Fresno State Athletics
No. 19 Fresno State vs. Portland State -- Game Quotes
9/19/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 19, 2004
Portland State head coach Tim Walsh
General thoughts on the game
"We need to understand that the mistakes that we made probably cost us a chance to win the game. That's the unfortunate thing. In the second half, we played outstanding all around. I was very pleased with everything we did in the second half on both sides of the ball."
"They came out and kind of shocked us a little bit in the first half. But from that point on, we just played our tails off."
"I don't think there's any doubt that in the whole second half I thought we played better on offense. They are good on defense. I know they are missing a couple of guys, but we are missing one of our top wide receivers whose speed might have been able to make the difference. But that's part of the game."
On PSU quarterback Matt Wiser
"He played outstanding in the second half. He made the one mistake, but the ability of the quarterback to respond to things that go wrong and respond in a positive way is really what you are looking for in a quarterback. He came back in the second half and played phenomenal. Very few guys play a perfect game He played tough in the second half and I thought he was phenomenal."
"I would hope. We came in expecting to compete with them. But we didn't win, but if we can learn about playing with the effort we had in the second half, should we be good the rest of the year? Heck yeah, if we play like that. And that's our job is to demand and challenge our team."
Portland State QB Matt Wiser
"The rhythm is the biggest key. In the first half, we were shaky offensively. We couldn't get things going. We needed to establish some continuity on offense. In the first half, we hit a couple of times, and we missed a couple of times."
"You have to learn from these things. They kill you inside, and right now it hurts. But come Monday, when we check the film out, we'll need to learn from it. A learning experience this early against Fresno State is priceless. That's a top-notch, nationally recognized program. So we can really learn a lot."
Fresno State head coach Pat Hill
General thoughts on the game
"I was very pleased with our effort. I was not pleased with our execution. You can say what you want, but Portland State played very hard, and you have to give them a lot of credit. They came in here and weren't intimidated. They played hard. I take my hat off to them."
"I told the team after the game that this type of performance is not acceptable, and we have to be prepared every time out for the rest of the season, or a performance like this is going to cost us a lot. They understand that."
"I want to thank our fans. I think our fans were great tonight. They were loud and they were into the game. We have always had great support here, and I know speaking for the players, it was really important to have a full stadium to welcome them home.
"We have two weeks to get ready for Louisiana Tech, and we have a lot of things we can work on. And we need to get better as a football team. We have three games under our belt. We can learn from them and move on."
"The most important thing is that we are still at the big table. We are 3-0, and that's the bottom line."
