HEAD COACH ROCKY LONG
(on UNM wide receiver Hank Baskett’s first action last week): “I wouldn’t see him in much more of a role than he’s already had. He caught two (touchdowns last week), but we actually caught the ball pretty well against Utah State. I was happy to see him playing. It was probably good for him to play again so he knows he can, and he got through a game without being injured, so psychologically it’s probably a big boost.”
(on the recent play of Utah): “They’re much better than what their record shows (2-5 overall, 0-3 Mountain West). They’re the best defense in the league by far. I’m maybe in shock that their record is like this, especially when you watch tape of them physically manhandling Arizona (a 23-17 Ute loss) and going toe-to-toe with Michigan (a 10-7 Ute Loss). Supposedly they’re fighting for their coaches job and if I was them, I’d sit there and say ‘we’ve got these four games left and if we win all of them, we’ll go to a bowl game and save coach McBride’s job.’”
(on the recent play of the Lobos): “I don’t have any problem with how our team tries. We don’t play well a lot of the time. Even in games, we play well for a while and we don’t play well for a while. For us to have a chance, we’re going to have to play well, consistently, in all five of these remaining games to have a chance to win four, obviously. I think Utah’s probably asking the same questions as us. ‘What do we have to do to win a game?’ And I would think our players are asking the same thing.”
(on Utah quarterback Brett Elliott and the Ute offense): “I think that the change (from Lance Rice) has been good for them. They’ve been much better on offense since he’s been the quarterback. He’s made some inexperienced mistakes with interceptions but they’ve thrown the ball a lot better, they’ve scored more points, they’ve gained more yards. Their running back Brandon Warfield is starting to hit his stride, and (Paris Jackson) is one of those 6’3” 215-pound guys that has good body control and can catch the ball (19 catches 238 yards the last two games).
(on the Lobos’ new attitude): “Our team is starting to develop a camaraderie that they haven’t had all season. They’re starting to develop a togetherness, they’re starting to develop where the offense matters to the defense and the defense matters to the offense and the kicking game matters to everybody. That’s something we were struggling to find for the whole first half of the season. That doesn’t mean we’re going to win games, but the last two weeks have played as hard as any team around here.”
(on the play of DonTrell Moore): “I think DonTrell’s gotten better every week. I think DonTrell had more opportunities in the last game and I don’t want to take anything away from his performance, because he did a nice job of breaking some tackles and he did a nice job in the open field in making people miss. But the coaches did a nice job of scheming the offense so he got the ball in the open field. DonTrell’s going to get hit harder this week than he’s been all year. This is the most physical football team in the league.”
JUNIOR QUARTERBACK CASEY KELLY
(on his broken left arm): “It’s doing all-right. It is a little banged up and I took a few hits, but that is a part of the game. At least now there is no broken bone in there. “
(on being hesitant about playing so quickly): “Not really. When they told me the time I could be back in, I just accepted that and tried to get back in as soon as I could. Any chance I have to play, and am well enough to play, I want to get in.”
(on his performance against Utah State): “I was surprised at the amount of option we ran. Utah State never took that away and It was something we kept running and running. I think offensively we are now going in the right direction.”
(on Utah State’s defense): “Utah State’s defense wasn’t as good as who we play this week, so this is going to be a great test against Utah. I think we did do some things right. We played together, but we missed some opportunities and we could have scored some more points on them, but we are starting to move the ball more consistently and that has more to do with us than the defense we are playing.”
(on the receivers): “When we had to throw the ball the receivers did a great job of catching it. We also had some screens go this week and that was attributed to the offensive line getting out there and blocking. The wide receivers are doing a great job and they are also blocking a lot.. When we have those perimeter run plays they are being asked to block out on the perimeter, so it is much better now.”
(on Hank Basket): “Its really nice to see him out there after his injury. It’s a great story to see him get two catches for two touchdowns. It is true that he can make plays.”
(on Utah’s defense): “They’re going to be one of the best in the conference. They have great athletes and we’re going to have to come and give it our best and really produce on offense this week.”
FRESHMAN RUNNING BACK DONTRELL MOORE
(on the Utah State game being his coming out party): “I didn’t see it like that. I saw it as an opportunity to give the team a chance to win. Any time you play well and your team is able to feed off of that is a blessing. It just looked at it as a chance for us to get better and give my team an opportunity to win.”
(on getting better at breaking tackles): “The offensive line got me the chance to get to the secondary and fortunately I was able to break some tackles and make some guys miss. I think that is just something that just came as I got more comfortable with the offensive line and they got more comfortable with me. I think its something we’re going to get better at each week.”
(on putting a good more on a defender): “It’s awesome. It did it a lot in high school and am now getting comfortable with it at the D-I level. Those opportunities will come more often as the whole offensive unit gets better each week.”
(on when to make a move and when to go hard): “It just depends on your running style. Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not. I think I have to just get better at it each and every week.”
(on wanting the ball on fourth and short situations): “Of curse you want it then. When your number is called in those situations you get excited and you feel like you are going to get the job. That is the situation were are in now that the coaching staff feels like the running backs are going to get it done. When the hogs are dominating those fourth and one plays are a lot easier.”
(on Utah having the most physical and best defense in the league): “They are. They have a lot of athletes and their strength and conditioning program is good. A lot of our guys and coaches will tell you that it is not really what they do, it is us. We have to prepare ourselves this week to give ourselves the best chance to win on Saturday.”
(on homecoming this week): “It has been a while. It’s been about a month since we’ve been here and I think a victory last week would have helped our support but that’s not in our hands. We have to take the mind set to control what we can control. Our true fans are going to be there and we have to be ready to play in front of 10,000 fans or 30,000. We just have to have ourselves prepared for this conference game.”|