Head Coach Spike Dykes' Comments
September 13, 1999 | Football
Sept. 13, 1999
"We were tickled to death to beat Louisiana Lafayette. Last week they played Oklahoma State in Stillwater. Going to the fourth quarter the score is 14-7 in favor of Oklahoma State. They struggled to win the game. So what we did playing in Lafayette, I was proud of 'em. I mean I like to win. I thought our kids were happy. I thought they should've been happy. They were joyous. We beat a football team and it may not have been Penn State, but it is a good football team. In 1996, A&M went over there and played in the same stadium, the same team and they got beat. It's not like its a guaranteed win. You've got to go play and you have to go play well enough to win. That bunch the week before had four sacks against Oklahoma State. We knocked that down to one sack. They'd had some yards rushing. We did a great job on defense of shutting out their running game."
"I like our team. I'm proud of our team. It's hard to play two games in five days. I don't care who your playing, especially when you lose the first one. I thought our guys bounced back. I thought they played with a lot of tenacity. I thought we made a great improvement. To have three guys in the backfield that had very few carries in their career I thought all three of those guys did a nice job. James Easterling especially flourished. James is a guy whose waited a long time for an opportunity and has not had many. He got one and he did a nice job with it. He did some good running."
"I thought Dan Martin did a nice job in the absence of ole' Mojo. Paul Erickson did a good job at right tackle. Those guys have not played very much and they got better as the game went on. Replacing Jason May is hard. Jason May is the strongest guy on our football team. Shoot, ole' Dan did a good job."
"Probably the best performance of anybody on our football team offensively was the tight end position. Kyle Allamon did a nice job, Tim Winn did a good job, not just catching passes but blocking."
"Derek Dorris played extremely well. He's a talented guy. Tim Baker made a great play. He's a talented guy. I think Darrell Jones continues to improve so there are a lot of things there that are good."
"We scored 52 points in that game, 38 for us and 14 for them. You don't like to do that, but it was a great defensive performance. Excellent efford, great hussel. Kevin Curtis made two breaks on the ball that were unbelievable. He went 40 yards one time to knock a ball down. He just did an outstanding job."
"It was a good football game for us. Certainly we're trying to get better. Certainly we'll make some improvements and we're aware that we have a long way to go. But we did make some progress over Monday."
On the North Texas Game: "I just hope we can find the dressing room its been so long since we played a home game. They're a team that got beat over at LSU 52-0 and anybody who's ever played in Tiger Stadium on a Saturday night knows that can happen if they get on a roll a little bit. I still know in 1997 right out here in our stadium they weren't very good that year and they beat us 30-27. You've got to play good to win. I don't care who you are."
On the new bronze saddle at Jones Stadium: "I've heard its beautiful and I think its great and I think it could really turn into something. Everybody has got something that they rally around and that is right there in the right area."