Will Stein: "We just find a way."

With all of the action at the Peach bowl, Oregon OC Will Stein spent time with the media. He talked about Oregon and it’s prep for a rematch with Indiana in the Peach bowl. A couple of questions were asked about his upcoming job at Kentucky, but Stein was quick to keep the discussion on Oregon.

Here are his top eomments including his confirmation that running back Jay Harris will be with the team and available Friday night.

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Opening Remarks:

“Yeah, I’m just extremely excited to be here in this beautiful facility. It’s my first time here. The opportunity to play for a semi final matchup against Indiana Hoosiers is something that we don’t take lightly. We obviously have a ton of respect for Coach Cignetti and what they’ve done there. It’s an incredible team, top to bottom, and just excited to be in this situation. Same way we’ve done all year. I mean, we talk about strength in numbers. We just find a way. So that’s what we’ve been focused on is the guys that are available and just put the ball down and play.”

On Balancing the Two Jobs:

“I’m blessed to be in the position I’m in. It’s really surreal that I’m in this position. I really just try to focus all my energy on what I’m doing at the present home you know and not trying to think too much about things I can’t control and what I knew would know that I can control is try to be the best offensive coordinator for the Oregon Ducks right now. Give our guys a great plan and give it my all to this university who’s given me so much and my family so much.

So is it difficult? Sure there’s it’s difficult across the country, though. Everybody’s dealing with it. Oregon is. IU is. It’s going on everywhere. So there’s distractions out there that you just handle. And the people that adapt the best in college football are usually in the best position to win for next season. So that’s all I’ve been trying to do is just adapt to the situation and focus on what I can.”

On the Loss to IU:

“Well, obviously, I remember losing in Autzen. That was not fun. But, no, I mean, you learn so much from not just losses but wins. You know, we do a post-game report every single game. It’s like our debrief. Things we did good, things we did poorly, critical mistakes, critical penalties, personnel errors. So we always debrief them, and there’s good and bad for every single game. I think obviously the score shows that we didn’t play well, but there was also a lot of good that came out of that game.

I think when you look at the tape, there’s some schemes that we didn’t play well, but there was also a lot of good that came out of that game. I think when you look at the tape, there’s some schemes that we really liked that we want to make sure that we can, and we continue to do throughout the course of the season, but there’s things you’ve got to improve on. We had too many negative plays. We didn’t score in the red zone. It’s the typical why teams lose type games. You’ve got to be great on third down. You’ve got to be great in the red area, like I mentioned. You have to be able to create explosive plays. So it was, like I said, it was the same after every single game.

But I do believe our guys took great pride after that game, really did it right. And we obviously went on a really good run and put us in the position we are in today.”

ON Malik & J-Mac Stepping Up:

“Yeah, I mean, it was huge. I mean, you obviously never want injuries. And when Dakorien went down and then GB went down for the Iowa week, I mean, J-Mac and Malik were forced to step up. And they were great leading up to that point too. But it’s just like when you play the game, you get those game reps and really in big moments you just get better as a player. It’s a pretty consistent theme for playing better.
So, yeah, J-Mac has had a great year for us, a great year. He’s very dependable, runs great routes, is physical in the blocking games. And then Malik’s obviously been a home run hit for us. And I’m just very proud of both those guys for just sticking to it. It’s so hard in today’s age where there’s so many outside factors for these players, so many people out of the year.”

On Kenyon Sadiq’s Health First Game:

“Yeah, I mean, he’s an elite playmaker. In the first matchup, he was, I mean, I would say 50%.
He was really dealing with some stuff, some nagging things. Didn’t practice barely at all that week. And, I mean, he’ll be the first to tell you he didn’t play his best game, but it’s hard when you don’t practice to just show up and play in a big-time college football game against a top-five opponent like IU.
That first matchup, it’s just hard. So he’s had a great week of prep. He’s a phenomenal person, unreal player. He provides so many mismatches on defense, and definitely somebody that we want to really use as much as possible.”

On Jay Harris’ Development:

“Yeah, I mean, I’ve seen Jay Harris perform in practice for the past two years. And when he got here from D2, I mean, he barely knew the plays, you know? So we had to, like, develop him in that sense. And then I think you really saw him start to flourish last fall in terms of practice. And he had a great camp, great spring. You know, it’s just the football gods, everything kind of works out a certain way.

Jay, I think he’s an exceptional back. He’s got great balance. He can really catch the ball. I think he’s at his spot now to really flourish, give him the opportunity.”

On Limiting Distractions:

“You know, I left my kids back in Oregon, so there’ll be no distractions, no one-year-old waking up in the middle of the night or three-year-old asking for snacks, you know. I love them to death, but this is truly a business trip and I’m excited about it.”

On the Staff at Oregon:

“Yeah, I got a phenomenal staff. I mean, Drew Mehringer, Rashaad Samples, A’lique Terry, Ross Douglas, all of our support staff is, I mean, it’s absolutely phenomenal. They are just as big of a reason why we’re in this position as me. I get to call the plays. I get to say it in the headset. But we work together extremely well. We have for the last three seasons. And so nobody’s in this position without those guys and what they’ve done as a staff. They’ve done a phenomenal job when, you know, after the game, I went to Lexington for just like a short stint real quick and then came back to Eugene, and so they held down the fort.”