Kliff Kingsbury:
Just the huge mental errors more than anything, that disastrous sequence to give up a kickoff return, have a player rejected, lose your quarterback and your cornerback that you need against your team, 5 personal fouls, 15 yard penalty on a kickoff when you had to pin an 11 yard punt, fielded a kickoff when you shouldn’t have, 5 3-and outs on offense and defensively I think it was 6 or 7 plays of 30 yards or more, we kept fighting and giving ourselves a chance, when you play a solid opponent, you’re going to get exposed . . . . I thought we had good camps, but just too many of those personal fouls, offensively, not sharp enough, too many third and longs . . .
[On Alan Bowman playing] Just a feel thing, I think Alan had a good grasp of this game plan, but for his first live action against a good defense, I thought he handled himself fine. He played at a level at time that we could have won the game, but the errors, we got exposed for not being mentally prepared for that type of speed and athleticism . . .
You gotta learn from it, point it out, get it fixed, draw some encouragement that when it was 24-17, you were in it, down 10 in the 4th quarter and have the ball a couple of times to get back in it, but going 3- and out on a couple of drives, you have to be better . . .
[On Da’Leon Ward] He’s faced adversity his entire life, he’s come a long ways from where he’s started, playing out there is when he’s most comfortable . . .
[On status of McLane Carter and Jah’Shawn Johnson] McLane is a game-time decision, it’s a high ankle sprain, it’s a tolerance deal, Jah’Shawn, we’re going to see if we can get him going and go from there . . .
We’ll see, it’s really a feel thing, both guys could play, both guys cold play, I’ll see McLane, and make a decision . . .
Exposed some players, KeSean [Carter] has picked up on the offense, he’s gotten better and better and fast, Coach Johns has done a nice job with him. Ta’Zhawn [Henry], still learning our schemes and protections, but when the ball is in his hands, he can be pretty dynamic . . .
To come straight out of the gate on that offense, I think it was an eye opener, you can’t just show up and make mistakes, too many mental errors and they took advantage of it, you have to give them a lot of credit . . .
Broderick [Washington] is outspoken and a leader on this team, and it didn’t look like it yesterday, it’s not about what you say, it’s about what you do . . .
[Any standouts from the game after watching the film] Not off the top of my head, we all had our ups and downs, I was proud of Bowman, he had some nice moments and being prepared, but in the loss, not too many standouts . . .
[On the targeting penalties] You want to be aggressive, and smart at the same time, I don’t see a good answer for you, some get called, some do not . . .
[On the offensive line] I think it’s a work in progress, we had too many negative plays, I forced some runs, called some runs and tried to take some stuff off of him, I think they have a chance, they were really moving bodies, so we’ll go from there . . .
[On Clayton Hatfield] That’s what we expected, that definitely gives you a comfort, you’ll need a solid kicker in conference and playing a bunch of close ball games . . .
[Could not hear off-mic the question] I think just the contact, we had two live scrimages, to consistently get hit against an SEC d-line, I think it was good for im moving forward after sitting out for two years, he’s got to continue to get better . . .
[Also could not really hear off-mic] I thought we had some good runs, some good touchdown runs, but the negative plays, you don’t want to be in 2nd and 12 and we found ourselves there too many times . . .
I’ve got so much going on here, that I don’t know what to add to this other than I really hope that we get to see Duffey and then we could make a decision about the quarterback position rather than Duffey be an unknown.