Texas Tech University Athletics
Mike Leach Press Conference Quotes
September 10, 2001 | Football
Sept. 10, 2001
On the short week:
"You have to shorten up practice a little bit, and we will pull the pads off more. The biggest thing is pay real good attention to detail, and try to get as much mileage as you can in a few days."
On not looking past UTEP:
"These guys were a bowl team last year, they had a real good season last year and the other thing is these guys are already talking about running the score up on us. So if we are lucky maybe we can keep it close."
On Anton Paige:
"They are going to look at him running around and gauge it just on how he runs around. He was running around yesterday, he looked pretty decent. I don't know where it's at, I'm sure that somebody is going to be poking on stuff, does this hurt and things of that nature and reach a determination on whether he's healthy. But he is running around pretty decently."
On what to expect from UTEP:
"They are a good team, I think that they are a team that got some confidence, and I think they are a team that is better than what they showed against New Mexico. Their skill players are pretty good, both offensively and defensively. I think their receivers and running backs are really good. Their corners, in particular, are good players. In a funny sort of way they have got some almost opposite qualities of New Mexico. New Mexico's real strengths were their offensive line and their defensive line and these guys real strengths are their corners, their receivers and their skill guys."
On playing on ESPN:
"I'm happy but it really doesn't make any difference. If we were playing UTEP in the parking lot I would be perfectly happy about that, too. It is more exciting than it is on TV."
On the success passing the ball in the first game compared to last year:
"By far the biggest thing is the offensive line. The funny thing about last year, as far as throwing the ball, the offense in general, third down percentage and things like that, we did a lot better against our conference than we did in the non-conference games. On paper our tougher opponents are the conference opponents. A lot of that was just a growth process, as we got more familiar what we were doing, more familiar with each other, more familiar with the players and what they could do I think that despite the fact that we are playing some better teams we are a better team ourselves and have just grown."
On special teams:
"We did pretty good on kickoff returns, not just the long one but the other ones were pretty good. I thought we covered the kicks really good. Our punt return was pretty good, I think we need to work on our punt team. We need to work on are field goal team but I don't think that was bad. But it is like offense and defense there is plenty of stuff to work on. This was a good starting point, we played together pretty well, and we were reasonably disciplined for our first game. There are some gaping holes to fill there is no question."
On UTEP's talk leading up to the game:
"We will be excited to play cause it is the next game on our schedule. We don't have any particular games circled we've got them all circled. This is out next game, they have appeared to be pretty excited by there comments in the paper so we will see what they follow it up with and we will go from there."
On if the UTEP talk bothers him:
"I don't really mind. Everybody has got their point of view, I don't mind. I'm not going to jump into the middle of it. I think that is fine. We have got to go out there and play real well and chances are these guys really are a for real outfit. They had a tough game against New Mexico, but they played real well in the bowl game. They have gotten better as the season went on, I think that they are probably better this year than last year. This is a good football team and any time you play a bowl team you've got your hands full."
