Postgame Quotes
September 29, 2007 | Football
Sept. 29, 2007
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Texas Tech Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Mike Leach
On defense's overall play:
"I think they started with a good week of practice and continued it through the course of the game. I think this is the best I have seen them play with the emotion in a long time. Although offense was slow to get on board, overall our team as a whole played well with the motion on the ball, both simultaneously."
On play in the first half:
"We came out a little slow. Our tempo was a little slow, and I thought our worst drive was that first score. Although it resulted in a score, it wasn't really well executed and wasn't really our best foot forward. But I thought everyone started working together eventually."
On Detron Lewis:
"The biggest thing is he worked through his injury, and continued to get better and better. He provides the team with depth and experience."
On Taylor Potts:
"He played with a lot of composure, considering coming off the bench. He has been very effective every time he has come out there."
On Michael Crabtree:
"He is definitely better than average. I think one of the greatest catches I have ever seen was the one that negated, and that is about as good as you get. Considering we have the fourth best quarterback and eighth best receiver in the Big 12, we're going to plug away and do the best we can."
On upsets today and around the Big 12:
"The only thing surprising would be if there were no surprises. It happens every single year. I feel it is very important to play with emotion as a team simultaneously. Football is such a great sport because there is so many people going in so many directions, and you have to play with some level of pain in everything you do. Emotion is a huge part of it, and doing that together is incredibly key."
Defensive Coordinator Ruffin McNeill
On defensive overall play:
"We got a start. Sunday we talked about starting at ground zero, and we wanted to take everything in stages both in practice and in the game. We talked to them about playing the next play. We wanted to establish our personality, building a team that would swarm the football, play aggressive, and make and finish plays."
On defensive's play throughout the game:
"We made improvements in finishing plays. I thought we made and finished plays as the game went on. The style we are trying to get to as a team is going to take time and is not going to be done overnight or in four days of practice. As a staff, it's going to take practice and I'm excited about our team. Our team just has a great attitude and a great mentality, and they have done everything we have asked them to do. I was proud with their overall improvement, we still need to get better and get ready for the next opponent. As I keep telling our team, it's not about who we play, it's how we play."
Sophomore Linebacker Marlon Williams
On the defense's reaction to the changes
"For us, it was a mentality deal. Basically, we redefined in our minds what we wanted to show people on the field. We basically want to be a defense that is going to swarm to the ball and have 11 guys on the ball at all times, so changing coordinators redefined that for us and reinstalled it this week in practice."
On Coach McNeill's challenge
"I am a real passionate player, and I think that is my leadership just because if I make a play, I'm passionate about it. If I'm out there, I'm trying to keep the guys up and keep the defense going. I think that's the role (McNeill) wants me to take on, and I think that it already fits me as a player because it's already what I try to do on the field."
Senior Wide Receiver Danny Amendola
On Leach's challenge following last week
"I thought we played well. We played hard for the most part. It was important to get some of those younger guys in there and get them some game experience for upcoming years. I thought they looked good tonight."
On his punt returns
"We weren't sure how punt returns would be this week because their punter wasn't real good on film. I thought he kicked the ball well today and got some opportunities."
Freshman Wide Receiver Michael Crabtree
On breaking the school record
"I really didn't know until close to the end of the game when coaches started coming up to me and telling me. I was like, `freshman record? I didn't know anything about it.' I was kind of shocked at the end, but we still got a lot of games to go and I'm looking forward to that."
On team's improvement
"We made a big improvement. We focused better in practice. The first half we came out kind of slow, and then (Leach) got into us. Then we came out trying to play fast, trying to play hard, trying to play smart, so that's what we did."
On his goals before the season
"I set my goals to break the freshman record, but I did that in five games, so now my goal is to win the Big 12."
Northwestern State Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Scott Stoker
Opening Comments:
"They just had better players than we did and with their offensive attack, nobody's slowed them down whatsoever. The quarterback's great, the wideouts played well, I thought we put some pressure on him but didn't tackle him very well at times. I thought we put more pressure on him than most people have put on him in there. We just struggled on offense because they were winning the line of scrimmage and they just had better players than we did up front. They were much improved over the last couple of weeks defensively; they didn't do anything differently than what we'd planned, they just played a lot more physical up front."
On Texas Tech wide receiver Michael Crabtree:
"Well he's done it to everybody else too, that's why he had 52 catches and however many touchdowns coming into the game. You know he's going to get his catches, and he made some great catches. What a great athlete, he's going to be a special player here for a very long time because he's hard to match up against with either a zone or man-to-man."
On how his team prepared for the game this week in practice:
"This game wasn't tops on our schedule, we've got a big game next week. We tried to put as much in as we possibly could with the package. We tried to mix a three-man front in there and just mix up some coverages, blitz him a little bit, and play man-to-man. He's shown he can definitely cut up a zone real quick so we threw some man coverages in there."
On the experience his younger players got tonight:
"We aren't going to change what we do. We had some guys getting a lot of action for the first time in the secondary back there, and it's going to be good for those guys in the long run, I think it will help us out. "
On what he told his team after the game:
"Basically that they are a better football team than us, and I think our players know that. We knew it was beyond a tough challenge coming in here; our deal is the Southland Conference, you know, we're not in the Big 12, and we're going into the conference next week with a big game on the road that we've got to get prepared for."
On what the difference was between the two teams:
"They were just more physical up front; if you can control the line of scrimmage that makes it very tough to move the football on a consistent basis. We had one drive in there, but aside from that, we just struggled on first downs trying to make something happen."
On playing Texas Tech at home after last week's loss and coaching change:
"They're a very good football team at home; they hadn't been at home but one time through the first four ball games of the year. I know [Head Coach Mike Leach] was very upset last week and I knew they were going to come out ready to play, so this probably wasn't the right time to play them."
On what his team can take away from tonight's game:
"I think you've just got to watch the tape, and make yourself better. If we get beat physically, which we did in a lot of cases, I don't have a problem with that, as long as we're doing the little things right in there."
