Mike Elko Press Conference Quotes: Kansas

DURHAM – Duke football head coach Mike Elko met with members of the media on Monday afternoon for his weekly press conference.

The Blue Devils travel to Kansas on Saturday for a showdown with the Jayhawks at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium at 12 noon. The game will be broadcast on Fox Sports 1 with Eric Collins and Devin Gardner on the call. The game can also be heard on the Blue Devil Sports Network from LEARFIELD through the Varsity app or goduke.com

 

Mike Elko Duke Football Head Coach

(Ref.: Opening Statement)

“Thanks to everyone for coming today. Just to recap the game and I said it afterwards and the film kind of held up, I was really happy with how we handled the game, and how we handled the week. I thought we prepared the right way. I thought we had a really good weekend. We were in the right mindset going into the game and I thought we started really fast again. For us to have the big kickoff return to start the game and then hit the touchdown on the first play, that’s obviously how we were hoping to start fast and kind of get up on them. We got up 21-to-0. We had the big sack fumble in there, which was really critical. I did think we had a little bit of a lull in the second quarter, which has obviously been a bit of our challenge and so I really challenged them at halftime to come out in the third quarter and get back to playing the way we were capable of. We did score on three-straight possessions or two-straight possessions and really kind of put the game to bed. At that point, we were able to get a lot of guys in and that was awesome. I mean, it was a great opportunity to get a lot of kids opportunities on the field. We were able to get some freshmen out there in one of their four games and get them some playing time. We were able to get a lot of our twos and older guys on the field and some game reps because those guys are important and we’re going to need them.

 

“I thought it was a great night and great atmosphere overall. I am very thankful for all the Duke employees who came out and supported us, thankful for the students who came out and supported us. So, it was a good win. It was a good opportunity to go to 3-0 and now, onto a very dangerous Kansas team. Coach [Lance] Leipold is doing an amazing job with that group and has really put his fingerprints on that group really…