Read the full transcript from QB Malik Willis' media availability on October 11, 2026.
What would be your assessment of your play today?
Malik Willis: I got to watch the tape. I think we fought and we gave ourselves a chance at the end. Obviously, it didn't go the way we wanted to, turnovers, Mas (missed assignments), all the same stuff. You are inspired by the fight that we put on tape and you are let down by the results. I think that's what we got to figure out over the bye weekend. How we can start faster? How can we attack these execution mishaps? Like there are opps in that game that we just leave out on the field that turn into disastrous plays. We got to figure out – if we're going to mess up, let's not make it disastrous.
You mentioned some of the same old mistakes. I know Jeff Hafley has talked about how hard you guys practice. What seems to be the disconnect between practice and execution on game days?
Malik Willis: That's what we're trying to figure out. We just got to go back to the drawing board, watch these last few games, compare it to practice, understand what we're good at, what we're not good at, understand what guys are comfortable with and what they're not comfortable with, and then just try to go and execute the next opportunity we can get.
On the second interception, were you surprised that the safety was able to make the play from his position?
Malik Willis: That was unfortunate. It was just a scramble drill mishap. Malik (Washington) and Kev (Coleman Jr.) started running the same direction. And unfortunately, I was throwing to Kev and Malik's guy got in the way and it's just unfortunate.
On the first interception, was the ball tipped or was your arm hit?
Malik Willis: Oh no, yeah, it was hit. My arm was hit. Obviously it didn't get to where we wanted to. Kevin (Coleman Jr.) was open down the field and I was throwing to him.
The player who intercepted both passes – Jordan Battle – said this week that he had a tell on you about patting the ball. Now, I didn't see you patting the ball in either one of those plays, but did that become any kind of factors or that you were considering in preparation for this game, the things that he said in the media?
Malik Willis: Well, no, that's not a tell. He got tipped balls. I mean, good for him. That's what defenses are supposed to do at this level. They're a great defense and they have a great front. We talked about that all week. They batted a ball down and the second one is a scramble drill mishap. That has nothing to do with tells. I don't think I patted either one of those. I don't think those are correlated, but I appreciate it.
Did you hear that this week?
Malik Willis: Y'all told me, I think. But I didn't think much of it. Everybody pats the ball. That's funny. Really funny.
What specific hard conversations do you believe need to happen in the locker room over the next few days for the second-half of the season to look different than this first half?
Malik Willis: I think we just got to watch the tape and figure it out. And that's the thing that I think Coach Haf (Jeff Hafley) does great. He holds everybody accountable and he's honest with us. If we need to do better, we need to do better. And if we got to execute, we need to execute. We got to figure out a way to get guys on the same page because there's just a lot left out on the field that could be better than what it is. We try to find a way at the end, but that's just too hard to continue to try to fight back at the end, fight back at the end.
We knew that there were going to be growing pains this season. At what point in the year, though, does it get to, okay, we can't just say we're young, we can't just say we're building chemistry. Like at what point in the year do the results need to match the process and the workload?
Malik Willis: I mean, whenever they can. Like you said, we can focus on the process. That's in our job description. I mean, the result is the result. All we can do is put out the best we can and continue to try to get that better than it was the week before. And it is too much and too hard to keep saying, we're just young or we're trying to build this and build that. At the same time, we got to hold each other accountable because we can't keep doing this to ourselves. If we're going to be in games versus good teams, we got to be able to take advantage of it and go and win those games because there's no point to be in the game if you can't go and win it.
How particularly backbreaking was it when you guys got down to the half-yard line and then ended up settling for a field goal in the third quarter?
Malik Willis: I felt just dejected for our defense because of how hard they were playing and trying to get us stops and keep going. I think that we are better than that. And that's what I was talk about when we have missed opps like that, just because we miss an assignment, that's when it's frustrating because we had the opportunity to go and do it and we just didn't execute and we didn't do it. You guys don't know the difference because y'all only see the result and y'all don't know exactly what we're trying to do. But at the same time, that doesn't make it any better. We got to keep executing. And then y'all hear the same thing and you're like, "all right, when does that stop being said?" And it's when that stops being the case.
And on that second down, taking the sack, can you take me through that play? Obviously you want to get the ball out, but just what happened?
Malik Willis: I didn't throw it away. I took a sack. I wanted to make a play, didn't want to put the ball in jeopardy at the end of it. I just took a sack. It's unfortunate and a bad play by me.
