Following the Beavers 56-26 thrashing of the Colorado State Rams this evening, first year head coach JaMarcus Shephard spoke with the media. This piece spotlights several quotes from that conversation.
Shephard’s perspective on the win
“I thought this was a great way to start off our conference schedule. I talked to our team about being shocking: shocking in terms of the speed that we played at, how physical we were, how competent we were, and what we were supposed to execute on this game day. Certainly, my shirt was shocking throughout the game – we’ll hold off on that one for a while – I thought we had a really balanced game on offense. As I’ve said for many weeks, many positions are going to advance the ball for this offense, and many guys did that today. I thought we did an excellent job of how we paced the game. We really took long drives and continued to hit play after play after play to ensure that we were controlling the pace of the game.”
Shephard is already looking ahead
“I think this was an outstanding way to start off conference play. It should tell you what hard work can do, [what] commitment can do, and that things can be different…I’m proud of what we did here, but I cannot wait to get back to Reser Stadium, OK? Reser Stadium, guys, packed, completely packed to the brim. Let’s show America what Reser Stadium is capable of!”
Shephard on Braden Atkinson’s record setting day
“He was always responsive and flexible in what we needed him to do. He could see it. He ran a couple times – I was so proud of him – and he’s got to protect himself, but I was so proud of how he ran the ball. It really is truly a pet peeve of mine that I’ve learned along the way, you know what? A quarterback has to run for two or three first downs every game, and he did an outstanding job of that.”
Shephard on TE Gabe Milbourn’s direct snap touchdown run
“Last week going into the game at UTEP he came and told me that his wife was actually going to go the hospital on Sunday, when we got back, and they were going to have their kid. So on Sunday he went to the hospital with her, and they didn’t have the baby on Sunday, didn’t have the baby on Monday, so eventually once the baby did come he told us what the name was and immediately our offensive staff did a great job of naming a play after his kid. So the direct snap was named after Gabe’s son. So him getting into the end zone on that, I hope is a memory that he has for the rest of his life. We’re just super excited for him. You only get to become a father for the first time one time and that’s really special. So, love Gabe. Hey, mom, baby, hope you guys are all doing well back home. We really appreciate you letting us have them with us.”
Shephard on TE Eric Olsen’s big day
“Our tight end coach, Ryan Wallace, I’ve known him for a long time. I’ve known him from when he was a player, and he has a work ethic that’s unchallenged. His work ethic, everyone always knows he’s going to figure it out for his position. He always has. Working side by side with him at Purdue, at Western Kentucky, he always found a way to make sure that his position played at a high level. So he found Eric [Olsen] early on in the process, and he pretty much stayed on him right then and there. When we brought him on campus, we all fell in love with the young man.”
Shephard on scheming Jesse Legree open
“The kid is playing a level of confidence that I’ve probably only seen one or two other times. It does not matter how, he doesn’t care how we get him the ball. He’ll take it however we want to give it to him. We were fortunate to get him lined up in the backfield one time. We’re just trying to find creative ways to move them around. I think I said it in one of the interviews, you know there’s coaches that say ‘Hey, unfortunately the defense dictated how we were able to get you the ball’, and I’ve never believed that. If the coaches have the right mindset about it, they will find ways to get him the ball. So that’s what we do here. We have the right mindset of trying to get him the ball in his hands, and let him go do what he what does.”
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