Bulletin board material.
College football returned last Saturday in Week 0 fashion, as two Associated Press Top 25 programs earned wins and even more teams competed for 60 minutes on the gridiron.
Most head coaches have turned their focus toward the next round of competition set for Week 1, and it’s worthwhile to reflect on some Week 0 quotes and consider some that will continue preparation for the full season ahead.
Here are some noteworthy quotes as the page turns on Week 0 and toward Week 1.
Ryan Day, Ohio State
During an appearance Monday on the Buckeye Roundtable Show on 97.1 The Fan, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day gave very little update on Ohio State’s ongoing quarterback competition between junior Kyle McCord and redshirt freshman Devin Brown.
As Day’s appearance on the show wrapped up and when asked if he’d like to name a starting quarterback, he jested and deferred until after the Week 1 matchup at Indiana.
“Not tonight,” Day said. “I’ll tell you guys next week.”
Kirby Smart, Georgia
The No. 1 team in college football is playing for something that hasn’t been done in the modern era.
Since the launch of the Associated Press poll in 1936, no program has won three-consecutive national championships.
Although Georgia has two in a row entering the 2023 season, head coach Kirby Smart said it has no impact or drive behind the goals of this year.
“I just don’t think you can make it about that because the minute you do that you open yourself to distractions, added pressure. What if it doesn’t happen? What are you playing for?” Smart said. “There’s just so many things that I just don’t believe philosophically in doing that because what the previous two teams did has no bearing on this team.”
Smart said “we got a lot of work to be done” before the conversations around a potential three-peat commences.
“You don’t inherit practice habits. You don’t inherit standards,” Smart said. “You set them, and they change year to year and you got to kind of acknowledge them, so that’s where our focus is.”
Rich Rodriguez, Jacksonville State
Jacksonville State earned its first victory at the Football Bowl Subdivision level on Saturday and defeated UTEP 17-14 on Saturday.
It meant for head coach Rich Rodriguez, a second-year skipper who has over 25 years overall, that he would cap his evening on a positive note according to Chris McCulley of ABC 33/40 in Birmingham, Alabama.
“It means tonight I’ll have a cold refreshment at the Hard Edge Bar and Grill, and if we lost, I probably wouldn’t,” Rod said. “I won’t be that miserable tonight.”
The Gamecocks claimed a slim victory thanks to safety Jeremiah Harris intercepting UTEP with 1:15 left to play in the fourth quarter.
Rodriguez more seriously evaluated the magnitude of the program’s first FBS win, and he’s encouraged by the winning start his team has set out and reached.
“To sit there and say we’re an established FBS program, we’re not there,” Rod said. “We got to get bigger, faster and stronger. There’s a lot of things that are happening, but the wheels are in motion.”
Brian Kelly, LSU
LSU has had traditions since 2003 and 2008 of awarding the Nos. 18 and 7, respectively, to players who embody the program standards and are playmakers on the football field.
LSU head coach Brian Kelly spoke of the significance behind awarding the pair of jerseys to Tigers who live up to the standard of them.
“We, internally, we have a history and tradition of awarding jerseys within the program,” Kelly said. “The No. 18 jersey, which signifies and exemplifies the character traits necessary for that person to wear 18, he’s got to have the leadership capabilities, he’s got to represent incredible traits and somebody that really is going to wear that jersey both on and off the field and representing LSU football.”
Kelly bestowed No. 18 to junior defensive tackle Mekhi Wingo, and Kelly said “we went in a little bit of a different direction” with jersey No. 7.
“I’m not trying to make new history or new tradition. We just felt our playmaker this year deserved the recognition,” Kelly said. “Even though he was an offensive lineman, we think that they’re an important part. We did not want seven to be just about a particular position. We wanted seven to be part of our team, and we felt that playmaker was Will Campbell, so Will will wear a No. 7 as a patch on his jersey.”
Campbell became the first true freshman in program history to start at left tackle along the offensive line last season. He’s the first offensive lineman in LSU history to don No. 7.
