Wilton talked about how your reassurance after that first play—what it meant to him. You’ve been through that a lot of times, that kind of thing. Talk about your approach there.
“Well, really my approach was I wanted to see what he did on the next series. It’s very difficult for a quarterback to throw an interception on a series and then come back and lead a touchdown drive the following series. It’s something I’ve always been fascinated in watching quarterbacks, and the really good ones can do that. They don’t think about, ‘I’m not gonna make another bad mistake.’ I mean, that’s what some do, but good ones don’t. I was just excited for that opportunity, to see what he was going to do on the next drive.
“And then to see him start the next drive on the two-yard line. I mean, that’s as much adversity as you can have for a quarterback starting a series, starting a drive: having thrown an interception on the previous drive—and the very first throw of the game—and then to find yourself on the two-yard line. But he responded in tremendous fashion to lead a touchdown drive, make big third-down conversion throws, to make as good a corner throw to Grant Perry as can be made. It can’t be thrown any better. The slant he threw coming off the goal line cannot be thrown any better.
“Had total command and I think it speaks volumes and bodes really well for our team and bodes really well for his career as a quarterback to have done that, to have come back off an interception and then very next drive go on a 98-yard touchdown drive. Now he knows he can do it, and now we’ll expect him to do it. So, it was good for our team. Good for his career.”
The stats will probably show just how many freshmen played at the end, but you played freshmen early and often. Can you talk about your decision on adding freshmen onto the field so early?
“Sure. It’s been coming for weeks now. Really I’d say the last two to three weeks, last three weeks you could say—three weeks ago there were eight, seven or eight that earned it and knew that they were going to be tracking to be in the two-deep. Then it was less than a week later that it was probably up to 10. Then another week it was up again and up again and finally, I think I told Jim Brandstatter the other night, it’ll be 17-20 when it’s all said and done the way it’s going. They’ve earned it."
Overall effort on that side of the ball was outstanding. You know, it was dominating there really at the beginning for sure and throughout the game. Don Brown has a great, great saying—I love it—which is ‘solve problems with aggression.’ Our team played that way today.”
Does it boost them up when you stop them after that interception?
“Definitely. It definitely does. The encouraging thing—I’ll say it again—our coaches worked our players as much as can possibly be done, and I thought it really showed out there, and it really showed in the mental part of the game. Watching our defense go through the first half and even into the third quarter where there wasn’t a mistake made—I mean, there wasn’t an alignment mistake made, a stance-alignment mistake in the first half or the first part of the third quarter. It was very impressive. Everybody knew exactly what they were doing. It really showed. It just showed. The meeting time and the practice time really showed in our guys.
“And then, again, the players are willing to do it. The ones that love football, they love doing it every day. It was something very interesting Michael Jordan said to the team Friday night. I think it resonated with everybody. He got good at basketball because he practiced. There’s such great carryover to football because you get good at football by playing football. And he said, ‘If you love it, then you want to do it every day. Then you want to do it as much as you can every day.’ He said, ‘It’s like eating ice cream. If you love ice cream, then you’re going to eat it every single day.’ That’s what resonates with me. That’s what our football team has been doing for the past month, and it was just good that they went out and showed that today.”
Does O’Korn and Morris and Malzone all getting a drive mean that the competition for the backup quarterback spot is still ongoing or have you settled on a backup?
“We’re just going to keep going. Just keep going and—it’s a very good positive. Very good positive. Some of those clichés you hear about if you have three quarterbacks you don’t have any good quarterbacks, that’s never resonated with me either, so…just continue to keep going, keep having at it.
“They’ve all commented how good it’s been, how helpful it’s been [that] there’s so many people in the mix. There’s people pushing Wilton. There’s people pushing John. There’s people pushing Shane, and they’re pushing each other. It’s like, I mean, it’s pushing each other higher. They’ve all commented on how good that’s been and, again, I think that showed today.”
On Michael Jordan being with the team:
First of all, Michael Jordan was fantastic with the team. He spent 45 minutes and really connected with them. I mean, really toldthem things that they could take away and apply to their own game, advice, tips. It was real. About playing your first game, about playing your first college game.
“Chris Evans asked the very first question of Michael Jordan: ‘What was it like playing in your first college game?’ And Michael talked about it, how he wanted to do everything right, he didn’t want to make mistakes, he didn’t want to screw anything up. That’s how he approached his very first college game, and he said ‘Trust your training. Trust the practice that you’ve had and that will carry for you, and continue to get better every day.’
“That warmed my heart when he talked about every single day trying to be better than the day before. A lot of things. Talking about pressure. Talking about the pressure moment, what he leaned on, what he thought made him effective in those moments. Talked about being a great teammate. Can’t do anything without your teammates. And pushing each other in practice to make each other better. Same things I think our team has been seeing for the last month and the last year. Same things they’ve been hearing.
“They were listening a lot better to Michael Jordan than they were to me. It was good. He was loose, he was funny with them. They couldn’t get enough. It was great. It was a real honor to have him sharing our sideline.
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