Oct. 18, 2005
Head Coach Rocky Long
(on the excitement in the locker rooom following the Lobos’ win at Wyoming):
“It was pretty jubilant in there. They were loud and happy because I think they felt the stress or pressure, that they hadn’t played well enough to win, but made enough plays this time so they were pretty happy. They were pretty happy on the way home too.”
(on DonTrell Moore and the offensive line’s performance at Wyoming):
“I thought we ran the ball pretty well until the second half of the fourth quarter. I thought we really ran it well in the third quarter and the first part of the fourth quarter. I thought the offensive line dominated the line of scrimmage and DonTrell was DonTrell. He can make you miss, he has proved now that he can break tackles, he can find small seams in there to get positive yards. Mike (Roberts) just read me his stats and what more can you say about his performance. He is making himself into one of the best in the history of the NCAA and you can’t say too much more than that.”
(on Moore being perhaps better now than he was before he injured his knee in the 2004 Emerald Bowl):
“Physically I don’t think he’s any better then he was last year, but I think he’s just as good as he was last year. People have mentioned this and I haven’t thought about it, but they think he’s breaking more tackles this year. Part of it is that I think the running game that we’re running out of the spread offense doesn’t allow him as many open field opportunities once he breaks the line of scrimmage. In the past we were two tight ends and two backs a lot, so when you break the line of scrimmage it’s him against one guy. There was more open space once he broke the line of scrimmage. Now he’s the dive back in a read option play so when he breaks the line of scrimmage there’s a lot of safeties back there that are coming toward the line of scrimmage that are keeping him from going 30 or more yards. Now he’s getting six and seven yard gains because everyone is in an umbrella type defense. He’s having more opportunities to break tackles because he doesn’t have the open space to shake someone.”
(on San Diego State’s success defending the UNM running game in past years and if UNM has tried to keep the Aztec defense spread out in the past):
“It all is determined on what they want to do on defense. You can put enough guys at the line of scrimmage even in the spread formation that DonTrell won’t have but 10 yards. He can carry it 30 times for just 10 yards if you’re willing to do that, but that opens up all kinds of seams for the passing game. That opens up (QB) Kole (McKamey) running after faking to DonTrell, that opens up the pitch, that opens up throwing it to (WR) Hank (Baskett). It’s all determined by what kind of defense you want to play. San Diego State in the past has stacked the line of scrimmage and prevented him from being a big factor, but he has had decent games against them. DonTrell had a very good game against Wyoming because their defense is soft coverage, keep everything in front of you, don’t give up a big play. And they didn’t give up any big plays, but he also had almost six yards a carry. In the past, San Diego State, in normal down and distance, has tried to stack the line of scrimmage to prevent us from running the ball. Then when it was long yardage, they go to double coverages and make you throw the ball underneath. I have no idea what they are going to do this time. They rushed two or three guys against BYU and it caused BYU to change their offense to a running game.”
(on San Diego State being a hot and cold football team):
“They are as talented a football team as there is in our league. They may be the most talented football team in our league. You look how big they are and they have really good athletes and they have good team speed. Their quarterback is 6-6, both their running backs are 220 pounds, they have a great wide receiver in (Jeff) Webb. They are a very good-looking football team that has played well as of late with one problem at UNLV. They didn’t play very well at UNLV, but the rest of the time they have played well since they got done with UCLA and Ohio State.”
(comparing Jeff Webb to the other talented receivers in the MWC):
“They’re all the same. I think everyone in our league has a great receiver. They can do damage once they catch it, they can do damage by running by you, they can do damage on kick returns and if they have a running back to go with it, then it’s that much more difficult. San Diego State has two good running backs.”
(on SDSU tailback Lynell Hamilton’s injury status):
“He will play. He was supposed to play against Utah and when he was warming up he felt a little tweak in his hamstring, but he was supposed to start against Utah so I’m guessing with three more days of rest he will be fine against us. The other guy, (Brandon) Bornes, did a nice job against Utah.”
Junior Quarterback Kole McKamey
(on his injury at Wyoming):
“I want to let everyone know that my head had nothing to do with me leaving the game. I did not have a concussion. I just got hit pretty hard. I was clear-headed and clear-minded a couple minutes after I got back to the sideline. It was a pulled hip flexor and some pulled ligaments in my throwing thumb that didn’t allow me to come back into the game. My head didn’t bother me at all. I got hit hard enough that I got dazed for a little bit, but that happens all the time in a football game.”
(on UNM playing more conservatively on offense to limit the hits he takes):
“I have never been coached to play timid. There’s a difference between playing aggressive and playing dumb. You have to be smart, especially being a quarterback. I’ve always played aggressive and with the mentality that if I can get an extra yard, then I’m going to get an extra yard. I’m going to keep playing like that and I’m going to be smart about when to duck my head or maybe find a nice place in the grass to try and get an extra yard.”
(on placing a greater emphasis on the running game after the success at Wyoming):
“I think we might. I don’t really know the game plan yet, but there is no doubt that DonTrell (Moore) is one of the best running backs in the nation and the more times he gets the ball the better. By no means are we going to abandon the passing game either. That’s something that opens up the running game and has let us open up our offense period this year. I think we’re just going to do what we do and make defenses stop us.”
(on whether the team needs to win its last 4 games to have a chance at a conference title or bowl game):
“There is no doubt. We have to win out. That’s what we expect. We expect to challenge for the top spot in the conference. There’s no other way to do it. We have to win out.”
Senior Cornerback Mike Powdrell
(on the team’s mindset going into this weekend):
“Our mindset right now is that we’re trying to stay focused because it’s been an up-and-down season. When we started out everything was looking real nice with our three wins and then we went into UTEP and that loss kind of broke our spirit and hopes of going undefeated. We tried to pull it back together when we went to TCU. We tried to give them a good fight, but we couldn’t pull that one out, even though we came close in the third quarter. When we went to Wyoming our mindset was just try to keep our heads up whether we win or lose. We’re going to go into this game against San Diego State with the same mind frame and that’s just to keep fighting and to keep trying to get a win out of every opportunity that we get.”
(on thinking the team has to win out to go to a bowl game):
“The rest of our games in the season I feel like we need to win so that we can get a good, comfortable bowl game spot. We know it could be a challenge if we don’t win the rest of them. We hope to go again because the last four years we went and it’s been real nice, but this year it looks like we might have to clear some higher hurdles than before. The only thing we can do is take it one game at a time and hopefully we can get through our opponents for the rest of the season.”
(on which team has more confidence going into this weekend’s game):
“I don’t know who has more confidence. I haven’t heard anything about how they feel about going into this game, but I do know they’re going to put up a fight because right now everybody in the conference is shoulder-to-shoulder to each other. We’re all fighting for a position at the top of the conference. I know San Diego State wants to knock us off just as bad as anybody else in the conference. So I imagine that their attitude is much more than just confident. It’s aggressive, it’s trying to take out the next possible team holding a good position in the standings. We have to come into this game with our heads on our shoulders, knowing that this team is out to get us.”
(on UNM’s defense having a tough start):
“I feel that the secondary is younger than it has been in the past. We have fewer seniors playing in the secondary this year. I know that the chemistry of these younger athletes that we have starting in the secondary is probably going to come together much better next year, but this year we’re kind of slowly putting it together and it shows. I know we have a lot of talent and when the secondary is focused there’s a lot of things we can accomplish. As long as we continue to build, as far as technique and focus in the secondary, then we’ll have a chance at continuing to get better as the games go on, but the secondary knows we have things to work on.”