Fresno State Athletics
Pat Hill Quotes From Monday's Press Conference
10/15/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 15, 2001
On Boise State's quarterback Ryan Dinwiddie
"I think he's good. We thought he was good coming out of Elk Grove. At the time when he was coming out, we were looking at [current FS quarterbacks] Nate Ray and Paul Pinegar. But he was a guy we really looked at hard. We thought he was a great quarterback. We just went a different direction. That young man is a guy we thought was a very good player."
"It's no surprise to me he's doing well. Not only is he a good player, he's very competitive. He's a lot like Nathan Ray in that type of approach to the game. I think he's a winner. He's going to be a big-time quarterback for them. He's special. And he was special in high school."
On Boise State
"They are a lot like us. They have a lot of receivers, a lot of running backs. They are a good football team. Offensively, they move the ball pretty well. They moved the ball well against South Carolina and Washington State. They will move the ball. Our defense is going to have to play well."
On the victory against Colorado State
"It's great for our confidence. We've been in four overtime games since I've been here. We've won three, and we lost in double overtime to Hawai'i. Getting to the overtime was the key. That was really the key. There was no panic on the sidelines. That was a deflating moment when they scored. But when you look at the scoreboard, and it's 27 seconds and three time outs - every Thursday we work the one-minute drill. It's one minute with one time out to get a field goal. We thought with the three time outs we had a chance for three long plays."
"We overcame a lot in that game. We overcame a tough Colorado State team. I don't think many teams would have won in Fort Collins on Friday night. I was really proud of the way we played."
"We missed a lot of tackles. We didn't play defense the way we usually play defense. But we came out of there with a win, and the way we won it was very good for this team. I don't think they will ever think there's a game that they'll be out of. We're going to have some more white-knucklers just in the next three weeks. The next three games all have the possibility of being just like that one."
On the offense
"I was pleased with a lot of the things that happened on offense. We had a few plays we could have got. We had to settle for field goals, and that's not good. We've got to score when we get down there."
On who will replace Jason Stewart
"Grant Harrington, Fai Satele and Del Hawkins will all be in the mix. And George Benson, too. Some of our young players will have to step up and make some plays."
On the defense
"They aren't happy at all. They didn't play well defensively. But when we needed to make a play at the end, we made the play. And that's what it's all about. It wasn't from lack of effort on defense. We've got kids who can really run. We just weren't doing a good job of our gap cancellations. We were getting mauled and running by plays. We missed tackles in the open field. There were a lot of open field tackles we missed. But we'll learn a lot from that, though."
On recruiting now that Fresno State is top 10
"There's a lot of young men very interested in us right now. It's the same type of kids we've always recruited. Besides what people want to say -- that we're taking guys that USC and Washington want -- that's not happening here. We're recruiting the same type of kid we've always recruited. I'm not worried about first or second round draft choices. I'm very happy with late round draft choices and free agents who are tough kids. And if we get a couple first rounders along the way, that's great. We just want good, hard-nosed players. We are not going to change the way we recruit just because of the success we're having. The reason we're having the success is because of the type of players we have: Valley kids, California kids, high school football players."
