Oct. 20, 2009
Coach Hoke's opening statement:
"There's a lot of disappointment from Saturday. I know our players and I know as a staff on how we played in that football game, we had some opportunities on some third downs to two things, number one, and also continue some drives and we didn't execute. We've got to a better job there. I didn't think defensively ... you go back and look at the tape and we missed more tackles in that ballgame than we had in a long time. You've got to give BYU some credit, but at the same time, we have higher expectations of how we want to play as a football team. We're back to work today. We had a very good Sunday with the kids and a lot of them were around yesterday because they know we've got to go forward."
On the results of Alec Johnson's MRI:
"It's a little better than we thought. Right now it's just an MCL, they think strain. I don't think we have any ACL damage to this point. They were going to review it again and look at it again, we want to make sure, but there's a possibility of him getting back not this week but down the road. They still have to do a scope in there to look at some cartilage."
Others not playing this week:
"Atiyyah [Henderson] and Romeo [Horn] won't play this week."
On feelings toward other Mountain West Conference coaches complimenting team improvement or it being "window dressing":
"I think a lot of it is always `window dressing' but at the same time ... I have a lot of respect for Steve [Fairchild] and Bronco [Mendenhall], obviously, but we're nowhere near where we want to be, not even close, in how we play, how we prepare to play, the aggression it takes to play the game. It's something that we've got to keep emphasizing and our expectations aren't going to change."
On whether this game is a "measuring stick game" :
"We're playing Colorado State. I don't get into all that `measuring stick' and all that. We've got to worry about ourselves as much as anybody and I think that's a big part of us as a team is making sure that we understand how we want to play every week, and when I say that they know that we want to play physical, our kids know that we want to play with effort. The effort's been pretty good. Now you've got to have the execution, the effort, and the physicality of the game come together."
On the left guard position:
"He's done a really good job and I think with [Eric Quinones] and Ikaika is a guy who can swing to both sides. He's a guy with experience. He has played well and practiced well; in fact, when he came in the ballgame, he did a nice job. We had a problem on a twist game, but that was kind of a dual thing between the tackle and him. I really thought he did a good job. He's practiced very well the last three weeks and so it's good to see a young guy come in there and not be taken back by the situation."
On whether he's happy with offensive line:
"We're never happy because we've got too high of expectations. I think we're getting some development, I think we're getting some growth and maybe a little bit of maturity. You're six games in. There are no ... whether you're a freshman, true freshman like [Nik] Embernate. Nik, he's a veteran now and the expectations are for him to play like a veteran."
On Colorado State:
"I know they're a very well-coached and good football team. When you look at them as a whole team, they play with a lot of intensity, they play very hard, they run the ball. I know the numbers don't show it as much but they're very effective at running the counter play, the power play, and the different things they do. Offensively they've got good skill people. They like to take a lot of shots downfield. I think the quarterback's done a nice job, being a first-year starter for them. They've had a tough stretch: of the four games they've played, they've played four pretty daggone good football teams. They will be a challenge for us."
On correcting dropped balls:
"Sometimes you overemphasize the fact and then they don't think they can ever catch a ball again and sometimes you've got to just go back to the basics and the fundamentals of making sure you're not trying to do something before you secure the ball. I think that happened on I know at least two of the drops the other night. I thought they're trying to make a play and you like the heck out of that, that they're trying to make a play, but at the same time, there's the fundamentals and techniques that go along with it."
On being hands-on with offense:
"Believe me, I'm pretty much hands-on as much as I can be. They hear me when things aren't the way I think they should be, one way or the other."
On guys trying to make a play before catching the ball:
"That was it. They were trying to get the ball down the field, the yards after catch, and some of that is just finishing. We talk about this a lot, in finishing every play. To finish the play, you better finish the catch first, so that's part of it."
On Ryan Lindley:
"He played pretty well. I know Al [Borges] and Brian [Sipe] both thought he did a nice job. I trust them with their judgment on quarterbacks. I thought Ryan did a nice job with the offense. I thought when you look at footwork, ball handling, and the different things, also some of the play action games. He threw some long balls exceptionally well."
On Lindley having the kind of game that gets his confidence back:
"I don't know. Maybe. I think he's a pretty confident guy anyway. Sometimes the best coaching is the less said."
On a player taking his eye off the ball after hearing about that since middle school and whether playing the 18th ranked team caused mental mistakes:
"I'd like to think they didn't, but at the same time the way we played a little tentative on defense about going to make tackles and running through a guy. I can't tell you every kid was that way. Jerry Milling made a lot of plays. Maybe. I understand what you're saying. They've been catching the ball a long time. They're still 18- to 23-year-old kids. The one thing I'll tell you is [that] our effort and the way our kids have approached things to this point is improving every week and how they approach a game. That's the critical part of this whole deal is seeing that growth. We've got a significantly young team to some degree, maybe not as much on defense when you look at some the guys in the back end and the linebackers, but we're playing a lot of those other young guys through course of a game, which is going to help us from week to week."
On the development of DeMarco Sampson's game:
"Obviously it helps your total offense. It was nice to see him make big plays. Even Alston [Umuolo] getting him football a little bit and some of the things that he did. When you have a little more choices. People will play Vince [Brown] a little differently from time to time if they feel they have to but it's good to see a guy like DeMarco have some success and hopefully he can build off that."
On seeing Sampson's confidence improving:
"I think so. DeMarco's one of those guys who's got a bundle of energy and sometimes you've got to reign him back. But I'd rather reign back a bucking bronco than kick a steer."
On what can be taken from the BYU game:
"We're very disappointed. That's the first thing I can tell you, the kids who are on this team and we as a staff are very disappointed at the outcome of the game. I think we had some opportunities that we've got to take advantage of and we didn't do that. I think there were some coming back ... [the] frustrating thing, you let somebody score at the end of the half, whether it be the fourth quarter or the end of the second quarter, that's frustrating. Our offense went out and got the points back and so that's something that obviously we feel better about being able to do those kinds of things. Not being able to run the ball is always going to be one of the things that, as long as I'm the head coach here, if we're not effective in that part of the game then we're not playing offense like we would like to play offense. Defensively we didn't tackle the way we're capable and we've tackled for the most part of the season."
On what positives can be taken away from the BYU game:
"I'm still trying to find it. The quarterback played well. I think our protection was pretty good, for the most part. I thought kickoff return was better; I think we averaged 27 yards per return and that was something we had struggled on most of the year, so that was a positive."
Players: Ryan Lindley & Davion Mauldin
On what Coach Mendenhall said to him after the game:
LINDLEY: "I had a chance to meet Coach Mendenhall last year after the game. He's a great coach; he's done great things with that program. He just gave us some words of encouragement and said he thought we were a much-improved team. It's good to hear, although you want to hear that on the winning side, but it was nice of him to say that."
On whether compliments from other coaches helps confidence even for a loss:
LINDLEY: "I think it's still a loss, it's frustrating, especially when you look at the missed opportunities. You look back and it's like anything in life, it frustrates you when you miss opportunities to succeed but you move on. We've got a new conference game this week against Colorado State."
On importance of success against BYU to getting confidence back:
LINDLEY: "I think in the passing game, we did. I think we really haven't fulfilled our potential yet and I still don't think we did. You look at the tape and it's not as bad as it seems like New Mexico State but it's not as good as it seems either. We still left some opportunities out there, I think, in the passing game. We'll continue to improve and hopefully come out with an even better effort this week."
On DeMarco [Sampson]'s progress:
"We've been waiting for that breakout game all year. He continues to improve on his overall game. Coaches are really working on him, on getting all of the fine-tune, the details down, and the more he does that and the more work he puts in, he's just got a great attitude and a great heart for the game."
On being back returning kicks:
MAULDIN: "It felt real good. Our scheme was a little bit different this week. I found some creases in there, so it felt real good."
On change in personnel for returning kicks:
MAULDIN: "I was just added another one in, basically. It helped a lot."
On Colorado State:
MAULDIN: "Right now they [have] probably the most solid group of receivers we face. They're very active blocking, running down-field, catching passes across the middle. They have practically four guys that can do everything. Running back-wise at heart, so this is going to be a good game for us. This is the type of game that we want to play as far as [defensive backs].
On comparing coaching staff expectations between this year and last:
MAULDIN: "Personally, being a competitor, we have a team full of competitors ... we always wanted to win. It's just this year, it's much more expected. This past week was a heart-crushing loss, no matter what they were ranked or who they were. It was a conference game and we expected to win."
LINDLEY: "Like Davion said, being a competitor and a Division I athlete, you always want to go out there and expect to win. I think as far as with the coaching staff's philosophy, I think there's a lot more challenges they pose to us, and that's including the offseason, the way we've trained and the way we've worked with this coaching staff, they've put us in a position to give us the best chance to succeed when we get out there."
On figuring out defensive scheme:
MAULDIN: "It's coming along pretty good. I think number wise, the defense has been doing a lot better. It's just [that] we need to put forth that more effort and that much more `want to' to finish games, I think. That way it'll start to show in the win column."
On finding consistency and continuity with rotation of players:
MAULDIN: "I think that's more of a personal thing because a lot of guys like the fact that they get to get more rest during the game, not so much as being down, but as far as when you come in, you get to go 100% every single play and you don't have to worry about `well I'm tired now and I still have the rest of the quarter to play.' You rotate, you get in, go for effort where a couple of plays you're in, come out and go right back at it again."
On how the team has improved:
LINDLEY: "I think it's on both sides of the ball, especially I think it starts on the lines. The toughness is much improved. That's not to say we're where we want to be. We still think we can have a little more of a presence in those areas. I think that's ... with the work we put in the offseason just working as a team to be kind of more smash mouth in this league, I think that's what we want to do and that goes along with how we're going to improve as an offense in the running game."
On frustration in lack of running game:
LINDLEY: "You look at the film and we're one guy away every time. That's the way it is for a lot of people. I see it as something kind of encouraging that we're kind of right there, with the way Walter [Kazee]'s running and Brandon [Sullivan]'s coming back and we've still got Davon [Brown] and a lot of other guys can make plays. I'm still positive; I still think we can make some plays in the running game. I think we'll continue to improve. The line is working hard; they're doing a great job in pass protection. I think they'll continue to do better in the running game."