Aug. 26, 2008
Check out what University of New Mexico head coach Rocky Long, nose tackle Wesley Beck and tight end Chris Mark had to say this afternoon at a busy Tucanos Media Luncheon, held on the third floor of the L.F. “Tow” Diehm Atheltics Facility. UNM President Dr. David Schmidly and ABQ RIDE Director Greg Payne were also on hand to talk about the new game day shuttle service to and from University Stadium.
ALL ACCESS:Greg Payne and UNM President Dr. David Schmidly Interview
Head Coach Rocky Long
ALL ACCESS:Rocky Long Interview
(on the players’ mindset entering Saturday’s game):
“I think they’re approaching this game like they always do. I think the team is really excited about it being the first game of the year. They know it’s a conference game and TCU knows it’s a conference game. Win or lose, it’s not going to completely make your season or it’s not going to ruin your season. Since it’s a conference game, there’s a little more juice to it, but I think our players are getting ready for it the way they do most season openers.”
(on the importance of winning the opener against a conference team):
“I think the upside is really good for the team that wins. It starts the season on a very high note and for two or three weeks until they play another conference game, you’re on top of the standings. Losing the first game of the year is not your season, especially when you play 12 of them. If you go into this game and think you have to win this one or your season is done, you could be done right away after the first week.”
(on the difficulty preparing for this game):
“Actually I think it would’ve been harder to get ready for Texas A&M the first week because they have a brand new coaching staff and you have absolutely no film on them. TCU and New Mexico know each other pretty well because we’ve played each other the past three years. So you base your game plan on what you’ve seen in those films. Now I’m sure we have some wrinkles that they haven’t prepared for and they’re going to have some wrinkles that we haven’t prepared for, and it’ll come down to how the teams adjust as the game goes along. But it’s a little more serious because it is a conference game. We started working on our game plan a little earlier than we normally do and I read something in the Fort Worth paper that TCU started their game plan earlier than they normally do.”
(on the overall impact of opening with a conference game):
“In my opinion it really hurts your team for the rest of the season to have to play a conference game this early. We would’ve spent more time developing young players, we would’ve spent more time developing depth because we would’ve started game planning for this game maybe three or four days later than we did this year. So when we started game planning – other than the guys who are going to be first or second string – we started working with the veterans. All the new guys got to stand around and watch. So you’ve hurt your depth for the entire season by having to play a conference game the first game out. Now hopefully we can go through the season without any serious injuries to guys, but it would sure help your depth if you had non-conference games to start the season because you can develop younger players.”
(on what makes TCU so dangerous):
“Their speed. I think TCU is an awfully good football team and that they’re the fastest team in the league. They’ve jumped on us every year that we’ve played them since they joined the Mountain West Conference and most of it has been because it’s taken our team about a quarter-and-a-half to adjust to the speed. I’m discounting last year’s game because last year’s game wasn’t a contest, but the two games before that they jumped on us early and I think that was our team getting used to their speed. Once we got used to their speed, I thought it was a good football game and we made comebacks where we had chances to win it. But you don’t simulate their speed in practice. It’s impossible.”
(on the affect a full stadium has on the home team in close football games):
“I think fans have a tremendous effect on the game when it’s close. I think a home field advantage – and that is mostly the fan support – gets you over some tough situations or pressure situations because of the energy in the stadium. The energy in the stadium always helps the home team. It might excite the visiting team at the start of the game, but it always helps the home team when it’s close at the end of the game. The energy in the stadium can get a team over the hump.”
Senior Nose Tackle Wesley Beck
ALL ACCESS:Wesley Back Interview
“We’ve been waiting for a long time, since off-season, to hit someone else. I’m starting to get that tingly feeling again. We try not to take things personally, but since the bowl game, we had a brief celebration and then we knew who the first game was, and we knew we had to come to work. We have been mentally focused since then. I think we are very mentally prepared and I think we are very physically prepared. Coach has given us a great game plan to perform the best. I can’t wait for Saturday. We have been very mentally focused. Since the second week of camp we have prepared for TCU. I think right now at this point we are very sharp and very mentally focused.”
Senior Tight End Chris Mark
ALL ACCESS:Chris Mark Interview
“The game plan for TCU is definitely not the same as last year. We had a couple months to scout them and we put some plays in just for this. We took some of the plays we had last year – which were good plays, just poor execution by us – and refined everything. We went back, watched the film, saw our mistakes and corrected them. I feel we have a very good game plan. This right here is our first conference game and then we have to wait another four to five weeks before we get another one. So if we win this one for four to five weeks we are actually winning the conference. People see that all over the place.”