The following quotes are selected from BYU's Monday press conference prior to week five's game against Toledo on Sept. 28 at the Glass Bowl.
Watch the full press conference here.
Head Coach Kalani Sitake
On what the team learned from the Washington game.
It confirmed a lot of things, but Washington is a good team and we didn’t help ourselves on the mistakes that we made. We have to evaluate some more things and look at a few other issues that we can get corrected and get them done today. I’m looking forward to having our guys be at their best again this weekend. Same approach, what we do as strategy will matter on what we see and what we think will give us the benefit and advantage going into this game against Toledo.
On Ty'Son Williams’s injury
Obviously, we’re disappointed in the injury, but more than anything for Ty'Son, all the hard work he put in to this season and the things he’s done for this program in such a short amount of time. His role still continues, it’s just a different role. His leadership role and the things that he demands from that running back group, I know that they’ll play hard for him. This team will play hard for him and guys like Zayne Anderson that are lost for the year. Right now those two and Hank Tuipulotu have been the ones that are out for the season. His role as a leader still continues and we’re going to lean heavily on him to help this team. They’re still on the roster and they’re still part of the team.
On Tyson Williams applying for a hardship waiver.
We’re looking at all the details of just trying to get him healthy first, then we’ll figure out that stuff. There are a lot of options that we’re looking into, but nothing is definite right now.
On considering position changes to bring players into the running back group.
We might. I think we have a lot of good players there, this is up to Lopini Katoa, Emmanuel Esukpa, Sione Finau and others that are playing that position. We’ll see how it goes. We feel like there’s a good group of players to begin with. If you’re talking about Tyler Allgeier, we’ll see what he looks like this week, but he’s capable of going both offense and defense. We’ll just have to see what his role will be on each side and which one is more important to this team in having success.
Defensive Back Austin Lee
On the mood after the Washington game
There’s a lot of frustration, obviously, from that loss and just how we handled ourselves and how we played. We didn’t execute at the high level that we needed to and I don’t think we took a step forward. Each week we’re trying to get better and I don’t think we took a step forward from the previous game. Hopefully we can start today, prepare well and by game day for Toledo we’ll execute well against them.
On losing Zayne Anderson
He’s a big loss. Zayne’s a great athlete, he’s a great player, he’s got great instincts and he’s a great leader as well. When you have a guy like that that’s lost, it obviously hurts the defense, but I think we’ve made some improvements with other players, mainly some of the flash linebackers that stepped up when he moved to safety. It gave Sawyer Powell, Malik Moore, Beau Tanner opportunities to step up and I thought that they did well for the most part and hopefully those guys will continue to get better.
On helping young guys avoid the impulse to try and do too much and stay focused.
It’s just a constant reminder. On the field we say, “Let’s do our job." It’s also emphasized when we’re on the field that we need to step it up because it’s a big-time down for us or it’s a big opportunity for us to step up. But it’s emphasized more so off the field, that we need to do our job and do our part then everything will take care of itself.
Wide Receiver Micah Simon
On what he experienced after the game as Ty’Son Williams' roommate
Saturday night was pretty tough. I was probably one of the first people to find out because we were at home together. It was hard for me to see him in that state of mind as a friend, brother and teammate. We have a lot of great people on the team and in this program that will lift him up. He’ll bounce back.
On what has made Ty'Son Williams a great teammate in the short time he has been here
He’s completely himself and he doesn’t try to be a different person. He gets along with anyone. He’s earned respect from the team because of the way he works and carries himself.
On his evaluation of the offense after four games
We’ve made strides in some areas and have improved in areas from last year. We took a step back this past weekend though and we’ll need to be in the film room to correct and learn from it for this week.
On keeping offense consistent
We were able to move the ball a little bit, but couldn’t finish the drive so then we had to kick a field goal. Execution is key. We had a lot of pre-snap penalties and missed assignments that can’t happen. Those are the things we can control so we need to make those plays.
Offensive Lineman Brady Christensen
On how the offense is feeling
We haven’t watched the film from Washington yet, but we obviously need to do a lot better if we didn’t win. We’re going to watch the film and learn from it so we can be better. We are looking forward to a good week of practice and moving on to Toledo.
On how the team will recover after losing Ty'Son Williams
You never want to see your teammates go down with an injury, but we know we have a lot of depth and so the next person is going to have to step up. That’s just the nature of football. People are going to get hurt and the next guy will have to be ready to go.
On if the blocking scheme is going to change
I don’t think we necessarily scheme differently with each player, but we have to get movement upfront. If the offensive line can get movement upfront, then the running back will be successful.