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FAMOUS IDAHO POTATO BOWL: BYU VS WESTERN MICHIGANDecember 21, 2018Tim LesterAlex GraceJamauri BoganBoise, Idaho BYU 49, Western Michigan 18 THE MODERATOR: Coach Lester will join us momentarily. Q. Alex, talk about the first half, going into the locker room -- ALEX GRACE: I mean, like you said, we felt good going in and we just didn't come out and play to the best of our ability. BYU made some big plays and we just couldn't come back from it. Q. Coach had talked about -- talk a little about Zach Wilson. ALEX GRACE: Well, he's a great player. We just, if we had got to the quarterback a little more, if we had maybe hurried him a little more, the game could have been different. No, he's a great player and we just didn't play to the best of our ability. JAMAURI BOGAN: I think you hit the nail on the head. It was a tail of two halves, came in at 10-7, were feeling good and we knew that was going to be a 30-minute fight coming out of the half. We just didn't finish. But I'm excited about the future of this program and what this is going to do for the young guys in that locker room. Q. (Off-mic). JAMAURI BOGAN: It's great. Whenever you get an end zone for your team it's always awesome. We ran, basically it was a trap play, I was coming around. The defense did a great job of kind of closing it down my eyes opened and I said, oh, I could get back side here. Got back side; quarterback, Kaleb, made a block. Keishawn made another block and made it easy for me from there. Decided to run, tie the game back up, we're back in the driver's seat. Q. Talk about this being your last game. JAMAURI BOGAN: Going to try not to cry right now, but it's been a heck of a journey. It's been a heck of a week for me, though. My grandmother just passed away, who meant a ton to me, and then it was also my last football game. It's been a tough week for me. Didn't sleep much. My eyes are heavy from crying a lot. It's been a great journey. Western Michigan University, I always say, it changed my life. I'm forever grateful, the education, the teammates, the coaches, and just for the atmosphere the school has and has allowed me to flourish. I'm going to give back to the school in so many different ways in the near future, so I thank Western Michigan for the opportunity. Q. It was kind of a tale of two halves for you. COACH TIM LESTER: Yeah, they abandoned the running game. I thought our defense did a great job the first half keeping us in it, but once they got a lead on us, they just got after our secondary pretty good. We have to do a better job of getting pressure on the quarterback but I mean, the quarterback had a great day. It was going to be about what quarterback could get into rhythm, and we said that all week, because I thought we could stop the run. I felt like we did a pretty good job of that, and then their guy got into a rhythm against our secondary pretty good, and then Kaleb, Kaleb struggled. He was in over his head a little bit and seeing a lot of stuff. We knew they had a great defense coming in but getting down for him was the worst situation we could put him in, and he struggled. Q. (Off-mic). COACH TIM LESTER: Yeah, up front they were really good. We knew that coming in. I thought the first drive, I felt like we pushed them around pretty good. I think our O-Line did a good job. Our normal 10-, 11-, 12-yard plays are getting five and six, and you know, they ran the alleys well. We were able -- we got ourselves on a lot of third and shorts that normally would be first downs, you know. And then we got to a point where we got down and needed to throw it, and I thought the O-Line did a good job of giving them time early on, and you know, he struggled seeing coverage. He was on the wrong side often. He looked like an 18-year-old today, just trying to get him settled down, seeing things, getting rid of the ball on time. Yeah, I didn't feel great at half-time to be honest with you, just because I knew our quarterback wasn't seeing it, you know that, two-minute drill. I know you saw him scramble around a lot. Shouldn't have to scramble around a lot. He was missing some of his reads, you know, but he did a great job with his feet keeping plays alive. But he wasn't seeing the field clearly, and the couple times he did, we had some big plays but when you get down in a game, you know, you're going to see every coverage in America and he's getting better. But he definitely struggled and was late on the interception. He was really late. It will be a great learning experience for him to have to throw the ball to come back and win the game, you know, and that's something that would he have got to be able to do. We've got to be able to run it and throw it, and once we got down, it was all on him to bring us back, and obviously we didn't. Q. The quarterback struggled -- what can you say about -- COACH TIM LESTER: Yeah, I thought he got comfortable. And that was a big thing, because early on, we were moving him around. We were getting to him and he was uncomfortable. He was a little bit off rhythm and like I said, but their offense, they have all the talent in the world. It's just getting that kid into rhythm where he's throwing the ball in time, seeing the coverage, and he was in rhythm. That throw, the first play in the second half, that throw he had, he got hit while he through it, because I was watching from the pressure and it was right over the middle. It was a heck of a throw, while getting hit. Having done myself that a time or two, it doesn't hurt as much when you complete it, and then he got in a rhythm. And any quarterback, especially a quarterback, a good one, with a line that good, that center is as good as we've seen, they were going to give him some time. We tried to mix up pressures, but the problem with mixing up pressures is you're putting your secondary in a lot of man-to-man situations. That's scary. We're thin there. We've been thin there all year and it showed, because you can't let a quarterback in rhythm just sit back there. Once he got into rhythm, we had to start bringing pressure and he exposed us in the back end. Q. Was it something their offensive line did -- COACH TIM LESTER: Yeah, they are way bigger. They were definitely way bigger. And we were getting home early on, we were getting home with four, not super fast, not that we had clean runners or anything like that, but we were getting them off at spots. They started sliding the pro. I don't think we did a good enough job hiding our coverage. They did the fake clap or the one clap and would see the coverage, slide the pro to it, and we were not able to hold our water long enough, you know, so we had much better protections the second half. But their guys did a good job, as well. We were going to mix up the pressures and the coverages and early on, it seemed like we had a good rhythm on keeping him -- they wanted to run the ball. You could see that early on. That was their plan. We made them change their plan, and so the same way with us. They made us change our plan, and it came down to a throwing game, you know, with two 18-year-olds out there, which I don't think either coach wanted that plan, you know, and they were able to get back there now. I thought our O-Line gave our guys plenty of time. Late in the game when they had their ears pinned back and when all the momentum was swung, they started getting more pressure on him, which happens in pretty much every game once it gets to that point, you know. I think both offensive lines did a great job of giving time because they brought more pressure than we had seen and our O-Line did a good job of giving them time. We just have to execute in that situation. Q. As a whole, what do you gain from this, and with 15 extra practices? COACH TIM LESTER: Yeah, I mean, learning how to go through a Bowl week is a big deal, you know, and getting all those extra practices for our young guys, we have an extremely young team and that's not a secret. And they are going to use this, this chip on their shoulder. And Bogan, I let the seniors talk after the game in the locker room. That's why it took me so long to get here because wanted them to be able to say whatever they wanted and that's one of the things he said. Bogan said: Yeah, we're in the same place in his first year and they came here, didn't win the game, and they used that. That fueled their whole off-season and they built it and got it better the following year and then obviously they won 13. It's a growth mentality, you know what I mean, and you have that -- it's hard to have the growth mentality. Our nine seniors have a great mentality. They are always working. That's who they are. They have done a good job of leading the younger guys, and we need to make sure our core values pass on to the young guys because if they do, then all of a sudden instead of nine guys out there with one starter, you've got, you know, 16 next year and eventually you're going to get into the 20s, and then you're cooking. It takes time to balance everything out. But those guys had some great things to say about using this to fuel us to grow, you know and that's what we need. We already grew from the practices the young kids did but would he have got to use it in the off-season. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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