“Tough loss on Saturday. The boys really hurt after this one, and so did the coaches. This week we just had to get back to work. I am confident that they will come back and bounce back this week. We talked this morning. They guaranteed me that they are still ready to go. They are ready to get after it and be the best team on Saturday. This time of year we are dealing with a lot of injuries, so we have the next man up mentality like we talk about every week. In this conference, you saw it last week against Illinois, you have to play sixty minutes of solid football. We showed lapses of doing it but to win games you have to play a full sixty minutes. That is what we have to get the guys to do play the full sixty minutes.”

“Right now, it is looking like a nerve in his elbow so right now he is day-to-day. I just wanted to hold him out today and let him see the doctors. He saw the doctors yesterday, and I let him see them again today and we will see where he is at tomorrow.”

“He was really beat up on Saturday, but when I spoke with him on Sunday he felt better. He looked better yesterday. Casey (Thompson) has taken some hits this year, and I want to make sure I am helpful, and I would rather say he is out than say he is in and then he does not play.”

“I spoke to Chubba (Purdy). Chubba just has to settle down. He has to breathe at that position. He can not let his emotions take over. He has to be a true leader out there. I thought he was trying to make plays but he has to understand the situation we were in at that time when he threw the pick. That we already had three points so let’s make the score 20 to 12. He threw the pick and they go up and they kick the field goal and now they are up 23 to 9 so he has to understand situations. I thought he had a really good day today talking to him. Chubba is a kid that you have to talk to after every play. Sometimes you do not want to do that with quarterbacks but it is a little different with Chubba. He is young. Chubba is young. He is a young quarterback with not a whole bunch of reps. We have to make sure this week that we do a really good job with him reminding him what situation he is in and if it is not there throw it away. If it is not there run do not slide.”

“(Chubba Purdy and Logan Smothers) both took an even amount of reps with the ones today. You are right. I went back and forth. They took an even amount of reps with the ones today. They both did.”

“Your backup never gets a whole bunch of reps. It is impossible to do that because you are only out there for two hours, and you have to get your one guy ready. He did not get the reps as a one, but he got the reps as a two. For him to perform, I think he needs reps as a one. You are right. He needs more reps and we are going to get him more reps this week.”

“He plays nervous sometimes. I just want him to breathe and calm down because he plays better. If you go back to his high school film he was playing with a lot of confidence. If you go back and watch that you can see him playing with poise. He has to have more poise behind the center when he goes in the game. He wants to make a play so bad that he makes a bad play. He is not trying to but he just makes a bad play. We have to calm him down. We have to do a better job as coaches to get him ready and it starts with me.”

“Talk to him every play. Say something with him every play like, ‘Hey you are doing this. Hey that is a great job. You are doing this that is a great job.’ Just remind him of situations that he is in because remember he has not played a lot of college football.”

“You know Logan (Smothers) is more of our option guy. Chubba (Purdy) is more of our drop back guy. So, we have an option and a drop back guy, so that is the difference in the skills. Probably the feet. Logan can probably flip it better than Chubba, and Chubba can probably throw it overhead better than Logan.”

“He was better today. I spoke to him this morning. We talked about calming down and playing with poise, and he was better today at practice. I played that position, and that is not an easy position just to step in as a backup. That is why we always talk about that to our backups. What did I say before? They always have to prepare like what like they are a starter. That is the problem. He has to prepare like a starter as a backup. Sometimes a backup has to play with limited reps.”

“He was better today. I spoke to him this morning. We talked about calming down and playing with poise, and he was better today at practice. I played that position, and that is not an easy position just to step in as a backup. That is why we always talk about that to our backups. What did I say before? They always have to prepare like what like they are a starter. That is the problem. He has to prepare like a starter as a backup. Sometimes a backup has to play with limited reps.”

“They have to lead. We still have good leadership on the team with Travis (Vokolek) over there, and Casey (Thompson) still over there but they have to lead and they have to take charge when they are on the field. I think the kids believe in them.”

“They are 23 and 24 years old. I came from the SEC. So when you look at that SEC depth chart and you are seeing a bunch of juniors that means that is a good football team. Here when you see a bunch of juniors and seniors that means they have been in the program a long time and they are a pretty good team. You have five and six year seniors this week from MInnesota. This is another sixth-year quarterback that we are going against. That is unheard of. That is not happening in that other conference. It is an older league. This league executes and they do not make many mistakes. It is a well-coached league.”

“I thought some of the plays he was open. Some of the plays he was covered. Trey (Palmer) has to do a better job of running through the noise. I spoke with him during the game. They are going to grab you. They were grabbing him. They are going to do that. They are not just going to let Trey run. Trey has to understand that so when they grab you, you have to shed them and get them off of you. You have to play physical every snap. These were the first people to get in his face since he has probably been at LSU. He had to learn. He knows better. Get open. So he started pushing through and getting open a couple times later on in the game.”

“He is a monster man. He runs low to the ground. He gets his pads down and he finishes runs. We saw that last week and now we are going to see it again this week. That is one thing about this league. This league has some backs. He is a tough kid and we have to game tackle him. One-on-one tackle he will probably run through that. He has big tree trunks do you see how he is built? He is a good looking dude.”

“We are proud of Ernest. We had Nick (Henrich) and Luke (Reimer) out there, and Ernest was not coming along like we wanted him to, but he kept getting better every day in practice. He kept getting mental reps and when he got in he took advantage of his reps, so we are happy with where Ernest is at right now. You can see he is talking with more confidence right now. He is talking more on the field. He is communicating better, so we enjoy what we see from Ernest right now.”

“He had to understand that it is Saturday afternoon and not Friday nights. That is a lot of freshmen. They have to understand that it is not Friday night, and they are not the best person on the field, so now you have to rely on your technique. I think Barrett (Ruud) does a really good job with those guys for their technique, and he had to learn how to do it. He probably never used those techniques in high school because he was the best player.”

“He came to me. So, he called me on a Saturday afternoon on the off week and said he wanted to meet with me, so I was happy that he said he wanted to get over there and help us. I think he is going to be a really good offensive lineman once Donovan (Raiola) gets him and trains him a little bit.”

“If you look around and you look on this side you have to be able to run the ball and you have to be able to move people off the point. You have to be able to have a strong run game. Run game can eat the clock up and shorten the game. That is what I see. You have to be able to adjust to this league. That is what I am learning. This league they are going to run the football they are going to eat clock and they are going to keep your offense on the sideline. That is the vision. That is what you have to get to.”

“Every week we go in and we try to get the run game started. We like to throw the ball, but I think this week we are going to try and rely on the run and throw it when we have to.”

“Coach Applewhite was comfortable with Anthony Grant and (Jaquez) Yant out there. It is nothing against Rahmir. He is practicing good. He plays really well on special teams.”

“He gets the ball out quick, but he manages the offense. He gets them in the right run plays. He has been in the system six years. He is a really good quarterback and that is what you are facing. You are facing another guy that is going to manage the offense and get them in the right plays and not make mistakes with the football.”

“I think there is a benefit. You know it is going to be another physical game but I think the defense benefits from that.”