Texas Tech University Athletics
Postgame Quotes
October 17, 2009 | Football
Recap | Final Stats | Notes | AP Action Photos 
Texas Tech Head Coach Mike Leach
On quarterback Steven Sheffield's play
"I thought he played a real good first half. I thought we had a hollow spot in the middle, not just him, but the offensive unit, and then I thought he played good at the end. I think when things start going right for you, you try to make just a little extra happen, and maybe we got ahead of ourselves a little bit. But he brings a lot to the table as far as enthusiasm for the whole team."
On if there was any doubt about how his team would respond in the atmosphere
"Not really to me. I felt that they'd come out better in the second half. It was a wild atmosphere, this is one of the greatest places in the world to play college football, there's no question as far as the setting, as far as the people. I thought whichever team our defense played for would win the game. We have blackshirts there at Texas Tech too. Every one of our guys is wearing a black shirt underneath their pads. I'm proud to say the blackshirts won this one."
On how important it was to score on the first possession
"I think it's really important, and I think (Sheffield) was really instrumental in that. I think he does a great job just with the whole team. He is one of our captains this week. He was really instrumental in having all of our guys excited to play. Then he went over there and kind of put his money where his mouth is or whatever. That's basically one of the worst cliches I've used in a long time, I'm usually better at making them up. But anyway, he went out there and elevated his level of play, marched down there and scored. I think it electrified the whole defense, the entire offense for sure, and I think our team. After that, I think a lot of the energy involved with the first drive offensively and defensively elevated our play in the first half. And then the second half, I didn't think our defense missed a beat. I thought we had a pretty good sized hollow spot offensively, and that's too bad. We just need to coach them better and maybe it won't happen."
On if the defensive performance on the day ranks high in his career coaching at Texas Tech
"I think so. I think it does for a couple reasons, and I think one reason it does is because, like I said, when things weren't really going our way, we were losing yards on offense as quick as we were gaining them for a period of time out there, and our defense just stepped up over and over. We tested them in about every way we could. Bad field position, good return on the punt or the kickoff, offense gets a three and out, then another three and out, when you think of this defense when you've got to make it happen, they just kept stepping up. I thought it was a real credit to our D-line, which is a real quick unit. Really I thought both D-lines had a pretty big day."
Wide Receiver Detron Lewis
On the game overall
"I felt we came out pretty excited. The tempo kind of went down at the start of the second half, especially for the offense, then we finally picked it up for the key drive in the fourth quarter and we put it away."
On if the team felt comfortable playing in Memorial Stadium
"Yeah we felt really comfortable. It's an exciting place to play, so we all were pretty excited to come up here and get these guys."
On not gaining yards like a typical Texas Tech offense does
"Sometimes that's just how the game's going to go. We're not always going to be able to put up the 500 yards we put up on offense to win the game. The 260 yards was good enough to get it today."
On the play of the Red Raider defense
"Give all credit to those guys. They helped us out a lot because we came out flat in the second half and those guys were just pounding them and pounding them and kept playing."
Quarterback Steven Sheffield
On the game overall
"It was a lot of fun. We came out excited and that was a big key to our success. If you all would've seen the locker room before the game, you would've thought it was a bunch of animals running around. That's how our program is, just letting go and letting everybody be themselves and a lot of loud music and it was good stuff. Everybody was ready to go just like we are every game and we came out riding. In the second half, the offense slumped and the defense picked up our slack. Thank God for the defense."
On if they were trying to run the clock in the second half
"A little bit. Towards the end on that last drive I was making sure the play clock was going to run down, because we had the lead and that's what you want to do when you have the lead. But at the same time it wasn't a thing that we were trying to run the clock out. We knew we needed to score and we capitalized on that and it ended up working out pretty good."
On two key third-down conversions in the first half
"A lot of times in games you can look back on third-down conversions, people who aren't doing very good at that, their scores aren't usually very good, because that's a real key play. Coach Leach always stresses that that's a key play and you know you've got to rise when it's third down because you don't want to be punting the ball the whole game. We did a good job in the first half on third downs, and in the second half we did horrible on third downs. We've got to get back to work."
On scoring on their first drive
"The touchdown on the first drive, that was good. We needed that. I just found out after the game that Nebraska was the second (scoring) defense in the country. I had no idea about that, but they played like it. They have quite a team and they played solid the whole game, defensively. But things went well for us and we came out with the win."
