Logan Thomas interview transcription from September 3, 2013.
ON THE DROPPED PASSES
Any time there’s drops I think it’s a little bit of both. It could be just placement, by a little bit. It’s something that’s easily correctable. Just got to go and put a little more work in and we’ll be just fine.
ON WHAT HE SAID TO THE RECEIVERS AND DEMITRI KNOWLES
I just tried to encourage him the entire time, he’s a young guy just like the rest of our receivers pretty much. Just kind of needed a little bit of reinforcement. Obviously they know they messed up so you don’t really need to tell them.
STILL HAVE FAITH IN THE RECEIVERS?
Oh yeah, I think these guys can be as good as they want to be. They just keep working hard, I expect them to work harder this week than they have been in the past. Even though they’ve been grinding pretty much all summer and in to camp.
WERE WIDEOUTS APOLOGETIC?
Yeah I mean pretty much anybody would do that. They apologized or whatever. You’ve just got to make plays. I’ve got to do my job and they’ve got to do theirs.
FACTORS OF LOW COMPLETION PERCENTAGE
I don’t know if it’s just one thing or two things. I mean there are a lot of things that go into it. It’s routes, defense, depending on where your guys are supposed to be at the right time. Those guys are supposed to paint a picture for the quarterback. But whatever it is I’m just going to come out here and just do my own job. If they’re not where they’re supposed to be, I’ve just got to keep moving forward, keep doing my own thing.
CONFIDENCE THE SAME AS 2 YEARS AGO?
I’m still playing QB aren’t I? Yeah my confidence is fine. Why would it falter now? I’m just excited to see where this season is going. I’m not really worried about 2 years ago, 2 years ago is a long ways away. I’m a different person, a different quarterback than I was then.
HOW LONG IT TOOK THE OFFENSIVE LINE TO GET GOING
Those guys were ready to go. I was pretty confident in how they were going to play. They approached it the right way, had a great demeanor. After the first possession, first couple of possessions, I knew they were going to hang in there just fine. Obviously they did a great job all night long.
ON THE TRIPLE OPTION
I’m completely comfortable running it. Did a little bit of it in high school obviously. Did a little bit of it in my previous years. I’ve done it pretty much all my life, as long as I’ve been playing quarterback. Doesn’t bother me too much. Just something that the other teams got to prepare for.
WHAT ARE THE TRAITS IN COALE AND BOYKIN HE’D LIKE THE WIDEOUTS TO HAVE?
Those are 2 NFL type guys. We’ve got a bunch of young guys, and DJ who’s coming back off of a knee injury. I guess it’s just experience, as soon as these guys get experience they’ll be just fine. Once they understand how to play the game.
ON THE NUMBER OF PASSES THROWN TO KNOWLES AND COLES
Well the game plan was kind of made around those 2 guys. We felt they kind of gave us the best matchups. Sometimes that’s just how the ball falls. It’s not that any one thing determined it. Demitri had some good matchups in the slot where we thought we could take advantage of it. And then DJ was just in the right spot at the right time I guess.
ON READ PROGRESSIONS
On every pass play you’ve got 3 or 4 receivers. It’s getting from Receiver A to Receiver B to receiver C.
ON MOTIVATION FOR WESTERN CAROLINA
I think bouncing back from a loss is what’s going to make this game a lot easier for us. We’re going to come out and play hard. Try to get that first win of the season. We want to get the bitter taste of a loss out of our mouth.
ENCOURAGEMENT WITH RUNNING GAME
It’s very encouraging. That’s something we really wanted to see coming in to the season. We know we’re going to be able to throw the football. We wanted to see if we were going to be able to run it. The offensive line, the running backs did a great job in letting us know that they’re there to stay. They’re going to be able to run the ball. In the end that’s what’s going to make our offense very explosive.
ON WHAT HE DID WRONG WITH HIS PROGRESSIONS
I’d go from 1 to 2 and then I wouldn’t get to 3.
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