Oregon Ducks College Football Pregame Quote, 09/02/2024

“Obviously excited to get back into Autzen this weekend, get to play a really good opponent. Obviously they’re really talented across the board and have had a lot of success over the last several years. Certainty a really good team and a good challenge for us. Had a good work day this morning to start and excited to get to it.”

On team’s mindset:

“I thought our guys had a really good work day today. They certainly attacked things and appreciated things we got to improve. They handled it the right way.”

On offensive line play:

“We didn’t play well enough. There was some miscommunications that we have to clean up. Certainly room for improvement but they know that they didn’t play to the standard that we want and we can be better there.”

On pass rush vs. Idaho:

“I thought it was good at times. We got hurt on some screen game so the ability to retrace and recognize that would be improvement and something that we’re really working on. I thought you saw some good pass rush from us.”

On when penalties on the offensive line will reach a point of impacting playing time:

“Yeah it does when you have people that are better that can perform and have proven that they’re accountable as well. You put the best on the field that are accountable and have proven that they can do it at the right level. When you have that option that’s when you certainly can do that.”

On what he learned from film and where team can improve:

“I think there’s a lot of nuggets. You go back and you look at the overall game and you’re winning in a lot of categories. The categories we really didn’t win on were situational football and the way we ran the ball. So we had the ball twice before two minute, before half, we didn’t score. Had an opportunity to kick, didn’t make the kick. Didn’t score in the middle eight. Generally, that’s been something that we’ve done well. So that offensively. Defensively, gave up some explosive plays, even on limited possessions. But we had 87 snaps. They had 48 snaps. So you had the ball a lot more, but we weren’t creating the explosives that turn into positives. Finding ways to do that, a lot of that comes with effort to the ball, finishing, proper mechanics. But you look at it and you study those pieces. How do we create those things? And then you attack it and you build your practice plan around that as well. A lot of the things we saw that were places for us to improve, those are exact things that we worked on today.”

On how in-helmet communication worked on Saturday:

“Some good, some bad, you know. And I think that’s what that’s the way these games have to work. You have to learn from it and figure out, ‘OK, what’s really effective, what’s not.’ But there was some positive from it, some things where it really helped us, allowed us to get in or out of good looks. But then also, there were some times that it wasn’t effective enough, and we need to do a better job of utilizing that.”

On Ajani Cornelius protecting for a left-handed quarterback:

“There is a difference. But ultimately, you’re trying to keep the pocket clean, and the pocket, unless it’s a movement pass, it’s not going to be in a completely different place. But there’s some things there that make it a little bit different, as far as where players will step up, and where, the depth of the pocket, what that looks like, but generally it still is very similar in position.”

On Ashton Jeanty:

“I think he’s the best running back I’ve seen since I’ve been here. He’s certainly an NFL guy, and he doesn’t go down on first contact ever. He’s one of the best stiff arm guys that we’ve gone against. He runs really, really physical. And then, the next guy they brought in ran for 100 yards too. This is a really powerful rushing attack. Their offense does a lot of good things to scheme you up and they have compliments off of each play. So a great stretch play is going to have a great boot play action off of it as well. So they hold you accountable. They make you tackle. They’re going to make DBs tackle. They do a really good job of that. And the back certainly is a big piece of their success.”

On how much familiarity between coaching staffs can be helpful:

‚ÄúIt works both ways, that‚Äôs what I‚Äôd say. I think it helps with a familiarity, but it certainly works both ways. Dirk (Koetter) has been a really successful coach for a long time and he has basically every bag of tricks or every play that you can have in your repertoire, he has it. But having some familiarity with each other, I think, certainly helps. But it goes both directions when it comes to that.‚Äù

On lack of explosive plays and whether Dillon Gabriel was making the wrong reads:

“‘I’d say none of it was really him not making the right read. I think they — we took a shot early in the game down the field, and then they stopped playing that coverage that gave us the opportunity to take that shot. We called a lot of shot plays, and they played over the top. So I think Dillon made the smart decision with where he took the ball, where he got to the ball. You don’t go what 41 of 50 passing if that’s not the case. He did a really good job of making decisions on where he could actually go with the ball given the opportunity. They just eliminated some of those opportunities to take those shots. I think more of your explosives are going to come whenever you do catch the ball in space, who’s going to break a tackle, who’s going to go cover up on the block downfield, and those are the things that we got to do a better job taking care of. And then being able to run the ball more effectively.”

On if he’s optimitic Gary Bryant Jr. and Matthew Bedford will play this week:

“Yeah, I am. I am.”

On if the staff identified issues with run defense against better teams last season:

“A combination of all things. Combination of the technique, combination of scheme, but certainly some things that we recognize that we wanted to have good answers for going into the offseason.”

On team’s leadership after the game:

“I think we have some great leaders on this team. I think it certainly showed up today with the way the guys came out and worked. I think these guys have a really high standard for what they expect for themselves, again, regardless of results. So I think that all showed up today.”

On Boise State’s defense:

“It’s one of the most unique; they do a lot of different package personnels and it’s very unique in how they do it. Whether it’s dime and they’re bringing that safety down the box to play Will linebacker. They’ll have fronts at times that have two defensive linemen in. They have a unique set where they’ll carry dime, nickel, base personnel, and they use them in a lot of different ways. Got a really talented defensive end. Their linebacker’s as good as we’ve faced. He’s a known blitzer and does a really good job of creating negative plays. They are sound and there’s some veteran leadership where these guys really attack the ball really, really well. I mean, they take shots at the ball consistently and make that the difference. I think they’re going to pitch a lot of different looks at us. It’s important to be able to see those looks.”

On how Atticus Sappington earned kick off job:

“Just consistency and performance.”

On what the plan at center will be at center once Bedford can play and how Charlie Pickard performed:

“His communication was pretty good, but just like everybody on our team, some good, some bad, some things to improve. Once we have more people available, I think there is always opportunities to look and see what that lineup looks like. I think there’s, regardless of if Matt’s available or not, I think that that’s something you always have to try to create at every position, that competition that makes you better, and having more guys that can play winning football. So we’ll see what it looks like as we move forward. But I think Charlie handled a lot of things really well. Charlie certainly wasn’t the guy that didn’t play well on the offensive line. I think as a unit, that’s the unit that has to play well together and it takes all five guys being on the same page and executing at a high clip. And he’s part of that unit; so he has ownership in that. But on the same note, there were multiple guys that didn’t play to their standard or our standard on Saturday.”

On the value of former right guards Ryan Walk and Dallas Warmack being on staff when the position has a change:

“I don’t know that it plays anything into that position specifically, but their energy and enthusiasm when it comes to coaching their players to be really talented and to do it at a high level, those are guys that did it at a high level and I think it matters to them. But they’re good coaches. Ryan and Dallas are both really good coaches. They coach these guys hard. Our players trust them. It’s always good having guys like that that can communicate with them.”