Charlie Strong: “It’s an embarrassment. It’s an embarrassment to this program. It’s an embarrassment to this university, and I knew it, and I didn’t do anything about it. And I take responsibility and all the blame for this loss. I knew during warmups we weren’t ready to play. I called the team up and told them we’re not ready to play. Our focus isn’t there.â€
Reading between the lines – Strong was a mix of irate and disappointed. It was almost like he was venting during his opening statement, which is unusual. I believe he honestly did have a vibe that the team wasn’t mentally prepared. I also honestly believe he didn’t think his team could ever be as poor as it was in the 3rd quarter.
Charlie Strong: “Just the whole demeanor; how they took the field and just how they carried themselves. You can notice it. If you’ve been around them long enough, you know. I knew that and I told them that. I told them before we ever went out. I said we’re not ready to play. We’re not ready to play. This is a good football team. We’re probably going to go out here and get embarrassed.â€
Reading between the lines – Much has been written about how much time Strong spends with his team. If anyone could get a pre-game vibe from the team, it’s him.
Charlie Strong: “Just very pleased with Tyrone…but just for him to go out there for the first time, I’m very pleased with the way he played and just how he totally managed the offense and just did a great job.â€
Reading between the lines – This was, literally, the only positive thing he said during the entire press conference. Strong, Watson, Bedford, and the players all had positive things to say about Swoopes.
Charlie Strong: “We’re not a good enough football team to turn the ball over and then send the defense out. We saw that tonight.â€
Reading between the lines – This is as close as you’ll hear Strong come to laying blame on a single unit.
Vance Bedford: “I told the defense this. You’ve got today, you’ve got tomorrow to watch that video and then it it’s time to move on to UCLA because the team we’re going to play is pretty dog gone good. We have another athletic quarterback, and we have to be ready to play.â€
Reading between the lines – Just like an ex-defensive back – got to have a short memory. The coaches will be able to turn the page quickly. How soon they can get the players to move on is an interesting question.
Shawn Watson: “College football isn’t like pro football. We can’t go to a waiver wire. We’ve got what we have got and we’ve got to work with it and find our way through it.â€
Reading between the lines – Again, the subtle implication here is that it’s the players fault.
Malcom Brown: “We were after them the whole game, but the second half they just started finding those gaps and they were hitting them hard.â€
Reading between the lines – This one is included for context. When you hear a defensive tackle talking about how hard the offensive players were playing, it’s startling.
John Harris: “Not being able to run the ball like we wanted to hurt the offense and the rhythm.â€
Tyrone Swoopes: “No question it makes it difficult when you can’t run the ball.â€
Reading between the lines – Instead of coaches implicitly blaming the players, both of these comments read like players blaming other units on the team.
Bronco Mendenhall: “There were just three adjustments once it became clear what Texas’ plan was – they had a good plan. Once it became clear what that plan was going to be, we had been working all offseason on some of those adjustments and we put those in place and they worked really well.â€
Reading between the lines – Coaches rarely lay a truth out in the way Mendenhall did here. There are so many different takeaways from this quote, it’s hard to know which one to choose.
1. BYU only made three adjustments at halftime.
2. BYU gameplanned for Texas for months ahead of time.
3. BYU was very prepared for Texas, even though the entire Texas coaching staff is new.