Press Conference Quotes: Jimbo Fisher
After watching the film, obviously we are disappointed we didn’t get the win, but we looked back at the reasons why. We did some things a lot better at certain times during the game, played some good football at times and at other times we let some things and some opportunities get away. You have to make every play in every situation, in big moments, those big, key plays. We needed to execute at the right time, call the right things, be in the right places. We need to get those things ironed out. I thought our kids played hard, I thought they were physical during the game. I thought, offensively, we ran the ball much better, with more consistency. The week before we had some penalties, some motions and holding, we shot ourselves in the foot. This week I think we had just the on motion penalty that I think we were able to overcome. That helped us because then you aren’t getting negative plays or getting behind the chains, which helped us sustain drives and move drives. Unfortunately we had that interception on the first drive, we have to make that play. We can put the ball on the back number or the front number and get a better angle on a route to clean that up. I thought our defense responded well and help them to a field goal on that opportunity. We needed to finish a couple drives in the red zone. We had opportunities to do it, but we just have to make those plays. Special teams, I thought we punted the ball extremely well. I thought we covered well. Seth Small was outstanding in the game hitting his kicks, he has been all year.Â
Going back to the end of the game, I wish we could have gotten that two-minute drive, but unfortunately we had a pass and a negative run. Defensively, I thought we didn’t tackle as well in space. We missed tackles, leveraging the ball. We have to find ways to get better pass rushes. We brought pressure at times, but we didn’t get there. They blocked us pretty well. We had two or three sacks in the game that I can think of. We have to find ways to get more pressure. They did a good job on third-down and we had a crucial penalty on 3rd-and-16, which cost us about seven minutes of time that we could have had the ball back in the fourth quarter. On the next-to-last-drive there was a 3rd-and-7 that they were able to convert because we didn’t get the cover down, that cost us a lot of time.Â
I think we did get better in some areas, but other areas we need to get better. We need to make better plays. We have to coach them better and put them in better positions. I wish there was a magic formula or a potion, but it’s about going back and being fundamentally sound in the things we do, in our concepts and schemes. It’s about winning individual battles. We’ll get back to that and play hard. The guys are disappointed and down, but they understand there is a lot of football left and a lot of work we can do and a lot of room that we can get better in.Â
On not letting the losing or negativity live in the locker room …Â
You turn it off. Turn social media off, turn y'all off. I don’t mean that in a bad way. You have to lock into that room and only in that room and your family, and understand that people are doing their job, everyone has their opinion. When they write something good, don’t listen. When they write something bad, don’t listen. Move on. Eliminate the clutter. You have to learn to do that, and in our society it’s a very hard thing to do because they live, eat and survive on it. They have to learn to turn it off and they have to understand that that is part of growing up. That’s part of growing up, people are going to doubt you, they are going to love you, all based off of what you do on a Saturday. That’s the world we are in. There is nothing wrong with that, that’s what fans should do and that’s what writers should do. But you have to understand who is really with you. When you have down times or bad moments you have to circle the wagons and make sure you have the right people there with you, in the trenches with you, and play ball. It takes maturity.Â
On QB Zach Calzada’s progress as a starter …Â
I think he progressed during the game. Any time you are the quarter back and you don’t win, everything is going to be scrutinized. Every throw, every time you touch the ball. Are there some throws and plays he would like to have back, surely. But that’s the same for every quarterback you ever play. If we had made one more play and won the game, maybe it wouldn’t be pushed as much. I think he’s learning, growing. As you watch film with him, he understands things and he’s getting better and better each play. I think he believes in himself whole-heartedly, and I think our players believe in him.Â
On Jalen Wydermyer’s growth through his career …
Jalen is an outstanding player. He’s learning to deal with successes and failures, different things that happen, highs and lows, expectations. I thought he played one of his best games last week. I thought he played a really good football game last week when you watch the film. His blocking, a lot of little things, route running. He caught a touchdown, there were a couple other balls we could have hit him with, but his routes were clean. He’s really gotten better and better, he’s progressing as a player. The thing that he has learned to do is that there are high expectations on him and sometimes you get caught up in numbers when you do that. You just have to play well and the numbers will come.Â
