Oct. 25, 2005
Head Coach Rocky Long
(on the discrepancy between Colorado State’s rushing stats on the road and at home):
“They have a running back (Kyle Bell) that is second in the league in rushing if you count all the games and he’s first in the league if you count just the league games. I think that earlier in some of their away games he was splitting time and they were not nearly as successful before he became the full time running back. Since then they have been running the ball very well.”
(on Bell’s impact on the CSU running game):
“He’s really big. He can make you miss, but he has really deceiving speed. He’s a big guy so he doesn’t look extremely fast, but he’s really fast and breaks a lot of tackles. They toss the ball to him and run what we call a stretch play where he’s trying to get around the corner. They have run the same play for years. They block down and pull a guard or center out there, and those guys are six foot six, and you can’t find the guy until he is running through you.”
(on the problems CSU quarterback Justin Holland presents):
“He’s the most efficient quarterback in the league. He has an excellent arm and scheme wise they do a great job of protecting him. Very seldom are they a team that releases five receivers, so they always keep people in there to protect him. They run very disciplined routes and he does a nice job of reading his keys and throwing to the right guy. He is really accurate with the ball, has a really strong arm and he hardly ever throws the ball in a dangerous situation where you might intercept it. That’s why he has the best quarterback rating in the league.”
(on taking advantage of the Rams’ run defense):
“It all is determined on what they want to do on defense. As good as we are running the ball and as good as DonTrell (Moore) is, if I was the other team’s defensive coordinator DonTrell wouldn’t get 20 yards if we absolutely didn’t want him to. Now Hank (Baskett) might have 1,000 yards receiving and Kole (McKamey) might throw for a 1,000 yards, but you can design things that make it very difficult to run the ball if you want to take the chance to give up big plays in the passing game. It all depends on what their plan is on defense. Now most people try to do it by down and distance. They will put them all up there on first down and try to get you in second and eight or nine and then will play their normal coverages. Some teams have a philosophy where they will give up four or five yards, make you drive the ball down the field and hope that sooner or later you will make a mistake by fumbling, trip or fall, fumble the snap or throw an incomplete pass and then they will get you stopped. In the past, Colorado State has been a bend don’t break type (of defense). They will give up the four or five yards, but sooner or later you’ll mess it up and you won’t score a lot of points. They aren’t concerned in their defensive scheme about yards, but what they are concerned about is giving up points and in league games they are the best scoring defense in the league.”
(on whether he thought DonTrell Moore could carry the ball as much as he has during his career when he was recruited of high school):
“We thought he could because that’s what he did in high school. You have to base everything on what they have done in the past. He carried it sometimes 20 times and then wouldn’t play the second half, depending on who they were playing, and when they played good people he would carry it 40 times in high school. So we thought he could handle it. I think he has probably exceeded our expectations and maybe exceeded everyone’s expectations with what he’s been able to do on those carries.”
(on Colorado State’s offensive philosophy):
“They will still like to be the smash-mouth, run it at you team, but what they have is three really good wide receivers, a really good H-back and they have the all-time prep passing leader in the state of Colorado as their quarterback. When they recruited him he came in as a passing quarterback so they’ve used the skill players they have at receiver and a great throwing quarterback and have now expanded their offense. Three or four years ago you would have never seen four wide receivers or an empty set with five receivers out there at Colorado State and now you see it about a third of the time. That has to be because they are very well coached and are using the best players they have available.”
Senior Running Back DonTrell Moore
(on the reason for his success against Colorado State):
“I’m not exactly sure. I know it’s a number of reasons: the offensive line always does well, the scheme is always fantastic and I think whenever you have holes you have to make the most of it.”
(on being recruited by Colorado State when he was in high school):
“(CSU head coach) Sonny Lubick is a great guy, he’s a great coach and he has great tradition. I enjoy playing against them because I know they’re gonna bring it and maybe that brings out the best in not only myself but the whole team. I enjoyed my visit (to CSU), but my heart was here.”
(on rushing for 1,000 yards in four consecutive seasons):
“I know it will be great, if in fact it happens, for not only myself, but for the offensive line because they take a lot of pride in that and they almost enjoy it more than I do. It’s hard to look at it right now. Maybe in retrospect I’ll look back and be able to fathom exactly what I’ve been able to accomplish, but now you go, you play it and try to get the W, then you enjoy that and you talk about it a little bit. It’s hard to enjoy it and to put it in perspective right now.”
(on whether this has been his most satisfying season because of the comeback he has made from the knee injury):
“If we were 8-0 then I would say yeah because I think we’ve had the chance to be (undefeated). But there were a lot of things, lot of hills, lot of mountains that I had to climb to even be back in this season. There were tons of people who said I wouldn’t be back to play, `there’s no way he will be back in six months and be ready to play.’ All the things I was reading and I was kind of using that as incentive. So for that reason it’s kind of gratifying.”
(on the CSU rushing defense):
“It’s a Friday night game – ESPN. They’ll bring it. They’re 3-1, they’re a good football team and they’ll do whatever they can to not only stop the Lobos, but stop the run.”
Senior Wide Receiver Hank Baskett III
(on if the team still feels like it needs to win out to go to a bowl game):
“We definitely feel like that. Our backs are still against the wall. One loss can knock us way out of bowl hopes and so right now we feel like if we win out we might even be able to tie for that conference championship. Our hopes are still alive and we know what kind of pressure we’re dealing with being in the situation we are in right now.”
(on winning on the road against San Diego State):
“I think just the way we won helped us a lot whether it was at home or on the road. We slacked off a little bit at times in the game, but we’re getting closer and closer to putting that complete game together. That helps our confidence so much on offense, defense and special teams.”
(on playing a complete game against Colorado State this Friday):
“I’m really hoping that this is the game where we come out because I feel once we get that complete game underneath us we’ll be able to carry that out for the rest of the season.”
(on being rated one of the top two receivers in the country by ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr.):
“That’s definitely a cool thing to be associated with because everyone knows Mel Kiper is a great analyst and his predictions are always pretty good. So in that way I’m really enjoying it, but right now we got to get that win here first. That’s what I’m more focused on. If by the end of the year I’m still one of the top two receivers, I’ll definitely talk a little more about it.”
Senior Linebacker Mike Mohoric
(on the CSU offense):
“They are very talented and they always have been. You have to spend a little extra time preparing because they give us looks that we haven’t seen yet.”
(on the Lobos’ sack totals being down slightly from year’s past):“I don’t think that it’s a lack of experience. If you look at the film, we are putting pressure on the quarterback, it’s just two seconds and the ball is gone. I think teams are running a lot shorter routes on us and are able to get the ball away quicker.”
(on whether or not there is uncertainty about how the team will play on Friday night after some of the winning and losing streaks the team has endured):“I don’t think so. Those three games that we lost – we feel that we are about 10 plays away from being 8-0. I think there was some frustration, but we know what kind of team we can be and if we don’t make those mistakes, we’ve proven to be a dangerous one.”