by Bill Seals
Opening comments:
“A quick recap on Saturday, I’m really proud of our kids’ effort. When you look at the video, it certainly showed that. As you begin to compete on a stage against a team like that, there’s really five or six plays that dictate the outcome of a game. Unfortunately, we didn’t make enough of those plays down the stretch to go win the football game. You have to go win the game against a team like that. A lot of lessons learned, a lot we have to grow and get better from, and certainly a great challenge for us as we head to Stillwater against a really good Oklahoma State team.”
On if he’s heard back from the Big 12 office yet on two calls in Saturday’s game:
“I haven’t. We sent those in. Again, that’s a case in point for me that we have to go win the game. You can’t leave it up to judgement. That’s why you have to go win the game. We didn’t. I’ll be interested to hear the outcome of what those calls are, but I’m not losing any sleep over it. What I’m losing sleep over is why we didn’t go win the game and handle what we could control.”
On why he thinks so many illegal man downfield penalties are being called this season:
“It’s certainly an emphasis in college football this year that’s gotten made. There’s now three officials that are looking at that, rather than one as it had been in the past. There’s a very fine line. The rule states that you’re allowed three yards downfield as an offensive lineman before that call will be made. As you freeze it, our guys are right at three. We have to continue to do a really good job of coaching it differently or changing our schemes. Luckily, we were able to recover in the game from those situations but it’s something that’s got called for us. We’ve changed our scheme even throughout the year, but as we look at it we’ve got to continue to change it.”
On the reasons for the uptick in rushing offense since the season opener versus UNI:
“My philosophy has always been that running the football is the essence to success in terms of playing the game of football. I don’t think that’s changed since Vince Lombardi was coaching. If you can run the football, you can have success.
“Our biggest challenge and as we continue to grow…are our guys up front settling in? We’re certainly getting a lot more consistent play. Dealing with injuries and suspensions and all those kinds of things we dealt with early on certainly stymied our growth and what we want to do and how we want to play the game of football. Those guys have grown a lot in the game and Michael (Warren) is playing better. All those things are reasons why we didn’t play better and reasons why we’re playing better right now. We’ve been able to sustain some sort of running game, but we’re still just OK. We’ve got a long way to go and need to be a lot better at that if we want to go where we want to go.”
On how much of a role the offensive coaches have played in the team’s improvement:
“We are learning and growing as well as coaches. Our players are learning and growing. For some of these guys is the third offensive system for them over the years. Scaling back, making sure we don’t go too fast and not trying to be too complex early – I felt like if we gave them everything early there would have been no growth at all this season.
“A lot of credit has to go to our kids and coaches. Coach Manning and our offensive staff has really buckled in and figured out what our kids can do and giving them a right plan. The kids are putting the time and effort into executing it. They’ve started to get good at the detail of what we want to become. We continue to make great strides and are going to need to if we want to continue to compete and win football games down the stretch run.”
On if he’ll continue to utilize quarterbacks Joel Lanning and Jacob Park this week:
“I still think it’s within a game. Joel has earned the right to be the starter and played really well. A lot of it was situational football. He was playing at such a high rate and that’s a tough call to make. Jacob was prepared to go into the football game. When you have two guys playing, you’ve got to go with your gut sometimes and go with the flow of the game. It’s never perfect and never right, but you try to do what’s right by the football team. We believe in both of those guys. You’re going to see plenty of Jacob Park, and Joel and Jacob both know that.”
On Iowa State losing tough games late in previous years and how much that comes up with team:
“We don’t talk about what’s happened in the past. What we talk about is getting better and getting better one day at a time. Our kids played really hard. You’re talking about a stop here or a third-down conversion there and it’s a different story. There are a couple calls that could go the other way. What we have to continue to understand is going and taking victories.
“We’ve gone from not having success and not playing very good football early in the season to all of a sudden playing at a very high rate. You continue to see the growth and sell the growth. I came back here yesterday and didn’t know what I was going to find, but I found a bunch of kids that were ready to compete. We had a great practice yesterday and understand what we are doing well, what we need to do better and how we can continue to grow.
“If you look at our stats in the season so far, we’re winning the fourth quarter of football games. If you look at the last couple years, that wasn’t even close. That’s the one thing we’re doing really well. We need to continue to win and if you’re playing a top opponent, you’ve got to go close out the football game and we didn’t do that.”
Opening comments:
“A quick recap on Saturday, I’m really proud of our kids’ effort. When you look at the video, it certainly showed that. As you begin to compete on a stage against a team like that, there’s really five or six plays that dictate the outcome of a game. Unfortunately, we didn’t make enough of those plays down the stretch to go win the football game. You have to go win the game against a team like that. A lot of lessons learned, a lot we have to grow and get better from, and certainly a great challenge for us as we head to Stillwater against a really good Oklahoma State team.”
On if he’s heard back from the Big 12 office yet on two calls in Saturday’s game:
“I haven’t. We sent those in. Again, that’s a case in point for me that we have to go win the game. You can’t leave it up to judgement. That’s why you have to go win the game. We didn’t. I’ll be interested to hear the outcome of what those calls are, but I’m not losing any sleep over it. What I’m losing sleep over is why we didn’t go win the game and handle what we could control.”
On why he thinks so many illegal man downfield penalties are being called this season:
“It’s certainly an emphasis in college football this year that’s gotten made. There’s now three officials that are looking at that, rather than one as it had been in the past. There’s a very fine line. The rule states that you’re allowed three yards downfield as an offensive lineman before that call will be made. As you freeze it, our guys are right at three. We have to continue to do a really good job of coaching it differently or changing our schemes. Luckily, we were able to recover in the game from those situations but it’s something that’s got called for us. We’ve changed our scheme even throughout the year, but as we look at it we’ve got to continue to change it.”
On the reasons for the uptick in rushing offense since the season opener versus UNI:
“My philosophy has always been that running the football is the essence to success in terms of playing the game of football. I don’t think that’s changed since Vince Lombardi was coaching. If you can run the football, you can have success.
“Our biggest challenge and as we continue to grow…are our guys up front settling in? We’re certainly getting a lot more consistent play. Dealing with injuries and suspensions and all those kinds of things we dealt with early on certainly stymied our growth and what we want to do and how we want to play the game of football. Those guys have grown a lot in the game and Michael (Warren) is playing better. All those things are reasons why we didn’t play better and reasons why we’re playing better right now. We’ve been able to sustain some sort of running game, but we’re still just OK. We’ve got a long way to go and need to be a lot better at that if we want to go where we want to go.”
On how much of a role the offensive coaches have played in the team’s improvement:
“We are learning and growing as well as coaches. Our players are learning and growing. For some of these guys is the third offensive system for them over the years. Scaling back, making sure we don’t go too fast and not trying to be too complex early – I felt like if we gave them everything early there would have been no growth at all this season.
“A lot of credit has to go to our kids and coaches. Coach Manning and our offensive staff has really buckled in and figured out what our kids can do and giving them a right plan. The kids are putting the time and effort into executing it. They’ve started to get good at the detail of what we want to become. We continue to make great strides and are going to need to if we want to continue to compete and win football games down the stretch run.”
On if he’ll continue to utilize quarterbacks Joel Lanning and Jacob Park this week:
“I still think it’s within a game. Joel has earned the right to be the starter and played really well. A lot of it was situational football. He was playing at such a high rate and that’s a tough call to make. Jacob was prepared to go into the football game. When you have two guys playing, you’ve got to go with your gut sometimes and go with the flow of the game. It’s never perfect and never right, but you try to do what’s right by the football team. We believe in both of those guys. You’re going to see plenty of Jacob Park, and Joel and Jacob both know that.”
On Iowa State losing tough games late in previous years and how much that comes up with team:
“We don’t talk about what’s happened in the past. What we talk about is getting better and getting better one day at a time. Our kids played really hard. You’re talking about a stop here or a third-down conversion there and it’s a different story. There are a couple calls that could go the other way. What we have to continue to understand is going and taking victories.
“We’ve gone from not having success and not playing very good football early in the season to all of a sudden playing at a very high rate. You continue to see the growth and sell the growth. I came back here yesterday and didn’t know what I was going to find, but I found a bunch of kids that were ready to compete. We had a great practice yesterday and understand what we are doing well, what we need to do better and how we can continue to grow.
“If you look at our stats in the season so far, we’re winning the fourth quarter of football games. If you look at the last couple years, that wasn’t even close. That’s the one thing we’re doing really well. We need to continue to win and if you’re playing a top opponent, you’ve got to go close out the football game and we didn’t do that.”
