LSU Tigers vs. BYU Cougars Postgame Notes, Quotes and Gamebook (9/3)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, September 3, 2017
POSTGAME QUOTES FROM LSU:
HEAD COACH ED ORGERON
Opening Statement
“I’m proud of our football team. I’m proud of our coaching staff and their preparation all week and the way they prepared this football team. We played as many as five freshmen on defense and either started or played five freshmen on offense. I was proud of the way they played. First off, we had zero sacks and zero turnovers on offense. That was fantastic. We held them to minus five yards rushing. (It was) Another tremendous job by our defense. You have to credit (Defensive Coordinator) Dave Aranda, (and Defensive Line Coach) Pete Jenkins. They are two of the best in the business. Corey Raymond did not allow any deep balls. The one they tried to throw, they picked it. (Give) Credit to (Outside Linebackers Coach) David Johnson. (It was) Just a tremendous job by our staff. On special teams we have some things to fix, but we will. I thought we got better. We came back the second half and rallied. Obviously, we are going to eliminate the penalties. I think it was first-game jitters. We are going to fix them. We are going to get better in the red zone. We should have made a couple more touchdowns in the red zone. We know that and we will fix it. We are going to watch tape and take the next step. Our thoughts and our prayers are with the people of Houston. We know they are going to fight back. Our thoughts and our prayers are with the families of our players that were affected. I am proud of the players from Houston. A lot of them played tonight and played well through adverse conditions all week. Again, we are going to get back on the bus, look at the film tomorrow and get prepared to take the next step next week.”
On running the ball 57 times tonight?
“We want to be fifty-fifty. But it was one of those nights where we knew it was going to be physical, and we would take whatever they would give us. We felt they were giving us the run, and we were taking it a little bit. We wanted to out-physical them. They were a physical football team, but so were we.”
How do the young wide receivers look?
“We knew they were going to play. We prepared them. I feel like this is one of the best freshman classes that I have ever been around. I thought they were going to play well. Actually, I thought they were going to make a few more mistakes than they did. But it did not seem like they did. They answered the bell. I have to give credit to our older guys. They helped coach them up. They stayed calm on the sidelines and before the game. Credit to the coaches for managing their positions. They played very well.”
QB DANNY ETLING
What are your thoughts on tonight’s performance on offense?
“We were able move the ball real well, some miscues down at the goal line, but a lot of it is some first game stuff. It is good to get it out the way and on film.”
How did you feel tonight?
“I felt great. I felt as good as I ever felt playing a game, especially during warm up, I thought I never felt this way before a game. ”
Was it planned to run that many times?
“We are going to do whatever the defense 9s going to give us. They dared us to run the ball and we did it. We are going to establish the run and we are going to be a team that doesn’t back down from challenge. That was what they was giving us and we took it.”
How much more offense is there?
“There is a little bit more. We found some plays that worked and we stuck with those, and we change it up next week and see what the defense give us, and we will attack it that way.”
DE CHRISTIAN LACOUTRE
What did you see from the freshmen and what did you expect?
“We were expecting a lot from them, because we’ve seen them in camp. Young guys play big roles. You see a freshman (Andraez Williams) going in there getting a pick right off the bat. It’s a huge momentum shift and a lot of these guys are doing that, so for us, we expect it from them. He (Williams) had jitter bugs at first, but of course everybody does in a big game, he stepped up and did a great job.”
Was this beyond even your best expectations, under 100 yards surrendered – How good was this from your standpoint?
“We’ve been practicing very hard and expect the best for us. We looked at the stats in the second quarter and had a great shot at doing this. We expect to be that, but you don’t know. You can have a great performance, but be 200 yards total, 300 yards total. We saw in the third quarter. We saw in the fourth quarter and we said, “We’re staying in; we have to keep going.” We did a great job and a lot of the young guys did a great job, as well. For us, we expect high expectations and we have to continue, but there is always room to improve.”
Was tonight a direct result of work put in over the summer?
“We lost a lot of guys to the NFL. For us, we had a lot of the right guys step up. I didn’t play last year so I had to make sure I was ready to go. Devin White, Donnie Alexander, those guys they did great things. There are a lot of guys that stepped up. They understand their role and want to do great things. They’re out there in camp and spring ball being consistent and when it’s gametime, they’re ready to go.”
– TIGERS –
POSTGAME QUOTES FROM BYU:
HEAD COACH KALANI SITAKE
Opening Comments
“(It was a) Tough game. (I’m) Really disappointed in the outcome. (I’m) Really disappointed in the stuff we did as a team. We just couldn’t get anything going no matter what it was, especially momentum. (I’m) Just really disappointed. That’s my fault as a coach to get this team ready and we have a big one coming up next week. Our priority will be to focus on fixing things, getting some momentum and figuring out ways to win the game. I have to give a lot of credit to LSU they are a really good team with that defense they fly around and with that offense they really throw that ball and are really efficient. Both with the run and the pass they keep you guessing and are really a good physical team. We have some things to fix and some things to improve on. We thought we could have done better but you have to give light to LSU and Coach Orgeron and their program on how they run their defense. They play with great technique. They just didn’t give you much to move on especially when it came to our offense. We couldn’t generate any momentum. We had 38 plays, I think, on offense. It’s hard for us to win games against teams that have really good gameplans. I thought their gameplan was really good. It was a difficult game and we need to respond better. This is adversity for us, and we need to respond better to prepare for next week.”
Tonight you faced a great defense, can you comment on how you feel that went?
“Yes, they have some great coaches. The talent is there. This is a great compliment to their recruiting. Some guys have stepped in and played really well and did not show that they were inexperienced. I think that’s a huge credit to Coach Orgeron and their defensive backs coach who does a great job with their group. Naturally these guys just played well and they showed some of the best defense I’ve seen in college football.”
You gave up two touchdowns and then you have a break until the field goal, why do you think you struggled stopping them?
“It was hard reps. They were on the field quite a bit. We really didn’t help ourselves too much by getting off third downs, we gave way too many first downs and for that second downs. It was very frustrating but our defense, there was just things we could have done differently. You have to give us credit though our bodies were in the right spot, we just missed tackles. We have to rally around guys and find ways to make more plays, and be more destructive. LSU did a great job getting that offense ready. They had a lot of different looks and were efficient on the pass game. They were in synch the entire game. On all three fronts they outplayed us and as coaches we need to look a lot at what they are doing. What they are doing as a team is something I would love to have as a part of our identity. They have smashmouth football and use their talent appropriately. Overall it is a compliment to Coach O and what he has done with that program and that coaching staff.”
– COUGARS –