Quotes From Monday's Weekly Press Conference
October 16, 2000 | Football
Oct. 16, 2000
Head Football Coach Mike Leach
On not having a good day Saturday "It's hard to say it's the worst [day I've ever had on the field] because any time you play very much you get beat bad at some point. It wasn't very good, just as far as performance by not going out and doing anything right. It's not so much that our heart wasn't in the right place. I thought those guys were out there trying, but I think they were wired so tight, that as they dealt with disappointment, we completely self-destructed. You can't really put your finger on any aspect of the game that we did particularly well. As a team we need to spend more time thinking about ourselves than we do thinking about our opponent. I think we spent way too much time talking about Nebraska, thinking about Nebraska and caring about what Nebraska does as opposed to focusing in on what we do."
On struggling after starting fast "[QB] Kliff [Kingsbury] got hit a couple of times, he got hit a lot actually. We were doing some stuff early, and I've told the team this. I felt like we left our heads in the locker room. Physically we went out there and we were excited and we wanted to run into something and we wanted make something happen and wreck something. But we were all about doing it without thinking. Draw kindness is virtually every position rather than draw confidence and focus on execution and assignment and things like that. And we resorted to streetball in a pretty big hurry."
On getting over the loss quickly "Ultimately it really doesn't matter whether we lose by one or 1,000. They're all the same. We still have to line up and play next week. We just have to be ready to do that."
On Kansas State "They are a real good football team. They have certainly showed it over the years. They're a good team, and we have to be ready to go to play them."
On Kansas State seeing the same offense two straight weeks "It kind of cuts both ways. They get to see it already, but we get some picture of how they may react to it. That goes hand-in-hand. You get a little and you give up a little."
Assistant Soccer Coach Dave Bucciero
"We played Baylor and wound up losing 3-2. We played better in the second half than we did in the first half, especially offensively. We created a number of opportunities and ended up scoring two goals. We just gave away two goals through defensive mistakes, which we've done at times through this year. It cost us the game."
"Out last two home games are this weekend against Iowa State on Friday and Nebraska on Sunday. Iowa State is a very good team. They are playing very well right now. They've had some good results. Nebraska is one of the most athletic teams in the country, so it should be a good task for us."
On playing Nebraska on a shorter field "Hopefully against Nebraska it will slow them down a little bit. They've got great speed in all positions, really. Hopefully with a small field it will help slow them down and not give them as much space to create opportunities."
Volleyball Head Coach Jeff Nelson
"I felt like Saturday's game was real good for us. We knew going in that there could be a lot of advantages that come out of it. Obviously you want to win the game, but Nebraska is a great team. There's a reason they're number one. I thought we did some nice things and I thought it was the best volleyball we've played in three or four weeks."
"That's the good that came out of it because we really had been struggling with our intensity and also some consistency over the last two or three weeks. I really thought that we played a great match. It was an exciting match. A volleyball match can be 45 minutes or it can be three hours, and we kept the number one team in the country on the floor for over two-and-a-half hours. I was really proud of our team for that."
"We lost the first game, came out and got a little lead and let it go. But we came back and won the second game, which has been a game that has been trouble for us all season. We then continued to play hard. We had some awesome performances defensively by Sky Orzen and Melissa McGehee and Ann Romjue. We did a lot of things well. Nebraska is just a little bit better than us right now and a little bit more consistent."
"We had a break down in game four where we gave up six points in a row. Then when we got back on our game, we were able to fight back into the game again. So we know we have the ability to score points, to compete with a team of that level. It's been a slow process, but maybe slowly but surely this team will realize their potential."
"After the season we had last year, there is still the ability to question yourself when you give up a run of points or lose a game you should not have. It can rattle your confidence. We're working through that, but I think it's still happening."
"We're finishing the first half of conference this Wednesday, and I think it's a match we can win. Iowa State is a program that is struggling. They don't have a win in the conference, which is the one thing that scares me. I don't want our team to take them too lightly. We need to go up there and take care of business and get back home and prepare for Saturday's match, which is against Baylor. It starts the second half and it's a match we really need to get off on the right foot in the second half. Baylor is a very good team. We need to get that win and get the second half started right."
"We've got 11 matches left. We're positioned well to be in the NCAA Tournament, but now we've got to focus on moving up in the conference, winning some big matches, maybe getting a better seed on down the road, and just playing better volleyball, which I think is what we really wanted to happen coming out of Saturday's match."
"I told the girls after the match that I was really proud of the way they had played and what they had done. We were going to use this to get better. They found a new level of intensity. The contrast of the two teams - Nebraska is a big, powerful team and they have a gun in every position. Our team is different. We're a defensive oriented team. We protect our court. I think we're second in the conference in blocking and second in the conference in digging. We're much more geared towards keeping teams on the court and frustrating them and trying to wear them down, and that's really the style of our team."