Oct. 8, 2005
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
New Mexico Head Coach Rocky Long
On what he said to the team after the game:
I told them I knew they were disappointed and I thought we did a lousy job of coaching. We have a bunch of great guys on our football team. They practice every day and they work hard, they don’t always execute and do the things we want them to, but they come with a good attitude and they come and work hard. When they disintegrate at the end of the game, it’s not their fault it’s the coaches’ fault.
Every team is different, every team responds to different things and you try to find out what their personality is and coach them to their personality so they can perform at the highest level. Obviously this should be a better football team than it is and we haven’t played well for the last three weeks. Some of the problems are the same problems so that’s not their fault, that’s mine.
On why the fault is on the coaches:
We’re asking people to do things they can’t do, and that’s a bad mistake in judgment. If your players can’t make plays and you think they’re decent enough athletes to make plays there’s something else wrong and it’s not them.
Was there ever a sense that the game was in doubt?
I think they had a sense the game was in doubt but I didn’t see any panic until the last drive. I saw a lot of panic on the last (BYU) drive. I didn’t see any panic on the drive that put it within five.
On whether the offenses had an advantage because of the similarities in defensive coaching:
I thought each offense had an advantage because they know the defense so well they can pretty much teach the quarterback on how to read what’s coming and they can be successful.
On whether BYU did anything offensively that surprised them:
They surprised us on the first drive. Up until today they were throwing it about 90 percent of the time. So we worked all week on a form of pass defenses. We were surprised the first drive, but it’s the sixth game of the year. You can make adjustments, and we did. We made adjustments and played better after that until late in the game.
New Mexico senior WR Hank Baskett III
“I feel real bad right now. It was a battle the whole time. It came down to them making a few more plays than us. The (UNM) offense had a pretty good day. We were beating them physically and they were giving up. We just didn’t make enough plays.”
New Mexico sophomore S Tyson Ditmore
“I think we still had a lot of assignment errors on defense. We just have to come together more as a team. We’re down in the dumps right now and I think we need to get out of that. We need to come together and focus more and get out of the hole we’re in. We’ve been going against a spread offense every week, but we have to execute better on defense and we can’t give up the long drives. We have to get better on that this week during practice because we have Wyoming coming up.”
BYU Head Coach Bronco Mendenhall
Opening Statement:
“I asked the players to take it one play at a time until the game was over, knowing that it wasn’t going to be easy, knowing that New Mexico is an excellent football team, knowing that they have a rich tradition that coach (Rocky) Long has established. We knew they would make some plays and that we would make some plays. I just asked them to play four quarters as hard as they could and they did and I’m proud of them.”
On how the BYU defense played late in the game:
“There was a huge turnover and we made some plays when we had to make some plays. When we had to win the football game and that was the difference. It came down to a very simple game plan with the focus the entire week only on execution. The fewest defensive calls I’ve ever carried into a game and just asking them to do what they are supposed to do with more precision. I think that approach gave them a chance to make some plays. I give our players credit, they did what they were supposed to do when they were supposed to do it to win the football game and that is to their credit.”
On Junior Quarterback John Beck:
“I think that John Beck has proven himself in many different situations. He does it in defensive practice daily. He was prepared well by the offensive coaching staff. He executed the plan when asked to in critical times and the best quarterbacks, that’s what they do.”
On keeping their composure during the game:
“I think it’s who they are. I’m fortunate to be the coach of this football team. To have young men with this kind of character, we’ve been through a lot already and they’ve been resilient. They overcame adversity to the end and kept believing in themselves and their coaches. I am proud o them and their performance.”
On keeping the Lobos from scoring at the end of the game:
“That’s a good feeling. As we talked at halftime I sensed that they could win, I sensed that they believed. I think they were determined to make it happen and they did. That is to their credit. That shows maybe the true nature of this team is starting to come out.”
On the Lobos Defense at the end of the game:
“I wish I could tell you exactly what they did. I was focusing more on listening to our offensive plays and our offensive approach. The credit should go to our offense and how they executed in that situation because if they do that it should be effective regardless of coverage. I believe the New Mexico players were playing hard. It is how they are coached. That is who they are. I’m sure they could contest that they did the best they could. I’m just proud of our players for making plays to win the game.”