Sept. 9, 2008
Football Head Coach Rocky Long
Head Coach Rocky Long
(on starting quarterback Donovan Porterie):
“I don’t think he’s lost his confidence. I think he’s proven in the past that he’s a good football player and he just hasn’t hit his rhythm yet. When he does we’ll be a really great football team. He’s our starting quarterback and he’ll be in there as long as we have a chance to win the game.”
(on changing the practice schedule to afternoons instead of mornings):
“I think every team has a different personality and last year’s team thrived on morning workouts. In fact, some of the best practices we’ve ever had around here have been in the morning at 6 o’clock. This group has never shown an ability to practice early in the morning. The 6 a.m. practices haven’t been very good. I kept waiting for the practices to become like last year and they haven’t, so were not coaching them well enough. They’re not getting what they need to out of practice to play well. So we’re going to try to see if they perform better in the afternoon so that they practice better. Maybe we’ll be able to coach them better and they’ll play better.”
(on facing TCU and Texas A&M to open the season):
“Now it’s a positive and a negative deal. It’s a positive because it’s preparing us for later in the season. Playing good opponents always makes you a better football team just because you’re used to playing against really good athletes. Here in the next two weeks we’re going to play two of the most explosive teams (Arizona and Tulsa) on our schedule, but those two teams run similar offenses to New Mexico State, UNLV, BYU and Utah. It will give us a chance to sharpen up some things against that kind of spread offense that will give us an advantage later on in the season. The negative part of it is that the outside forces as they be don’t care who we’re playing. All they care about is if you win or lose. Players know what’s going on, players know what’s being said about them, players know what’s being said about the team. There’s a lot of negative energy that is hard for 18-year-olds to overcome.”
(on how last year’s win at Arizona will affect this year’s game):
“I think [Arizona] will probably have a little added incentive because we won last year, but last week A&M was suppose to have added incentive because they lost their first game. I think that might allow your players to concentrate a little bit better in practice during the week, but once the game starts, the first time you run into somebody, it’s a football game again. Anything said before the game doesn’t make a darn bit of difference once it’s kick-off time.”
(on Porterie building a level of trust with his new wide receivers):
“I think quarterbacks get really comfortable with guys they’ve played with. Our quarterback is playing with basically all brand new wide receivers. Maybe they’re not all quite on the same page as well as they were last year when he had veteran receivers who he had played with for a year-and-a-half. He’ll get better, the receivers will get better, he’ll get more comfortable with them and the execution will be better. I thought the first week our offensive line didn’t play very well. I thought our offensive line played fairly well in the second game as shown by the better running game against just as athletic of a defense as the week before. I thought our kicking game was very suspect in the first game, but was pretty darn good in the second game. So there was progress that was made. Have we played good as a team yet – no. Will we play good as a team? Sooner or later. I hope it’s this Saturday.”
Junior Quarterback Donovan Porterie
(on adjusting to a new group of receivers):
“We’re just working out all the kinks. It’s a lot of the guys’ first times being in certain game situations and I have to adjust to those guys. I think they’re coming around. They’re doing a good job for me in practice and last game they picked it up in the second half and made some plays. Right now we’re just going through a phase and just have to get over the hump.”
(on how playing TCU and Texas A&M in the first two games has prepared the offense):
“I believe that the two games we played previously have gotten us to a point where we’re playing with a faster pace. I’ve seen big improvement from the first to the second week. Sometimes you just go through ups and downs during a season. Hopefully that was a down point and we’re coming up from it, but I really do think that our first two games have gotten us prepared to this point to go out there and do some thing on Saturday.”
(on facing the pressure that comes with being a starting quarterback):
“I can take it. Like I’ve told all the reporters, I’m not going to point the finger at anybody. Things do run through me and I’m going to throw an interception now and then, but it’s my job to keep going. I can’t really dwell on turnovers and things like that, I just have to keep playing. That’s how (offensive coordinator Dave) Baldwin coaches me and that’s how I’m going to play. Like I said earlier, I have to compensate for more things (in the offense) than I have had to in the past, but that’s part of me growing also. I’m a junior, so there’s still some thing that I have to learn, but just like everybody else, I’m learning from game experience and I’m looking forward to getting another shot at it on Saturday.”