Aug. 26, 2003
SAN DIEGO -
San Diego State Head Football Coach Tom Craft
Weekly Press Conference Quotes - August 26, 2003
Craft on the team's running back situation:
"DeAngelo Nedd's got a concussion right now. We went into yesterday's practice with three running backs and Brandon Bornes was one of the three, so two of the three are true freshmen (Bornes and Lynell Hamilton). Lynell Hamilton and Michael Franklin have got the most extended playing time in camp, but I think Brandon Bornes will definitely play this year. What we have to do is create a role for him in a variety of ways. I think he can be a major contributor on special teams as well. Our plans right now are not to redshirt Brandon Bornes. We need to play him. He's 6-1, 222 pounds and has grown and is going to get bigger. I think he's going to make an impact on our football team."
Craft on the decision to not redshirt Brandon Bornes and other team injuries:
"I think injuries always have a lot to do with it (the plan to play Bornes instead of redshirting him) and it's early enough in the season where it gives him an opportunity (to play). I think the same thing would be true if we had four or five wide receivers go down and then maybe a receiver we planned to redshirt would have to be active. (Bornes) fell in that category, but he's a terrific back and you'd like to be able to have two running backs who come in the same class and end up in different classes by redshirting one and playing the other. Unfortunately, we're not in that situation because of injuries.
"We're seeing the injuries to people who were not active last year: Jason Van with the back spasm and DeAngelo Nedd, both were not active. Fale Poumele's in the same boat. Here's a guy who didn't play last year and he's injured as well, so the three that weren't able to play last year are all hurt."
Craft on if the team will hold back anything to prepare for next week's Ohio State game: "I wouldn't see why we would. To be honest with you, that's not even in our thoughts right now. The game right now, Eastern Washington, is going to take everything we have. If you look at the history of Eastern Washington, a couple years ago when Oregon State had their great team under Dennis Erickson and beat Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl, Eastern Washington was a team that almost beat them (OSU). I think Oregon State went 12-1 that year. They (EWU) have very good athletes. They're going to have a Division I personality to them. I don't buy into the Division I-AA concept of them at all. I expect it's going to be a physical, tough game."
Craft on how important a win against Eastern Washington is to the program:
"Our focus is that it's our first game and we want to win the opener. I don't care if it's Arizona, Eastern Washington or Sacramento State or whoever it is, the focus is on that team and we'll approach it no differently than if it was a Ohio State or Eastern Washington. Our focus is on that game (EWU) and it will stay on that game. The biggest challenge you have as a coach is that the game after that is perceived, particularly by the community and the players, as a big game because of the defending national champion concept. We're fortunate to have Eastern Washington to lead off the season and that's where our focus is right now."
Craft on how he keeps from looking ahead:
"Last year's a great example. We went into a very difficult preseason, but our focus was making an impact on the league (Mountain West Conference), laying a foundation and improving. When we got into league, we planned to fare better and we did. But we lost an opportunity to play in the San Francisco Bowl last year; we could have been a bowl team. We got nipped by Fresno State, we took Colorado deep into the fourth quarter, we took Arizona State deep into the fourth quarter and we let a game like this, a similar game, get away from us. Those things are lessons to be learned and it's easy to direct your team based on recent history of how important every game is now in the preseason, particularly when we did better in league for the first time in many years. So, I don't see us overlooking an opponent. We know how important those non-conference games are in the overall picture.
"We laid a foundation last year. That's been something that I've alluded to over and over. When I say that, it's the fact that we didn't throw the ball very well in this program in the past five years and all of a sudden, we had one of the most improved pass offenses in the country a year ago. We've laid a foundation in some areas of the program and now we need to make improvement in others. Our run game is the big focus now. We've got two very talented freshmen (Brandon Bornes and Lynell Hamilton) along with a returning player in Michael Franklin and some unknown players to us who are injured right now. But we're not afraid to play the unknown players in the program and we'll do whatever it takes to take each game at a time."
Craft on preparing for non-EWU opponents over past few months:
"We haven't done any background stuff on anybody except Eastern Washington. Coaches might have looked a little bit ahead, but our total focus is on Eastern Washington. What makes it difficult is they're not going to change to much offensively, but defensively, they've got a new defensive coordinator. What we may look at in the exchange of films may not be what we get on Saturday, so we're anticipating getting a different look and it puts a little more pressure on us and our preparation."
"Our focus has been on the game that we have first and it wouldn't matter what game it was. I have never seen Ohio State on tape and this is a much bigger game than the Ohio State game without question. It's the most important game to us and that's why you want to try to have your team learn those lessons - that you're just going to take them one at a time. That's a clich?, but that's what we've got to learn to do here. We would like to have a schedule that allows us to play teams that we can match up with. It doesn't mean that we're a lot better than them, but we match up with them. And then there's some teams that we're not going to match up with like UCLA and Ohio State. I think the challenge for us is to try and direct the focus of each game and play as well as we can with everything leading up to conference play. I think it was obvious last year. We came close but were not ready to take on a schedule like that. Maybe in the next three-four years, a schedule like last year wouldn't be as overwhelming to this football program as it was last year, which was the first year for us after taking over the program ... In the next two years, if we can have good recruiting classes like we did this year, there will be a different perception of this program."