Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State-Purdue Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Jeff Tedford
On the first win of the season…
“It feels great. I am really proud of our guys. They battled all the way through. That was a really good football team that we played on the road in a hostile environment. There was never any ‘give up’. The guys were making plays all over the place. It was a great first win.”
“I was happy with the fact that we didn’t really have any mistakes as far as missed assignments, wrong routes, wrong formations or illegal procedures. Especially in a hostile environment. The team did a really nice job with handling it.
On Pat McCann’s first game as the offensive coordinator…
“I thought he did a great job. Mikey had a great game, and all of our young guys stepped up to make some plays. We got the run game going in the second half. We had some injuries in the backfield, but Elijah Gilliam came in and gave us a burst.”
On Erik Brook’s performance…
“Erik played great, as he always does. He’s a captain for a reason, everyone believes in him. He works hard every single day.”
On the performance of the defense…
“That’s a really good football team with a big offensive line, good running back and the quarterback is excellent. We new it was going to be a back-and-forth game. We knew they were going to make their plays and we were going to make ours. We made a few more at. The end.”
Mikey Keene, R-So., QB
On the first win of the season…
“Getting that first win is always huge for the team. It sets the pace for the rest of the year. We knew that this one was a big one. That’s was a tough physical team with great athletes all across the board. They have a fast offense and we knew that they were going to give us problems with their defense. Ultimately, we just knew that we had to do our job and limit the mistakes in game one. There’s always going to be missed tackles and penalties. We just needed to limit those mistakes, play within our system and do our jobs. We knew if we were all on the same page then we would be able to prevail.”
On handling a hostile environment…
“We stay composed through our preparation. They tell us when the moment gets big, fall back to the level of your training. So that’s what we try to simulate. We’ve had so many two-minute drills at practice over the last six months. We practice all those situations. We just have to do our job at a high level and trust each other. The offensive line did an awesome job in the second half protecting me, which allowed our playmakers to get the ball in space to make some guys miss.”
On Erik Brook’s performance…
“He’s a heck of a player. I knew that coming in, from the film I watched of him, he was going to be a guy. He’s a veteran player. It’s like having another quarterback on the field, and that’s really helpful. He understands coverages and shells. He knows how we want to attack the defense. He gets the big picture. He’s a leader. He’s a captain. I have nothing but good things to say about Erik Brooks.”
Levelle Bailey, Sr., LB
On the first win of the season…
“It feels amazing, just knowing that we were going to do whatever it took to fight through whatever adversity that came our way.”
“On defense, we had some first game jitters on the first few drives. We had missed tackles which resulted in an 84-yard touchdown, but he had to stay poised and confident. Again coming out of halftime, the kick returner killed our momentum. As a leader, I had to pick everybody’s head up. I to show them that we’ve been in this position before and we have to fight to the very end.”
“When I looked around everyone was still confident. Looking at the offense, Erik Brooks had a day. Mikey Keene’s the man. The offense was fighting to the end. It’s my job as captain to make sure that the defense is doing the same thing.
“Dean Clark showed what he’s able to do today. He was doing that all spring and fall camp. It was a matter of time until he could put the red jersey on and do it against another team.”