Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State vs. San Jose State Quotes
11/23/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 23, 2001
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Head coach Pat Hill
"I am extremely happy about getting a chance to go back to the Silicon Valley Bowl. We are going to play a big-name opponent. I know Michigan State, Clemson and North Carolina have been mentioned. I'd rather go to the Silicon Valley because we can take our fans and our players parents to the game. We can take 20,000 fans to that game. I'm very much looking forward to it."
"These games are hard. San Jose State played very well. That's the best I've seen them play all year. They threw everything they could at us. And I'll promise you something: Utah State will do the same thing next week. They are going to bring out all the stops."
"I'm very happy for this football team. We are the first Fresno State team ever to go to a bowl game three years in a row, and that's a great accomplishment. When I came here, our goal was to have winning seasons. Now we've been to three bowl games in a row and have been talking about going to a BCS bowl."
"San Jose State played very hard, but we knew they would. Today was a big game for them, and we just ended up making some plays in the end. It was a very, very hard fought football game."
San Jose State head coach Fitz Hill
"I'm very happy about how our team came out and played today. We played very well and very hard and executed our game plan. It's the same song, seventh verse with turnovers. The turnovers resulted in us beating ourselves. They (Fresno State) didn't beat us, we beat ourselves. And I will believe that until the day I die. It's the same team that couldn't lay an egg early and we've come back to play well. I am very proud of this football team."
"I thought we had a great game plan. The defense rose to the occasion and everybody came to play a football game today. We were mentally focused, but we came up short, and that's the bottom line."
"If we don't turn the ball over, we win the football game. There is no question that we self-destructed. In my opinion we should have had 24-28 points if we would have gone in and made some field goals before halftime."
"All of them bothered me. As Lou Holtz said, turnovers have a lot to do with coaching. Things like holding on to the ball and not throwing interceptions, those are coachable. Anytime a turnover occurs, it has to do with the coaches. Obviously we're not doing a fine job in teaching when and how to hold onto the football. As a coaching staff we need to teach how to react in those situations."
