Sept. 16, 2003
SAN DIEGO -
SDSU Head Football Coach Tom Craft
Weekly Press Conference Quotes - vs. Samford
Craft on Samford:
"I know that Bobby Bowden started his coaching career there and Terry Bowden did too and they're off to a 2-0 start. They're in the Ohio Valley Conference; they're excited about (their first year in the OVC). They've had a bye (week), so they've been able to break us down (on film) early. They're a team with excellent team speed and they've got an outstanding receiver who's put up some big numbers. He's quick, fast and athletic. The area we have to control is the line of scrimmage - that's going to be the key to the ballgame."
Craft on playing at home:
"We haven't been home for two weeks now and we're anxious to come home. The trip to Ohio State is a three-day trip and then to turn right back around and to go to UTEP, it seems like we were there for a week. It's good to be back in San Diego. The players are looking forward to getting back home and playing. Defensively, we're on a roll right now. We're playing really well and with some enthusiasm and we're getting a lot of people involved, which is important early in the season to play a lot of different personnel groups. Our kicking game's been very good, at least early. Offensively, we're a lot more inexperienced than I would expect. We've gotten better if we look at how we played the first week. We feel a lot better about where we're headed now, starting the fourth week."
Craft on the progress of quarterback Matt Dlugolecki:
"You look at him statistically, he's completed 60 percent of his passes. For a back-up in the situation he's been in, he's probably had the toughest test that any quarterback's had in a while, playing against Ohio State on the road."
Craft on the progress of the MWC:
"We know that the Mountain West Conference has gotten better from top to bottom. It's the most balanced conference in the nation. We don't have an upper echelon and a lower echelon group of teams like a lot of conferences have. Because of that, we want improvement at a faster pace. As a coaching staff, we have to be patient and know that we're playing with a back-up (quarterback), some new receivers, new tight ends and a new running back. They've come along; they've progressed well."
Craft on whether or not the team's looking ahead to UCLA:
"I hope not. I don't think so. This was an obvious question last week. We handled that in camp. Our players understand that the front end and the back end of Ohio State are critical. They proved it last week by playing a really solid game on the road. It's tough to go on the road to Ohio State with three days of travel and then turn around and travel again. I'd like to think that we are focusing on ourselves and the improvement we need to make. As a coaching staff, we identify the areas and back it up by how we structure practice and not just say these are the things we have to do and go back to the same practice schedule. We try not to do that and try to go with one-on-ones a little bit and not bang each other up. If we can tighten the violin like that and go against each other in a minimal fashion, I think we can stay sharp and get what we want (out of it)."
Craft on why fans should come out and see Samford:
"Why should they come out and see Colorado? Why should they come out and see Wisconsin? This is a game we are playing because we lost (the game against) Kansas. Kansas pulled out of our game and we'd much rather play a game than not play at all. They (Samford) were available. We tried to work the Marshall game in, but they didn't want a future game at their place down the road in their schedule. They wanted it in back-to-back years. Samford was available and they have a pretty good heritage. They had some outstanding coaches there with Bobby Bowden and Terry Bowden. They're off to a 2-0 start. They've got good team speed. They'll probably be an exciting team. They run a wide-open offense and run a variety of things. They don't even have a tight end."
Craft on whether Samford has a similar style to Eastern Washington:
"We would expect Samford to have a little more team speed than Eastern Washington (at least on film) and they're much more wide open. They do give you more of a variety of looks on defense and on offense from a scheme standpoint. On special teams, they run every look and fake known to man on their punt team, which might be to cover up what they're doing with the punt. The challenge comes from their athleticism and team speed and of course (the fact that) they're very diversified in schematics offensively and defensively."
Craft on the special teams' kick-off coverage:
"Last week against UTEP, we gave up more yards than we should have on kickoffs. We've got to make that competitive. We have some people trying to get on that team right now. We have some good players, but if we have to make some personnel changes because of the way practice goes, we'll do it. (Kicker) J.C. Mejia had the groin strain and didn't knock (the ball) into the end zone every time, but we can't expect him to do that. We have to be a little bit better on coverage. Where we weren't up to standard was on our kickoff coverage.
"(Samford) has an exceptional return guy and wide receiver and we've got to nullify them."
Craft on MWC teams attracting more national exposure:
"We did play Ohio State tough and the reaction that we got nationally from radio and some of the people who saw that performance is good. That's what Ohio State brings to you is that type of exposure. When you play them tough, it becomes a positive. Of course if we don't play them tough, then it's not a positive.
"What UNLV did against Wisconsin, what Utah did with Cal and what Colorado State does on a regular basis (attracts national exposure). Air Force is also off to another great start, beating Northwestern again."
On Mountain West Conference schools' defense:
"If you look at the BYU-New Mexico score (10-7 BYU), the defense is a little ahead of the offenses. A lot of people have adopted the 3-4 and the 3-3-5 package. It's difficult if you're not prepared to deal with it. The Wisconsin staff said it really well before their game with UNLV. They didn't know if they'd be able to protect the quarterback and they were concerned about the blitz package that (UNLV's) defense presented. That's a factor in the success of our conference - that BYU, New Mexico and Air Force are running a 3-3-5. I think you're going to see Wyoming and UNLV (run it), who knows."
Craft on why MWC deserves to be in the Bowl Championship Series:
"I think they're a couple things that we need to consider. Our volleyball, our men's and women's basketball teams, our soccer teams - you can go up and down all the sports here (at SDSU) and they all have a chance to compete for a national championship. We're the only program in this athletic department that can't basically. I mean the BCS says we can, but what generated this whole BCS thing is not letting a team sneak in like a BYU, who has gone 12-0 and has won a national championship. When you have a high profile team like that and it goes 12-0, has a high reputation in this conference and to have them ignored is a slap in the face to us and it's not fair. That's one of the aspects that we're objecting to right now.
"I think the other thing is the finances, which becomes a big factor now in college athletics. Compare Ohio State's budget to our budget. There's no equity there at all with the way the bowl games are structured now in the BCS. It's similar to the way it was back years ago when teams like USC used to scholarship 140 players and Long Beach State could only scholarship 40 or 50. But the NCAA said we're going to balance this thing. The BCS has now put an imbalance back into college football.
"I think we (the MWC) have raised some issues that need to be addressed in the future, but as a conference right now, we're a little fed up with it. We think it's nonsense and object to it and protest against it. What we've got to do is when we get opportunities out of conference, like we've had this year and we've done very well, is to continue to evolve and show that our conference is strong and that we've got great balance. This year we've got as good a balance top to bottom as anybody in the country."