Sept. 11, 2005
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
New Mexico Coach Rocky Long
On the win:”This is a big win for us, the offense really played well,the defense didn’t play very well. I’ve never seen adefense have to play over a hundred plays in a game. They(MU) have a great quarterback, but the defense scored a touchdown and had two interceptions and stopped them at the end of the game. So the defense gave up a bunch of yards, but they made enough plays with the offense doing so well that we won the game.”
On the offense bouncing back after the first quarter:”I thought our whole team played really hard, especially with the weather and some of the things that went against us. There was a couple of times we thought we had Smith sacked and all of a sudden he’s still running and scoring a touchdown after we had three or four guys on top of him. I was really proud of how the offense moved the ball. They scored every time they got a chance and then I was really proud of how the defense kept them out of the end zone and made a couple of key interceptions at key times.”
On Baskett’s career game:”Baskett’s a great player, the only problem is he plays for us and nobody in the country knows, but he’ll be a top draft choice and he’s as good as any wide receiver in the Big 12. You all just don’t know who he is.”
On Kole McKamey’s game”I thought Kole really played well. I think he got us in the right plays. I think he ran the option real well. There was a couple times he turned up on the option and made big gains where a lot of guys can’t do that and he can. I thought Dontrell looked like his old self. I thought maybe he didn’t quite look like his old self last week and he did today.”
On Brad Smith’s performance:”We didn’t tackle him any better than we did Van Pelt three years ago. Our offense scored enough points and we made enough plays to win the game. We didn’t stop him, he had an all-time night – the only thing he did wrong was throw that interception at the end of the game – that’s the only thing I saw him do wrong. Thank God he did that wrong.”
On the importance of non-conference games:”We use non-conference games to prepare our team for the season more so than worry about winning the game, so I decided well before the game started that Chris Nelson was going to get at least a series in the game. The first half we were going to put him in late in the half and we didn’t get a chance to do so, so we put in him the first time we thought it was okay in the third quarter.”
On Hank Baskett“He has great concentration, he’s got really good hands and he’s a 7-foot high jumper. Everybody keeps telling me he’s not fast, but I keep seeing him behind people all the time so I guess he has good speed.”
New Mexico cornerback Gabriel Fulbright
On his two interceptions today:”It felt pretty good to come in here; there were a lot of people that downed us, and saying that we couldn’t win this game. Some of our own people didn’t believe in us. They didn’t think we were going to win. It feels really good; it’s not the best feeling, when we get that conference championship, that’ll be the best feeling.”
On Brad Smith’s performance”He’s nice, I was asking people what kind of 40 he ran, and he’s faster than they said. He’s really nice, there were numerous times when we thought we had him and boom, he just shook you off and made a play. That’s one of the best quarterbacks I’ve ever played against; truthfully he’s one of the best. It was real hard stopping him.”
On the confidence from the victory:”It does a lot because we came into this game knowing it would be this type of game; we knew Missouri just wasn’t going to roll over. Then we came into halftime and the score was tied, and coach told us this was the kind of game we were looking for after that we played, they played, there’s not much I can say, it was a good physical game, that team’s good.”
New Mexico wide receiver Hank Baskett
On his career day:”It just felt great, I guess that connection everyone talks about with us (QB Kole McKamey) he just knew were to put the ball and he was putting it perfectly every time. I couldn’t ask for any better balls, it was right over the shoulder and in my hands.”
On realizing he could get open at will:”I don’t ever get greedy, but there were times in the game when I told Kole to just throw me the ball because I felt good tonight, everything was just going perfectly. It starts with the offensive line, they gave him time and you can’t do it without them.”
On the confidence from today’s victory”It gives us more confidence than ever. They said tonight was the first time we’ve ever beaten a BCS team on the road and that’s what we’ve been doing the past couple of years, we break a couple records at a time and that’s what we’re trying to do this year, work our way toward breaking some more.”
New Mexico quarterback Kole McKamey
On Hank Baskett’s performance today”It felt great, but it’s no surprise because he’s been doing it since I’ve been throwing him balls. He did it all camp and last week, he’s a great receiver. The thing about Hank is he’s a playmaker.”
On realizing the connection was there with Hank:”I think it was sometime in the third quarter, when we were both down on the bench on the sideline and he said to me, ‘I’m getting open every time, just throw me the ball.’ I’ve got all the confidence in the world in Hank so when he tells me something like that I’m going to do it.”
On the confidence from today’s victory”I guess it’s good for us. It’s the first time in New Mexico football history we’ve ever beaten a BCS team on the road and that’s something to be really proud of. This gives us a lot of momentum going into next week’s game and our conference schedule.”