HEAD COACH ROCKY LONG
(on Colorado State offense): “They are better on offense this year because they have more experience. They didn’t have Cecil Sapp last year due to hurt. (Bradlee) Van Pelt had some games last year when he looked like a rookie. He doesn’t look like a rookie anymore. It’s funny how improvement in one or two key spots can make that kind of change in your team.
(on Bradlee Van Pelt and Cecil Sapp): “You can fill up the inside gaps and make it hard for Sapp to run, but then you leave yourself wide open up for the option play which is Van Pelt’s key. You go into the game trying to slow both of them down. Not very many people have been able to do that.”
“Colorado State does not allow you to rattle their quarterbacks. They keep enough blockers in and they do a good enough job of running the power game and the play-action pass that their quarterback is never under duress. They don’t allow you to put their quarterbacks in a bad position. Now that Van Pelt has more experience he is making better decisions than he did last year.”
“Colorado State has the same offensive philosophy as Air Force. Obviously, they don’t have the same schemes, but they probably have the fewest loss-of-yardage plays in the league and give up the fewest sacks outside of Air Force. They have very few bad plays. They don’t make mistakes and they don’t get in long yardage situations so they are always in the game. That is exactly what we would like to do on offense. We both want to control the clock on offense.”
(on the Lobo defense the past two games) “We have played good run defense against two teams (San Diego State and BYU) that don’t want to run it. Now, we’re playing a team that wants to run the ball and runs it very well from a lot of formations. Our success the last two games will have nothing to do any success or lack of success that we might have this week. Certainly, our confidence is better. Early in the season we blew a bunch of assignments on defense. As the season went along, our assignments got better but we couldn’t cover man-to-man. Now, we have taken some pressure off by playing some zone.”
(on the difference in the programs): “The CSU program is probably five years ahead of ours. We have to keep improving our talent level. The biggest difference I see between them and us is depth. They have more than we do and late in the season that makes a huge difference. The better depth you have, the better chance you have to win late in the year.”
(on the CSU defense): “They have good balance in their defense. They’re pretty physical up front and they have three really good linebackers. They are a team that doesn’t give up many big plays, and they figure that sooner or later you’ll make a mistake on offense.”
(on Lobos’ health) “We are beat up. We are really beat up. If you knew every kid that was hurt it would look like we couldn’t put a team out there. Hopefully, they are too, especially at this time of the year, although they didn’t look like they were beat up against San Diego State, but they had just come off of a bye week.”
JUNIOR WR ADRIAN BOYD
(on the Lobos’ “swagger” after beating BYU): “I don’t think anyone has a different attitude now. I know the guys are all excited that we won but we can’t get big heads about it. We still have a ways to go this season.”
(on QB Casey Kelly’s performance at BYU): “Casey is an excellent quarterback and he’s very poised in games. If he makes a mistake he never loses his head. Even after he threw for two interceptions he remained composed and still led the team.”
(on the CSU defense): Most of the time they run coverage and take away the outside of the field. We have to hope that we can throw passes in the middle of the field and that our running game will work against them.”
JUNIOR S BRANDON RATCLIFF
(on the team’s attitude after the three-game winning streak): “We know that we have some assets right now and that we’ve been playing well. We’ve been going out there, making plays and dictating the offense and thats a big reason why we’ve been successful”
(on the recent improvement of the defense): “The past has definitely made the present. The slump we were in earlier in the season, I think, was motivation for us to improve and pull it together. We had to evaluate what was going on and get the right players in there who could do the job.”
(on enjoying the team’s recent success): “I feel like since the defense is coming together I don’t have to worry so much about players making plays. I can just worry about doing my job and having fun playing.”
JUNIOR OT JASON LENZMEIER
(on the team’s emotional state heading into its game vs. CSU): “We don’t want to get over-emotional and lack some of the details that we need or our mess up our technique and execution. Basically, we just need to go in and get the job done.”
(on facing the only undefeated team in MWC play): “They are a great team, you have to give them credit, but we’d love to knock them off and put ourselves in the drivers seat for the Wyoming game. We need to go up there and play our style of football and hopefully it works out for the best.”
(on playing in Ft. Collins, Colo.): “Since I’ve been here, we’ve played CSU in their stadium really well. I don’t think it has anything to with the venue, maybe it’s just the team.”
SOPHOMORE LB NICK SPEEGLE
(on the Lobos’ realizing their potential): “I think we all knew, at least the players all knew, that we had the potential to do great things this season. We just needed to prove it to everyone else who doubted us from the start.”
(on having more fun on the field): “When we go out there and have fun and enjoy what we’re doing we always play well. It’s when we get too uptight or lose focus that we tend to fail.”
(on the Lobos’ next two opponents): “Ideally I’d like to play CSU last but we are going into the final two games having to win one of two which is better than having to win this one no matter what.”