Dan Lanning: "We grade ourselves a little bit different."

On Monday evening Dan Lanning met with media to discuss his big win on Saturday and preview the upcoming game with Northwestern.

Lanning was asked an array of questions on the team and individual players. You can read his top quotes below or watch the entire video.

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Opening Statement:

“You know, good recap from the game this past weekend. You know, a lot of positives on really all three phases of our team. Thought they performed really well after evaluating the film. Certainly some opportunities to grow, but good opportunity to get ready for this next opponent, right? Traveling, road game, a little bit different setting, environment. You know, a place that people won’t get to be playing football games very often for much longer when they get their stadium done. And Northwestern does a good job. They’re well coached. You see a team that presents some issues that will be a fun challenge for us, but ultimately excited to get to go travel and see how our team performs, not at a home venue with our awesome crowd.”

On the Early AM Kickoff:

“You know, we’re a morning practice team, so not a lot. And so I told you guys this morning when we were about to go out to practice, this is about the same time we’ll be playing, fellas. So our bodies are used to it, right? It’s something that we can do that’s a little bit different. And we’re looking forward to that opportunity.”

On the Smaller Stadium Setting:

“Yeah, I mean, again, it doesn’t affect the size. I think the field’s still going to be the same size, right? Also, that’s what you focus on, right? It’s definitely a different environment, but I’ve coached in some of those, right? I’ve coached high school football. I’ve coached FCS football. I’ve played NAI football, right? So I’ve been in some of those environments.

And if you love football, you want to play your best, regardless of what the crowd looks like or what the setting is. So it’ll be a fun experience for our players. They don’t get to do that very often.”

On the Depth of the Team:

“It’s important every game, right? I think we had 81 different players playing this last game. I don’t remember what I said after the game, but we just, after going back and evaluating 81 players playing this game, I think we had 31 players have a tackle. I think 19 different players touched the ball, right? I don’t know. I mean, there was a lot of people that can contribute.

And I’ve said it from the beginning of the season, that strength in numbers is going to be a great quality for us. And at some point, one of those 19 guys that touch the ball might not be available. So those other 18 are going to have great experience and be ready for it. And it doesn’t allow you to hone in on one person to stop us offensively. It doesn’t allow you to hone in on one person on defense to stop us defensively. So I think that’s really important when you have, you know, I’ve always said it, if we have enough above the line players, we’ll play several above the line players. And we have that right now.”

On Austin Novosad Not Playing:

“More precautionary, probably anything. I think Austin go, but his lat has been bothering him a little bit. He’s been able to practice, but we’re just trying to limit him and get him in position where he can go again.”

On Depth/Leadership:

“Yeah, I think we have a young group that’s a really mature group, right? And there’s a lot of guys you walk in that locker room, you walk into a meeting room, in the training room, you see them preparing like vets, even though they might be freshmen. And I think the ones that aren’t are looking at the ones that are and saying, oh, wow, I could play if I prepared like that. And there’s a lot of opportunities that are being created.

But that also goes back to the leadership that we do on our team of veterans, of those guys being able to see what it looks like, how they have to prepare, and then, you know, good evaluation, good development of those guys, put them in position to be able to go play. So credit to our coaches and our players.”

On Jerry Mixon’s Growth:

“Yeah and I think Jerry the minute he stepped on campus he’s been a ball production guy. He’s a guy that’s around the ball, and you’re always trying to find ways to get guys like that on the field. And we’ve seen him make that play over and over again in practice, like very similar to what he did on Saturday. What he’s grown at is his ability to communicate with the people around him and get other people lined up, his ability to execute the defense at a really high level, high tick.

And he’s a great teammate. You know, I asked Austin Novosad the other day, I was like, tell me who our best teammate is on defense. And he said, Jerry, right? And what’s great is you could go ask 15 different guys that question and you might get 15 different answers because that’s the quality of men that we have on our team right now. But Jerry’s grown a lot. He’s doing really good. And I expect him to get a lot better.”

On Grading Performances vs Inferior Opponents:

“You know, I kind of grade our – we grade ourselves a little bit different. You know, so in the first game I think we graded out 73% of guys doing their job, executing at a high rate. We expect that to be higher than that. This past game, we were at 72%, so we actually went the wrong direction there. So for us, you know, it’s going to be about, again, we play with unbelievable effort. I think that’s really clear on film, but it’s about executing and doing the right job as well. So hopefully we can walk away from this game and say that we improved in that category.”

On Evan Stewart Injury:

“Yeah, I’m not going to hop into injuries, right? I know you guys asked about Austin already, but there’s some guys that weren’t available last week that I think will be available this week. It’s not right now for Evan (Stewart).”