Q. Talk about the team's reaction, what the last couple of days have been like, the response to wanting to show this is not who this team is.
AUSTIN BARBER: Yeah, I mean, that's something that we've been harping on a lot since we've been back, which is not what we wanted. I feel like everyone in this room got a little bit of an open mind, like clear eyes that we can come in, come back up and dominate these opponents coming up.
This game is not what we wanted. I think everybody knows that. I think we can come in and work every single day to the point where we want to be.
Q. A lot of guys talk about pride in the program. How important is that to you, taking the pride? How helpful is that going to be?
AUSTIN BARBER: Yeah, I think that's very important because everyone took the flight to Salt Lake City, that's across the United States, and the fans were there for us through the whole game. I didn't see anybody leaving. I think it's win or lose, we got to be there for them.
They come and support us through every game. Just the little things like that can kind of show we're proud to put the orange and blue on.
Q. What did you see in the penalties and procedural issues at the line of scrimmage and red zone?
AUSTIN BARBER: In my opinion, just not being totally locked in. I think those things like that are something we can learn from, not happen in the games coming up.
A lot of those penalties were self-inflicting. Sometimes it's just what we got to fix. I think we're going to do a good job of fixing it.
Q. What was the trip back like? It was extended several hours on the back end.
AUSTIN BARBER: The trip back was a lot of just thinking about the game, trying to figure out what went wrong in some aspects. I think a lot of people were trying to just soak in what happened, watch the film on the plane back, just learn from it.
That's what the main thing on the trip back, learn from what happened and going back to next week.
Q. What is the key to not let this sidetrack you guys?
AUSTIN BARBER: Yeah, obviously there's disappointment. You don't want to lose your first game. Everyone is excited for it. It was a big game.
I think you just got to learn from it. This whole experience is a big learning process for everybody on this team. I think that we'll come back and learn from it, practice hard, do what we have to do to be prepared for the next game.
Q. Was there anger?
AUSTIN BARBER: Yeah, obviously. In every loss, when you're a competitor in football, competitor in any sport, a loss is not what you want. You always want to go out there and win.
There's going to be anger in a loss. That's just the bottom line of it.
Q. Having Kingsley not there after 26 straight games, did that have an affect on the procedures? Do you think some of those wouldn't have happened if he played?
AUSTIN BARBER: No, if you see the penalties, I'll take the blame, I had a penalty. That's nothing Jake did. I need to be more locked in. I think Jake played a pretty good game. First start, obviously you don't want to go and have all these penalties in his first start. You can't blame him for it. You didn't see him have the penalties.
His first start, it's hard to come in against a ranked opponent in a first start. My first game was Utah, I played seven snaps. There was one play where I went the complete wrong way.
It was just a big learning curve for Jake. I think he's going to embrace it, going to learn from it. He's a guy that's always in the building watching film. He's locked in. He knows he wants to do this. I have all the confidence in Jake.
Q. Can you share your emotions after the game, why you made some of the guys sing the song?
AUSTIN BARBER: Just because of the fans, all the people that went, all the people that watched. I feel like we can't just have our heads down walking out. That's not what we did for eight months, just to put our heads down and feel sorry for ourselves.
I think there's a lot of things in that game that we can fix and control. I don't want anyone to be thinking that we don't have to support the fans that were there with us.
Q. Offensive line played at a tremendously high level last year. All-American that you don't have now. How important is it to try to get back to that level?
AUSTIN BARBER: I think that's where you want to be, you want to be one of the top offensive lines in the country. That's how you succeed. I think we'll get back to that level.
It's the first game. There's a few new faces on the offensive line. I'm confident in every single one of the people in that room. I'm not pointing any fingers. It's all of us. I think we're going to be back to that level.
Q. Billy is clear the team is going to get back. How does that help?
AUSTIN BARBER: I think one game can't define the whole entire season, in my opinion. This team, especially the offensive line, will come back and work their tails off to be where we want to be.
Q. After having a really good August, how surprising was it that the offensive line as a whole had so many misfires?
AUSTIN BARBER: It's hard, you know what I mean? We've been putting the work in every single day through training camp, through the weeks of practice we had coming up to this game.
It's not what we thought we were going to do. We just got to learn from it.
Q. How does it feel to get back playing in the Swamp, the importance of that home opener?
AUSTIN BARBER: I think it's going to be great. Playing in the Swamp is always fun. You see all the fans. It's home-field advantage for sure. It's awesome. I love seeing all the fans out there supporting all of us. I think it's going to be fun getting back each week in the Swamp. We have three games in the Swamp, especially this one coming up, an important game for us. I'm excited to be back in the swamps.
Q. Reaction to the new LED lights?
AUSTIN BARBER: It's really cool. I'm excited for it. The first time I seen those lights was when we played in the bowl game in my freshman year. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. It's going to be great to see the lights, the orange and blue thing back and forth when we score and stuff like that. I think it's going to be cool.
Q. What did you think about how Graham handled the huddle...
AUSTIN BARBER: His stats show he had a career high in completions, career high in passing. Graham did a great job staying composed. I know the offensive line didn't help him. He got hit five times. I think he just handled it really well. Came back to the next play, tells us to, Let's go, keep working. He never pointed a finger.
I think that's a great thing for all of us. When a leader like that takes ownership in stuff like that, it's really good. Take ownership in the offensive line, take ownership in that aspect because we got to be better.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports