‘Us growing from Week 1 to Week 2 is everything;’ What Spencer Danielson said after South Florida loss

Coming off a disappointing showing in last week’s opener at South Florida, Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson is wasting no time dwelling on the past. 

“The reality of it is, us growing from Week 1 to Week 2 is everything,” Danielson said on Monday during his weekly press conference. The 25th-ranked Broncos (0-1) host Eastern Washington (0-1) at 7 p.m. Mountain time on Monday. 

“I told our team yesterday, what do Boise State, Alabama, Texas, Kansas State, Notre Dame all have in common? Ranked teams that lost. Also what we all have in common is we have everything in front of us still. We’ve played one game, still have everything in front of us, everything to play for.”

Here are the highlights of Danielson’s press conference. 

On South Florida loss

“Our team hasn’t been through what we went through on Thursday night in a long time. We’ve had some losses, but not like that. We got our butts kicked on Thursday night. And now it’s our job to not flinch, because we’ve learned from it. We know what getting punched in the mouth feels like now. Our jaw has to get stronger. We’ve got to be able to respond better. 

“The next time we show up to a fight, we better be ready to fight. We better be ready to take a punch, and we better be able to give one. And we did not do that on Thursday.” 

On taking responsibility 

“Our mentality and our effort was nowhere near the standard it needs to be at Boise State, and I take absolutely full responsibility for that in all three phases. That is something we are actively working to get fixed. Should not have shown up on Thursday night, and it did. As a coach, it is not on those players, it is on me to make sure that standard is clear. And if a player can’t do that consistently, they’re not going to play here. And if we’re going to be selfish at positions and care about me, me, me and not about the team, they’re not going to play here. 

“This is a team that is about the team, and we’ve got a great group of leaders that care about this team. And … how it usually works, the guys who care about the team usually get all the individual success, too. It’s funny how that works. … We’re going to find out the 11 guys on offense, defense and (special teams) that can uphold the standard and play with the level of effort and the mentality we need to from snap one to the end of the game.”

On critical Davon Banks drive-extending penalty 

“That is absolutely unacceptable. Not only was it a huge play in the game, I don’t care if we’re up by 50 and that happens, that is not what we do here. He should not have played the next snap, and that’s on me (for not taking him out of the game), and that will not happen again.”