by Bill Seals
On the offense and defense coming together as season went on:
“It’s got to try to come a little bit organically, but if I can tell you if you said what was one of our biggest challenges coming in here, for the first month I could have told you that was an issue. What you’re seeing now is our kids believing in each other. When you want to build a great football program, you’ve got to be in this thing together. It’s got to be unified. The energy on our sidelines is completely different from early in the season to where it is now. Our kids’ unification, how we go out to practice. There’s a lot of real positives in that.
“Winning and losing is really important, but before we really get into that it’s about those little things and those details. That’s a huge piece of it. You’re talking about 18-of-22 year old kids and you’re trying to build a football program. That part’s been really impressive. (Jacob and Joel) sparked a lot of positive in our football program, because of the way they approached it and the way they did it. There was no selfishness. That started to unify our football team and was part of the change when we headed in a positive direction.”
On how much Park has surpassed the preseason expectations he and the staff had for him:
“I don’t know if I had much preseason expectation, because I really hadn’t seen him. I knew what his intangibles were a little bit, watching him from high school film that he could run and had really good arm strength. He wasn’t here in the spring and we got limited time with him in the summer. Then he misses the first part of camp, which stunted his growth. We really put in the foundation of the offense the first week and a half of camp and he missed the majority of those practices.
“When Zeb (Noland) got hurt in the middle part of camp, it thrusted a lot more onto Jacob’s plate and he did a really good job handling it. He went through the ups and downs of the quarterback position and played it. There’s been a lot more ups and downs. The best growth he’s had is how he studies the game of football and how he’s in-tune to what’s going on offensively from Coach (Tom) Manning and our offensive staff.”
On putting the players in better places to be successful throughout season:
“I really think we’ve been able to hammer home what our guys can do, how we put them in the best position to be successful and then let those guys be successful. We’re never perfect and we’re not perfect at it, but we’re a lot closer to where we want to be right now than where we were at the beginning of the football season.”
On the development of fullback Sam Seonbuchner, who has moved around a lot in brief career:
“Sam Seonbuchner is a huge piece of that. There’s a guy that started in a game a year ago at linebacker, and then we move him down to defensive line in the spring just to give him a chance to play. He’s a really strong young man that can do some positive things, so we wanted to give him a chance to get on the field to help us. We moved him to fullback and now all of a sudden he’s playing a critical role the last couple weeks for our team’s success. He played one of the best games I’ve seen him play. He’s gone through a lot of change, has embraced it and done great things with it.”
On the play of Mitchell Meyers this season:
“When I said this before the season started that he’s one of the greatest stories in college football, I would say even greater would I stand on the table and say this is one of the greatest stories in college football. He started for us and probably averaged 65 plays for us on the defensive front. For what he’s done and the ability he’s done it with…he’s been our most consistent defensive lineman all year. That’s not even a question. You talk about seniors and there’s a guy that has never given up and earned the right to be a captain. Through some tough games this year, he’s been a steadying force in the locker room. I don’t know if I can say enough about what he means to our program and what he’s meant to this year’s team.”
On what he thinks Lanning’s plans will be beyond this season and if he could transfer:
“We’ve never had that conversation. Those are things you don’t know. I know he’s a guy that is really talented and has the ability to do a lot of things. He’s just scratching the surface of what he can do. That’s what’s really exciting from the coaching staff’s standpoint with Joel. He’s got a unique talent and ability. The foundation of that strength is the ability to run the football. We’ll sit down when the time’s right at the end of the season and talk about what’s next for Joel. I’d have to imagine a guy that’s so respected by his teammates and this program, that there’s great things left for Joel Lanning here to do and a lot of games for him to continue to lead his team to win down the road.”
On what it would mean to finish up the season with a win against West Virginia:
“As much as winning is how we play and what our process looks like to get there on Saturday. We’ve grown so much there in the last three to four weeks, in terms of what it takes to put yourself in position to win football games. That’s what I’m looking for. The scoreboard will take care of itself. We’ve got to continue to do a great job of understanding the process that it takes to get there. We can still get better at that and that’s what’s great from our end. The more you do have success like we have the last couple weeks, the more people are jumping in the boat to say ‘man, I want to be like that and play like that’. It’s a great challenge against a really good football team come Saturday.”
On his thoughts about West Virginia:
“As athletic as maybe anybody we’ve played this year. They’ve got great athleticism across the board. Defensively, jumps off the screen early on in terms of length and ability to run to the football. They do a great job of creating turnovers, which is impressive. On the offensive side, they have explosive receivers, a really good running game and a really strong offensive line. They’re the complete package in terms of offensive football. For us, it will be a great challenge and we’re going to have to play our best football of the year to go compete with these guys.”
On the offense and defense coming together as season went on:
“It’s got to try to come a little bit organically, but if I can tell you if you said what was one of our biggest challenges coming in here, for the first month I could have told you that was an issue. What you’re seeing now is our kids believing in each other. When you want to build a great football program, you’ve got to be in this thing together. It’s got to be unified. The energy on our sidelines is completely different from early in the season to where it is now. Our kids’ unification, how we go out to practice. There’s a lot of real positives in that.
“Winning and losing is really important, but before we really get into that it’s about those little things and those details. That’s a huge piece of it. You’re talking about 18-of-22 year old kids and you’re trying to build a football program. That part’s been really impressive. (Jacob and Joel) sparked a lot of positive in our football program, because of the way they approached it and the way they did it. There was no selfishness. That started to unify our football team and was part of the change when we headed in a positive direction.”
On how much Park has surpassed the preseason expectations he and the staff had for him:
“I don’t know if I had much preseason expectation, because I really hadn’t seen him. I knew what his intangibles were a little bit, watching him from high school film that he could run and had really good arm strength. He wasn’t here in the spring and we got limited time with him in the summer. Then he misses the first part of camp, which stunted his growth. We really put in the foundation of the offense the first week and a half of camp and he missed the majority of those practices.
“When Zeb (Noland) got hurt in the middle part of camp, it thrusted a lot more onto Jacob’s plate and he did a really good job handling it. He went through the ups and downs of the quarterback position and played it. There’s been a lot more ups and downs. The best growth he’s had is how he studies the game of football and how he’s in-tune to what’s going on offensively from Coach (Tom) Manning and our offensive staff.”
On putting the players in better places to be successful throughout season:
“I really think we’ve been able to hammer home what our guys can do, how we put them in the best position to be successful and then let those guys be successful. We’re never perfect and we’re not perfect at it, but we’re a lot closer to where we want to be right now than where we were at the beginning of the football season.”
On the development of fullback Sam Seonbuchner, who has moved around a lot in brief career:
“Sam Seonbuchner is a huge piece of that. There’s a guy that started in a game a year ago at linebacker, and then we move him down to defensive line in the spring just to give him a chance to play. He’s a really strong young man that can do some positive things, so we wanted to give him a chance to get on the field to help us. We moved him to fullback and now all of a sudden he’s playing a critical role the last couple weeks for our team’s success. He played one of the best games I’ve seen him play. He’s gone through a lot of change, has embraced it and done great things with it.”
On the play of Mitchell Meyers this season:
“When I said this before the season started that he’s one of the greatest stories in college football, I would say even greater would I stand on the table and say this is one of the greatest stories in college football. He started for us and probably averaged 65 plays for us on the defensive front. For what he’s done and the ability he’s done it with…he’s been our most consistent defensive lineman all year. That’s not even a question. You talk about seniors and there’s a guy that has never given up and earned the right to be a captain. Through some tough games this year, he’s been a steadying force in the locker room. I don’t know if I can say enough about what he means to our program and what he’s meant to this year’s team.”
On what he thinks Lanning’s plans will be beyond this season and if he could transfer:
“We’ve never had that conversation. Those are things you don’t know. I know he’s a guy that is really talented and has the ability to do a lot of things. He’s just scratching the surface of what he can do. That’s what’s really exciting from the coaching staff’s standpoint with Joel. He’s got a unique talent and ability. The foundation of that strength is the ability to run the football. We’ll sit down when the time’s right at the end of the season and talk about what’s next for Joel. I’d have to imagine a guy that’s so respected by his teammates and this program, that there’s great things left for Joel Lanning here to do and a lot of games for him to continue to lead his team to win down the road.”
On what it would mean to finish up the season with a win against West Virginia:
“As much as winning is how we play and what our process looks like to get there on Saturday. We’ve grown so much there in the last three to four weeks, in terms of what it takes to put yourself in position to win football games. That’s what I’m looking for. The scoreboard will take care of itself. We’ve got to continue to do a great job of understanding the process that it takes to get there. We can still get better at that and that’s what’s great from our end. The more you do have success like we have the last couple weeks, the more people are jumping in the boat to say ‘man, I want to be like that and play like that’. It’s a great challenge against a really good football team come Saturday.”
On his thoughts about West Virginia:
“As athletic as maybe anybody we’ve played this year. They’ve got great athleticism across the board. Defensively, jumps off the screen early on in terms of length and ability to run to the football. They do a great job of creating turnovers, which is impressive. On the offensive side, they have explosive receivers, a really good running game and a really strong offensive line. They’re the complete package in terms of offensive football. For us, it will be a great challenge and we’re going to have to play our best football of the year to go compete with these guys.”
