Sept. 5, 2006
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – University of New Mexico head coach Rocky Long, safety Tyson Ditmore and wide receiver Marcus Smith addressed the local media this afternoon at the Tucanos Media Luncheon on the third floor of the L.F. “Tow” Diehm Athletics Facility. Click on the links below to watch coach Long’s press conference and listen to what Ditmore and Smith had to say as the Lobos prepare for Saturday’s intrastate rivalry game at New Mexico State.
The Lobos have won three straight over the Aggies and are also on a three-game road winning streak. Kick off is set for 6 p.m. (MST) and the game will be televised live on KRQE (Ch. 13 in Albuquerque).
Head Coach Rocky Long Quotes
Click here to watch the full Rocky Long Press Conference video.
Click here to listen to the full Rocky Long Press Conference
(on the loss to Portland State):
“We anticipated some problems, so I’m not shocked. I’m disappointed because I thought we played worse than I anticipated we’d play, but when you have a young football team, you try to get better and that’s what we’re going to do.”
(on the potential for the loss to linger and affect how the team plays on Saturday against NMSU):
“I don’t think it’s a concern. They’re young guys, they bounce back a lot faster than I do. Being that it’s New Mexico State, I think both teams will be ready to play.”
(on which of the team’s problems concern him the most):
“The problem from last week’s game is the concern for this week’s game. We’ve got a new scheme on offense, kind of a new scheme on defense, so we have players thinking and not playing as fast or executing as well as they could if they knew exactly what to do. I don’t know how much better you get after three days of practice, but hopefully a whole lot better because if we play the way we did last Saturday, New Mexico State will beat us bad.”
(on the significance of the rivalry game):
“I think rivalry games are more important. I think the emotions are higher. I think the local crowd interest is more. I think there’s some families that argue about it for a year, there’s former players that argue about it all year long. I think rivalry games are great.”
(on what concerns him the most about the Aggies):
“They’re a lot better football team than they were last year. They executed well (vs. SE Louisiana), they have more speed on offense, the quarterback really played well. He’s about six-foot, six and big, and we had trouble knocking the [Portland State quarterback] down last Saturday. On defense, they seem like they’re more athletic and run faster than they did last year.”
Junior Safety Tyson Ditmore
(on the NMSU air raid offense)”
“It’s tough coach Mumme has a great scheme out there and hopefully we can come up with something to counter it like we did last year. It’s going to be difficult they have a lot of new guys coming in with a new quarterback and they do like to spread the ball around, and with us having our unique defense I think that’s going to help us tremendously in this game.”
Junior WR Marcus Smith
(on the rivalry of New Mexico vs NMSU):
“Definitely is a big game, in the last three years that I have been here we haven’t lost to the Aggies so that is something I am proud of. It’s a big deal the state is going to be divided 50/50 on Saturday and from that day on win or lose it’s going to be who can brag about who for the rest of the year. You will have to hear about it until next fall when you play again if you lose so it’s a big time game for us.