Sept. 12, 2006
SAN DIEGO - SDSU Football
Weekly News Conference Quotes
Sept. 12, 2006
Aztec Athletics Center
Head Coach Chuck Long
General Comments:
"We're excited as a program and a football team to go up to Wisconsin, a Big Ten school with a great atmosphere and one of the best venues in college football. We welcome the challenge of going up there and playing them. We've had two good weeks of practice and preparation for Wisconsin. In our off week, we concentrated, not only on Wisconsin, but on getting our guys healthy and their legs underneath them again.
"We're excited to play. This is the type of game that puts you on the map as a program not only for your own confidence, but for recruiting. It gives you that national exposure that every football coach covets."
On quarterback Darren Mougey:
"Darren has been doing great the last week and a half. It's different coming off the bench as opposed to going in as a starter. When you come off the bench, you're loose. You have that nothing-to-lose mentality. When you become a starter, sometimes you feel like you have more responsibility. This last week and half, he has played not only very loose, but very well. With Darren, we never felt he was not a starting quarterback. I looked at it as a 1A and 1B situation with Kevin (O'Connell) and Darren. We gave most of the reps to Kevin, because he separated himself coming out of spring. I don't think Darren ever believed in training camp that he wasn't a starter. He practiced every day as if he was the starter and I think that has paid off for him already."
On Darren Mougey's leadership style:
"I would say Darren is a little less vocal than Kevin. Darren is quieter, but I don't mind that. There are different ways to lead, and he still has a nice presence about him when he gets in the huddle. He has great huddle command, and the guys have responded to him not only in the last game, but in practice as well. That's what you look for in a starting quarterback, someone who makes plays in games and performs well in practice."
On the strategy with Darren Mougey at starting quarterback:
"(Our strategy) won't change much because we felt good with both Kevin and Darren in their running ability. We want to use Darren's running ability to our advantage. There's a fine line between using him in running situations and not wanting him to take a lot of hits. We have to gauge that as we go since we have a running back (Lynell Hamilton) we like and someone we want to give the ball to. He hasn't had the repetitions like Kevin, but he is close. He knows the system and has had an excellent summer. He's getting all the repetitions now so that enables us to increase his work load."
On the keys to success against Wisconsin:
"They have big guys up front; their lines are over 300 pounds on both sides of the football. You like to spread it out a little bit on them and create some space offensively. As far as getting into a slugfest with them, we're going to have our moments where we do that, but we want to keep them off-balance as much as we can. Defensively, I know we do it already, but we like to keep our guys fresh and rotate our front four. They do have some guys up front that are 320 pounds-plus, and we know that they want to smash that football in there a number of times. We have to make sure that we are very sound in our gaps defensively, because that's where they'll take advantage.
"They also have a good special teams unit, and we have to improve in that area. That's been a big focus for us the past two weeks. We have a better idea (of that) after the first game. That's the one thing you don't know as much being the head coach is who your special teams players are until you get to game day, because its hard to simulate the speed and tempo in practice. We have a much better idea going into this game who our special teams players are. We've made some adjustments, and we feel like we will improve in that area."
On instilling confidence in the players:
"You build confidence through repetition and having a better understanding of your system. That's the best way to build confidence and beat another team is having confidence in our own system. We feel like our players are starting to settle in to what we are trying to accomplish. We want to give (our players) the best preparation we can and put them in the best situation to succeed on game day. We work hard as staff to do that."
On Wisconsin running back P.J. Hill:
"He reminds me a lot of (former Badger running back) Ron Dayne. He's very strong and compact, and he runs hard. We have to do a good job of gang tackling (him). That's going to be a big focus for us. The first guy has to get there and make the stop. Then we have to have others there to help with the gang tackle. When you look at their first two games on film, that's what got their opponents in trouble. He was running over the first guy, breaking tackles and the defense didn't have enough people there to slow him down. We've worked hard the last couple of weeks on that. Gang tackling is how you play good defensive football. That's how we have to play against them, because we know that they're going to run the football."
Quarterback Darren Mougey
On facing Wisconsin:
"As a team, I think we're all excited to get in a big-time environment against a team with a great tradition in the Big Ten and great fans. It's a chance to put our team and this athletic department on the map, playing in front of a big crowd and getting nationally recognized."
On assuming the role of starting quarterback:
"I'm really excited for the opportunity. I've been here for a couple years now and gotten some playing experience, but this is my first real test. I'm excited for my first test to be a big test, against (one of) the best in Wisconsin. I'm excited to prove to my teammates, myself and this community that I can play at this level."
On what a win against Wisconsin would mean:
"It would be huge for this team and this program. Like coach (Long) said, these types of games can put us on the map, get us some recognition and respect. It would be huge for this team for the rest of the season. We could build on that momentum and keep things going."
Linebacker Russell Allen
On the bye week:
"I thought it was beneficial. We obviously had some things we needed to work out after the first game. We had some issues and things that we needed to correct, and we took that week to do so. Because of that, I think we'll be a better team."
On facing Wisconsin running back P.J. Hill:
"He's a good running back. What we need to do is be good, sure tacklers. That's always something that's first and foremost when you're playing defense. We have to stay in our gaps and play our assignments the best we can. We have to make sure we're physical and not allow him to break tackles and gain extra yards, because he's a very physical back himself."
Wide Receiver Chaz Schilens
On the bye week:
"I think the coaches and players have been treating it as another mini-camp. We got another chance to really practice and iron out some things on both sides of the football."
On playing in front of a big crowd at Wisconsin:
"I think the biggest thing is not getting overwhelmed by the environment. It's easy to go into a place and have more butterflies than you would in a regular game. We have to block out the crowd and realize it's just a football game. When the crowd does get into it, we have to thrive on that. We have to take the high and lows, not overreact to certain situations and just play the game out. Hopefully in the end, things will go our way."