Fresno State Athletics
Pat Hill Quotes From Monday's Press Conference
8/26/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 26, 2002
On the Wisconsin game
"I feel we played very, very hard. But we did not play typical Bulldog football. Turnovers are something we work very hard on. If you are going to play tough games like that on the road, you can't make those kind of critical mistakes. Four turnovers is way too many. We had some penalties. And I know penalties are a part of the game, but they came at some really critical times."
"We didn't make the plays we needed to make to win. We had opportunities to win that game, that's the thing that's very hard for me to swallow. That's a winnable game, and we just didn't get it done."
"I think the city and the crowd showed that was a very big win for them. They were very excited about the win, and that's not always necessarily been the case when we play these teams on the road. They planned hard, they worked hard, and they played well enough to win it. But we just didn't play smart."
"You had two teams playing very physical football. I think if you look at the rest of the games last weekend on TV, most of them were sleepwalkers. But we had a good game, we just came up short."
"We stress ball security. We don't talk about turnovers. We stress ball security and takeaways. We haven't had a turnover game like that since Ohio State in 2000. That was uncharacteristic of us, and I don't think we're going to have those types of games very often here."
On San Diego State
"It's a new coaching staff. It's like a lot of openers when you play against a new team. All we really have to go by is what [SDSU head coach Tom Craft] did at Palomar [Junior College]. They've got some good receivers. They've got good skill guys. They've got a quarterback who can throw it. And Coach Craft and his coaches understand the passing game. We know San Diego State has skilled athletes because we watched them last year."
"On defense, they've got a guy that played in the East-West Shrine Game last year, and he's coming back. I talked to [former SDSU coach] Ted Tollner, and he felt they had very good defensive personnel coming back."
"I think they are going to have a very good football team. Don't think San Diego State is going to come here without athletes. They are going to have athletes."
On the Jeff Grady injury
"Jeff played hurt against Wisconsin. I wanted to take him out of the game, he refused to come out. That was his decision. At that time, there was no talk of any career-threatening injury. As long as he kept moving, he was alright. At halftime, he was walking around all the time."
"He was a lot better Saturday than he was Friday night. And he was a lot better yesterday than he was Saturday. Hopefully, he'll keep making an improvement. The MRI showed there was no injury to the capsule in the hip. But it's not an injury that's going to keep him out for very long. It's just a question of how quickly the mobility comes back. He's treating every day right now."
"We're going to hold Jeff until he's ready to go out and take reps. But if Jeff's ready to go against San Diego State, he's our starting quarterback. But if Paul Pinegar starts the game and has a great game, there's not going to be a starting quarterback controversy - Jeff Grady is our starting quarterback. We think Paul is going to be a fantastic quarterback, but if Jeff Grady is ready to go, he will start. This is Jeff's team right now."
On the Bernard Berrian injury
"It's a medial collateral ligament, not an anterior cruciate ligament. The MRI showed there was no cartilage damage, which is really good. There's just a mobility issue involved. When you're talking about a leg, there's some time to get the mobility and strength back. As soon as that joint is ok, he'll be ready to play."
"I don't really see him playing against San Diego State. And we're not going to take any chances with Bernard Berrian. We've got some big games coming up, but the conference is where it's going to be the most important. And we want to make sure we have a healthy Bernard Berrian."
"I'm not a doctor, but I just know that neither one of these injuries are career threatening or season ending. Hopefully they'll be back as soon as possible. If not, other players on this team are going to have to step up."
On the running game
"The run game was not where we needed it to be. We did have good success with screens and swing passes, which to me is just like running a sweep. Getting on the perimeter and running the ball on the perimeter with your running backs is just like pitching it."
On Paul Pinegar
"Paul's very sharp. He's run a lot of plays out there. Paul is way ahead of the curve right now as a redshirt freshman, probably more so than anyone we've had in this program. Even Jeff [Grady] and Dave [Carr]. Billy [Volek], probably no because Billy was the starter from Day 1. But Paul's really ahead of the curve as far as getting the amount of reps he needs and understanding what we are doing. I think he's got a real jump on it right now. And if he starts the game against San Diego State, there won't be much of a drop off. We're lucky. You need two good quarterbacks."
On the last meeting with San Diego State
"This staff has been here five years, we've played them two times and we haven't won. The last time, we lost to them 10-0, and I don't think we could have scored in a week. That was the year San Diego State went to the Las Vegas Bowl. We could barely get back to the line of scrimmage. We were not a very good football team on offense. Our defense played their hearts out."
