I went back this morning and dissected everything Leipold said after the game:
What's your big picture assessment of how the game went for you guys?
Really proud of the way we battled. Being down, losing Jalon, some things there, but I think we left opportunities out there. I think we hurt ourselves again with penalties in the fourth quarter and just some things where you can see where, as you rotate, it's not as clean as it needs to be. We've got to be better in order to win games against good quality teams like this. That all said, I'm really proud of this football team for the way it battled and kept coming back and those things.
And do you have any update on Jalon's injury?
It's his shoulder. It's still under evaluation. That's all I was told he was done for the day and that's it. I'm sure the next 48 hours will help us to go from there.
With Jason stepping in, how impressed were you with his ability to come in and lead the offense?
Very, very impressed but again, not surprised because we've talked about how well he's played so that's exactly what I told him right before we went back out. I said, ‘You've played well, you've prepared well, you've handled the situation extremely well. Now go out and play.’ I didn't see his numbers yet so, but yeah, I thought he did a nice job.
Trevor Wilson's case was dismissed on Friday. Do you have any update on his status?
No, not yet. That was Friday and we'll continue to work through that. Talk with Travis (Goff) and things. The timing of that versus getting ready for everything happening here wasn't the best, but I look forward to getting him back here. It's unfortunate it took that long.
Lance, just obviously lot of attention on this game today. To have a deflating loss, how do you feel like you're going to process this and what would your message be to the team this week in the aftermath of this?
Well again, I think we showed ourselves very well that we can line up and play against people. We’ve just got to clean some things up. And if we don't, it can be a tough second half of the season if we clean it up and keep battling. Because the one thing I think was evident today is that this team will play 60 minutes and keep battling. But again, it's my responsibility and I didn’t do a good enough job that to get us in a position we've got to clean up some things and make that better and give ourselves even a better chance.
The defense had several stops. Just talk about their performance and how they've come along.
That's two nice performances. Don't get fooled by the scores. It's more shorter fields and things like that. I think we're doing some good things there. We got a fourth down stop early. Obviously, it was their plan to try to jump on us early, like they did last week.
We hold them to a field goal and then we get a stop. So, a lot of those things played our way, and we continue to do some good things. But I don't know what our missed tackles were and all that. So, where's this all balance out? We get another unfortunate third down penalty on third long to make a third short. They convert and go down. Those are the small things that when we're doing things really well.
As I told team, our margin of error is still pretty small. Okay. That's reality. That's okay. We can embrace that. But we've got to be better in certain situations. What did we have? Five penalties to their one. When we have five times more penalties than your opponent, it's hard to win.
Can you just shed some light on how Jason Bean has handled the role he's had to make him prepared for what he entered today?
Well, if you've been around Jason, he's pretty reserved all the time, even when things are going really well. And that's today's world of college football and especially at the quarterback position. But again, at least upon our arrival, he decided to come earlier is that we've talked about competition and all those different things, and we talk about staying ready. As you can see, he's a fine athlete.
We want to find ways to get him on the field, and we have. I'm sure it's not exactly the way he envisioned it from one year ago at this time, but instead of dwelling on that, I'd like to really commend him for the fact that the way he's handled it to be ready. If he has to be the starter next week, I'm very confident he'll have a great week of preparation and take advantage of his opportunity to be the starter.
And then just the past 18 months, however long it's been, how much of this growth overall do you feel like has been a product of getting not just better starters but depth as well?
I think it continues to show itself at different times with guys making plays. Ky Thomas had a couple plays; Sevion had a couple plays. You see some different receivers making plays. Steven McBride hasn't had a lot of opportunities. He had a chance to flash his speed a little bit and got us some good field position late. Defensively, we were able to rotate guys because it's physical and we're not going to be able to hold up if we're going to just play 11 to 14 guys on each side of the ball. So, it's good for us. It creates that good competition. Some of it is age and maturity and strength and all the things we're talking about. There's not the gap there was a year ago just based on all the youth we had on the field in the second unit.
You mentioned your team's ability to battle it out. When you go down in the half in the locker room and talk with your team, can you talk about that resiliency to come out like you guys did in the second half, especially when you have something like a quarterback going out?
I think it says a lot. It was a little different at halftime. I'm not going to deny that. It's a close game, but Jalon's is well liked in this program, we know what he's done, all those things. When nobody's really sure, there's a little bit of concern, obviously. Losing Daniel (Hishaw) last weekend. It's some of those things that you know, but again, you've got to keep them focused on what's important.
We said it's going to be a 60-minute game, so where we are at and getting the ball back, I thought was real important for us. And again, I see us with a lot different resiliency than we had a year ago because of that. Some of it is confidence, some of it is maturity, some of it's just through the experiences of playing and belief. And I think some of those games we fell behind early in the season and battled back has given this group a new sense of understanding of that, much like today, we're not out of it until it's over.
Jason's playing a snap here or two throughout the course of the season has to go in there, how do you think he really handled the reclamation process? The live reps and going out there against the defense for an extended period of time?
You can be rusty, and you go through some scrimmages and you're not live. I thought even some of the plays we sprinkled him in early, gives him a little bit of feel for that. But I've said it many times in here that I think our practice model and the reps that he gets and different things that we ask him to do, Jim and Andy, what they ask him to do, I think helps. I think it's a classic example when you talk about being mentally ready, being mentally into it at practice, mental reps and watching and putting yourself through it because you're always one play away.
Tabor Allen had been really good at kickoffs this season with a lot of touch backs. What happened with him today
Those were all strategy. We were all trying to kick it away from their guy. We didn't execute them all the way we wanted, and we asked him to do a lot of different things and that's sometimes easier said than done. Trying to place the ball away from somebody. That's something we need to reevaluate. And it's probably an area that, obviously, we didn't do as well today as we wanted.
Can you just talk about the day that Mason Fairchild had and how valuable and versatility he has been to the group?
I thought Mason had a big-time day. He made some big plays. I heard the guys talk. I blocked out the one where I think he had to twist the other way when he was wide open, made a heck of a play. And again, and Mason's a guy that's a leader in this program, very unassuming, works hard. And again, there's a time where everyone, you never know in our offense who's going to get that opportunity to step up and I thought he had a big day.
On your final offensive play, it appeared there was something between interference and holding, and I don't know that you can comment on that?
Yeah, it's probably something I can't really comment on now and get a better look at it, send it in, but can't change it, unfortunately. Like I said, when you have five times as many penalties as your opponents, it's tough to win.
What's your big picture assessment of how the game went for you guys?
Really proud of the way we battled. Being down, losing Jalon, some things there, but I think we left opportunities out there. I think we hurt ourselves again with penalties in the fourth quarter and just some things where you can see where, as you rotate, it's not as clean as it needs to be. We've got to be better in order to win games against good quality teams like this. That all said, I'm really proud of this football team for the way it battled and kept coming back and those things.
And do you have any update on Jalon's injury?
It's his shoulder. It's still under evaluation. That's all I was told he was done for the day and that's it. I'm sure the next 48 hours will help us to go from there.
With Jason stepping in, how impressed were you with his ability to come in and lead the offense?
Very, very impressed but again, not surprised because we've talked about how well he's played so that's exactly what I told him right before we went back out. I said, ‘You've played well, you've prepared well, you've handled the situation extremely well. Now go out and play.’ I didn't see his numbers yet so, but yeah, I thought he did a nice job.
Trevor Wilson's case was dismissed on Friday. Do you have any update on his status?
No, not yet. That was Friday and we'll continue to work through that. Talk with Travis (Goff) and things. The timing of that versus getting ready for everything happening here wasn't the best, but I look forward to getting him back here. It's unfortunate it took that long.
Lance, just obviously lot of attention on this game today. To have a deflating loss, how do you feel like you're going to process this and what would your message be to the team this week in the aftermath of this?
Well again, I think we showed ourselves very well that we can line up and play against people. We’ve just got to clean some things up. And if we don't, it can be a tough second half of the season if we clean it up and keep battling. Because the one thing I think was evident today is that this team will play 60 minutes and keep battling. But again, it's my responsibility and I didn’t do a good enough job that to get us in a position we've got to clean up some things and make that better and give ourselves even a better chance.
The defense had several stops. Just talk about their performance and how they've come along.
That's two nice performances. Don't get fooled by the scores. It's more shorter fields and things like that. I think we're doing some good things there. We got a fourth down stop early. Obviously, it was their plan to try to jump on us early, like they did last week.
We hold them to a field goal and then we get a stop. So, a lot of those things played our way, and we continue to do some good things. But I don't know what our missed tackles were and all that. So, where's this all balance out? We get another unfortunate third down penalty on third long to make a third short. They convert and go down. Those are the small things that when we're doing things really well.
As I told team, our margin of error is still pretty small. Okay. That's reality. That's okay. We can embrace that. But we've got to be better in certain situations. What did we have? Five penalties to their one. When we have five times more penalties than your opponent, it's hard to win.
Can you just shed some light on how Jason Bean has handled the role he's had to make him prepared for what he entered today?
Well, if you've been around Jason, he's pretty reserved all the time, even when things are going really well. And that's today's world of college football and especially at the quarterback position. But again, at least upon our arrival, he decided to come earlier is that we've talked about competition and all those different things, and we talk about staying ready. As you can see, he's a fine athlete.
We want to find ways to get him on the field, and we have. I'm sure it's not exactly the way he envisioned it from one year ago at this time, but instead of dwelling on that, I'd like to really commend him for the fact that the way he's handled it to be ready. If he has to be the starter next week, I'm very confident he'll have a great week of preparation and take advantage of his opportunity to be the starter.
And then just the past 18 months, however long it's been, how much of this growth overall do you feel like has been a product of getting not just better starters but depth as well?
I think it continues to show itself at different times with guys making plays. Ky Thomas had a couple plays; Sevion had a couple plays. You see some different receivers making plays. Steven McBride hasn't had a lot of opportunities. He had a chance to flash his speed a little bit and got us some good field position late. Defensively, we were able to rotate guys because it's physical and we're not going to be able to hold up if we're going to just play 11 to 14 guys on each side of the ball. So, it's good for us. It creates that good competition. Some of it is age and maturity and strength and all the things we're talking about. There's not the gap there was a year ago just based on all the youth we had on the field in the second unit.
You mentioned your team's ability to battle it out. When you go down in the half in the locker room and talk with your team, can you talk about that resiliency to come out like you guys did in the second half, especially when you have something like a quarterback going out?
I think it says a lot. It was a little different at halftime. I'm not going to deny that. It's a close game, but Jalon's is well liked in this program, we know what he's done, all those things. When nobody's really sure, there's a little bit of concern, obviously. Losing Daniel (Hishaw) last weekend. It's some of those things that you know, but again, you've got to keep them focused on what's important.
We said it's going to be a 60-minute game, so where we are at and getting the ball back, I thought was real important for us. And again, I see us with a lot different resiliency than we had a year ago because of that. Some of it is confidence, some of it is maturity, some of it's just through the experiences of playing and belief. And I think some of those games we fell behind early in the season and battled back has given this group a new sense of understanding of that, much like today, we're not out of it until it's over.
Jason's playing a snap here or two throughout the course of the season has to go in there, how do you think he really handled the reclamation process? The live reps and going out there against the defense for an extended period of time?
You can be rusty, and you go through some scrimmages and you're not live. I thought even some of the plays we sprinkled him in early, gives him a little bit of feel for that. But I've said it many times in here that I think our practice model and the reps that he gets and different things that we ask him to do, Jim and Andy, what they ask him to do, I think helps. I think it's a classic example when you talk about being mentally ready, being mentally into it at practice, mental reps and watching and putting yourself through it because you're always one play away.
Tabor Allen had been really good at kickoffs this season with a lot of touch backs. What happened with him today
Those were all strategy. We were all trying to kick it away from their guy. We didn't execute them all the way we wanted, and we asked him to do a lot of different things and that's sometimes easier said than done. Trying to place the ball away from somebody. That's something we need to reevaluate. And it's probably an area that, obviously, we didn't do as well today as we wanted.
Can you just talk about the day that Mason Fairchild had and how valuable and versatility he has been to the group?
I thought Mason had a big-time day. He made some big plays. I heard the guys talk. I blocked out the one where I think he had to twist the other way when he was wide open, made a heck of a play. And again, and Mason's a guy that's a leader in this program, very unassuming, works hard. And again, there's a time where everyone, you never know in our offense who's going to get that opportunity to step up and I thought he had a big day.
On your final offensive play, it appeared there was something between interference and holding, and I don't know that you can comment on that?
Yeah, it's probably something I can't really comment on now and get a better look at it, send it in, but can't change it, unfortunately. Like I said, when you have five times as many penalties as your opponents, it's tough to win.
