McNeese Week Press Conference: Mike Elko

you know obviously wrapping up uh not a whole lot different in my thoughts than what I had after the game certainly a disappointing loss uh one where we felt like uh we had an opportunity to to Really set this season off on a really good foot and and just W unable to get it done I think when you go back and watch the film uh offensively obviously we struggled uh in the passing game I I think what we went back and evaluated you know obviously it starts with us I think we've got to try to find some ways to create better opportunities for our kids to get open and get vertical down the field and make plays and then um you know as it regards to Connor I think the thing we just talked to him about it just it looked like his feet just just never got settled and maybe some of the U past residue you know kind of showcased itself in his first time back you know he he had much cleaner Pockets than I think he played like I think his feet just got out of control underneath him a little bit I think that caused a lot of his inaccuracies I think when you watched him settle his feet at different times which didn't happen a lot but when it did happen he was able to deliver the ball the way he's capable of but um you know on the interception he threw to Noah probably one of the most noticeable examples his feet just kind of were all over the place and so uh he knows it he saw it I think he's confident in the corrections he needs to make and and he'll have a great week of practice and put himself in position to to make the improvements we need to make and it certainly isn't all on him by any stretch in the imagination we still got to do a better job throughout the game of keeping pressure off of them we still got to do a better job throughout the game of creating separation and running routes um and we got to get The Passing game on tracked we know that uh defensively I thought um for most of the game we played the way we wanted to I thought there were two really critical stretches in the second half that that we didn't play to the best of our ability and It ultimately cost us the game I think you we had them backed up on the first and 25 and um you know back-to-back plays we gave up an 11 yard pass and then uh you know the long run for the touchdown and and that's something we've got to get better at I think that's probably the one area we looked at as coaches as what we're doing on second and off schedule that was probably the one down in distance we really struggled the most defensively and then um you know we had him third and five on that last Drive of the game and and didn't make the play and it felt like maybe started pressing at that point um and really gave up some uncharacteristic runs uh all the way down to the final touchdown and so hats off again another day you know they made the plays to win it and we didn't um and so now we got to go back to work and we got to figure out how to close that Gap um as we transition and turn ahead to mcne State um obviously a school that uh has some connections to Texas A&M uh former head coach RC slokum is a distinguished alumni of MCN State uh texag journalist Ryan Broner is an alumni I won't use the word distinguish but an alumni of uh mcne State and certainly a school that uh has some people close to our community there and um you know I think when you look at these types of teams I think the biggest thing to note is just they're going to be at their best you know this is their opportunity to come play on this big stage uh and and kids are competitors and they're certainly going to rise to that challenge and so we certainly anticipate their best football game uh offensively they're they're an 11 Personnel Group they spread it out they're an RPO team uh they're led by quarterback Clifton McDow who led Montana state to an FCS national championship appearance last year uh he's a dual threat kid he's their leading rusher as well he's completing 63% of his passes and so uh he kind of makes the offense go uh at tailback they've got a big kid D'Angelo Durham who's been around for a while he's 61 210 he's averaging over six yards a carry at this point um you know wi outs tight ends they're kind of a mix of like returning players power five transfers and so they're still trying to kind of sort through they're playing a lot of guys at both of those positions and then three of their five returning starters are back and so it's an experienced group up front um defensively they've been really good through two games uh they're very similar uh structure-wise to what we do and what we play um they've got an experienced front coming back three of their four starters return um they had a linebacker mik aavi who led the nation in tackles last year with over 150 tackles uh he's already got 31 in two games coming into this one uh again their secondary like their white outs is is a mix of returning starters uh kids who have transferred in and so they're trying to sort that group out still um and then they got a punter who's punted nine times and is averaging 50 yards a punt and so certainly some pieces on their on the roster that we need to respect and prepare for but at the end of the day game and at the end of the day just like last week uh it's going to be about us it's going to be about us playing this game to our standard and making the improvements we need to make going into week two to get this thing where we wanted to go so from there I'll kind of open it up to questions Olen second row on the right then Brent uh yeah Mike if I could ask you two things first of all after going over the tape and everything what did you like um yeah I don't know I'm a football coach we lost uh yeah I mean I thought I thought we certainly made some strides and improvements on the offensive line I think the pockets were cleaner um than maybe people thought they were going in um we didn't give up any balls over our head in the secondary I think the longest pass play they completed on the night was an extremely contested catch where their kid made a phenomenal catch on their sideline and and that stuff's going to happen a little bit um you there's probably be the two I guess and then I wanted to ask you know you talked about U problems with receivers getting separation does that create maybe a little bit more of a sense of urgency and getting a guy like busy ready at receiver no I I don't know that it creates urgency and when I say that like that's that's always a um that's an across theboard problem like when you talk about separation that's not just on the wide receiver you know some of it is is the routes that we're calling how we're running them against the leverages that we're seeing make making sure that you know we're running the right routes against the right leverages that's a piece of it uh some of it is just play speed you know I think we have to play faster at wide receiver you know it certainly looked at times like we were still feeling our way through some of it uh and that's something we've got to get cleaned up and fixed and um you know Terry's a talented kid we're we're getting him going to the best of our ability and to the best of his ability and you know I've told you he's going to impact this season and um you saw it a little bit in the return game you saw us trying to get the ball in his hands we'll continue to do that but we still have confidence in the guys that are playing at that position and so it's kind of where we're at down front Brent and then Travis this isn't really specific to your program it's kind of more specific to football but why is it a quarterback um is different when he's stays in the game like if you have a running back you struggles hey you're going to go to the next guy and try why is a quarterback a guy you stay with throughout the game and like I said not just you most most everybody in but I don't know that I don't know that I would say that like I don't know that I don't know that if Lev on Moss was struggling we would pull him out of the game I don't know if Noah Thomas isn't getting open or having a lot of catches we pull him out of the game I think um we have a memory bank of a lot of reps um we've seen probably over a thousand reps of these kids play uh you guys have seen not you you fans everybody has seen 70 um and so I think when you're making those decisions In the Heat of the Moment we're making them off of 1,70 reps you guys people want to make them off of 30 throws that they see I think that's probably why and I don't know that um I don't think it's different I really don't I think if there's two positions where you think it's really close you're quicker to move left and right based on how game flows going um you know if torian York goes out there and misses a tackle we're not putting in the next linebacker like torian York's our middle linebacker he missed the tackle he's going to go out there he's going to correct it he's going to get better so I think that's probably why that happens and then how would you assess y'all's conditioning after the first game that you know maybe it did seem like down the stretch that you know maybe you had more guys down than they did and so forth and how would you assess that oh I don't think so I don't think so at all I don't think we had anyone down I think Connor got hit in the gut and puked and I think yeah um yeah I don't think we had anybody down so you're good with your condition yeah I don't think that played a role in the game front Travis then yeah you're you're two uh new guys on the of line with re Adam Reed Adams and and f f you I don't yeah yeah him um how would you kind of assess what they were able uh to to bring especially with the center coming in uh Midway through the game yeah I mean I thought both of those guys added what we wanted them to add uh I think TJ Shanahan stepped up too and and he played more snaps than he's played around here in the past and I thought he did a nice job uh as we get into the o line unfortunately I I'll give you one injury report Mark Neu unfortunately is going to be out for the rest of the year um and that's kind of what led to to Coy playing a lot more um I think the plan originally was a little bit more rotation but uh unfortunately Mark's going to be out for the rest of the year and so um you know Co will now obviously have to step up and and play the majority of the game at Center for us go to the left Luke coach you mentioned Clifton McDow D'Angelo Durham for MCN two talented Runners what do you think the run defense really needs to do when it comes to contining those guys and improving in that regard yeah I I think you know it's every level I think you know when you look at it I think we can we can control the line of scrimmage better with our front I don't I don't think we got pushed around but I certainly don't think we pushed them around to the level that we're capable of and and I think they would all tell you that I think we've got to fit a little bit faster and cleaner at the second level and then I think on the third level we have to do a way better job of leveraging the football I think if you look at most of the explosive runs happened because of poor leverage on the third level and so we've got to get that cleaned up fast second row on the right Carter and we'll go to the back Mike you mentioned Connor's feet not being set on some throws and stepping into throws and things like that uh did you see any of that in preseason camp or do you think that was a product of nerves or just the rustiness of coming off the injury yeah you know I probably the rustiness we didn't see it um but again you know nobody for every one of our players nobody diminishes what it is to go out on Kyle Field for the first time and you know I mean like when you go out there for the first game in front of 180,000 people that's not going out on practice on Tuesday and so there's obviously a whole different level of of atmosphere that goes into that and so kids have to learn how to to play through that um you for whatever reason his feet just didn't follow from practice I think he'll get it cleaned up this week and with with Connor just have have you seen him kind of respond from that game and just your conversations with him since yeah I think he's is going to respond great I think he's a competitor I think he's a winner um the kids are confident in him I'm confident in him he's confident in himself and um I think he's going to go out and have a great week of practice and and become the quarterback we know he can become coach back behind the lights far right Ben uh coach just to the passing game uh what do you feel like a key for maybe one some of the biggest things for y'all to be able to create options at all three levels in terms of you know short intermediate and and deep passing game I know you said trying to get into a rhythm with Connor uh but I guess just to keep defenses honest so they're not just you know going for the short stuff you know to be able to pass the ball down the field more yeah I'm I'm trying to figure out no you're good I'm just trying to figure out how to answer that um yeah I I think we've got to be more multiple on how we attack people I think part of that is trusting the protection part of that is delivering the ball where it's supposed to go um some of that is US schematically creating better opport unities to push the ball down the field um yeah I guess that's the best way to answer that standing back on the right chip coach what uh what's the biggest challenge for you and your staff this week after the game Saturday night um I don't know if it's if it's a challenge I think it's the it's the same challenge we've been embarking on which is continuing to look internally at our own faults figuring out what we're not doing to get the results that we want and continuing to make improvements to do that I think you know the challenge I laid out to the kids was you have 150 people that say in our organization all look in the mirror and see the areas in which they can improve this thing and we get 150 people better going into next Saturday we'll be on the course we want to be on to have the season we want to have if 150 people on our building point the finger at someone else as to why things didn't go the way we wanted them to go then we make no progress and then the results will continue to be the results and so I just think it's still that same mindset of we're not where we want to be um the only way to get there is is to continue to work and continue to strain and and and do that from an internal lens I think maybe in the past we've been very quick to externalize failure um it happened because of this which is not my fault I I think in order to grow it has to be my fault like it has to be my fault as the head football coach that we didn't beat Notre Dame and I've got to figure out how to fix that that's how we've got to attack this second row on the right Olan and then Alex on the left yeah um Mike can you share with uh with us the nature of of Mark's injury and obviously he you're starting for a reason so how close was that competition how how big of an impact do you worry that it might have of not having marked yeah it's a lower leg deal um that's all I'll say in regards to that um yeah it's an impact because Mark's a really good football player but it's football and injuries happen and the next guy's got to play second row on the left Alex uh there were a lot of I think the crowd went crazy when y'all came out to power just what what went into deciding to bring that back and and how how'd y'all keep that under wraps for so long well so uh you guys have often asked me how my experience said Texas A&M has helped me and one of the things I've learned over the years is if you don't want something to get out don't tell anyone um and so um that's maybe where my experience at Texas A&M has helped me so yeah we've we've uh we were sitting on that one for a long time um that was something I know that was really important to this fan base I know that's something that's really important to Kyle Field and uh I think when when we had a change in in uh leadership in the athletic department we kind of felt like that was something we could we could bring back back and that's kind of when that got put in motion so was that was that you or did you collaborate with players on bringing that back at all uh I don't think I needed to ask the players uh what they wanted uh and I didn't tell the players uh I didn't ask them I didn't tell them I didn't ask anybody I didn't tell anybody I know what that song means to Kyle Field and so and then just brought it back and then also just little details like the maroon endzones and the white helmets you know what what led to doing those kind of things too um I just think New Era new feel um you know we think you can we think you can dress up Kyle Field and make it look even better at times and um we just wanted to kind of do that front left cease did play Notre Dame such a quality opponent possibly show you some weaknesses that you didn't think you had another words Silver Lining by playing Notre Dame did Poss some things yeah I mean certainly don't take any Silver Linings in it but but to your point like yeah when you play those big games in the opener um you always figure out where you're at I don't know that I would say weaknesses but you know when you go into camp you know you have a feel but you never like if you're being honest with yourself you never really know you know how how good is the defensive line how not good is the offensive line how does that balance it out right how good is the running backs how not good is the tackling like you just you never really know where those those levels are until you get into like competition against other people to truly evaluate it and so um I think when you play these games you have to learn and and even if you win them you have to learn um because you got to learn where you are you got to assess where you are and uh again it's a it's a 12 game season and so we've got to figure out how to get better uh ideally we'd be 1 and0 talking about that unfortunately we're not but we still have to find ways to get better Coach finish it up with Carter on the right how would you assess just how Coy newu played uh in in replacing Mark and I know he went down a little bit late is is he good to go for Saturday oh Coy yeah CO's fine yeah yeah yeah Coy just got nicked up he's fine um yeah I thought he played well I mean he's a kid who's played a lot of football it's why we brought him here um you know he battled all the way through it uh it really went all the way to about Thursday before we kind of settled on where we were going with that starting offensive line and um you I don't know even if Mark was healthy that we still wouldn't have conversations about who the best five were and Mark would obviously be in that conversation and so too with Coy and and um I just think that's that's how we want this to go from a competition standpoint and so um yeah thought he played really well and and we expected him to and I think he'll continue to do that moving forward