transcribed by Bill Seals
On how he and the staff continue to coach team and keep them positive through losing stretch:
“We all want to win. Wanting to win and then doing what it takes to win are way different things. What you continue to do is educate on what it takes to be successful. Here’s what happened and why we weren’t successful. You show it, allow them to understand with visual evidence and give them the play to correct those. You also show them positives. That was one of the nice things to be able to come into a team meeting and see a lot of positives that occurred within the game. Here’s what we’re doing well, how do build on this and sustain it?”
On what it will take for one of the quarterbacks to emerge as ‘the guy’:
“I think it’s consistency. That is something we’ve been missing in all three football games. Whether it’s taking care of the football, to completion percentage, to accuracy, to decision making. That is definitely the quarterback. It all flows through them. The ball is in their hands every snap. Those four things are critiqued by all of us. We’re looking for consistency and what gives us the best chance to have a consistent flow to our offense.”
On the plus of both quarterbacks being relatively similar when trying to game plan:
“A huge positive is there are a lot of similar characteristics and traits between both of those guys. They’re both athletic and can get out of trouble with their feet. They both have the ability to run the football at times, which is nice because it takes some heat off the offensive line at times. They both have really strong arms. The offense doesn’t have to change a ton when both guys are in, but you have to lean on some of their strengths when they are in. We’re finding out a little bit more about what those strengths are.”
On what went into the drop in production for Allen Lazard in the TCU game:
“It was one of those situations where they were giving us some cushion over there with Allen, because they were taking a safety out of the game at times. It opened up some running lanes for Michael. There are points at times offensively when you hope to get that. You want to keep Allen where he’s at and use his strength and physicality at times to take two defenders out of there, create some of those running lanes and allow you to sustain some things offensively. You also saw us move Allen around. He played the slot a little bit and played to the field at times. When we did try to target him we’d try to take some of that double-coverage off of him. They had a plan for Allen.”
On the progress of safety Mike Johnson:
“If you ask one of the highlights for me defensively, it would certainly be Michael. He’s one of those guys that I love to coach every day, because he works really hard. He’s a great student of the game. He comes here with a purpose. When I get here on Sunday mornings at 7 a.m., he’s here watching film and that says a lot about who he is. I’m really excited about Mike Johnson. Is he perfect yet? No, he’s a freshman. It’s never perfect for him, but he’s worked really hard and made some really big plays. He’s shown to have a great understanding of what we’re trying to accomplish this season and is a tough guy.”
On his thoughts about Seda, who is making an impact in his final season:
“I don’t know if anybody loves Iowa State more than Brian Seda. When we did the Cyclone Tailgate Tour, I think he signed up for every single one of them to go. He believes in this place. I said this to Fett and Seda, I wish we had those guys for two or three more years. They’re both really talented football players and both guys that have really good ability. They’re big, strong, athletic. I don’t even know if Brian Seda even practiced a rep with the first- or second-team in his last four years of his career. When you went through spring practice, this kid goes 100 miles an hour every single day. He really worked hard and continued to get bigger and stronger in the off-season. He came into fall camp and we felt this kid had a chance to help us this season. I love to go to war with guys like that. He gets it.”
On what he sees in San Jose State:
“San Jose State is not an unknown team. They’ve been to multiple bowl games here in the last couple years and played in a bowl game a year ago. They were 11-2 just a few years ago. They’ve had success and know how to win. They have a really talented quarterback and are explosive on defense.”
On how the team approaches a game that many expect them to win, even though they’re 0-and-3:
“Supposed to win? When you’re 0-and-3, I’m not sure if you’re supposed to win anything, from the outside looking in. The reality of it is, what can we do to get better? That’s the approach we’ve taken from day one. The outcome will be predicated on what our process is. That’s why you don’t look at those things. I hope our guys aren’t worried about whether we’re supposed to win or not, because I don’t know if we’ve earned the right to feel that way.”
On what he’s seen from true freshman Kene Nwangwu:
“He’s a puppy. We’ve got a couple puppies out there with Kene, DeShaunte (Jones), David Montgomery, all the guys that are producing for us right now in some part because they have to. Kene has such great speed. We continue to need more of that. He has the ability to really help us offensively. And both of his big kickoff returns he had were scoring drives for our offense. He’s got some electricity to him and has the ability to make plays with the ball in his hand. As he continues to get confident, continues to get comfortable with what we’re asking him to do, the more we can use him in some various ways. He was a bright spot for us coming out of Saturday.”
On how he and the staff continue to coach team and keep them positive through losing stretch:
“We all want to win. Wanting to win and then doing what it takes to win are way different things. What you continue to do is educate on what it takes to be successful. Here’s what happened and why we weren’t successful. You show it, allow them to understand with visual evidence and give them the play to correct those. You also show them positives. That was one of the nice things to be able to come into a team meeting and see a lot of positives that occurred within the game. Here’s what we’re doing well, how do build on this and sustain it?”
On what it will take for one of the quarterbacks to emerge as ‘the guy’:
“I think it’s consistency. That is something we’ve been missing in all three football games. Whether it’s taking care of the football, to completion percentage, to accuracy, to decision making. That is definitely the quarterback. It all flows through them. The ball is in their hands every snap. Those four things are critiqued by all of us. We’re looking for consistency and what gives us the best chance to have a consistent flow to our offense.”
On the plus of both quarterbacks being relatively similar when trying to game plan:
“A huge positive is there are a lot of similar characteristics and traits between both of those guys. They’re both athletic and can get out of trouble with their feet. They both have the ability to run the football at times, which is nice because it takes some heat off the offensive line at times. They both have really strong arms. The offense doesn’t have to change a ton when both guys are in, but you have to lean on some of their strengths when they are in. We’re finding out a little bit more about what those strengths are.”
On what went into the drop in production for Allen Lazard in the TCU game:
“It was one of those situations where they were giving us some cushion over there with Allen, because they were taking a safety out of the game at times. It opened up some running lanes for Michael. There are points at times offensively when you hope to get that. You want to keep Allen where he’s at and use his strength and physicality at times to take two defenders out of there, create some of those running lanes and allow you to sustain some things offensively. You also saw us move Allen around. He played the slot a little bit and played to the field at times. When we did try to target him we’d try to take some of that double-coverage off of him. They had a plan for Allen.”
On the progress of safety Mike Johnson:
“If you ask one of the highlights for me defensively, it would certainly be Michael. He’s one of those guys that I love to coach every day, because he works really hard. He’s a great student of the game. He comes here with a purpose. When I get here on Sunday mornings at 7 a.m., he’s here watching film and that says a lot about who he is. I’m really excited about Mike Johnson. Is he perfect yet? No, he’s a freshman. It’s never perfect for him, but he’s worked really hard and made some really big plays. He’s shown to have a great understanding of what we’re trying to accomplish this season and is a tough guy.”
On his thoughts about Seda, who is making an impact in his final season:
“I don’t know if anybody loves Iowa State more than Brian Seda. When we did the Cyclone Tailgate Tour, I think he signed up for every single one of them to go. He believes in this place. I said this to Fett and Seda, I wish we had those guys for two or three more years. They’re both really talented football players and both guys that have really good ability. They’re big, strong, athletic. I don’t even know if Brian Seda even practiced a rep with the first- or second-team in his last four years of his career. When you went through spring practice, this kid goes 100 miles an hour every single day. He really worked hard and continued to get bigger and stronger in the off-season. He came into fall camp and we felt this kid had a chance to help us this season. I love to go to war with guys like that. He gets it.”
On what he sees in San Jose State:
“San Jose State is not an unknown team. They’ve been to multiple bowl games here in the last couple years and played in a bowl game a year ago. They were 11-2 just a few years ago. They’ve had success and know how to win. They have a really talented quarterback and are explosive on defense.”
On how the team approaches a game that many expect them to win, even though they’re 0-and-3:
“Supposed to win? When you’re 0-and-3, I’m not sure if you’re supposed to win anything, from the outside looking in. The reality of it is, what can we do to get better? That’s the approach we’ve taken from day one. The outcome will be predicated on what our process is. That’s why you don’t look at those things. I hope our guys aren’t worried about whether we’re supposed to win or not, because I don’t know if we’ve earned the right to feel that way.”
On what he’s seen from true freshman Kene Nwangwu:
“He’s a puppy. We’ve got a couple puppies out there with Kene, DeShaunte (Jones), David Montgomery, all the guys that are producing for us right now in some part because they have to. Kene has such great speed. We continue to need more of that. He has the ability to really help us offensively. And both of his big kickoff returns he had were scoring drives for our offense. He’s got some electricity to him and has the ability to make plays with the ball in his hand. As he continues to get confident, continues to get comfortable with what we’re asking him to do, the more we can use him in some various ways. He was a bright spot for us coming out of Saturday.”
