BYU Cougars College Football Pregame Quote, 10/17/2022

On moving-on from the loss to Arkansas and preparing to face Liberty:

Back to a new week. Obviously, I’m disappointed with the result last weekend. I had the opportunity to review the loss to Arkansas, and now I’m getting ready for this week’s game against a difficult team. Liberty is very well-coached. [Liberty head coach] Hugh Freeze is a great coach. They’ve dealt with some injuries, even at the quarterback position, but they’re 6-1 and their only loss is to a ranked Wake Forest team on a failed 2-point conversion. They have a high-powered offense with a really good running back. Whoever they have at quarterback, I’m sure they’re going to coach him well. They have very skilled receivers, and their defense is tough too. I’m looking forward to our team correcting some things from last week. We’re kind of in a funk right now and going through some adversity, but I think there’s going to be a lot of growth. There’s a lot of things we can learn. We need to keep a positive attitude about trying to get better but also have optimism that we will get through this. We’ll get through this by working hard today, getting back on it, holding each other accountable and everybody doing their part. That’s our focus this week.

On defensive creativity:

I think there’s a place for all of it. You have to have an identity and foundation to work from. When you’re going against high-speed offenses, like Arkansas, they do that so they can get you in a non-creative mode. It keeps you pretty basic, but their offense has to be pretty basic too. They’re going to go fast, so they probably won’t run a lot of shifts and motions. That’s the game now. Teams are going no-huddle but also doing some freeze calls where they try to get you in a look and then trying to get their right call to that. Defense is a reactive squad. Your unit has to be able to react to what the offense is giving you, what they’re showing.

On feeling pressure as head coach:

I feel pressure on everything. That’s this job. The expectations of our fans are high, and I don’t have a problem with that. When your defense is giving up that many points and that many yards, there has to be accountability. There has to be pressure on everybody. That’s my job as head coach.

On players’ injury status:

Payton Wilgar is not out for the year. He’s doubtful for this weekend. We’re hoping he can go but that will probably show itself in the next couple of days. If he’s not ready to practice, then it’s going to be hard for me to allow him to play. We’re hoping to get [running backs] Lopini Katoa and Miles Davis back this week.

On the offense:

The key is to put points on the board. I’ve told [offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick, wide receivers coach Fesi Sitake] and the staff, ‚ÄòFind a way to get points on the board. I really don’t care how it comes, but don’t force something that’s not there.’ I think if we execute at a high-level and put guys in the best position to make plays, then we score points. I liked the fact we got [wide receiver] Puka Nacua the ball a lot more last week. We ran the ball with him too. That’s creativity and innovation to find ways to get points on the board.

On facing adversity:

You grow the most through adversity, so I’m looking forward to that growth. We’ve been through some adversity before and we’ve bounced back. BYU football will bounce-back to what our identity is and what we can hang our hat on. We know what’s coming up in the near future, so we have to get ourselves ready in a lot of areas.