Dec. 13, 2007
Head Coach Rocky Long
Rocky Long Press Conference Video
Rocky Long Press Conference Audio
(On what a victory in the New Mexico Bowl would mean for the program):
“That would be really nice. I think our team would like to be considered one of the best teams that’s played here. I think this year’s seniors – a lot of them are fifth year seniors – feels a little bit of extra pressure to win a bowl game because they have been listening to that [talk] (about how UNM has not won a bowl game since 1961) for too long. Being in the game and playing well, win or lose, means a lot to the program and recruiting.”
(On coaching his alma mater in a bowl game):
“(Nevada) coach (Chris) Ault and I talked a little bit about it. It’s a little deeper feeling when you are coaching your team. He played there and he’s got the same feeling for them as I do for us. It’s different. You’re not just coaching, you’re invested in your program. I can remember playing on that field (at University Stadium) and I can remember practicing out there (on the UNM practice fields) when it was just rocks. When you do stuff like that and you are back to where you started it makes things more stressful, it makes it more important, it makes losses harder to take and it makes wins more fun.”
(On the health of the team):
“The most serious injury I thought was (safety) Clint McPeek (neck). In the last three days of practice he’s been in full gear and practicing and running into people. Our team, because we’re not scrimmaging and we’re not tackling to the ground – we’re thudding as we like to call it – our team will be fresh, our team will be healthy. Now how rusty we’ll be tackling in the first quarter is yet to be seen. They will probably be pretty rusty, but everybody will make it to the game healthy.”
(On Nevada’s quarterback Colin Kaepernick):
“I think the defense really wants to play well. I don’t think they are putting any more importance on this quarterback than they usually do. He’s a young guy that’s started seven games. The first game he played the most, they scored 67 points. With him in there they average over 500 yards a game. They score over 40 points a game with him in there. That doesn’t sound like a rookie to me. With seven games under his belt I don’t see that as a freshman quarterback that we are going to be able to rattle.”