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COWBOYS CLASSIC: LSU vs TCUAugust 31, 2013Gary PattersonARLINGTON, TEXAS LSU – 37 THE MODERATOR: Coach Patterson is now joining us. Coach, your thoughts about tonight's game? COACH PATTERSON: We lost. I told them before the ballgame, the bottom line was you couldn't make mistakes. The first ballgame is about mistakes. You can't fumble the ball, get lined up, do different things, give up the long kickoff return. I thought we were the team getting stronger in the fourth quarter. It was a big turnaround when we don't get the ball at the 15. We don't get any score. We can cut it down to where it was manageable at a three‑point game, and then you give up the big kickoff. You can't do those kind of things. But as far as being on the field, whether we could play with LSU, I think our kids played hard. I think we have an opportunity, and I think they have a really good football team. Their wide receivers are good players. We played against some good wide receivers, and they made some good plays today. Q. Coach, when you went off for halftime, can you just describe what happened there and what you were thinking? COACH PATTERSON: Well, number one, they told us it was a 20‑second runoff. But because it was a down play, then you don't get a 20‑second runoff. So I was told that it was a 20‑second runoff. So the team ran off the field. Then we called them back, everything got called back, and we had to go kick a field goal. So that's the way it is. Q. Coach, was there any injuries going on with Pachall going on in the second half? COACH PATTERSON: They were making our quarterback move his feet. We had to get an extra running back in the back field. It was simple. So we tried to go change of pace, and I thought it worked. We got a couple touchdowns. Tre needed to set his feet on a couple of balls. But like I told you, there are going to be games where we're going to play one, they're going to play the other. I thought Casey was playing fine. The problem was on both drives we went down and scored. Trevone got us in a situation, got us the first down with his feet, and that's going to be the way it's going to be all year. There are going to be games where he can beat us with the arm, beat us with the legs. Like I told you, it felt like we had two quarterbacks that could win. That's a good defense that we played against. So go down and score points. I think we're only going to get better. I think this is a confidence boost for us as a group. I don't think we'll play a front four any better than we played tonight. I think on both sides of the ball. So for us, like I told them in the locker room, usually I'm pretty critical about losses, but I told them come in, LSU is LSU. Key is we gave them ten points. That is the difference in the ballgame when you play somebody good. You have to give Coach Miles and LSU a lot of credit. They're very young also. They have a lot of guys out there that haven't been in football games before. So we just kept moving forward. Some guys made some plays, and I think we're going to get better. If we'll get better every week like we're doing, then I think we have a chance, if we can stay healthy, to beat somebody tonight. I thought we did what we needed to do tonight. But I think we've got to find ways to stop people. This defense does. I thought we played great red zone defense at times, and we didn't get lined up, missed a couple tackles and they got a couple big plays. You can't allow that to do that. Q. You said you thought you were getting stronger in the fourth quarter, the punt, the down, and then you got the turnover. Did you feel at that time that that was kind of where you guys were? COACH PATTERSON: Yeah, well, we got that stop, and then the next time they got the ball back, we got the stop again. I thought we turned it, and they shanked the punt, we get the ball on the 48, and that's when we need to drive the spike. So that's where you you've got to go down, they did. When they had their opportunities they did in the second half, and we didn't. What a great ballgame, I'll be honest with you. What a great ballgame. I enjoyed it, lot of fun, lot of great athletes on the field on both sides of the ball for both teams. Q. Coach, curious that halftime thing, even though you were told and we all saw and heard what was said and you guys ran off, what kind of affect did that have, if any, on the team to go all the way off and then to come back. Having a high and then a low and giving up more points? COACH PATTERSON: I don't know. I don't think it had anything to do with that. We come out, our safety had the long run. Then it gets reached, and the safety misses the tackle. It's a pretty easy deal when they go down the sidelines. But you know, you've got to come out in the second half, and you've got to get ready to play. That's how we made our mark here. Our kids wanted to play well, but I don't really think it had that much to do with it. I didn't like the extracurricular activity between my two guys and theirs while they were all standing out there. But outside of that, you know, you've got to have class. Q. Coach, how would you assess your pass‑rush tonight, sans Devonte? COACH PATTERSON: There is no doubt we missed (Indiscernible) and Devonte Fields. No doubt about that. But if you asked me if I would do it over would I let him play? The answer is no. Bottom line, as much as I wanted to win that ballgame, and I think he would have made a big difference in that ballgame, because there were times in what we call 11‑person, where they had three wide receivers in there, if we get any pass‑rush at all, they get the ball in five or six seconds throwing the football. You can't play against good football teams and do that. So to have a guy that could make a big speed rush off the field would have made a big difference for us. There would have been one more guy that could have rotated that could have played. But we don't make excuses. I told them after the ballgame, we got ourselves in that situation, now we need to go make it up in the next 11 games. That's what we're going to do. The one thing you can't do in your life is you've got to be careful about being righteous. Righteous people lose too. So this wasn't a deal where this was about Casey Pachall, how do we grow somebody up to be who they need to be and teach a lesson so they can go on. I was watching TV today, gentlemen. There were a lot of good players that were suspended for one or two ballgames today across the country. So everybody says the coaches aren't doing the right things. I beg to differ. Maybe the student‑athletes need to start understanding that there is an accountability factor of how you're supposed to act and how you're supposed to do things because they get the scholarship. Q. The last touchdown. You talk about LSU's wide receivers and their touchdown pretty much. If you don't get the field goal there, it seemed like you had a chance? COACH PATTERSON: Oh, we knew it was a slant. They beat us with the slant before I called press coverage. I told them to come down. Both safeties knew it was going to be a play, and they didn't make it. I ran both linebackers through to try to get pressure, and everybody on our sideline knew they were going to throw it 80. They were going to throw the slant, and we didn't stop it. Simple as that, and they didn't tackle him. But I trust Sam Carter. He's got to learn to make that play. Again, like I told you, I'm not sure you're going to play this much better than Landry. He's a strong big receiver coming in. I watched him all last year every time I could watch him make those kind of plays. And, so, he's a good player. No doubt about it. Q. How do you think your team handled LSU's defensive front? COACH PATTERSON: I don't know. Without watching film, I don't know that. We felt like we were going to have to spread them out. Obviously, we didn't do a very good job in the first half. But I thought the way it was going, a lot more of their guys were coming off the field in the fourth quarter than ours was. I thought once we started going sideways, we got Trevone in the game where he had to defend the quarterback. Because in the first half, they weren't just defending the quarterback, they were defending the running back. Once we got Trevone in the game and everybody started moving, I felt like we got a little bit of an equalizer. But those guys are good players, all of them are. They're good players. Q. Coach, what went into the decision to punt on 4th and 2 there at the end of the game? What was the thought process behind that? COACH PATTERSON: I don't think it was 4th and 2. Q. Oh, fourth down. COACH PATTERSON: When they kicked the field goal? Q. No, at the last offensive, with five minutes to go. COACH PATTERSON: Well, it's just one of those situations where we were at. We felt like we could stop them. We had two previous times before that. Q. With you having co‑starters at quarterback, does it even matter to say who is going to start the next game? COACH PATTERSON: Well, Casey will start the next game. He's a senior. He's going to be the guy, and it's going to work just like he works. There were several plays where both of them were in the game. You know, because we need to get Trevone on the field to catch balls and do things because he's just a really good athlete. And so we had a lot of young guys play tonight that made mistakes that could have helped us on a couple of things. You've got to give‑‑ if you want just highlights. How about B.J. Catalon? I mean, what a good player. I mean, kickoff return, breaking tackles. 420 pound bench, 640 pound squatter at 5'9", 180, and he can run. Here's a guy that everybody says you have to be four or five, here's a guy nobody knew about. Great player. Q. How would you assess your linebackers play tonight? COACH PATTERSON: You know, without watching it, but I thought for three guys that really had never played before, I thought we did really well. We missed the tackle on the long run. The linebacker ran through it and missed the tackle. But they had some tackles for losses. I mean, that's a good front, you just watched play. So, I'll be honest with you. I was very excited with our front six up front four as far as size‑wise, how we held up to the run. Besides the one long run, I felt like we did what we needed to do most of the game. But I think before we're done, we'll play better than we did a year ago. We're more athletic. Q. I don't know if you've looked at the stats yet, but they were 13‑19 on third‑down conversion, and had a pretty big time of possession. Was that a key factor to get them off the field? COACH PATTERSON: Like I told them at halftime, you've got to compete. You've got to compete for every ball. There were a lot of ball there's and they go up and get it. We knock some away, but you've got to compete. You've got to get ‑‑ that's one of the thing reasons we were best last year. Getting people off the field, 29% third downs. We did not play very well defensively in third down situations tonight. Q. Coach, you're obviously not happy about the loss, but you seem in pretty good spirits all things considered. Was that just because of the first game or? COACH PATTERSON: I wouldn't say I'm in good spirits. Q. I mean, you're coming into it saying, hey, but we played a good ballgame. COACH PATTERSON: I told them going into this most of you sitting in here thought it was going to be a 30‑point ballgame. We had a chance to score, and we had a chance to tie it up. So for me what I'm saying to you is there is no reason for me to walk into my locker room and tell them that they're not very good because they just got beat. What they did is they played Bowl games, they played for National Championships, some of those guys played in those ball games, and they went toe to toe with them. And we'll learn from it and we'll go forward and then we'll become a better football team. I don't think athletically we'll play anybody that's going to be any more athletic in any other positions than what we just played tonight. So for us, I think if we take this as we got up for a ballgame at Calvary State playing LSU, then we won't be the program we want to be at the end of the season. That is the only positive there is. I'll be watching this film on the way home. So thanks for technology. But I won't be tweeting about it. THE MODERATOR: Okay, Coach, thanks a lot, best of luck the rest of the season, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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