Fresno State Athletics
Pat Hill Quotes From Monday's Press Conference
11/12/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 12, 2001
General comments about the SMU game
"I thought our team did not play like a Fresno State football team in that first quarter. But there were phases, especially defensively, that we were outstanding in the entire game. And we played really well in special teams, too. Offensively, in the second half, we really caught fire and started making plays."
"I'd like to give a lot of credit to SMU. I thought they did an outstanding job of pass defense on us early. I hear [Fresno State men's basketball coach] Jerry [Tarkanian] talk about the amoeba zone, and I think they played a little bit of an amoeba zone against us. They had some neat wrinkles and did some good things. But we shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times early. I think the players and the coaches made some good adjustments in the second half, and we made some big plays against them down the field. Those weren't there early, but we found a way to get things done."
"For some reason, we weren't hitting on all cylinders early offensively. Our defense played outstanding. We gave them seven right off the bat. Then the defense gives us back the ball, and we just turn it back over to SMU. We gave them a lot of momentum and a 10-0 lead. The players pulled it together very well. They did a very good job of pulling themselves together and playing very hard as a team in the second half. Our defense played hard the whole game."
"Our special teams was really, really good. Bernard Berrian made some plays on punt returns that were just courageous plays. He's so good in a small area. For a long-legged guy, he's super quick. That's probably the next guy that has a shot to shatter some records before he's done here."
About Rodney Wright becoming No. 1 on the FS all-time receptions list
"Isn't that great? I really didn't even know it...He's an outstanding player, and I'm really happy for them. He just got picked to play in the East-West Shrine Game. I was so proud of him after the game. Rodney doesn't say much. He just plays. He's a very, very competitive guy. He's really tough. I hope the experience that he's had here is going to pay off for him in the future."
On Fresno State's bowl possibilities
"I really feel if we just keep winning, we are going to be in a bowl game. Who are opponent will be, I have no idea. But hopefully it will be a team with a BCS affiliation. I think that'll be good for us. I think this team is really focused on what they have to do. We have to win out, and we've said that.
"I think San Jose is the best place for Fresno State if we can't go to a BCS bowl. There's some talk about the Tangerine Bowl, because the Big East might not have enough qualifiers. But I think for our fans and for our players, you're going to be playing the same type of opponent in those games. You're going to be playing a BCS team from the Big East or the Pac-10 or the Southeast Conference in those games. It'll be a fourth place team in those conferences, so you'll be playing the same type of team at any one of those bowl games."
"From a standpoint of our fans and players, San Jose is the best place for us. If USC beats UCLA this weekend, there's a good chance USC or UCLA will be the best available team. There's a good chance Clemson is going to be available. There's a good chance, in the Southeastern Conference, that LSU will be available. There's going to be teams in the Big Ten. From a standpoint of our fans being able to watch us, which I think is great, our players families being able to watch us, San Jose is a great fit."
On the Nevada game
"I think this is going to be a tough game. I have a lot of respect for David Neill, and their offense is very good. Our defense is going to be tested up there. I think we'll get a team that wants to prove something against us. I expect our practices this week to be very, very intense. They'll be no-nonsense practices this week."
"There'll probably be a lot of offense up there this weekend. It depends on the weather and the conditions in Reno. I think the cold and the wind and those types of things would be fine for us. I don't think it would bother us too much."
"[Nevada] spreads you out so much. They force you to get out and cover people. And they've got a running back that's a very tough north-south runner. They don't do a lot of fancy stuff in the running game. They just have a running back that pounds at you."
"Nevada has a guy that's capable of really pounding a defense. He's a very, very physical guy. We are going to have to gang-tackle this guy. I'm very impressed with him. Very rarely, when he gets tackled, are his shoulders not going forward. He's an impressive guy to watch. He's a physical running back. We are going to have to button up the chinstraps with him."
On playing defense in the WAC
"This is not an easy conference week-in and week-out to defend. You've got the run-and-shoot and the wishbone and the spread offenses of Louisiana Tech and Nevada and us. It's really tough."
On individual defensive performances
"[Nick Burley's] game against SMU was very good. He's got a great motor. We recruited him out of St. Francis High School in Palo Alto when he was about 6-feet-2, 210 pounds at the time. I remember the one school we had to beat was San Jose State. He was not a very highly recruited player. But he was a very active linebacker. The thing he did in high school is the same thing he does now: He makes plays."
"Another guy that really stepped up to the plate was Justin Johnson. He really played well for us."
"I think we've got some guys that are really starting to improve their game as the year goes on. And that's good. We need to start improving our game as the year goes on. I think our level is starting to pick up over the past couple of weeks."
On this being the final road game
"This has been a schedule that's really been demanding as far as being on the road. Hopefully we can end up with a road record that's the best in the history of the school. This team is going to break a lot of records this year. I said from the beginning that this is a very, very good football team."
