Week 3 Football Presser - Louisville - Western Kentucky University Athletics

Head Coach MIKE SANFORD (Full Video)

Opening statement:
"We had to chance to evaluate the film and see what transpired in greater detail and get a clearer picture of what happened. Obviously it was a tough loss, it was a tough night. It was nowhere near what any of our players, coaches or myself want to put out there on the field, a loss to an FCS team. And that's what it was, call it what it was. On the flip side of it, that was as well-executing of a team in all three phases that I've been around in the first six minutes of a football game. I felt like the team was ready to play, they came out guns-o-blazing, the bottom line is we have to win a football game and that's my job to make sure this team wins the football game and gets those winning ways back because these seniors deserve it. To actually go up by three scores, 21-0, within the first six minutes of a game, you're in a space that very few people are going to be in. The natural human condition is to let up, to be complacent, to say 'finally, here we go.' We had to all talk about that as a program; coaches and players, was your mindset the same when it was 21-0 - was my mindset - as it was when we ran out of that tunnel guns-o-blazing? Because we were on fire running out of that tunnel. That has to be our mindset going forward in dealing with that type of success. A lot of players on this team had never been in that type of situation where it's 21-0 with 54 minutes to play in a ballgame. The way we fix that is that we just focus on one play; calling the right play, executing the play. No matter what the score is, no matter what the circumstance is, we just have to worry about that one individual play and execute it to the best of our ability with laser focus. And that, to me, is the solution. I know it's philosophical, but we learned a lot from the film in a lot of different areas."

On looking forward to the next game:
"After the game in the locker room, obviously there's a lot of disappointment, there's a feeling of embarrassment. We do have a 24-hour rule and we abide by it, we actually built our schedule now that Sunday is a day that we work. We review the film, we go to practice and correct and review, and right after Period 4 we actually move to the next opponent. We say that's the burial of the previous opponent, period. We're going to bury that game right then and there, and then not only focus on the next opponent but kind of start transitioning and focusing on just one rep at a time, one snap at a time. That's what we'll do regardless, and the fact that it is Louisville, in-state, there is extra incentive for us to go play great. Our alumni base up in Louisville, always the best events that I go to every year as it relates to WKU alums. I love the energy, the passion that Louisville fans who are WKU alums bring to the table. We expect that stadium to have a lot of WKU fans in it who are alums of this university because they're proud up there. They're in a UofL and UK dominant part of the state and they want to stand tall and they want to wear that towel with pride and we want to go represent with pride."

On preparing for the Louisville quarterbacks:
"They're two different players. When you look at them, Malik Cunnigham from a skill-set standpoint he brings about a lot of what they played with a year ago, in terms of his dynamic abilities as a runner. He can make off-schedule throws. Jawon Pass is built like an NFL sturdy-bodied quarterback. I recruited Pass when I was at Notre Dame, I had some conversations with him, I think very highly of him as a talent. I know there are some question marks right now about their quarterback position. It appears when watching the film, in those conditions they played in against Indiana State, that Cunningham really gave them a spark. Because of his ability to make off-schedule plays, to run the football, to pull the ball down in zone-read and quarterback power sweep-read. I thought he looked pretty dynamic and I know he got dinged up and carted off, I think that we'll prepare for both players."

Defensive Coordinator CLAYTON WHITE (Full Video)

On Louisville's offense:
"They're very balanced, they do a really good job at run-pass. With the quarterbacks they have in their system, right now they're working with two guys. Coach Petrino has pretty much been running that office for a long time and to me it's impressive just how balanced they are with formations and how he understands to move his players around and get certain players the football, I think that's been the thing that I've been most impressed with him over the years… The main thing with [Louisville] is that no matter who they've had at quarterback, they've always had an athletic quarterback, a guy that can move around, obviously with Mr. Jackson in the last couple of years dealing with him in the ACC. He was a runner and a thrower. That's kind of what they're working with now, they have two guys and you have to understand what both of those guys bring to the table. More importantly, they can run, they can bring the offense, right now they're working through some things but I know Coach Petrino will have those guys dialed in for whatever task is at hand."

On learning from last week's mistakes:
"I think that after last week, we not understand that two plays can give a team momentum. Big plays with touchdowns versus normal big plays, there's a difference. When you give up big plays with touchdowns you're also giving teams hope, you're giving teams momentum and you're giving them life when they sometimes don't have it. I think that's what we did and defensively those were our mistakes on Saturday."

Week 3 Football Presser - Louisville

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