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LOUISIANA TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 10, 2016Ryan HigginsTrent TaylorRuston, Louisiana South Carolina State - 24, Louisiana Tech - 53 Q. After not being the starter last week, but getting your chance again, how are you feeling after tonight's win? RYAN HIGGINS: It was nice to get back out there and gel with my offense. And there was some mistakes; it was nice to shake off a little bit of the rust. And I believe I made some mistakes early in that second -- or the first half, like Trent said, really just me trying to do too much. Almost trying to make up for missing last week. Just me going out of my way and making mistakes that we don't need; easily fixable, but again, me just trying to do more than just my job. But in that second half, calm down. Took care of business and I felt like we ran a lot smoother. Q. What did Skip say in the locker room to calm you down before the second half? RYAN HIGGINS: Really just emphasized, we just need to take care of the ball and if you do your job in this offense, and get the ball to our skill players in open space, like Trent does, everybody, it's easy. We're able to move the ball really well and we just look fluid when everybody is doing their job and not trying to do too much and he just made it clear that, look, just settle down, the rust is off, just do your job and the big plays will happen. Q. From your perspective, what happened on the exchange and the two interceptions, I believe it was late in the second quarter? RYAN HIGGINS: The red zone, the fumble, the ball -- I'll take all the blame for it. The ball was just soaking wet and it was still raining at that time. It was just -- it was just tough to -- don't know exactly what happened with the snap but it was tough to come up with. And then the interception to Carlos on the right side, just an under-thrown ball, tried to guide it in there. Really wasn't too open. I just was trying to, again, make a play and to Trent in the end zone. Again, just trying to make -- do a little bit more than what I could have. We had points. It was a stupid decision. Easily could have run it, thrown it away, anything. And we still have the time out and everything. Could have had three points. But I made a poor decision and cost us three points before the half. Q. I asked Trent this earlier. Having a nearly four-hour delay, do you attribute that to the slower start than what you guys were planning on having out there? RYAN HIGGINS: Of course, like Trent said, you could say that, but that's definitely not -- that's no excuse for what we want to do and what we're trying to do. But it was tough sitting in there and then hearing, okay, another lightning strike, it's going to be another 45 minutes or whatever. It was tough. As it got longer and longer, you could tell, people were getting a little bit restless and frustrated. But it shouldn't matter in the end. Q. What have the last weeks, months been like for you, leading up to this start, last start since 2013? What's been the emotions you've been going through the last several weeks and months? RYAN HIGGINS: It's been a roller coaster. It's been really, really hard at times and amazing at times. To be back out there on the field, regardless, supporting J'mar that first week in everything, and every week. It was tough for me to sit there and do nothing pretty much. But J'mar put us in position to win and played well. And really just getting back out there this week, going with the ones again, is just, I don't know, just surreal. Can't really describe how lucky I am to still be able to do this. Q. What would you say you learned about yourself in this whole process? RYAN HIGGINS: I just really learned, again, how lucky I am to be given this opportunity at all. Really, how easily it can be taken away. And like Coach Holtz says, "Prison is filled with good people that made a 30-second bad decision." And I'm just, again, just lucky that I'm still here and no one was hurt or -- it just could have been a lot worse, and it's really a humbling experience. Really, just, I mean, I'm -- I really appreciate it a lot more than I did, and I'll never take it for granted again. Q. In that second half, how cognizant were you of some of the mistakes you made? I noticed a couple times you scrambled, threw the ball maybe a couple times. Were you processing that time, let's not force the ball, take the easy throw, out of bounds, or take the two-yard gain instead of trying to force? RYAN HIGGINS: Yeah, of course. Again, that first half is trying to do too much to really just -- to make a statement. It cost me twice. And in that second half -- and I'm my own worst enemy. I was in my head, but at that half-time, I just really calmed down and focused and realized that, you know, this is nothing. The rust is off. Just get back out there, do your job and really, was just all about good decisions and taking care of the ball and we were able to move down the field pretty easily. Q. First start in three years, and despite getting the win tonight, are you truly satisfied with your performance? RYAN HIGGINS: As far as my performance, no, and -- and I could blame the weather, slick ball and all kinds of stuff on some throws. But I'll never really be satisfied unless I complete every pass and throw for a hundred touchdowns. I'll never really be happy. But the second half, I thought our offense did well and I'm really just excited for this next week and I know we're going to have a good week of practice and try to build on this momentum a little bit and go get us a win in Lubbock. Q. How do you feel being here this late, first of all? TRENT TAYLOR: Yeah, it's a little past my bed time right now. But we did what we had to do to win the game tonight and there's definitely some things we can clean up as a team. But I mean, a win's a win. Never take that for granted and we're glad to come away with it. We'll fix all the problems we had tomorrow watching film. Q. What problems do you feel you guys had tonight? TRENT TAYLOR: We just had a bunch of turnovers in the first half. I think we had around four, which against a good opponent, that will get us way behind in the game. So I mean, we got to find a way to eliminate that all around as an offense. We'll find that out tomorrow. Q. Can you attribute that to a nearly four-hour delay? TRENT TAYLOR: That's an excuse that you could throw out there, but that's not what we want to do. I mean, you can't -- there's no reason to have four turnovers in one-half. There's no excuse you can throw out for that, so we've got to find a way to fix it. Yeah, no excuse. We've got to find a way to fix it. Q. What did y'all do during the delay? TRENT TAYLOR: Watched some football games. Played some ping-pong table. We were in here chilling, having a good time. I don't know how the other team was in the away locker room but we were good to go in here, eating some food, hanging out, waiting on the game. Q. You got a lot of action, ran for a bunch of yards and made three touchdown passes? TRENT TAYLOR: Any time you've got a chance to strap it up and play, you want to take advantage of it. I love the game of football, so anytime I'm out there, I want to play to the best of my ability. We executed pretty well as an offense in the second half and started rolling for us. Q. When you got out thereafter the delay, did you sense that there was maybe going to be an issue with starting fast after basically sitting around for four hours, or how did y'all feel coming out four hours later? TRENT TAYLOR: Yeah, it could have been a problem. The leaders on the team got together and made sure that we were bringing the juice out there a little bit more than normal to make sure everybody bounces back and we're not coming out there sluggish, which could easily happen. So I mean, I was just out there yelling, trying to get everybody going as much as possible, which we were kind of slow in the first half but we ended up picking it up. Q. What specifically did y'all see coming in? I know you went through some short pass and screens tonight, but it seemed more so tonight, to get the ball on the perimeter -- TRENT TAYLOR: Yeah, they like to do a lot -- they do a lot of movement on their defensive side. They like to switch it up with blitz blitzes and whatnot. We just thought the best way to attack that was just throw the screens and get the ball to our playmakers out on the edge. We believe that our athletes are better than theirs, so that's what we went with and we were able to execute it. Q. What's the difference with J'mar versus -- did you feel anything with J'mar last week versus Arkansas? TRENT TAYLOR: I know having J'mar out there at Arkansas, had to be just aware of how aware his head was out there. I was making sure that I would catch him going in the game and made sure he was all right with his head on straight. I mean, having Ryan out there, he's a senior. He's been through it. So I mean, I knew he could handle it. I could focus more on my job but I mean -- shoot, yeah, Ryan's a senior, so yeah, he knows what he's doing out there. We were able to open up the playbook a little bit more and get our offense rolling tonight. Q. How do you think Ryan did look out there, first start in three or four years. TRENT TAYLOR: I think he did pretty well. We were talking a little bit on the sidelines. We were mentioning that me and him were both trying to do a little bit too much out there and I mean, that's not the mind-set that we need to go out there with, and I think me and him will grow from that from today's game. Q. Three-touchdown performance, so how does this game rank -- TRENT TAYLOR: I don't know, it was a good one. I mean, it was against a lesser opponent and we just did what we had to do as an offense, and luckily the ball got in my hands a couple times and I was able to score. So which it could have landed in anybody's hands for the end zone, so I'm just glad I was able to take care of business when it came my way. Q. How does it help with confidence going to Texas on the road? TRENT TAYLOR: I think it's good to get our first win under our belt for the season. We know what kind of talent we have on this team just from the Arkansas game, a game that we should have won. And just coming out here, against a lesser opponent, proving that -- proving to everybody that we are better than them. It's not something that's going to be given to us; we went out there and showed it. So I believe in this football team and I believe we can play with anybody, anybody in the country. So we're ready to attack Texas Tech next week. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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