by Bill Seals
Opening comments:
“From my end, not a whole lot more on Saturday. We watched film again yesterday and it’s kind of how I felt after the game on Saturday: it was our most complete game. Regardless of what the outcome was, it was the ability of our kids to stay focused and play four quarters of football. That’s the greatest pride I’ll take from the football game.
“The reality of, we’ve got to come back and have another huge challenge in front of us. Can we put another one of those complete performances of effort here for four quarters as we play a real talented West Virginia team.”
On the Joel Lanning package and Robby Garcia being in at offensive line for it:
“Robby hasn’t played there all year. About the midway point of the season, we moved him to the offensive line. From my end of it, we don’t have a ton of depth there. He’s one of the strongest guys on the football team. Forecasting a little bit in the future, this might be a great opportunity for him to help himself. He’s getting better and got to play two series worth of reps at the end of the Texas game.
“He doesn’t come in when Joel comes in, but he played almost 30 snaps in the football game this past Saturday. He’s really improved and is a guy that has a bright future there. He had some big blocks on some of those big Joel runs. He continues to play better for us and that’s a good thing.”
On the process of this season and how the team has managed to improve throughout:
“We’re getting better. The key to this whole thing is you build a program and need to lay a great foundation for anything to grow. I don’t care what we’re in, there’s got to be a rock-solid foundation if growth is going to occur. To make sure for us that that foundation included attitude and effort. And, how you have success within a game like the detail that it takes to practice, the understanding of what it takes to take care of your body, how do you come to work every day in terms of your process of practice consistently, and then you ask kids to do it for an entire football season. It’s been a lot of teaching on our end.
“What you’ve seen our football team do is get better, and to play some of your best football in November says a lot about the kids in our program. Easily with our record and some of the tough losses we had early in the season, it would have been really easy for our kids to fold the tent and not buy into it. The senior class really stayed the course and that’s allowed everyone else to pick themselves up, move forward and get better.”
On the seniors being leaders into changing the culture of the program:
“From our end of it, there’s been a confidence that we can get this done and are going to get this done. The reality for those seniors is doing everything in our power to win every game we’ve played this year. There’s not been a time or a thought where we’ve gone in and said we don’t have a chance to win this game and let’s go get a moral victory. That hasn’t been it at all.
“The realistic view of understanding that to win games at this level, what it takes to do that, has been the teaching point. Our seniors are some pretty sharp guys and understand that. Instead of hiding in the background, they’ve been at the forefront. I appreciate that out of the majority of that group that have tried hard to buy into what our vision of a football program is. The biggest thing is honesty and why we’ve won, why we’ve lost, why they’re playing, why they’re not.”
On the progress of Jacob Park during the stretch run of the season:
“If you really go back and watch the last four games and watch his performance, you’d be pretty impressed with what you see. He’s got the ability to get the football across the board, he’s done a really good job of taking what the defense has given him, and has the patience to do that. That’s really important when you’re talking about the quarterback position. The reality of him feeling comfortable in his own shoes and what he is in terms of quarterback play. He hasn’t played quarterback since high school, in game situations.
“You see his confidence really growing. He’s got a really good arm. Some of those throws he made in the first half of the game were as good as I’ve seen or been around. The back-shoulder throws and the ability to get the ball into space with tight throws. I really think he feels comfortable and his leadership and understanding has been the greatest growth I’ve seen.”
On Joel Lanning carving out his niche in the offense:
“Joel and I talked a little bit last night about how proud I am of him. He’s such a key piece of what we are offensively. We’re finding out what are we offensively and what is Joel? He is a lot of things. You might say Joel is our best running back and best runner. He’s eclectic in his talents. Sometimes you want to pigeonhole that in the negative, but the reality is it’s a huge positive. We’re only starting what we can do with Joel Lanning. The opportunities are endless down the road. Putting him in a position to do what he does best has been the best thing for our football team and offense. Joel wants to be great. He’s his biggest critic, but he’s a guy that wants to be really good and do it here as a Cyclone.”
Opening comments:
“From my end, not a whole lot more on Saturday. We watched film again yesterday and it’s kind of how I felt after the game on Saturday: it was our most complete game. Regardless of what the outcome was, it was the ability of our kids to stay focused and play four quarters of football. That’s the greatest pride I’ll take from the football game.
“The reality of, we’ve got to come back and have another huge challenge in front of us. Can we put another one of those complete performances of effort here for four quarters as we play a real talented West Virginia team.”
On the Joel Lanning package and Robby Garcia being in at offensive line for it:
“Robby hasn’t played there all year. About the midway point of the season, we moved him to the offensive line. From my end of it, we don’t have a ton of depth there. He’s one of the strongest guys on the football team. Forecasting a little bit in the future, this might be a great opportunity for him to help himself. He’s getting better and got to play two series worth of reps at the end of the Texas game.
“He doesn’t come in when Joel comes in, but he played almost 30 snaps in the football game this past Saturday. He’s really improved and is a guy that has a bright future there. He had some big blocks on some of those big Joel runs. He continues to play better for us and that’s a good thing.”
On the process of this season and how the team has managed to improve throughout:
“We’re getting better. The key to this whole thing is you build a program and need to lay a great foundation for anything to grow. I don’t care what we’re in, there’s got to be a rock-solid foundation if growth is going to occur. To make sure for us that that foundation included attitude and effort. And, how you have success within a game like the detail that it takes to practice, the understanding of what it takes to take care of your body, how do you come to work every day in terms of your process of practice consistently, and then you ask kids to do it for an entire football season. It’s been a lot of teaching on our end.
“What you’ve seen our football team do is get better, and to play some of your best football in November says a lot about the kids in our program. Easily with our record and some of the tough losses we had early in the season, it would have been really easy for our kids to fold the tent and not buy into it. The senior class really stayed the course and that’s allowed everyone else to pick themselves up, move forward and get better.”
On the seniors being leaders into changing the culture of the program:
“From our end of it, there’s been a confidence that we can get this done and are going to get this done. The reality for those seniors is doing everything in our power to win every game we’ve played this year. There’s not been a time or a thought where we’ve gone in and said we don’t have a chance to win this game and let’s go get a moral victory. That hasn’t been it at all.
“The realistic view of understanding that to win games at this level, what it takes to do that, has been the teaching point. Our seniors are some pretty sharp guys and understand that. Instead of hiding in the background, they’ve been at the forefront. I appreciate that out of the majority of that group that have tried hard to buy into what our vision of a football program is. The biggest thing is honesty and why we’ve won, why we’ve lost, why they’re playing, why they’re not.”
On the progress of Jacob Park during the stretch run of the season:
“If you really go back and watch the last four games and watch his performance, you’d be pretty impressed with what you see. He’s got the ability to get the football across the board, he’s done a really good job of taking what the defense has given him, and has the patience to do that. That’s really important when you’re talking about the quarterback position. The reality of him feeling comfortable in his own shoes and what he is in terms of quarterback play. He hasn’t played quarterback since high school, in game situations.
“You see his confidence really growing. He’s got a really good arm. Some of those throws he made in the first half of the game were as good as I’ve seen or been around. The back-shoulder throws and the ability to get the ball into space with tight throws. I really think he feels comfortable and his leadership and understanding has been the greatest growth I’ve seen.”
On Joel Lanning carving out his niche in the offense:
“Joel and I talked a little bit last night about how proud I am of him. He’s such a key piece of what we are offensively. We’re finding out what are we offensively and what is Joel? He is a lot of things. You might say Joel is our best running back and best runner. He’s eclectic in his talents. Sometimes you want to pigeonhole that in the negative, but the reality is it’s a huge positive. We’re only starting what we can do with Joel Lanning. The opportunities are endless down the road. Putting him in a position to do what he does best has been the best thing for our football team and offense. Joel wants to be great. He’s his biggest critic, but he’s a guy that wants to be really good and do it here as a Cyclone.”
