pass game, and we must. That’s going to complement the run game as we move forward week to week.

How wide do you see defensively for Memphis? What are you expecting and maybe twice their defensive line?

With their defensive line, we’re going to see primarily a four-down front. We’re going to see some cover four, some post defenses, some cover threes. Then they got some five-man pressures with some three deep zone behind that we’re going to have to handle. For us, it always starts at the line of scrimmage, whether it’s in the run game or the pass game as we talked about. Then from there, being able to be efficient in both the run and the pass. What we’re doing in the pass game that allows us to be efficient, again, comes together with the wide receivers and the quarterback. Then like we spoke on, our line is going to have another tough challenge this week in our tight ends with the guys we’re facing up front.

You mentioned their passing and obviously the pass defense has still been a bit of a struggle for you guys. Just what do you guys have to fix? What is it, what exactly do you see that you have to fix there?

Yes, the consistency all around ‚Äì not just the pass defense ‚Äì starts up front again. You have to be able to get pressure on the quarterback, move him off the spot. The other night, we didn’t do a great job of keeping our leverage and keeping the quarterback in the pocket. There are too many throwing lanes and obviously lanes that he was able to get out and run. Then in the secondary, we have to do a better job teaching and creating more of consistency of how we’re playing certain techniques within coverages.

You’ve seen Emac [Eric McAlister] go high point balls, run away from guys, but really he’s been kind of in a position to make guys miss, I guess, and get some yak yards. We saw that a couple times, the spin move. I don’t understand, where’d that come from?

Obviously, he was able to pull that off twice and did it pretty effectively. There were a couple of plays in which you’re talking about are just yards after catch and what he was able to do there. Again, when there’s a lot of numbers in the box, then we have to be able to do those things on the perimeter. You get some one-on-one situations, that’s where the efficiency in the pass game has to pick up, find the space that the defense is given, be able to be efficient, connecting, and then being able to get those yards after catch will be a huge part of it, as we move forward.

It might not be everyone’s favorite topic, but punching James Ferguson Reynolds through four games is obviously leading the nation. How valuable has what he’s been doing?

Yeah, it’s been huge. I mean, he flipped the field really in a tight, tight game last week. He was able to flip the field, create field position, whether we were backed up in flipping the field and or pinning the opposing team deep in their territory. We have to do a better job in our coverage as a punt team, with some of those kicks, our urgency. The protection on the punt team is always the primary factor, and then as we transition into coverage, we have to do a better job with that, being that he’s capable, one of those was a 67-yard punt. We have to get down the field and cover these things, and do a better job, again, with our tackling and our leverage.

I think getting Mason [Randolph] back for you guys this week, and also moving him to guard, was that just kind of the way Garrett’s been playing at center?

Mason hasn’t played since the fifth practice of fall camp. It was an unbelievable job by our medical team and our athletic trainers getting him ready to go. He really started individual the week before on Thursday, Friday, and then to be able to jump in. So, we didn’t feel like it was the right thing to do to move Garrett, who has been playing well at center. Obviously, Mason has played guard, and Mason can play either one inside, but it was huge, showed to be very effective in his first game back, and we’re excited about that.

You mentioned the return issues, the defense a little bit, I think 100 yards to San Diego State on kickoff returns. What are the specific issues there that you’re trying to clean up this week?

We’ve already spoke on the punt team. A positive is that James [Ferguson-Reynolds] got a strong leg. We have to be able to transition from protection and get down the field into our coverage and make sure that we’re in our coverage lanes. It’s not much different on our kickoff team. We understand each and every week we’re going to face returners who are explosive. The last returner we faced, we knew the type of speed that he had, and we cannot give those guys space. It really comes down to being able to play with speed down the field. When you’re on your coverage teams, naturally there’s a lot of space on the field, right? So being able to play with leverage, understand returns and where they’re going, be able to break and beat leverages, and obviously maintain your leverage.

Why has the offensive line been so dominant? Or maybe to use your word, why have they been so consistent?

We’ve had different guys playing there because of injuries. I mean, we’ve gone seven deep into the O line, eight deep. It’s from the beginning of the year, Garrett [Curran], Cade [Beresford], Ben [Dooley], those guys have done a great job creating an identity, creating a standard in that room, and how they prepare each and every week. Whether it’s on the field, in their expectations, we’re going to have to continue to grow that.

It’s not just going to happen from week to week. We have to continue to grow that as we move along. But it’s also how they spend the time. That group probably spends the most time watching film together, in the film room, and the leaders lead that stuff.

Naturally, what you put into anything is what you get out of it. So that’s a great example. We felt all along, as we’ve gone through the course of this year thus far, that our O line in particular, Garrett [Curran] and Cade [Beresford], those guys are not only leaders of the O line, but they’re leaders of our team because of how they prepare, how they perform at practice, and obviously how it leads into the game.

What are some memories, thoughts, be like for you going back to the Liberty Bowl?

You know what, I haven’t even thought about it. It’s been a long time since the last time I was there. But it’s part of the special deal of getting to play and coach. You get to go places you never would have gone without being a part of this game. You get to meet people that you wouldn’t have been able to meet without being a part of this game. That’s one thing that we talk to our players about all the time. This is a grind and it takes being your best each and every day to continue to grow and become what you’re capable as an individual and as a team. But also, they’re the places you get to go. We obviously have a challenge of traveling across the country this week and going to a place that a lot of guys on this team and in this program haven’t been. That in itself is going to create challenges, whether it be travel or whatever it may be. But yeah, I haven’t really thought specifically for myself. I’ve just been focused on the things that from one game going into the next game and the next opponent and what we need to do to be better.

What home do you remember about that interception return though?

I was very tired. That is the one thing, I was very tired before it happened and it was at the end of a drive. I don’t know how many plays into that drive we were, but I was very thankful I made it there and I was very tired afterwards.

How impressed have you been with the rise of Marco [Notarainni]? I mean, this guy, three weeks ago, I think he had three career tackles and now he’s your leading tackler.

It’s what you put into it is what you get out of it. This game requires so much of you day in and day out. And that’s not a chore to Marco. Marco has fun with it. Maybe it’s because of the position he was in last year when he got hurt and got the game taken from him. The grace he has each and every day to work, to prepare, to become his best. What you put into anything is what you get out of it. I think that’s just another example for guys within our team that they can see how a guy works and what he puts in every day. The success he’s able to have, and not just individually in the number of tackles he’s making, but what he’s doing on the field, how he’s helping lead as a middle linebacker. There’s a lot of things that go into it too, it’s just not making tackles.

You mentioned that kind of that role as being the leader?

It’s required as a middle linebacker. You have to help set the fronts, you have to help handle coverages. There’s a lot of things going on around you. Our inside linebackers and our safeties handle the operation of our defense.

You go places I’ve never been, that kind of stuff, and this is the first ever meeting against Memphis. I mean, there was a year where you guys were both fighting for that group of five spot a couple years ago. Just in general, the matchup with Memphis and the series and going to play them there, what are your thoughts on that?

Like we said to start, I mean, this is a top 25 team. They’ve shown with the teams they played against very well last week, they’re in position to win, very well could have beat Missouri. And you can see it from how they built the roster and the things that they are doing on the field early on in the season here. They’ve done a great job, as we said, this is going to be a huge challenge for us as we go on the road again.

You know, Drink, you know, Kirby, they just beat these guys to coaches. Typically, would you hit those guys up and say, XYZ, did that work? What do you think would work for us?

You know how this goes in this coaching world. I’m going to leave it at that.

As we all know, this isn’t an easy profession and you have enough friends and people that you know from within your coaching trees and stuff like that, where whether it’s the off season, during the season, you know, whether it’s a text to say, hey, good job, man, or to show support, to help lean on each other.

I mean, we’re always talking to our buddies that are in the profession. In the way that Bush is scheming [Ashton] Jeanty, I mean, obviously, they know screens are coming, but there’s different screens every week.

What are you liking about this, how Bush is being able to get the ball to [Ashton] Jeanty in certain situations that feel like they’re confusing to the defense?

With George [Holani] being out of the lineup right now, Breezy [Jambres Dubar] being able to step up, [Tyler] Crowe being out of the lineup, let’s be honest, have to be reasonable with what Bush has done, a good job getting the ball to Ashton. Now where we can build that throughout the rest of the offense too, with the performance and the production at practice, and then being able to go do that on game day. That’s a huge part of it right there, but it showed to be very effective in the last couple weeks here.

There’s gonna be a lot of eyes on Ashton, let’s just say that, right?

I mean, that’s the obvious. So that opens up opportunities for the other personnel in our offense, and that’s what we want to continue to build on.‚Äù

In the last two games, a little bit of a slow start by the offense before they bounce back. After the North Dakota game, you kinda brought up the opening script and doing a better job of executing those plays. Is it script, is it execution? What do you see in there?

That’s on us as coaches, that’s 100% on us. That starts with me and making sure that we’re squared away. And then obviously when we put that plan down on paper and we show it on the screens in meeting rooms, then we work together in building that confidence that we always talk about through hard work during the course of the week and being able to go out and execute.

We’re through four games here in the season. Most teams have played four games now, right? So being able to see the film and be familiar with what people are going to be able to do, we should have a great idea. Now, by the makeup of our offense in our run game, week in and week out, I will say that we do get some different stuff from defenses than they’ve traditionally shown.

You mentioned on your own the tackling after the game the other night. I know in the season it’s hard to do real live periods and practice and stuff. So, was it something you saw was just a random game where guys were missing tackles and how do you kind of in the middle of the season correct the tackling?

That is something that we’re working on. It is tackle football, so we’re on it all the time. I’ll be honest with you, there’s habits in practice that you can go back and look at film and be like, okay, again, what you put into anything is what you get out of it. It’s not only the drills we do, whether it’s a controlled setting drill or it’s a team drill, whether it’s a group drill, whatever that looks like. It’s identifying what are the things that we need to do better in tackling from a fundamental standpoint.

There’s always a tackling phase. There’s always a punch and the finish phase, okay? Specifically, within those three things, what are the things that we’re going to focus on? And then how are we going to rep that in individual, again, in group settings? And then most importantly, what does that look like and how we’re finishing every single rep at practice? Taking advantage of creating angles, practicing taking angles, taking the grass in our tracking, and then how we punch and finish at practice.

Taylen Green ran the ball Friday more than he had all season. What did you make of his decision making on Friday?

There were some opportunities we created where we knew we were going to gain leverage for him to do those things. Then there were opportunities where it’s a true read and he did a great job. As we’ve spoken all along, that quarterback run number and how you use that within an offense could be to your advantage. Then it’s the balance of how much you use it and how much you build things off of that.

DJ Schramm seems to be a pretty tough kid:

Yeah, it was pretty impressive. DJ is a warrior. He battled through, not in his physical makeup and what he’s able to do, but his mental too. The team voted him the team captain for a reason. You’re not going to find a better young man in terms of how they work, how they care about people, their maturity. Again, when we talk about the older guys helping the younger guys grow, there’s a great example in terms of what Marco gets to see, what it looks like, what it should look like.

Stefan [Cobbs] and Billy [Bowens], two veteran wide receivers, probably the production isn’t matching their experience. How do you get them more on track or do you want them to be more on track?

The number one deal with that right there with those guys is what goes into it, the amount of targets, right, and then being able to win on those targets. That’s what we’re going to bring. We have to do a better job making sure that they fully understand. As coaches, we have to do a better job making sure they understand what the plan is, what it looks like, how we are going to create separation so that when we do target, we’re able to be efficient in the pass game and get the ball in their hands.

Steph had a really, obviously, big time third down catch last week, ran out of a tackle, and got some yards after contact. How we continue to build that in and get more of that, that’s going to be a focus.

I want to mention Kaden that had the nice kickoff return there. He seems to have a pretty good mentality back there as a returner:

Yeah, since last year when KD got his opportunity to jump back there, he’s done a nice job. Being able to get him back in last week, he had one really explosive return last week, it’s not just our coverage teams, but we were actually doing some good things on special teams too. We were able to rip off a huge explosive kickoff return and we were one guy away from a couple more, to be honest with you. That is one thing that really improved our emphasis on our kickoff return team last week and certain parts of it, and those guys stepped up. It’s not only KD, there wasn’t a lot of room on KD’s explosive kickoff return. But guys got on bodies and they covered guys up and blocked guys better than we have. We have to continue to build off of that because we have a returner who is more than willing to get that ball and hit a vertical.

At the college level, it’s kind of a luxury to have a punter that can keep average 51 plus and a field goal kicker that can feel good for 55 plus. I mean, that seems pretty unique for college football.

Those guys are doing a great job for them to continue on. Obviously, it’s going to be the consistency and how we prepare and train and stay the course. I’ll be honest, we love those guys for who they are and what they do. James [Ferguson-Reynolds] has grown a ton since he’s been here. We see what he’s doing on the field because James has grown a lot as a young man. As we spoke on before, it’s not easy to move from another country and come here and then to be able to jump in and play this. That’s all we’re asking of everybody here is this, when we talk about that continued growth, there’s an example right there for a guy like James. Then when that growth happens off the field and the process of what it is for him to prepare each and every week, then that consistency comes.

Jonah, you’re talking about a guy that’s done this for a while now. He’s one of the leaders on our team, let alone that specialist group, especially in how he continues to grow and push himself, he’ll also continue to grow and push that group.

Jaden Virgin had the first career fumble recovery. Kind of watching that play, it kind of looked like he kept his eye on the quarterback the entire time. Just what do you like about his focus and his will to finish the play like that?

Jaden’s making progress now. We’re excited to get a guy like Cortez [Hogans] back too, he is going to be back in the mix. But Jaden’s done a really good job in the last couple weeks. There’s been tremendous growth.

In that particular play that you’re talking about on, I mean, he took on a block, stuck the guy, got off, escaped through his leverage. Ahmed made a good tackle on the quarterback, and as he punched the quarterback, he punched the ball out. Because of Jaden’s second effort to get to the ball, he was there and then there was a scrum, as you could imagine in football, to see who was going to get the football. So, it was a nice job by him battling to get that ball. That was a big-time play.

Everybody wants to see the judgement of tight ends value and how many passes he catches. But can you sum up the value of Matt Louder and Riley Smith and how hard those guys are playing right now?

You can go back and watch, Riley’s diving to make blocks at times. One was kind of a bogus hold call, but just the level of- Well, we pointed that out in our team meeting yesterday. What that tight end group is doing and how Coach Potter has grown those guys. It’s a battle at practice each and every week going against the edge players and the tight ends. Those guys have done an unbelievable job.

They’ve had some good performances but last week was their best performance. The selflessness of what they do for the team and with the things that will come off of that now, again, being able to establish the run game and then what comes off of the run game. We hope there’ll be some opportunities for them there too. But I love what those guys are doing. Matt Lauter is another young guy that is, he looks a lot different right now than he did even in the beginning of the year, let alone last year.

I know Ashton’s terrific, but I’m sure some of it is Coach JaMo [James Montgomery] coming in and working with him. What have you noticed with James Montgomery taking Ashton Jeanty to another level so far, Andy?

That’s a huge part coming into the program and having the running back room and the guys in there. We’ve gotten a little thin, but you can see the development too. Being able to get Breezy [Jambres Dubar] going and get him ready, that just shows too. Not only in the run game, obviously it’s visible to everybody when these guys have the ball in their hand or in the pass game and being able to get them the ball that way as well, but they do a good job in protection. That’s not always easy for tailbacks. That’s usually the hardest thing for a young player to come in, whether it’s to the college level and on to the NFL.

You always hear about getting them to understand protections, because you aren’t going to be in there if you can’t protect the quarterback. So that’s just a thing that maybe goes unnoticed as well, that we feel like our guys have done a good job of and they’re going to have to continue to grow. As we spoke on this week, it’s going to be a big deal given the defensive front that we’re facing.