Fresno State Athletics
Pat Hill Press Conference Quotes
9/12/2011 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 12, 2011
Opening comments
"We'll just start off with the Nebraska game. "We made a lot of improvements as a football team from game one to game two. Offensively, our game plan going in was to move the pocket, trying to move the launching point a lot, so the defensive line and linebackers were a little confused."
"I thought Derek played very well in this football game. He had a couple drops, but was very accurate with the football for the most part and our offensive line did an excellent job protecting him. He was only touched once and never got sacked. We ran the ball 40 times with great balance for 190 yards and almost a five yard average."
"Overall offensively I thought we played at a very high level. I don't know if there's a team that has controlled the tempo of the game for a long time like that against Nebraska."
"On the defensive side of the ball they had 13 drives, seven of those drives were three plays and out, which is outstanding play. They're (Nebraska) a big play offense. Their guys outran our guys, but we're making improvements on that side of the ball."
"I was proud of the way we played. I thought we played very, very hard and competed. Physically, Nebraska didn't push us around we played really well on both sides of the line of scrimmage... it was a very, very physical game. It was a big time football game and I think our kids played at a high level against a good team and came up short, but we improved."
On North Dakota
"Now we got to take on a team this week that comes in with an attitude that we went into Nebraska with. They're (North Dakota) a very well coached team and were going to see a completely different kind of team this week. They have a moving 3- 4 defense and an offensive team led by a quarterback that's really good back there as far as managing the game. It's going to be a challenge for us because they're a well-coached team."
Keys to victory
"What we need to do this week is just keep improving as a football team and be 1-0 by the end of this week."
On the play of the offensive line at Nebraska
"I give credit to [offensive line coach] Derek Frazier and [offensive line assistant] Paul An. Tthey do a very good job of running the offensive line. Our offensive line played at a very high level against Nebraska."
On not having a let down this week after an emotional game
"That is the greatest challenge in coaching to get your kids to play at a high level every week. If we want to win our conference championship, we have to improve from game two to game three. We have got to just keep focusing on us. We need to get a win."
"We've always had the attitude that every week it's about us. We don't really care about what the decal is on the opponent's helmet. That seems like an easy thing for a team to lock into, but for a team to understand that every game is a big game and to compete at the highest level, that's when you have a very mature team that is going to win a ton of football games."
On playing on the new FieldTurf at Bulldog Stadium for the first time
"[The players] love the turf. It's really a great field, it will be fast and it will get faster as it pats down. Nebraska's field was really patted down and it was a fast field. It's the best surface to play on, it's better than grass."
On what fans can expect this weekend in the home opener
"I expect a great turnout this Saturday night against North Dakota. There are so many things to look forward to for our fans and this football game. This football team has a really good chance to grow as a team and if we can keep them all together, keep them healthy, they're going to be around for a couple years, so there's a lot to work with and we just need to keep making improvements."
