Colorado State University Athletics
Postgame Quotes
9/10/2011 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 10, 2011
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CSU Head Coach Steve Fairchild
General: “I like the way we came out and played obviously. I also liked how we played our best game of football in just about every area. But then again, I think there was some letdowns in the second half. You can tell we lost our focus there defensively in the second half playing in those two scoring drives. Offensively we sputtered around a little bit. We did have quite a few injuries, particularly at the fullback spot, which took us out of what we were doing. But top to bottom, pleased, and I think we got better today and I think we got a lot of playing time for a lot of people. I think we improved in a lot of areas, so I’m happy with the win and we’ll go to work tomorrow and put this game behind us and get prepared for the University of Colorado next week.”
On whether he leaves feeling like he made a major stride: “Yes, I think we did; there’s no question about that. You look at how we played, all the cylinders there early on, and I think we did make a step forward. I was very pleased with everything in the first half.”
On the status of LB Mychal Sisson: “Yeah, it’s a lower-leg injury that appears to be quite serious and we’ll know more tonight. But you know you’re talking about a guy that I don’t think has ever missed a game and I think he’s started every game (missed one start). He’s going to be out for a while, and obviously I won’t know all the details until they look at him more tonight.”
On what his team loses without Sisson: “His leadership is important. He’s a special player and you miss him during the week because he helps other kids. But that is all part of the game. Next guy up, we know that and we keep playing.”
On whether Sisson’s absence was the reason for the let down in the defense the second half: “I think we’re still a little young and we just lost focus. There is a fine line between good and bad, play in and play out, and you can just see we lost it on both sides in the second half.”
On the seriousness of the CSU injuries: “Well, they appear to be very, very serious. It is what it is and the next guys have to play.”
On whether he fears injury in a game like this: “Well, you don’t want to see anybody get hurt on your side, and even your opponent, but that’s the game of football.”
On whether he thought about replacing QB Pete Thomas: “Yeah, there was a lot of thought to it, but I really just wanted Pete to work with the other players, so that was more important at that time.”
On the play of his wide receivers: “Yeah, we got more work with them this week. We got more intermediate throws with them. We had (Thomas) Coffman playing and there was some pass interference on that one. So we are far from where we need to be at that spot, but we got some work today and hopefully we’ll improve more this week.”
On the team’s running game: “For the most part, we were hitting it in there good, getting on the right guys. I’m sure when we look at the tape there will be some flaws but it was better than last week, obviously.
“There was a time in the game where it was not in question and we just wanted to keep guys coming in. We have to remedy some plays with running the ball because some of those stops shouldn’t happen.”
On the three interceptions, offensively: “Not good, obviously, and we won a game where we lost the turnover margin and that’s not good, either, but there were a lot of good things that happened out there and that’s why we won.”
On whether his team grew up Saturday: “Yeah, like Aaron Davis, who came in as a true-freshman linebacker, and I saw a lot of improvement. We were able to roll a lot of people through and played a ton of snaps. A lot of people grew up a bit, but we still have a long way to go.”
On the jump this team needs to make to beat CU Saturday: “Big jump, obviously. But we plan on doing that and we had a good practice last week, so hopefully we’ll do the same. And I anticipate we will, and play even better than we did today.”
On whether he sensed any new energy on the field Saturday: “Yeah, I think I did. I tell them to sense these rare opportunities and just ask any senior, this thing goes by fast and we’re all very fortunate to do this on a Saturday afternoon. They love to play in front of fans, and I think they did well.”
On Raymond Carter breaking the early big run: “Well, it was important, but again I liked what I saw last week and I certainly liked what I saw this week a little better. I think we have a chance to be a physical run team.”
On whether he was impressed with the backfield: “We entered in some better spots, and you knew what everybody was doing. I think Pete (Thomas) did a good job getting us out of some things in the run game.”
UNC Head Coach Earnest Collins
On second-half performance: “A loss is a loss. I appreciated the players coming out and playing hard the second half. I challenged them to win the second half. We were down 28-0 and we could’ve folded over and let it be 56-0. Toward the end of the first half they started to believe in themselves so I challenged them to win the second half. They came out and did it and that’s something we have to build on.”
On second-half run defense: “Football is really a simple game when you do what you’re supposed to do. Do your job, not anyone else’s job. In the first half we were trying to do too many jobs. Just do your job and you’ll usually come out on top.”
On Quintin Hildreth: “We knew when we got him he’d be a good running back. We didn’t expect to use him this fast but when you have injuries early in the season you have to count on your guys. It’s the next man in. The quarterback position, the running back position or whatever position we have, the next guy has to be ready. Quintin did a great job stepping in and making it happen for us.”
On Elliott Dorsey and Cameron Friend: “You like it when your kids are involved and making plays. On Cameron’s point, he had two picks, one on a batted ball at its highest point and the one he had on the goal line. That’s awesome. With Dorsey having so many tackles, it is a blessing and a curse. You don’t want your secondary to have all those tackles because that means something up front is going wrong. I am glad he was there to make those plays. Because he made those tackles they weren’t in the end zone even more in the second half. I’m happy those two kids made the plays they did. We are going to keep working at it.”
On the team’s overall performance: “It is a work in progress with our whole football team. We need to change the mind sets of these young men and get them to believe that they can win ball games. We lost the game, bottom line. When you’ve been getting beat five or six years in a row, you have to take everything you can and build off of it. We won this second half and we are going to take that, build off of it and keep going.”
UNC PLAYERS
RB Quentin Hildreth
On adjustments in second half: “We wanted to establish the run and then when we started doing that, we started getting a lot of gains. We got our first touchdown of the game starting out with the run.”
On the job of QB Matt Baca: “Just like I said last week, you never know when something happens. Not sure why Dylan Orms came out but Baca came in and did what he was supposed to do.”
On whether UNC can gain some confidence after the way it played the second half: “At the half, Coach was chewing us out and he said win the second half and that’s what we did. We rolled with that.”
On the quality runs in the third quarter: “When we get gains, we build a lot of confidence; when we get confidence, nobody can stop us.”
On what CSU was doing to stop the run in the first half: “It wasn’t them, it was us. We were stopping ourselves. I saw the lane, made a cut, fell. That was all my fault; it had nothing to do with the defense.”
QB Matt Baca
On whether he was expecting to play in the second quarter: “No, I was not expecting to play at all in the second quarter. I was prepared to give Dylan all the signals and then they told me to get ready to go in.”
On still giving the team a boost: “It’s not hard, if you prepare. Coach Boyer and Coach Armour had us prepared. It’s preparation and the coaches did a great just with that.”
On offensive adjustments in the second half: “We ran a lot more quick game. The running game picked up; of course when the running game picks up, the passing game will pick up as well. The running game definitely helped out; it opened up those receivers and we were able to drive it down field and score.”
On whether they can take something from the loss: “Oh definitely. We won the second half and we showed what we can do. In the Big Sky, we’re going to come in and shake some things up.”
DB Elliott Dorsey
On what kind of adjustments they did in the second half: “Honestly, we just went into our base defense. We tried to pressure and disrupt the quarterback’s throwing. We made sure we contained the run and kept it in the box.”
On whether the CSU offense in the first half was the Rams or Bears doing: “I’m not too sure. We’ll have to go back in and watch some film. Obviously it was most likely something they were doing too, as well.”
On CSU’s running backs: “I’m more impressed with their offensive line. They actually got two good backs but their offensive line actually carried their team and their running game and that’s what I was more impressed with.”
On what he can take out of the loss: “That’s one of our mottos for next week, is to build on this second half. The defense came out and stopped them and held them to three points. They only put up five points in the second half so we are definitely going to build on this for next week.”
On whether Pete Thomas is good as advertised: “Yeah, he’s pretty good. He made some great reads out there. We were sitting in zone coverage and he made some pretty good reads out there.”