Fresno State Athletics
Pat Hill Quotes From Monday's Press Conference
9/20/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 20, 2004
Hill opens with general thoughts
"I want to start this press conference out by saying there are a lot of historic things that happened in that stadium in my eyes on Saturday night. First of all, in my six years as an assistant in the 80's and my eight years now as a head coach, that was the most electric stadium that I've ever been in during my career as a Bulldog coach or assistant. When you sell 13,000 tickets the week prior to the game, I believe a lot of that can be attributed to a new fan base that's coming into Bulldog Stadium. Normally our fans come from the central San Joaquin Valley; Bakersfield to Sacramento. But we also had a new push and a new movement here at Fresno State. We had our first real push with our Hispanic community. We had our first Bulldog Tailgate Fiesta out at Beiden Field and we had over 1,000 people there. I want to thank our Hispanic stations for being here today."
"The growth of Fresno State football is going to come from this great valley, and I just want to say thank you to our Hispanic population for really showing up and making their presence felt at our opener. If we're going to make the push to the national scene, it's going to take the team and the community together to get it done."
"I believe that it can be done here, so I just want to start this press conference by taking my hat off to our fans. They were well behaved, they were loud. It was exciting, it was tremendous."
Hill's general thoughts on the Portland State game
"As far as the game goes, I was very pleased with the first half. I felt that the game was really well under control. I think that we backed off a bit [in the second half]. I don't think that we really realized the resolve that Portland State had in the second half. They kept playing every play, and my hat's off to them. [PSU head coach] Tim Walsh is doing a great job with that program, and hopefully they can continue with that kind of momentum every week. If they can, they're going to be hard to beat."
"For us, I think it was a great learning opportunity. I think that as a football team we found out the attitude that we're going to be facing every week that we play. I thought that was a great growth experience. There were a lot of things that we talked about after that game and in this room on Sunday that most coaches are talking about after their first loss. That was a win for us, and the bottom line in this profession is winning. In the second half, we played a lot of players on both sides of the ball, and we're going to need that down the line. We worked hard on our running game. We worked very hard on our passing game all week in practice. In the game, we had some breakdowns in protection, and we missed a couple of throws, but I think we learned a lot from that game."
"The biggest worry for me in that game - it's not about the passing game or the running game or pass defense, it was ball security. That's the issue we're going to address the most in the next two weeks. We cannot turn over the football. Since I've been here, five out of the seven years we've been in the top 15 in turnover ratio, and now we've had six in the last two games. That is out of character for us, so we're going to address that more than anything else."
Touch on the passing game, because Paul talked after the game about some mistakes
"There were a couple of routes that we had wide open that were simply overthrown. We had a couple that were wide open that we couldn't get the ball off, because we got beat in our protection scheme. There are 11 men on the field, and to execute properly, it's not just the quarterback and the receivers that have to play well, it's everyone. We had a couple of breakdowns that you can't allow to happen. I feel really good about it though. I think we're in great shape for going down the stretch. I think we have to keep working on our football team. There are many big games on the horizon, and we will be in a position to be successful each week."
What do you attribute the turnovers to?
"Well, sloppy ball-handling by Paul on his fumble. When he got hit, they stripped the ball from him. He's got to secure the ball. And the other one was a batted ball at the line of scrimmage on quick protection, and that defensive lineman jumped about three feet in the air and deflected it. We've had a couple interceptions this year off of tipped balls, and deflected balls, and when we're pass protecting across the line of scrimmage on quick protection, we're supposed to be aggressive and keep people's hands down by cutting them. It comes down to execution. That was not an interception caused by poor execution by the quarterback or the wide receiver, that poor execution had to do with a lineman."
What do you do to work on ball security?
"We do ball security drills everyday. We're just going to keep emphasizing it. We're going to work on stripping the ball in practice. It's very hard to do drills where you're cutting your own guys on quick protection in practice. We've got to do them against bags and stuff like that. Really, it's just a lack of mental concentration on our part."
Through three games, you're averaging over 100 yards in penalties
"Yeah, that's unbelievable. I could see it in the first two games. There were a couple in this game that were hard to understand. You know, the penalties that bother me are the administrative ones. The delay of game, the offsides. We had two red zone drives where we converted three points. Those were stopped by a delay of game and an offsides. Those are the ones I can't tolerate. Now the judgment calls, like the one on Logan Mankins? I can't really tell on those. When you look at the film, like the [illegal block at Kansas State] on Therrian Fontenot, he never even touched the guy. Judgment calls, you can't say it's the officiating because it's a tough job to see it. But if it's a phantom call, you can't fault our guys either. But administrative penalties? Those are unacceptable."
On those delays, are the plays coming in late from the sidelines?
"Well, when you say delay of game, we've had one in three games. I don't think that one was late. You really have to get moving. We've only had one delay of game penalty, but it really happened at a critical time. When you're right there, looking at the clock, obviously you should call the timeout."
Are you pleased with your new ranking?
"Yeah. Number 17 is just fine. We're going to be just fine. I guarantee you, if we keep winning, everything will take care of itself. The rankings aren't going to make any difference. The stage has been set for this team to make a run, and we just have to make that run. It's going to be a difficult journey."
What is your biggest task between now and Louisiana Tech?
"Fundamentals. We're just going to keep working on fundamentals. I mean, we're just going to stay the course. I don't think there is any big task. We've just got to get some of our guys back healthy. We're a little banged up. We played without three starters on defense [vs. Portland State]."
If you had seen that you would have eight turnovers after three games, would you still believe you could go 3-0?
"Well, no, not if our defense hadn't been getting some turnovers themselves. We're still ahead in turnover ratio (+2) because our defense is doing such a good job. We have to address ball security on offense. It always comes down to some sort of mental breakdown, so we can keep those from happening."
When Dwayne Wright went down, did you envision Sumlin and Mathis being able to step in a good as they did, with 100-yard games each?
"I knew that they were capable of it. We did go into this football game looking to pound the running game. Like I said earlier, you can't work full-speed drills into practice very well. So, this was an important game for us to establish those runners in the first half. I think what happened was when we got ahead 24-7 at halftime, we were really moving up and down the field easily. I warned them at halftime, we might have a letdown, thinking that this game was really under control. I reminded them about the Missouri-Troy State game, where it looked like a scrimmage for Missouri for two series, scoring two touchdowns in a row, and then losing 24-14. I think in the second half, Portland State swung around the momentum like that a little, but never did I think that game was out of control."
You said you felt some of the players weren't there mentally going into the game. Did you get that feeling during the week preceding the game?
"No, I thought we were there. I don't think they quite understood the mental approach of Portland State. They do now know, and they understand that will be the mental approach of every team we play for the rest of the season. Every team is going to take their best shot, and they're going to play for four quarters against us. Just like when we went into Washington, when we went to Kansas State."
"Plus, those first two weeks, those were hard, emotional, draining games. Then you come into your stadium, it's your home opener, everyone is pumped up, out there on the field everything is going well, and then you take a deep sigh. And the other team is going to pounce on that. It's a great learning experience. There are a lot of teams that are discussing what to do for the rest of the year after a loss. That was a great opportunity for us to get into the mood of what the rest of the season is going to bring."
Talk about the end of the first half. Was there any talk of going for the end zone as opposed to taking a knee and setting up a possible field goal?
"Not with seven seconds left. We work on it all the time. Set the ball up, make the field goal, go into the locker room with a 20-point lead. But we didn't make the field goal. It was the snap that was off, and that was it. Those were points we should have gotten."
Let's talk about the Rice. Are you surprised about their victory over Hawaii, and are you surprised that Hawaii is 0-2?
"I haven't really watched those games that closely. I think they both have very good teams. I think we'll know more after this week versus Texas."
How are you going to coach your bye week in terms of practice?
"We're going to practice when we always do. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, we're really going to stress fundamentals, and we're going to work a lot of team against each other. We've got to keep the pace of our team good. Right now, we have a good pace. In the second half, offensively we did not play at a high tempo. If you looked out there, there were a lot of our guys walking. We'll work on conditioning this week. I think we're well conditioned, but I'm going to make sure that they know that conditioning is key and that we don't walk here at Fresno State. In the second half, we had a little bit of a letdown, and we didn't play at the pitch that we needed to. I think the players realize that."
So would you say that this is a welcome bye? That you guys need the week off to get fresh again?
"I don't know if they're tired, but I think we need the bye right now. We have some bodies that we need to get back, and we can use some fundamental work. I mean, the first two weeks of the season we were working on so many unknown things on our opponents that it took away from our individual time. For Louisiana Tech, we'll have three game films, so we'll know their personnel a lot better."
How many injured players do you think you'll have back after this two week period?
"I don't know yet. We will have Brian Morris and Claude Sanders back, but I don't know after that. We might not have Popovich, we might not have Mackey. It's like every year. It's tough, but the only season-ending injury that we've had is Dwayne [Wright], of course. It's a part of football."
How about your defensive backs?
"They're very good. That's why, from the outside, you can't see the turnovers really being a problem right now. Offensively, we cannot turn the football over down the stretch."
You said that if you didn't go to a BCS game, you'd be going to the Silicon Valley Bowl. Do you see the Hawaii Bowl as an option?
"I'm not even thinking about that stuff right now. We're still at the main table, and we're still playing for all of the chips. If something happens, then you can ask those questions. Right now, we have one goal, one idea."
