Fresno State Athletics
Pat Hill Quotes From Monday's Press Conference
9/10/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 10, 2001
General comments on the game
That was a big win. Going into Camp Randall, there were a lot of excuses we could have used. It was a short week, a long trip, an early kickoff, against a good team that hadn't lost a non-conference game at home since 1995. I think because we've never made excuses here, and the only thing that's ever been acceptable here from Day One is winning. I think our players understand that. No matter what faces them, they need to play hard, they need to compete and the only thing that's acceptable is a win. We always talk about that if we play hard and play smart, the scoreboard will take care of itself."
On what he said at halftime
"If you were going to write a Cliff's Notes version of it, I said the only thing that was going to be acceptable in Madison was a win. That's what they knew coming out. It wasn't going to be a moral victory. It wasn't going to be, 'Well we played them so close. But we had a lot of things against us.' It wasn't going to be any of that. The only thing that was going to be acceptable was a win. And they went out in the second half and beat them playing Big Ten football. We beat them being more physical, playing more sound defense, we beat them playing sound special teams and we beat them mashing up front running the football."
On what all the tough games and close losses in the past few years have meant to this team
"I think it's experience and guys being through tough losses and resolving not to let it happen again. I think one of the turning points in our program was 1997 in Eugene, Ore. That was a nine-win Oregon team, a very good Oregon team. We lost the game in overtime because they called tripping on the extra point that would have won it for us. So we went into overtime and lost it. And when I came into the locker room after the game, our players weren't happy by any means, but there was like a sigh of relief that we had been so close. At that time, I made it very clear to them that it wasn't acceptable in this program. The week before, we had lost 35-0 at Oklahoma State. People were looking at us like we might not win a game. But we went up the next week, and we played hard. So they felt good about their performance, and they did perform well. But the bottom line was that starting that day in 1997 was that we were here to win. And I think we've stuck pretty true to that."
On this week's game compared to the previous three weeks
"The plan has been good all three weeks. We've got to continue to have good plans and we've got to continue to have our players focus on the target. We talk around here about, '1-0 and that's all that matters.' And that's all that matters right now is being 1-0 after Saturday night."
On being concerned about a letdown
"No, I'm really not. Not with this team. I think we've been through those before. We haven't had many. We haven't been in a position to have a letdown. Except once against SMU we had one. We could have had one last year against Rice. To me, that was a very big game for us, winning on the road like that because we got their best shot."
On the Utah State game
"I talked to Nick Saban from LSU, and [Utah State] jumped on LSU early. They had them on their heels for a while. They are trying to do the same we're doing. I really respect what [Utah State head coach Mick Dennehy] is doing there. That's his second year, and they're a lot better than last year. They are trying to win against good teams on the road. They're trying to do a lot of things we're doing. They're going to come in here with the resolve to win."
On being the hunted and not the hunter
"You try and get your program to that level where people are gunning for you. I've always said the road up is long, but staying there is hard. What we've got to do is get up there and stay up there. That's why I've got so much respect for Florida State and those teams who do it year after year.
"We're just getting started. Everybody asks me a lot of questions, and I tell them you've got to start somewhere. You've got to do it over time. Over time, we've got to continue to be good. There's a lot of things we've got to do if we want to keep moving along."
On the state of the program
"We've got some very good football players here. Maybe they're not the household, Parade All-American names. But I think this program has developed some very good players and I think we've done a good job of evaluating talent. The players here work very hard to put themselves at a level where they're playing with the best teams in the nation and now winning, not just being close."
