Fresno State Athletics
Pat Hill Quotes From Monday's Press Conference
11/15/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 15, 2004
Hill opens with general comments
"First of all, the Hawaii game, that was a great win for us. I thought we played exceptional football in all three phases. Offensively, we controlled the clock. We ran the ball very well, which was what we wanted to try to do to keep Hawaii off of the field. The longer you can keep Timmy Chang off of the field, the less chance he has to get a rhythm going. We successfully did that. Defensively we played very well. The pass rush was not a factor as far as sacking him, but rerouting receivers and getting defensive lineman in the passing lanes makes a big difference in him holding the ball, and I think because [Chang] had to sit so long between series, it really worked to our advantage, and in special teams I thought we played outstanding."
"Overall, it was the third week in a row that we played good, team football. I'm really proud of the way our players are playing, I'm proud of the way our coaches are preparing, and getting the point to our team, and the team taking the meaning to the field. That's the key to it, and once you get out there you have to execute it. The last three weeks, we've played very good football. As good as we've ever played here, in this three-week span. We've got to continue that. Hopefully, this week we can continue that trend, in our final home game."
"For our seniors, it'll be Senior Night at Bulldog Stadium on Saturday, which is always big and will be great for our fans that come and see a lot of these kids that have been here for five years, and also Thursday night in the stadium at 5:30 we'll have our annual senior tackle, which is quite an event in and of itself. If anyone in town wants to come to the stadium and watch senior tackle, we'd like this thing to grow. You've heard of the Gator Walk (at Florida), and you've heard of a lot of the things other people do all over the country. We're trying to start some of our own traditions, and one of them is senior tackle, which we've done since my first year here. It's really a nice event. Each senior gets up in front of the team, they form a gauntlet down to the end zone with a big bag and pad at the end. Each senior gets up, talks a little about his career, what he got out of being a Bulldog football player, and what he leaves for the rest of the young men that are following him. Then he makes his final run down through his teammates to the bag. Each senior does that, and it's a pretty neat night. We've gotten good support from some community people, we've had about 100, 150 people there, and it's a chance to say goodbye to each one of the seniors. That will be Thursday night, 5:30 at the stadium. Other than that, I'll open it up to questions."
Talk about the running game Friday night
Note: Fresno State had a school-record 503 yards rushing Friday vs. Hawaii
"It was outstanding. It was a physical performance by our players. We've got an offensive line this year that's really athletic. Not real big, except for Logan [Mankins] and Kyle [Young]. Most everybody else is 270 or below, so we're not a real big line by size, but we're very athletic. [Strength coach] Rich Tucker and everyone else in the weight room have done a great job with these guys, and it's a very strong and physical line. We're starting one senior and a freshman, a couple sophomores and a junior, so it's a good young line. Our tight ends are blocking well. Our fullbacks, with Roshon Vercher and Robbie Dubois; Nate Adams came in, and of course our running backs are the style that I like, they're north-south, physical runners, and they all ran very physical in this game. I was impressed by it."
"I had a feeling that we'd run the ball well. We've been running the ball well for the last three weeks. I think that the run game really solidified our ability to keep our defense fresh and to keep their offense off of the field, which was something we were really trying to do. It's amazing that Paul does such a great job of checking us in and out of plays there at the line of scrimmage. Then we had an up-tempo offense that we put in for this game that we used a couple of times with good success, our quick-tempo plays and I thought our guys did a really good job.
In the last three games you're 17 of 17 in the red zone
"Yeah, and they're all touchdowns, too. That's great execution by our players. The credit goes to the players on that. They're the ones that have to execute it, and they're doing a great job. Seventeen for 17 - I don't know, that's unheard of. That just shows that the offense is playing really well right now."
Did you do anything different with the offense? Because it sure looks different?
"Well, we were playing the same way against Louisiana Tech until the half. We just got into a little bit of a rut. It's amazing what happens when you have confidence and you're feeling good about yourself. They have gotten to that point, and hopefully they continue to play that way. Even through the tough games, I really believed that we had a good football team, and we're peaking in November when you should be peaking, and this would be a tough team if there was a playoff system. Because we're peaking at the right time. It's very hard to maintain throughout an entire season, for anyone. We're playing as well as we have all year right now."
How about the play of Clifton Smith on punt returns?
"That was great. It was a punt safe situation where our defensive guys went in there and did a great job. [Joe] Fernandez and Paul Williams on the other side were out there yelling `return my way, return my way,' and all of the Hawaii players took off thinking it was going to be wall return, which we had run all night, and Clifton just hit it, and it was like parting of the sea. And Clifton is going to be involved more in punt returns. You know, he's going to be involved more in the offense as the year goes on too, even though he's a defensive player. He's a very exciting player with the ball in his hands. That's obvious to everybody. We need to find ways to get him onto the field. We've had him in on two punt returns, we've had him in on kick returns, they haven't kicked his way. He's had a couple kick returns, and two punt returns that should have both been touchdowns. As time goes on, I think you'll see more of Clifton Smith."
Adam Jennings has struggled a little bit with punt returns. Will Clifton Smith move ahead of him?
"Not right now. [With] Adam Jennings, we were trying to set up wall returns, and the wall returns that we had set up on two occasions were on the opposite side of the field that they punted too. Adam had some good punt returns early, and now people are punting it away to the short side of the field. On two of his returns the corners shoved the gunners right into him. Adam Jennings will return kicks, and Clifton Smith will, too."
"But we don't have a punt returner controversy right now (laughter throughout room). I'll tell you what though, we have two excellent punt returners. Like I said, we've got to find more ways to get Clifton the ball. Probably not this year on offense, but as time goes on in his career, you will see Clifton Smith more involved with touching the football."
Talk about how Bryson Sumlin arrived here at Fresno State
Note: Sumlin had a career-high 220 rushing yards Friday vs. Hawaii, the fourth-highest single-game total in program history
"Well, he walked on. We brought him on as a defensive back, because at that time we needed more defensive backs. He was a scout team defensive back his first year, and his second year, we needed a scout running back. I brought him into my office right before the start of the school year, and I told him, `Bryson, I think the world of you as a young man. We're going to move you from the secondary back over to running back because we need some guys to run on the scout teams. I'm going to give you the opportunity to leave, because I think you're a good player, and you can go home.' He didn't have a great shot to play, because we had a lot of good seniors and juniors, and he looked me in the eye and said, `Coach, I'm gonna play running back here.' Sure enough, he became a running back."
"He's a great young man. A great student, very mature, has always wanted to be a Bulldog, a team-first kind of guy. And he's a great success story because I gave him opportunities to leave, only because I cared for him, and I didn't want to put him into a situation where he was only going to be a scout team running back. And he just said it doesn't make any difference, I'm going to end up playing here. He earned a scholarship, and obviously he's done a lot with it."
"I just want people to understand what kind of a person he is. He's going to leave with his degree, and he's a very sharp guy. He tore up his shoulder the one year, played the whole season and then got it operated on, last year he was just getting warmed up. If we get through this year without a major injury, you're going to se an even better Bryson Sumlin. He has never gone through a whole off-season of conditioning and weightlifting here, because he's been injured. I don't think that we've seen the best of Bryson yet."
What about [Wendell] Mathis?
"He's coming on, too. Once again, Mathis hasn't been in our program for a year yet. He just got here late and we had him last spring, and he hasn't been through a full year in the program."
"[Next year,] we'll have Dwayne Wright back, and we have another young running back here Kreig Peters from Antelope Valley who's a walk-on and he's going to earn a scholarship here, I'd imagine. If you ever come out and watch our scrimmage on Sunday nights, he lights things up. He's the only guy that I've ever seen break Clifton Smith down on a run. And Clifton Smith is about a quick as they get. So, Peters is an amazing little guy. He's about 5-9, 185, so there are some exciting running backs here. And we need to keep a stable of running backs here, because they get pounded. We have physical backs."
How did Wendell get here?
"Well, we didn't recruit him out of high school (Merced High). He was going to UCLA and just wasn't happy, and all of a sudden he wanted to transfer to Fresno State. And I said if you get your release, you can transfer here, but you're going to be a walk-on and you're going to have to earn it in the spring. He came in and earned it in the spring. But he walked on here from UCLA, he didn't have a scholarship when he got here. He's a good running back, too. It's a great situation to have. Dwayne Wright is making a good comeback, too. If we can keep our running backs strong and physical, we'll have a good running game here. And I think that it's important to have that. It controlled the tempo of our last game, that's for sure."
There were a lot of NFL scouts here this weekend. Who would you say they are spending most of their time looking at?
"Well, their No. 1 guy is [Fresno State offensive tackle] Logan Mankins. There'll be general managers and coaches here once the season is over. It won't be like when David Carr was here, but you'll have the player personnel directors and such. When the player personnel directors and the GMs and head coaches and position coaches come out, that's usually for a first-day guy. They don't send them out unless you have a first-day draft pick. Logan Mankins is that kind of a guy."
"However, that opens avenues for some of our other seniors that may not be drafted as high, but will give them some visibility. They're looking at a [Stephen] Spach and [Duncan] Reed, and [Mark] Wood is a bit of a mystery to them because he's been injured since he's been here but he has talent. Therrian Fontenot is a guy that doesn't start for us but has all of the numbers you're looking for."
"I know, being a former NFL guy, that you're always looking for those guys late in the draft. Talking with Bill Belicheck the other day, they took a guy out of LSU that didn't start for them but is starting for the Patriots in their nickel. Brian Morris and Claude Sanders as edge guys. They look at our guys, and they've had success as free agents and late-rounders, because they're well coached in the areas of pro-style offense and defense, and they know that kids they get out of Fresno State will be tough, hard-working kids that understand work ethic. Having a player like Logan here will help all of the other seniors. And from Hawaii of course, they were here to look at Chang, and they have a corner named Eliminian that they were looking at."
I saw that Paul [Pinegar] is 50 points above the national average in pass efficiency?
"Yeah, I think he's a good player, like I've said. I think he runs the offense very well. He's 21-8 (as a starting QB). I think the numbers speak for themselves. Except for that three-game slump, he's played very well for us. He manages our football team very well, and in today's game that's a very important quality in a quarterback. More than any other position on the field."
Do you expect to run the up-tempo offense against Nevada?
"I don't know yet. It just depends on whether we feel it's to our advantage or not. I felt that it was going to be to our advantage against Hawaii, because of their conditioning level. We didn't feel they were a well-conditioned team."
Talk about your relationship with Coach Ault of Nevada
"Oh, I have a lot of respect for Chris. He was the head coach in Reno when I was an assistant here at Fresno State. He is a hard recruiter. I always used to see him here. Most coaches do not get on the road like he does, or like I do. He works it hard. When he was the Athletic Director at Nevada, we stayed in touch. When I went to work for the pros, we stayed in touch. In fact, I almost went to work for him one year when I was in Cleveland. I've got a lot of respect for him, and he will make Nevada a better program again."
Are you running into him on the recruiting trail now?
"Oh yeah. Who we mainly recruit against are the schools like Nevada and Boise. We don't go head-to-head with the Pac-10 very often. We're not on the same players. We're on them early, and if they (the Pac-10) come in...We were on Zach Follett (a highly-touted local recruit) for four years. But it's very hard to compete with the Pac-10. We're on the same players as Nevada and Boise. They both do a really good job of evaluating talent. I think that we do also. We know what guys are being recruited by the Pac-10 too, and there are some guys that are kind of hidden, that they don't know about, or don't know enough about yet, so we keep it real quiet on who we recruit now, or at least as much as possible."
What does Nevada do offensively?
"Well, they both run and pass. Nichiren Flowers is a big target of theirs, he's from Tulare, and they execute their offense well. When they're on, they're on, and their going to give you a steady dose of run and play-action and drop back pass. They're a lot like us, though a little more one-back than us, obviously. They have a good offensive line, [they are a] well-coached team, and they'll be a good challenge for us. But the way we're playing right now, we're looking forward to it. We're looking forward to our final home game in Bulldog Stadium. Those are always big for us."
Did you think that Nichiren [Flowers] would turn out to be as good as he has?
"Well, I thought he was a good player coming out of Tulare High School. We played them last year up in Reno. We think that he's a good player. They've got another linebacker named Jerry Engstrom, who is playing very well for them from Golden West, who we thought was a heck of a player. But last year, we just couldn't afford to take a middle linebacker. It's like this year, we've got 14 scholarships, so there are certain positions we just can't take. To keep our numbers right, we can't take them. Like last year, we couldn't take corners and safeties. And now that's exactly who we're looking for. Last year, the middle linebacker wasn't a priority, and we're still not really looking for one this year. We have some good young linebackers, and sometimes when you see a good one out there, it's tough to pass on them."
Do you like the fact that Nevada hasn't won on the road, or does that scare you a little bit?
"I don't think it really matters. Most of the hype is just hype. They're going to show up and play hard. We're going to show up and play as hard as we can, and it's going to all come down to execution. The team that executes is going to win. You never know how it's going to be until the game gets going."
On Saturday, you said that you thought Nevada would beat SMU
"Yeah, I thought that they would beat SMU. But you know, SMU plays well at home and they've got some talent. I mean, when we beat them, everyone said they were bad, but they've got some talent. Rice took UTEP to overtime and fumbled at the 2. Rice is not a bad team, and that was on the road at UTEP. Louisiana Tech is playing well. There are good teams in this conference. The records don't always indicate it, but SMU has some skilled athletes. But, yeah, I felt like Nevada was going to go in there and win.
