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LOUISIANA TECH UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 12, 2016

Trent Taylor

Ruston, Louisiana

UTSA - 35, Louisiana Tech - 63

Q. Trent, I'm sure you couldn't have written a better way to have your last game, with so much on the line, you guys taking care of it. Did you at points, maybe not the traditional receiver way, but overall a great game for your team. What's kind of the emotion like, last game in the Joe and such a successful one?
TRENT TAYLOR: Yeah, there were some emotions that played into the game tonight. I mean it felt great to be able to get up a lead early on them, and so then like once you get that lead, you can kind of sit back and just enjoy the moment and just enjoy the time with your teammates the rest of the game. It was a wonderful feeling. There was multiple times throughout the game where I just kind of stopped and paused and looked around at the stadium, just realized this was my last time playing here, and I've enjoyed every moment of it.

Q. When you look at this time similar time last year, you guys having a chance to clinch the division at home, coming up short, knowing going into today with some help you'd have that opportunity again. How much did that fuel you guys coming into today?
TRENT TAYLOR: Yeah, that fueled us a lot. And I mean we knew that UTSA was a good football team. They've beaten some good teams in our conference, and we knew we had to come out with the right focus to be able to win tonight, and obviously we were able to do that, which we got up on them early. And I mean the way just everybody came out with the right focus and the right intensity, I mean it was a great feeling to be able to do that in the last game at the Joe.

Q. Same thing I asked Ryan, but I guess you had one goal, crossed it off, but as you look toward the Southern Miss game, how much are you looking forward to being able to play the game in the state of Louisiana as opposed to having to travel?
TRENT TAYLOR: Yeah, there's going to be motivation going into that game, with just the opportunity to play at home, if we get that win, and the fact that they came into our house last year and beat us pretty bad. So I mean even without the motivation of being able to play at home for the championship, they beat us pretty bad last year, so I mean we're definitely going to go in there with a chip on our shoulder, ready to give them everything we've got and hopefully just embarrass them as much as we can. I mean that do I understand of sounds bad. But I mean we definitely have some motivation going into that game, and there's a bunch of it.

Q. Trent, five carries, 25 yards. How are you feeling about the defense?
TRENT TAYLOR: I don't know. I never really thought about it. You know, just -- you never know how the game is going to play out, and especially with our offense. Like Ryan was saying, you know, everybody on our offense is completely unselfish, I mean which you can see tonight with the touchdowns of Marlon Watts and Alfred Smith. Those guys deserved their touchdowns for sure because they go out there every game, and they block for me, they block for everybody else who gets the ball, which they do a great job of doing that. And they've just been waiting their turn patiently and they got it tonight.

Q. How far do you think your range is?
TRENT TAYLOR: My range?

Q. For kicking.
TRENT TAYLOR: I hit a 50-yarder the other day in practice. But I think I might have had a couple extra steps going into it, so I don't know if that really counts.

Q. Was there a line?
TRENT TAYLOR: No. There wasn't. So I mean Coach Holtz still doesn't believe me that I can do it. I just gotta keep kicking it. I'm going to do that all day, every day for the rest of these practices just so I can prove him wrong.

Q. You really got a 50-yarder?
TRENT TAYLOR: Yes.

Q. Add that to your stats. In all seriousness, though, was it nice to be able to get on the scoreboard in some way in your last game here?
TRENT TAYLOR: Yeah. Going out for that extra point, that was some fun stuff. Moments like that you're definitely always going to remember because everybody was just looking at me, laughing as I was walking out there. Kam McKnight was making fun of me saying I was about to shank it. It was just a good time. And once I put it through the uprights, everybody just came over there and started jumping on me. Stuff like that is the type of moments that you will remember forever.

Q. You can kick it. I heard at Evangel you played quarterback, a little bit of D line. Is there anything take Trent Taylor can't do?
TRENT TAYLOR: My quarterback days at Evangel were not too good. I don't like to look back at those. I had to go in for the state championship game my senior year as quarterback, and it didn't go too well. So no, I'm not a good quarterback.

Q. You're a decent point guard.
TRENT TAYLOR: Yeah, I like to play basketball a little bit.

Q. What do you make of those transformation, seven straight wins. Being in this position you are now, looking back at the last seven, eight weeks, probably not -- internally you probably thought you're capable of this, but I don't know how many people externally, as Coach Holtz was saying, what do you make of this transformation the last two months?
TRENT TAYLOR: Yeah. Like Coach Holtz was saying earlier, once we got to the point of 1 and 3, nobody flinched. Everybody still believed in the system. Nobody turned to the other players and started blaming each other. The offense wasn't blaming the defense, defense the offense. I mean we just kept to the course, and I think that's what it takes to be a successful team. Whenever you reach some hardships, you gotta be able to look to the guy to the right and the left of you and just know that they still got your back and they're going to keep fighting and everybody believes in each other. So that's key.

Q. Did you all hear any of that noise in the locker room, externally? After that 1 and 3 start?
TRENT TAYLOR: Not too much. I mean you get your obvious -- I mean just the regular stuff you hear across campus, but I mean I don't think anybody just took it too seriously. We all still believed in each other.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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