Mike Leach answered questions from the media for about 20 minutes on Monday about Connor Halliday, Luke Falk, punts and lots of other topics.

The video of his press conference, courtesy of WSU Athletics, is below and a transcription of his remarks is after the jump.

 

(Falk's play on Saturday?)

I thought he played well. There's a lot of guys would like to throw for 370 yards in their debut. And then heck, if we caught the ball better he could have thrown for 500. I thought Luke did a very good job, stepped up there without flinching and I thought he moved the team well. Thought we should have scored better, thought we squandered some opportunities and but I thought overall he played very well. Better than I think anyone would have expected.

(Did you expect him to run so much?)

Well I thought when he ran, he ran smart. He only ran one time that I thought he had a throw. He's got a pretty good sense of that. One of his strengths is that he's really got a good sense of the pocket and when his space is eaten up and when to go somewhere.

(Do the offensive linemen and receivers have to adjust knowing he might take off?)

Well, he threw two really good scramble balls. He hit Baker on one of them and the touchdown to Isiah was a scramble ball so he's pretty good at it. I think it's actually one of his strengths. He's not the fastest guy but I think he's pretty good at that as far as where to run and when to run and when it's all over. I thought, you're not really after this, but he threw away a couple good balls instead of taking a sack. I thought he played smart for a guy in really his first game, I thought he played very smart as well as some extremely impressive throws and production.

(What jumped out that he needs to improve on?)

Well, nearly everything. Everybody needs to improve on everything, you know, and one book on football I read, and this was years ago, Joe Montana's book and it was kind of the coaching points and I thought it was a very good book and he talks about improving on everything every year and this is after he's won a couple super bowls so if it's good enough for Joe Montana everybody's got to work on something.

(What do you want to see the team accomplish in its last three games?)

As a team, the biggest thing we need to do as a team is we need to compete better. We need to compete individual plays better and we need to compete better. Our team right is too quick to go make excuses anytime something doesn't go our way we want to make some kind of an excuse or this happened or that happened or I was thinking this or I was thinking that and at times we're a lot more interested in having frowny upside down expressions on our face than we are on going out there and competing hard the next play and we have a lot of freshmen out there but as you're recruiting all these freshmen they all say they want to play as freshmen. If they want to play as freshmen they need to go out and act like they belong there rather than some of this timid stuff we have going on. A guy comes in with his chest all puffed out and says I want to play as a freshman, I want to play as a freshman. I say, well you're going to have the chance to play as a freshman and then the guys that go out and get to play  as freshmen, well then all of a sudden mentality-wise some of these guys want to go tip-toe, play timid and get scared. Well that's understandable on one level but if you get that opportunity to play like a freshman play like you belong there.

(What do you think is the source of players being timid?)

I think it's been going on here for decades. I think we all need to battle to change it and we're in the middle of a problem that's been going on a long, long time and we need to do the best we can to change it and change it as quick as we can.

(Does that change have to happen on the field or can it happen during the offseason?)

It's important to always address it and it's something that can creep in, too. I think it's a constant focus, it needs to be a constant focus and I think some of the younger guys coming in have a more aggressive attitude and that type of thing. Some of our older guys are quick to find the soft spot.

(Have you thought about trying a rugby punt?)

We've talked about it some. That's not his deal, exactly. We've messed with it a little in practice, it would be something we'd have to work at in the offseason. Everyone remembers the good ones of those things. The bad ones are a mess. Some kid kicks it out of bounds or it goes about 15 yards. I mean, or it lines up perfectly to the return guy and there's no airtime and coverage and the kid takes off. Everyone remembers the good ones. I do think it's a weapon if you're a real accurate guy. That guy in Utah is ridiculously impressive but he's a special guy just because he's designed to do it in that fashion doesn't mean Jordan is. Jordan's thing is being high, hang-time and he needs to consistently get up high and we need to consistently be there to capitalize on that.

(So you would use different personnel?)

Probably, probably so unless he could develop it but as long as Jordan's punting it would be a changeup, it wouldn't be his feature thing because he's got a big, strong, powerful leg and based on his capabilities it's kind of what you're shooting for if he's your guy.

(Do you think Sean Mannion has played as well as last year even if his numbers are down?)

Yes, I do. I think he's probably a little better. Lost the two receivers, lost his offensive line, I think that contributes a lot to it. It's funny, every year guys will talk about they think somebody's going to be better or worse based on whether two skill players are there. That offensive line I think is a real critical element.

(What about their secondary?)

They're good, they're all back. They're all seniors, they all look exactly like they did last year and one of those reasons is because they are exactly the same people as they were last year so other than a birthday party they haven't' changed a great deal.

(What's gone wrong during their losing streak?)

No, I mean they've played close games against good teams. That's the thing, you get in the middle of playing Top-25 teams every week you're going to be cutting it tight whether you win it or lose it, it's going to be tightly contested.

(How's the team dealing with Halliday's injury?)

I mean he's very meaningful to this team and has really engineered and been kind of the spokesman and the leader for the last two offseasons so he's very key to this team and of course was on a pace to break the national record and so I think he means a lot to this team but then also everybody's got their role and we need to move on, just know that Connor's there wishing everybody the best. When I go see him that's all he talks about is how's it going, wants to know how everybody's doing.

(Good time to see who steps up as a leader?)

Perhaps. I think there will be some of that and I think Luke's already started to do some of that.

(Does Luke's path from walk-on to starter give him some credibility?)

I think guys have seen the quality of his play for two years so I think that's where most of it comes from and everybody knows how hard he works. He works harder than anybody on the team and everyone sees that.

(Does the leader have to be a quarterback?)

Anybody can, I think anybody can. The quarterback's allowed to talk so just by that role alone there's going to be some leadership qualities developed. It can come from anybody and your team leader's not always your quarterback, necessarily, but by virtue of the fact he can talk he's probably got a little bit of an advantage that direction.

(How much of a chance have you had to visit Connor?)

I saw him twice. I saw him the last two days.

(Are you at liberty to specify the injury?)

It's pretty much out there. He broke his ankle.

(Was it a fibula and tibia?)

Yeah, you can go read that report and go ahead and ask that guy and go ahead and draw from that … That's pretty much it. The whole ankle … Well the tibia and the fibula are in the ankle … big bone, little bone.

(Do you know if he can make it back for a pro day or combine?)

I don't know. I don't know anything about that.

(Is he still in the hospital?)

Yes.

(Do you know when he'll get out?)

No.

(Did he have a message for the team?)

Not really, a lot of people have been in there so it's kind of been a ton of people in and out so really just talking to his teammates.

(It's got to be nice to see your players do that.)

They do that really kind of with whoever, they're pretty good about that.

(Did the team rally around Travis Long when he was injured?)

I didn't notice them necessarily rally but the example that Travis had, Travis kind of left his footprint of toughness at least with regards to our defense. Basically I thought they kind of continued the lessons they learned from Travis?

(Any similarities this time?)

There is from the standpoint that Luke's drawn a lot from (Halliday) as far as how he played pretty controlled and did a good job.

(Any injury concerns when Falk runs?)

Well, I think he's been smart when he runs and he's gotten down when he runs. His first priority is not to run.

(Are there any challenges that would face Luke now that teams have video of him playing?)

I don't really think so. There's a certain amount of, if he had some dramatically different tendencies that they could address. The thing is his game and his style of game is pretty similar to  Connor's in what they'd be preparing for anyway so I think it will be pretty similar.

(What did you see when you recruited Falk and were you aware of him when he was at Oaks Christian?)

Well, I was minimally aware of him at Oaks Christian and guys that go down there and work with somebody, I mean they're a dime a dozen if you follow all of them you'll drive yourself crazy and they come and go. The biggest thing is we saw a big, strong, tall guy that threw the ball accurately and threw it really well and kind of got lost in the shuffle. Not for him, necessarily, but for us we were pleasantly  surprised he got lost in the shuffle. If the market suggested we would have scholarshipped him but he didn't have a market and then of course once he got here and showed his stuff, earned a spot we scholarshipped him. Basically they went down there and because of business and family they went back to Logan, Utah and when he went back he couldn't play his junior year of high school so then he's off everybody's radar and got lost in the shuffle there because people pretty much get their quarterbacks committed their junior year. Then he plays his senior year, he has a big senior year and by then everybody had their quarterback. We were really interested in him, wanted the best walk-on we could find and we were out of scholarships at the time, too. We were out of scholarships and our whole thing was to find the best walk-on that we could to fill out the group of quarterbacks and then there's Luke and it's like, what's he doing here? We don't have a scholarship right now and why isn't he picked up, why isn't he somewhere else, how is he left out there? Well anyways, after conversations, recruiting and telling him if makes the three-deep he goes on scholarship, which it didn't take him long to do that, he came here. But he's the type of guy we would have scholarshipped just straight out had we known about him a little sooner.

(Is there a way to summarize Rahmel Dockery's time at WSU?)

Really didn't do much. I mean, we wish him the best in whatever he's doing. The biggest thing here he never really settled into a position, went from one to the next and then left.

(Do you think he bought into the idea of being a defensive back?)

I can't say exactly what his thoughts were and what he bought into. Some of it was he was just a young guy, sort of working his way through the freshman stuff and kind of finding his way and then left.

(How is Luke in film study and quarterback meetings?)

Good. Very smart, works extra well beyond what's required.

(Who's the No. 2 quarterback?)

Peyton Bender.

(If forced to you would pull his redshirt?)

We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Pretty good student question and response from Leach this week. We won't spoil the surprise but make sure to watch the video. -- JT

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