Everything Stig said at Missouri Valley Football Conference Media Day
On some new faces joining the program:
“Yeah, we had some concerns going into spring in terms of youth at some positions and youth at some coaching positions. We lost four really good coaches to head coaching positions, and they each took a coordinator—but the spring went very well. I thought we made great strides both as a team and as a coaching staff, and then our guys like all our programs—I'm humbled by how hard they work in the summer. We had everybody here and they worked their tails off and can't wait to see them come come Thursday. I feel good about our meeting with the offense, defense and special teams today. I feel really good about our depth and I’m looking forward to the year and looking forward to the Iowa game.”
On the offense:
“I tell people we've had some good players here, we’ve been blessed to have some good players here. In terms of the offense, this is the best skill we've ever had combined. You know, we've got a number of All-Americans—whatever that means. We've got guys that have made big plays in big games. We return our quarterback, who we lost in the national championship game, who is a phenomenal football player. The Jankes and the slew of wide receivers we have—be honest with you and this is going to sound arrogant—be honest with you, I asked the offense ‘How are we going to take care of all these guys? You know, how are we going to keep them all happy?’ And they they assured me they would be happy. So, I think Isaiah Davis is a really good—one of the best in the nation. And we got two really good offensive linemen and we have two really good tight ends. So we're blessed and we have good second string guys too. So it's a good year for the jackrabbits on offense.”
On FCS football:
“I think when you when you factor everything into what college football means, regardless of who's in the level, who's in the FCS, I think FCS football is by far the best level of football. Our tournament is by far the best tournament, in my opinion. I know North Dakota State's had their way and it's done some phenomenal things, but every year there's teams that get into that tournament and get into the playoffs and it's not life changing, but it's a huge deal for young men that work as hard as football players do. And then when you talk about college football, you're talking about student athletes, and guys that are graduating, getting degrees in our program—engineers and pre-med and teachers and pharmacists. And they're going on to compete for championships and yet, going on to make a difference and so I think ours is a pure level of football and the fact that some teams left—that opens the door for some other teams and and I think those teams should look forward to that.”
On how the offense can elevate to the next level:
“You know, I think to be as good as we can be (Kelly) we need to have three offensive linemen that haven't played a lot of football get up to speed really quick. We're playing Iowa out of the chute and that's a tough task. And so we can talk about this skill, but if your quarterback doesn't have time, or the running back doesn't get people blocked. So that's number one. And then I think just to utilize their pure strengths, you know, Tucker Kraft is a unique, unique tight end and to get him to run his routes a little bit better—may always make the tough catch. I think it's individual for each guy, and we talked about it all the time. What is your 1% today? What is your 5% this year? And if they can find those and work on him, we’ll be a better football team but I think it always starts with the fat guys up front—it always does.”
On the difference between Lujan’s and Eck’s playcalling:
“Yeah, I think it'll be—I don't want to sound judgmental, but I think it'll be more calculated. I think Jason (Eck) loved the trick play as people in our league have seen and he loved certain other things. Loved to substitute a lot and I think Zack will do things for a reason, always. And I charged him with that a long time ago, that every plays got to be the best call and every scenario has got to be the best. And so he's like that naturally. He's very intelligent—he should really should be a lawyer. I don't know why he's coaching. But I mean, he's going to be very calculated. And very, I think scientific is a good way, analytical about what is called and and I think we’ll be better because of that.”
On Lujan:
“He was very (analytical), he understood football. Football was easy for him, which it isn't for everybody. When you have a quarterback like that it makes life so much easier. And then he's a natural leader, Kelly. I mean, he's a coordinator now and he's got to step up in front of the offense every day. As a backup quarterback, he got beat out his senior year, he still was an unbelievable leader and that tells you a lot about a young man in that situation.”
On the biggest adjustment this offseason:
“Yeah, that's a great question. In fact, that that was our top goal in spring ball was to get our coaches ready—not our players. Obviously, you have to do both and so during spring ball, we put our coordinators and our staff in the press box in simulated game like situations. I don't want the first time Jimmy Rogers or Zach Lujan have to call a play or a defense to be against Iowa. I want them to have practice—that's why you practice plays, that's why you practice theater, that's why you practice music—you don't just go out and do it. And so I think that's very important. And we'll do that the same thing in the fall. We have four times where we're going to go to the press box and and have scrimmage like situations. We also do a mock football game where we go through all the substitution and specials, situations and scenarios. Shame on us as coaches if we don't prepare our players and our coaches, for everything they could encounter. And some things honestly you practice or you go through all season that happens the third season here together, but again, be ready—leave nothing to chance.”
On Power Five games:
“Yeah, I think they're getting a lot tougher—a lot tougher. And case in point, we have a year where we're out of luck. We were not going to have an FBS game and North Dakota States experiencing the same thing. Many of these were done—the Oklahoma State thing was in the works a long time ago, because of a schedule change with Nebraska and it just took that long for them to announce it and so we don't announce it before they do. I would agree with you. It's going to get—if we're blessed to have the same type of success we're having it will get infinitely tougher to have those and right now I'm blessed. I'm glad we have few down the road.”
On the starting quarterback “battle:”
“Mark is clearly the starting quarterback. Yeah he took every rep he could take. He didn't take a full team rep, a live team rep I should say, but he took every rep he could in the spring. He's run captain's practices this summer. He is the guy. He's been super.He was ready in the in the spring but our trainer, who's phenomenal, just basically said why? Why would he need a live rep? Why would he need to have D lineman closing in on him and having to dodge him. He'll get live reps in the fall. He'll have a jersey on that defines he can't get hit but he's ready to go. He's worked harder than he needed to get ready this fall. Football and his engineering degree are very important to Mark Gronowski.”
On NIL:
“Well, I think it'll continue to seep into FCS football and in departments. It'll start with departments and how they want to handle it. You know, if a young man has something going on—we send them to our compliance coordinator. We're supposed to stay out of it. So we stay out of it, you know, we encourage them to to have arrangements or deals or whatever you want to call it—contracts. But right now, we don't want to be advising guys in that whole thing. And I would agree with Coach Spack that all these new things have a leveling off effect, you know, there's evening out or a point where it goes, now this is how it works. And I don't think we're close to that yet, but we will be someday at the FCS level.”
On the USD game in October:
“Well, we obviously love any home game and especially when it's a rivalry type game. I told Coach Nielson after that game last year, I'm not coming back to that place so I'm not sure what that means if we're going to play the rest of them at our place but good for them to win that football game and get in the playoffs and this is a new year and you know we don't (Eric) we don't look way down the road for any game. We're focused on getting better. We're focused on our testing after the summer and then we're focused on getting through fall camp and getting ready for Iowa so we'll be excited when USD comes to town. I guarantee our fans will be and I believe their fans will be.”