Oct. 23, 2007
New Mexico Head Coach Rocky Long
Coach Long Press Conference Audio
(on preparing for a Thursday night game):
“I figure we lose about two practices. Mostly because you don’t give them any rest, so you cut practices short. You don’t hit as much so hopefully your team will be fresh. Then you don’t get as many reps in practice to prepare for what the other team is going to do. Now it’s fair for both teams because they’re on a short week too.”
(on Air Force’s offense):
“It will look completely different. It’s not as different as it will appear. They very seldom line up in anything that looks like the wishbone. They run a lot of plays that people consider normal offensive plays. They throw the ball pretty good. The quarterback (Shaun Carney) really throws the ball well, but about 25 percent of their plays are option plays. Some of those are triple option plays. They do it out of the I-formation or they do it with a guy in motion, and they do it with three guys lined up in an I (formation). So it won’t look the same, but there are a lot of the same things going on, which makes it very difficult to prepare for.”
(on the play of the Lobo defense):
“I think that especially on defense there are a lot of our players that in the last four weeks have really played well, but no one will know that because they alternate so much. They alternate each other so half the time you don’t know which 11 guys are in, and it’s not always the same defensive line with the same linebackers with the same secondary. They alternate by our pre-game plan. So there’s a lot of guys playing well, but the stats won’t show it. Most of the guys on our defense play 30 plays. Last week we played 22 players on defense.
(on the advantages of rotating defensive players):
“It’s good for the future because all those young guys are getting to play and they get better every week. We’ve got two safeties (Clint McPeek and Ian Clark) – and it depends on them – but they can be big time. The same defensive line starts with the same linebackers and the same secondary at the beginning of the game and at the beginning of the half. Those are the guys we consider the starters. But after that we mix and match. Kids want to play. If they get to play they practice hard and they get better prepared.”
(on his coaching style):
“I always try to coach like I was a player. I always thought it was unfair for a player who was good enough to play, but because the guy ahead of him might be half a step better or a year older, that guy got to play 70 plays even though the younger guy, who was good enough and practiced just as hard, only got to play three. That doesn’t make sense if the younger guy is ready to play. So I try to coach like I wanted to be coached.”
Junior LB Herbert Felder
Herbert Felder Press Conference Audio
(on how big the game against Air Force is):
“For us, every game is very important. I think against Air Force, it’s a big game because they only have one loss. They are a very good team, so this is a very big game for us as far as trying to get to our goal of Mountain West Champions.”
Senior WR Travis Brown
TravisBrown Press Conference Audio
(on UNM having its starting QB healthy against Air Force for the first time since 2003):
“It seems like we always play [Air Force] at the end or late in the season. There is a lot of wear and tear on your quarterbacks. This year we have had the fewest sacks around in a long time, so I think that is really going to help us out. Donovan (Porterie) is healthy and he’s throwing really well now-a-days, so we’re going in really confident.”