Fresno State Athletics
Pat Hill Press Conference Quotes
9/13/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 13, 2005
- The following are selected quotes from head coach Pat Hill's weekly press conference. No. 23/25 Fresno State visits Oregon on Saturday, Sept. 17 and is looking to start the season 2-0.
On the 55-17 win over Weber State:
"Last year at Washington we played pretty flawless football, just like we did during the first half of Saturday's game. Anyone that would have walked into Bulldog Stadium on Saturday night would have had a tough time with us; we were really ready to play. If this game would have been close, we probably would have even played better. That's why I like opening the season with a really tough opponent. Sometimes it doesn't get you off to the greatest start if you're 0-1 but I think you really find out a lot more about your football team. We found out some things about our football team."
On this weekend's game at Oregon:
"We've got a big one coming up this week and our team realizes it. They've been in big games and they understand. The tradeoff is playing two big games, then coming home and you're taking a breath and don't play as well against a 1-AA team. So you can pick your poison. I'd rather play Division 1 teams in that first week, although sometimes 1-AA teams can give you all you can handle. That's been evident with these games all over the country. It's commonplace in our sport."
On playing in Autzen Stadium:
"Our players have been to tough places- Oklahoma, Tennessee, Oregon State, Oregon, Hawai'i. We've had that advantage of experiencing a tough environment. That doesn't make it any easier though; you still have to be prepared, listen well, know your hand signals, etc. You have to understand the emotion of the crowd is controlled by the whole team and what we have to do as the visitors, is try and take that part of the game out of the picture. That place (Autzen Stadium) erupts when things are going good for the Ducks. But those environments are the kind of places you want to play in."
Talking about the Bulldog's 28-24 loss at Oregon back in 2002:
"There were a couple spots when I thought we had some chances to win the game but the bottom line is when the final score went up, we lost. I thought we played very well. It was Paul's second start, Logan Mankins did not play and we had some injuries going into that game. We had a nine-point lead late in the game, played very well but just didn't finish the deal. It was a hostile environment and they were a good football team that year."
On Oregon's strengths:
"I think the strength of their team is their defensive front; they've got a lot of stoppers. That's one of our strengths so we'll find out what we have. Our secondary has been a good group of veterans that should match up well against their receivers...It's not like we're going into the game with a lot of question marks in our secondary or they have a lot of question marks on their side. It will be a challenge...They're a spread offensive team that has option concepts- that's the new thing that's going on in the country and teams are running it now. In the last two weeks, Oregon has really found some success within their offense. They have a quarterback who is definitely a threat to run the ball, he's a big physical quarterback and he's got a cannon for an arm. They have all of the parts to be a very explosive offense and each week they have performed a little better. I think they are more comfortable with their offense."
