Sept. 2, 2006
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
NEW MEXICO HEAD COACH Rocky Long
“We were a poor football team today and give Portland State some credit. They are a pretty good I-AA football team and they played better than us today. The most disappointing thing was the mistakes we made. That’s an undisciplined football team today and that is my job. Way too many penalities and penalties that kept drives alive. Penalties were as big a factor in the outcome of the game as anything.”
“Obviously if you don’t score points you did not execute well. We didn’t block them very well and we knew heading into the game that we were going to have trouble blocking. I thought we didn’t run the ball very well and we didn’t protect Kole very well. The ball floated on Kole quite a bit tonight so we didn’t throw very well.”
New Mexico Offensive Tackle Robert Turner
“I think the biggest thing with a young team is that maybe sometimes guys don’t know how to prepare. You could see it there in the second half that a lot of guys were saying `Ok let’s go do this,’ but that means you have to execute. You can’t just get all fired up and take shots at people. You have to execute. That’s the biggest thing and we have to realize that. As we prepare, we have to prepare to execute no matter the situation.”
New Mexico Lobo Back Quincy Black
“We gave up some big plays, obviously. That touchdown was like a 40 or 50-yard play. We can’t give up big plays. We’ve got to get those receivers on the ground.”
PORTLAND STATE HEAD COACH TIM WALSH
“There’s no doubt we played a great game on the defensive side of the ball. First half was kind of bend don’t break, second half was domination. We said at half time you can’t win the game with zero on offense. (Defensive coordinator) Greg Lupfer did a tremendous job. His staff did a tremendous job and most importantly his players did a tremendous job. Really a sound victory for us and a game where I thought we were the better team.”
“[Sawyer Smith] did a great job of throwing the ball to the right guy and we got the ball at the half time and said `Let’s get the ball in our playmaker’s hands, let’s get the ball in Tremayne’s (Kirkland) hands see what he can do with it, let’s get the ball in Brendan’s (Ferrigno) hands so he can make a couple plays with it.’ It was truly a team win. There was no doubt about it, but I think our defense in the first half allowed us to be as good as we were in the second half on offense. The staff did a great job and the offensive players came through in the clutch.”