Oct. 21, 2003
SDSU Head Football Coach Tom Craft's
Weekly Press Conference Quotes
Aztec Athletics Center
Craft's opening comments
On the New Mexico game:
Some really good things happened and some things happened that we've got to try to correct and that's what we look forward to - the opportunity to do so this week in practice, to work on some things to give us a better chance to have a successful experience on Saturday night. In particular, we had five drives of 60 yards or more (against New Mexico), which the only other team to do that (against New Mexico) was Texas Tech, but we only came away with one touchdown. So we've got to get back into the red area and do a good job and focus and clean some things up. I thought for the most part, our defense played fairly well. In special teams, we made three critical errors that probably resulted in 13 points. Of course it was pretty obvious we need to make some improvements on offense, but (in terms of) moving the football, we did a nice job.
On the team's injuries and the upcoming game with Wyoming:
We really feel good about going into this game against Wyoming and (capturing this win to) equal our win total from last year before going into the bye week. We've got three games coming out of the bye that we really look forward to. That's kind of our focus right now. The injuries have mounted up, but every team's going to be a little different on that. We haven't been able to handle it that well, but we've got to keep playing hard. Right now, (wide receiver) Jeff Webb's got a leg contusion, (wide receiver) Devin Pitts' got a contusion and couldn't finish the game, (quarterback) Adam Hall's got a sore shoulder. Whether it's a sore shoulder or bruised ribs, he should be available this week. (Running back) Lynell Hamilton has got a little bit of a hip pointer, but I thought he played exceptionally well under the conditions. Of course (defensive lineman) Johnathan Bailes has got a sprained ankle, (defensive end) Brandon Rager's got a strained shoulder and of course, (linebacker) Matt McCoy's got not only a stinger, but he's got a contusion as well. We'll try to work through it. I think Wyoming's coming into this game with a lot of confidence. They've had two good wins in a row, (including) a really big win over BYU last week. Looking at it on film, they had a lot of energy in that game, much more than BYU. You didn't have to be in the stadium to see the energy that Wyoming was playing (with), so they'll come in with a lot of confidence.
Craft on what the team needs to improve on:
There were a couple of instances where we didn't run the proper finish to the route at the top of the route with the wide receivers. There are little things like that that we need to go back to and be a little bit more precise. They're obviously fixable things that we can do to change it, like put in a little bit more effort and probably, more repetition would help. And we've got to do the things that match up with this football team. It may be different next year and it may be different the year before. If it means we've got to put more repetitions in, then that is what we'll do.
Craft on how quarterback Adam Hall's injury in the first game of the season has hurt the offense now:
He's not the kind of guy that we'd want to get hurt - we couldn't choreograph that. To lose him in the first game and not have him in for a month, he has still played well in some instances. I think it's the result of an inexperienced group of receivers that we've had in there. (Wide receiver) Jeff Webb's had his moments. He had almost 100 yards receiving again Saturday night, but (wide receiver) Devin Pitts emerged and had five or six catches for 75 yards. (Wide receiver) Robert Ortiz all of a sudden had 10 catches. We had (wide receiver) Jermaine Moore with a number of catches, so that balance is there. It's just the continuity that is rough because of the inexperience. I think when you add to that some of (Hall's) injuries, it gets you a little bit out of whack.
So the big thing is the injuries we've had up front. Danny Negrete got his first start as an Aztec at left guard (against New Mexico) and (offensive lineman) Gerald Sykes went down. Danny had to go over to right guard, where he hadn't spent a lot of time at. We also had to move an injured player back to left guard. These guys have a lot of heart, but we don't get any consolation for that. The one thing that's really evident, if you look closely, is how hard we're playing. We're playing with a lot of heart - as hard as we can. But I'm very confident because we did drive the ball very well and did some nice things. If you go by (Mountain West) Conference stats, (quarterback) Adam Hall's leading the league in passing and (wide receiver Jeff) Webb's leading it in receiving and we're starting to show some signs of being more dominant in that area. I think we can make some real headway with the run game right now. That's an area that's been affected by the injuries. We're hopeful that that's an area that we can improve on, because we have to have that presence to go with our passing game. That's one of the goals that we have this year (to have a balanced passing and running game).
Craft on whether running back Lynell Hamilton is getting less carries:
(His carries) have fallen off by maybe two or three a game. He was averaging about 20 carries. I think his 30 carries against Samford was a little bit more than normal. He's been around 16 to 18 to 20 - he was close. I think you always go into a game feeling like we're going to have to throw the ball. We threw it very well against New Mexico, maybe as good as any team has, and moved the ball well. We missed some opportunities with the run and those are the things that we're more concerned about and need to put a focus on right now this week. We've got to have his presence to go along, particularly if we've got a quarterback that's battered up a little bit. But (Hamilton's) a tough guy, has been very courageous and if we get the run game going a little bit, it's going to help.
Craft on whether the offensive line is letting down:
No, they're not letting down. I think the fact that there have been some injuries and we haven't had some continuity (has something to do with it). That's a group you need to have continuity with and they have to play together. So much of what everybody does on the offensive line (has to do with) continuity and their coordination together. When you disrupt it by having two new people in there, it can have an effect on you. For the most part, if we can get healthy and put some focus into those areas, we can improve. I know the bye's going to help us when we get to that, but we've got to have a good week of practice, put some focus on the run game and the red area game and I think we're going to be fine.
Craft on whether offensive linemen Gerald Sykes and Shawn Dickie will be available:
Dickie's going to be available, but he's not 100 percent. I don't know if Gerald will be ready to go. We're anticipating not having him this week. He's not going to be available today (for Tuesday's practice).
Craft on whether the team's bowl game chances add extra pressure:
No, I don't think so. I think what you do is you talk about some of the goals, but you don't dwell on them. I think if you dwell on them, then you go into a spiral mentally, which I don't think we have. I think we play hard - you can see that. If you look at the game against Wyoming and BYU, you can see a different BYU team. That's a team that has traditionally won for a number of years and they're having a really difficult time right now with effort. We're a program that's trying to continually improve. We should have aspirations in wanting to go to a bowl, but we're not going to dwell on it. I think you refocus your goals as you go through the season and we've had some things happen to us that were devastating - we lost a starting quarterback and we had a number of injuries. We're still playing hard and we see some things that we like. If we can clean up some areas, we're going to be a good football team with a good finish. Our focus right now is if we can win this game, equal our win output of last year and then get to a bye, and then try to regroup a little bit. We've got three good games remaining where we can make an impact in the conference, so that's what we're starting to focus on right now.
Craft on how much Wyoming's energy is because of new head coach Joe Glenn:
I think anytime there's a new coach, it can have an effect one way or the other. You never know. I go back to Vic Koenning (Wyoming's head coach last season). He took a program that was really spiraling and gave some foundation to it. They were close. You look at some of the games last year - 37-44 against Colorado State, who won the conference. We had to have a 24-play, 11-1/2 minute drive to close the game against them. They lost some really close games, but I think Joe's taking over a pretty good group of kids and he's got them going. He's got them playing with confidence after their two wins. How long they can sustain that is going to be the big question. I like their quarterback, Casey Bramlet, he's been a three-year starter. He's a great athlete. He's a threat to run with the football and maintains some spontaneity in the pocket to buy some time. He's also accurate throwing on the run. They've got a good group of receivers. They're very big up front - young in some areas, but big. They've made big improvement over the last two games defensively - they've been pretty dynamic. They shut down BYU and totally shut them down quite a bit. It was a game in which the Wyoming defense scored and that was the difference in the game, 13-10.
Craft on the SDSU defense being second in the conference in red zone defense:
We better go against them a little bit more in practice, and we may. That's one of the things that we may do. I think it's important that so many times you go against your scout team and your Kodac team. I think it's important you do ones vs. ones and we do some of that, because I think it's important to compete. Maybe (it's better to) compete in an arena where there's some unknowns. Maybe they're going to do something that we're not prepared to and we need to respond to that. I think that's very important. We may need to do some of that in the red area. There are some things that we're looking at this week that may help us through that and that's part (of the reason why we're) spending the extra time (on it). What we do with the Kodac team, we also might do with some defensive team and there are some similarities between what they do and what we might do.