Branden Hohenstein: Quickie Q&A

Q: Did you sense the offense gaining confidence during the second half at Army?
BH: Yes, I could really tell we started clicking better and adjusting to their defense and speed. If we had played like that the whole game, it would have been a lot better game. But it was fun and I'm glad we finally started to turn things around in the second half.

Q: Do you agree with Coach Dorrel that Peyton Mansell turned a corner in last week's game?
BH: Yeah he did. He really showed us what he can do. I'm excited to see what else he's got. What I like most about him is his ability to save the play, to get out of pressure and still throw the ball on the run. He has that ability to deliver a pretty good pass while being chased by somebody. 

Q: How did your 61-yard touchdown catch develop?
BH: That was a designed play. I'm glad they finally called it in a game.  I was pretty happy when I saw that on the number board and I knew I just had to be to safety and the corner, even though they had a better angle on me. But I just had to turn on the jets I guess, and I beat them to the spot and again to the end zone.



Q: Where does the offense go from here?
BH: At times we do really amazing things but sometimes we just shoot ourselves in the foot by committing dumb mental mistakes. But I think you'll see that start to go down. We've played our first two games of the year, and so we kind of got all of the butterflies and cobwebs out. So I think you'll start to see the offense as a whole unit turn the corner. I'm excited for these next games coming up. 

Q: What can you tell us about L.J. McConnell? He really put up some big numbers vs. Army after an early mistake. 
BH: Yeah he's one of my good friends and I saw him getting a lot of hate on Twitter so I had to stick up for him. He did do something stupid and he knows that, but at the end of the day he still had 160+ yards. That's a great performance, and it's pretty cool to put up big numbers like that. He's come into this season knowing the offense a lot better, and he's a lot stronger too.