BYU Cougars College Football Pregame Quote, 11/25/2019

On balancing Thanksgiving with practicing:

We’re just going to win the game. That’s what we’ll focus on, doing everything we can to win the game. The only thing that will be changing is practice a little bit. It’ll be earlier on Thursday so the players can get out to their families. We know where all our guys are at, whether they’ll be at coaches’ or teammates’ home. They’ll be taken care of that day and I expect them to eat a lot and to probably not participate in Black Friday shopping. Other than that we have to prep and work hard. I’m looking forward to today’s meetings and practices because I think there are a lot of things we can improve on, and I’m looking forward on getting that done today.

On the third-string players’ performance in the second half:

If you saw me during the game, I did a lot of vocalizing how I felt about it. I expect those guys to perform well. Some of the guys did and some didn’t, but just because the game wasn’t under control, doesn’t mean that we go easy on them. We have to coach them hard, spend time with them and expect them to play at their best, which I don’t think they did. A good number of them did though, while others didn’t and that cost us some points. Those are valuable lessons for them to learn.

An example would be Jackson McChesney against Idaho State. There were a lot of things that he did that weren’t correct. Coach Stewart could tell you more about it, but we were talking earlier, whether it was the track of his run, how he took the hand-off or where his eyes were at. Not everything was what we were hoping for from practice. He didn’t do some good things, but in order for us to get him to work on it, the experience of him going through that and having some film, was good for Coach Stewart to work on. Then boom, away he goes against UMass. I’m expecting him to keep progressing and to play better when we get to San Diego State this weekend. That’s how I expect all those guys to perform. We would have liked to keep the shutout in the second half, but it’s football. The stuff that matters to me the most is the win, the rest is trying to get the team ready for future opportunities and chances for them to be on the field. Some of them, you’re just going to have to grind your teeth and just correct them, others you’re going to praise them for what they do and try to be consistent. I give McChesney as an example because I think you saw a lot of growth from him in one week. Imagine what they others can do if the progress how he did.

On how valuable it was to have their reserves face the UMass first-strings:

The fact that they kept their guys and they kept throwing and doing their regular offense. That’s stuff that is really valuable for us guys to go through. You can’t simulate that in practice. Now that it’s out there and it’s on film, we’re going to making some corrections. All of the guys were watching film on the flight home, so they saw it for themselves, but it’s a really good opportunity for us to get better, make our depth better and get them game-ready.

On San Diego State’s defense:

Rocky Long is a great coach. He’s coordinated some good defenses and been the head coach of some great defenses, so he has tons of experience. I look at the coaching staff and they have a lot of experience on that staff. Some of the staff have been head coaches and they’ve been a lot of different places, so experience-wise, you can tell they’re well-coached and that they’re tough. They take the same personality that Rocky Long has. We expect their best shot. I say it every week, we just have to make sure they get ours too. It’ll be a fun opportunity for us to empty our tanks and just worry about this game so we finish it the right way.

On the biggest growth this season:

I see growth everywhere. I see a sense of urgency from the seniors and the leadership. I see a team that cares about each other and loves each other. I see the underclassmen caring about how the seniors feel and wanting to give them great memories. The culture has been going well for a long time, but they’re starting to really thrive now. When you go through tough times, that’s when you really lean on that. The coaches are really growing, but it’s not anything that I’ve done, it’s just things that happen here at BYU. If you organize it with the right people around it, things will continue to grow and become a strength for a team.