Head Coach Kevin Stefanski (12.1.25)
Opening Statement:
“Injury front: Maliek Collins has a quad injury that will require surgery, so he will be out for the season. So very disappointed for Maliek, and he’s obviously been playing such good football, and he provides great leadership for this football team. So disappointed for him, but he will bounce back. Dylan Sampson has a calf injury. I’d say he’s day to day. Jack Conklin remains in concussion protocol. Wyatt Teller has a calf injury. I’d call it week to week. So, we’ll see how those guys come out of it in the next few days. Obviously, like we talked about yesterday, did not play complementary football, and we did too many things that make it hard to beat a good team. It’s not about one play. There’s not one play that I’m talking about. But just in general, as a team, we have to play complementary football, and that’ll be our focus. That’s something that we’re watching the tape right now, pointing it out in ways that we could better offensively, defensively, special teams. With that, I’ll take any questions.”
Hey, Kevin, Gage (Larvadain), he fumbled one punt, muffed another, and then he lost a third on a muff. Did you think about replacing him at any point with anybody?
“You know, Gage is a young player that I have faith in, I trust. He’s been very dependable this season, Jeff (Schudel). He’s played in some – some of the conditions that we’ve had down there in previous games have been tough. Obviously, the muff, those are one of the easy ones that he just didn’t make in this game, but I trust him. The other time, one of our players bumped into him, and then he needs to secure the ball on that third one, like you mentioned. But this is a young player that I feel that he is getting better throughout this season. We trust him. He’ll keep working, and that’s all it is.”
Hey, Kevin, when you went back and watched those fourth and ones, what stood out to you as far as why they didn’t work?
“Yeah, we need to do a better job as coaches to give our guys an opportunity there. Of course we can execute better, all those types of things. That’s been an area where we’ve been…have had some success this season in some of those third and one, fourth and one situations. We did not yesterday. So, you got to give credit to San Francisco, but there are definitely things that we can do better on our end.”
And the same for that long punt return, I know we talked about it all year when this happened, but what did you see on yesterday’s?
“Yeah, we leveraged the ball well. We just got to make a play. Somebody’s got to get that guy on the ground. We’re in good shape. We leveraged well, but at that point of attack, we did not play together there to get that one on the ground.”
Yeah, Kevin, just wondering after you watched the film of Shedeur (Sanders), what are some things that you saw him build on from the week before? And then a follow up to that is, you know, what is maybe the wisdom in kind of taking this thing week to week if you’re still doing that?
“Yeah. Again, Shedeur had some really good moments in that football game. There are things that he wants back that we’re coaching up right now that he can improve upon. But bottom line is we have to continue to put our players in position to succeed. For the young quarterback, you only get better with more turns at this thing in these games, as you see more coverages, as you see more defenses and as you prepare versus different defenses. So just looking forward to that constant improvement with Shedeur and for all of our young players.”
And just the notion of kind of just not looking beyond this week, is that still your strategy for this and what is the thinking behind that?
“Yeah, I’m just dealing with our football team week to week, but I’m pleased with his progress. He wants to continue to get better and better, and that’s the right attitude to have, and that’s why we’ll continue to work.”
Hi, Kevin, on the fourth-and-one from your 33, Teller was coming in. He hadn’t been on it. And I know you wanted to get the play off and kind of quick snap him, but were you close to calling a timeout at all?
“Yeah, you know, had the injury to Jack, which had some moving parts with KT (Leveston), and so had Wyatt out there late, which that’s something that we need to better about as an offensive unit, as coaches, as players. You know, had an eye on it, felt like we were going to get the snap off. Obviously, we didn’t execute in that situation. I want to make sure that I’m always putting our players in positions to succeed. You know, that’s a situation where you don’t want to use your timeouts in the second half if you don’t have to, if you can get the play off. But obviously we didn’t get what we wanted there, which is disappointing. So always thinking about if there’s better ways in those situations to put our guys in position to go get it.”
And Malachi Corley catching the ball at the five. What was his explanation? Was he confused about the rule?
“No, he knows the rule. He’s well aware of the rule. He made a mistake again, and that’s what I said earlier. These games are never about one player, one person. He’s a young player that will, he’ll learn from that and he’ll be better.”
Kevin, kind of sticking with the special teams, Grant Delpit said last night after the game that it’s not so much of a “things need to change in preparation.” It’s hard to prepare on special teams. You just kind of have to make plays and give the effort. Would you agree with that? And do you feel like there maybe is more that you guys can do in a week to clean up some of those, whether it’s returning or coverage on returns to clean up some of those special teams blunders?
“Well, I think definitely, I trust in the way that we prepare. I trust in how we get our guys ready. And we’ll always look at it if there’s things that we can do differently. We’ll always look at that, Cam (Camryn Justice), in the structure of what we do. But I feel like we do a good job getting our guys prepared and then the efforts there, we just got to get those guys on the ground. That’s obviously disappointing in those moments, but again, it’s about getting it out of our guys, whether that’s going to come from the meeting room, the practice field, etcetera. I trust that our guys will work and then will improve.”
And then with Maliek, I know, obviously a blow to the interior, but also we’ve talked so much about how he’s impacted, what Myles (Garrett) has been able to do, what the edge has been able to do, and how that trickles back. So, one, how big of a loss is it to the entire defense to lose a guy who’s playing like Maliek was, and then how do you plan on maybe addressing his absence?
“Sure. Well, when you lose a guy like Maliek, you don’t replace him. You know, everybody’s just got to step up. It’s multiple guys that have to step up, but he’s made a big impact on this football team, on the field and off the field. I think our young room, we have some older guys in there, but we have a bunch of you guys in there. I think they’ve learned out from the professional that Maliek is on a day in, day out basis, and I think you have to carry that with you throughout.”
Kevin, Shedeur raised a point after the game yesterday just in terms of building time on task with Jerry (Jeudy) and building more of a trust level with him. In terms of a young quarterback with receivers, how much of that is practice and how much is maybe meeting room, watching film, just what is the process in terms of building that?
“Yeah, I think it’s all of the above. I think it’s definitely being on the same page as an offense, and that comes in meetings and walkthroughs and understanding concepts and what we’re trying to do and those types of things. And then time on task on the football field and practice and routes versus air and games. I think all of that adds up.”
Hey, Kevin, I want to ask you about Wyatt and the calf injury. When exactly did the injury initially occur?
“Yeah, I’m not entirely sure when, I can picture it happening on film, but I don’t know the exact play.”
How much the decision to go with Teven (Jenkins) and rotate him in. How early in the week did you kind of decide to go with that? And just was that based on what you saw with Teven in practice or what you were seeing with Wyatt, during the course of the season?
“Yeah, obviously with decisions like that, I always make sure I talk to our players and let them know what I’m thinking. I felt like it would help Wyatt play better and obviously I think Teven’s deserving of some plays. And I thought both guys played really well yesterday.”
Kevin, we heard after the game from Shelby (Harris) and Myles just about sort of the incident that sort of broke out when Maliek got hurt with Jauan Jennings and some things that were said. They kind of use the word like disparaging towards some of their players. I just wanted to ask you, like, you know, you talk so much about your even keeled approach to things. First of all, were you happy with the way that they kind of handled that – that it didn’t get out of hand? And how do you sort of make sure that even keeled approach rubs off on your guys so those situations don’t escalate?
“Yeah, I don’t have much to add there, Spencer (German). Obviously, was just focused on Maliek in that moment.”
Kevin, just wondering, did you see that there was a sideline confrontation that happened between Shedeur Sanders and Jerry Jeudy? And I know that’s part of football, that those kind of things do happen, but I’m just wondering, you know, what you not only thought of that, but what do you think is kind of going on with Jerry Jeudy in this season where it’s just not going for him the way that he would have expected or that I guess you guys would have expected?
“Yeah, I think, like you mentioned, Mary Kay (Cabot), football is an emotional sport, and certainly when you’re a family like we are, you can have your disagreements. Sometimes they’re for everybody to see. Sometimes it’s behind closed doors. But like a family, we move on, we talk about it, so not worried about it.”
So, if Wyatt is healthy enough to play, do you anticipate continuing that right guard rotation?
“Yeah, Wyatt, he’s out this week, so we’ll see as we get going.”
I guess, Week 14, is there any plans to open Deshaun Watson’s practice window? And if not, is it fair to assume that he will not be returning in any capacity this season?
“Yeah, I don’t have an update there, Daniel (Oyefusi).”
Do you not have an update because, there hasn’t been an update in terms of checking in on his physical process, or is it not an update because you just don’t know yet?
“I just don’t have an official update on that.”
Hey, Kevin, going back to the Shedeur and Jerry thing, just how important is them to be seeing the things on the same page? It felt like they were looking at the same thing and saw two different things. So how important is that for the quarterback and the receiver to read everything the same way?
“Yeah, again, that’s nothing new in football. When you have plays that you see things and you want to talk through it, but those come up every single game, truly. And sometimes it can be two offensive linemen who saw a play a little bit differently and you got to look at the tape and get on the same page. So that’s all it is.”
And then on that first sack Shedeur took, it looked like you guys were right on the edge of field goal range. What’s kind of the coaching point about that? Not taking a sack there, getting rid of the ball early or whatever?
“Yeah, it’s a learning moment. You know, with all of our players, young players, young and old players, quarterbacks and otherwise, you just got to coach your guys up on situational ball and what we’re trying to accomplish in those moments. But he’ll definitely learn from that.”
Just in addition to the fact that, Jerry hasn’t been able to necessarily, or that Shedeur and Jerry haven’t necessarily been able to connect, how can you guys sort of accelerate the development with other primary receivers such as Ced (Cedric) Tillman, you know, maybe David Njoku? It just seems like there’s a lot being left out on the field in that regard.
“Listen, we’ll just keep working, I think, Mary Kay, that’s probably the main thing. And like you mentioned, there’s guys on this football team, multiple guys on this football team that we trust, that we feel really strongly about in the pass game, and we’ll just continue to work here in Berea and then take that work to the game field on Sundays.”
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