Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State vs. Tulsa Quotes
11/9/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 9, 2002
Tulsa
Head coach Keith Burns
General thoughts on the game
"I thought it was a very hard, competitive game. The game kind of got out of hand in the second quarter. We needed to hold them and come into the half just down three touchdowns."
"I thought our defense played with great passion in the first half. And then to come back to hold them to three points in the second half was the right effort. You can't beat yourself when you're a young football team that's trying to get over the hill. We've got to eliminate those mistakes and learn from them. We've got two ballgames to finish out, and it would be great for these seniors to walk out with a couple of wins."
His views of Fresno State
"I take my hat off to Fresno State. Pat Hill does a great job. They are a very tough, physically minded football team. I like that. Our team is becoming that. We are very young, and tonight was a game of missed opportunities. But I like what they do here in Fresno. They have a great passion. This is real football here in Fresno. I give Pat and his staff a great deal of credit. I have a lot of respect for them. This is a model for what our program can be some day."
On what went right on Tulsa's long drive to start the second half
"We eliminated mistakes and played with a little more 'umph.' We got after it hard at halftime. And I thought we played with great passion."
On the youth of his team
"We lead our lead in [creating] turnovers, and the four tonight helped us. But when you lead that, you need to have more wins than we've got. But I think out of our 22 starters, 16 or 17 are freshmen or sophomores. We started a young true freshman in the secondary, and they took advantage of that in the first half. But as they game went on, he got better. And that's the way it is when you're young."
Fresno State
Head coach Pat Hill
General comments on the game
"I thought our defense and special teams played extremely well. The offense moved the ball up and down the field, but those four turnovers were killers. You can't afford to do that. It's frustrating because we stress ball-security. We have to get better at protecting the football. We are making improvements. I'm happy with the improvements we've made the past couple of weeks. This was a very big game for us. We have another very big game coming up next week."
On Nevada
"Nevada is really improved. That'll be a tough game. They have some juniors and seniors who have not fared very well against us. And I know they will come in here ready to play. There is a lot riding on that game, as there is every game from here on out. It's playoff time."
On the way Nevada played
"I was impressed with the way Tulsa played. Despite the adversity they've had this year, they played very hard."
On his team at the moment
"We have a lot of room for improvement. We have four weeks left, counting the bye week, to make some improvements, and make a run for a fourth straight bowl game. We can set the tone for the rest of the season and for next year with this young team by finishing strong."
