BYU Cougars College Football Pregame Quote, 11/15/2021

I’m really excited about the game. We had a good week off. A lot of the guys took advantage of it. We had a good week of lifting and a few practices. We changed up the schedule mid-week. We looked at what the team needed. We played it by ear and changed it up a little bit. We gave the guys some time off. We’re looking forward to going out to Georgia Southern. We watched the film. They are motivated. They’re coming off a win against Texas State. I see a lot of athleticism. It will be a good game and a lot of fun.

On the program’s success & his interest in coaching vacancies:

Right now, I’m just focused on getting our team ready for Georgia Southern. And each game after that. That’s been my focus this entire season. I’m taking this week by week and getting these guys ready to play their best. We have some health issues and I’m trying to get guys back. That’s my focus.

On moving up to the Big 12:

I think it was just confirming what I already knew. We have a huge fan base. My focus is just getting the team ready for this week. I can’t control what happens a year from now. I can’t control what happens even two weeks from now. I can only control what happens today.

On what he has learned when playing in different time zones:

There’s a lot that goes into the game. We will be going a day earlier. As long as I’m head coach, I want the guys to acclimate to the time difference. A lot can be said about having two nights of sleep in a different time zone. We are flying Delta which will be huge for us. It will be comfortable. We will have a great place to stay. We are staying at the Marriott. Having these great partners will make it easier for us.

On the challenges of facing Georgia Southern:

I see speed and athleticism. They are great athletes and they are well-coached. They are motivated. They have gone through some adversity and you can tell that they are close as teammates. They are coming off a win and have some momentum and belief. When you see what they do offensively, scheme is important. They can throw the ball. They utilize their personnel really well. Everyone is a threat to run the ball. The quarterback can run. Defensively, they are tough and can run fast.

On being rested vs rusty:

The approach last week was to stay on top of everything. We didn’t take a complete week off. We didn’t take total rest, but we are rested. The approach today at practice is to get ready to roll. If we have rust, we are going to shake if off today. Not on Saturday. Our approach is to try to get better every week.

On getting over the two-game losing streak:

We didn’t perform at our best and found ways to get better. An easy thing to do when you don’t get the result you want, you tend to over correct. We just looked at things that caused us issues. We approached those mistakes to get better.

Our players are always looking to get better. They can be hard on themselves. I try to help them focus on improvement rather being embarrassed about the loss. We want to improve and get better. We had games that didn’t go our way. Sometimes, we still win games and the results weren’t what we wanted. We are looking forward to seeing how much better we get this week.

On Coastal Carolina vs Georgia Southern:

They are very similar. They do a lot of different things, but they have similar systems. I can’t remember all the details. Scoring wise, our defense did OK. We just made too many mistakes as a team. Those mistakes can be costly. We need to learn from it, even if it happened last year. We didn’t dominate the line of scrimmage last year, so we need be physical up front. The guys need to enjoy the physical part of the game.

On these final two games having an interim head coach:

I can only go off of what I see on film. When you see a team that is close and loves playing the game, I can’t speak on everything else. When teams go through adversity, it either breaks them apart or binds them together. We need to have that same mindset and play at our best.