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UNIVERSITY OF TULSA MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 7, 2013Bill BlankenshipCOLORADO STATE – 27 COACH BLANKENSHIP: Thanks for sticking around. Therewere some times we made it tough. I'm just really proud of our guys of staying around, making the plays when we had to. Kept digging a hole early, but still, a lot of self‑inflicted wounds, especially in the first half. You know, penalties, that unforced turnover ‑‑ we got a turnover and turned it back to them, all those things. But we seemed to find a right‑to‑left bit of rhythm in the second half, and defense began to play even with more confidence. And, you know, I'll just let you ask questions. Q. Do you remember a greater swing of emotion in the span of 30 seconds? COACH BLANKENSHIP: There were a lot of things going through our heads with the third and short coming off the injury. We knew we had to get the first down. We were hoping if, you know, we got a little bit of yards, we were going to take a shot with a first down. We were going to try not necessarily play for overtime, but yet, if we didn't get much, but got the first down, all those things, you know, are we going to stay for overtime, take a shot and all of a sudden Trey breaks that, and now it's a different game because you're down in the zone where our guy normally hits. Q. That's two great home games for you where Trey bails you out at the end. COACH BLANKENSHIP: He's been bailing us out for a while. You know, very proud. Q. What was the chant in the locker room? COACH BLANKENSHIP: Oh, we had a little song that we sing when we win. Coach Johnson is the ringleader of that. We've been doing that for about three years now, so it's a lot of fun. Q. The bounce, what happened with Carl Salazar early‑‑ COACH BLANKENSHIP: You know, for him, you would think that he could build on this for a real long time. Game‑winners are opportunities that don't come along real often for field goal kickers. I remember having‑‑ because I was doing special teams, there were times that you had guys two, three, four years, and they might get one or two opportunities for game winners. And so that was awesome. Q. What about him bouncing back? COACH BLANKENSHIP: Yeah, I think it says a lot for him, our team. A lot of the guys on the team that had bad outings a week ago, really fought through, and I think not only fought through, but fought through some tough times tonight, you know, where, man, sometimes we were having a hard time getting traction on one side or the other, and you know, some things go wrong. I mean, Holy Cow, we get a punt blocked right from the beginning, just a complete whiff on one of our blockers. There were things like that that happened, and they hung in there, and Carl bounced back from a two‑miss deal a week ago, all the way around. Q. You didn't show a lot of confidence in him at the end of the first half but went for it on fourth‑‑ COACH BLANKENSHIP: Wasn't it about the 36 or something like that? Q. Field goal, 42‑‑ COACH BLANKENSHIP: It was going to be over 40, I know that. That's really what I consider outside of his regular‑‑ he's got range, but he's not consistent outside of 40 in practice. Inside 40, he's consistent. So I felt like that was‑‑ I went for it a couple of times, so I'm not sure which one of those can was which. Q. Trey's big run, your receivers‑‑ second straight home openeryou get an injury; were you really concerned about the collective, whether it would deflate you guys? COACH BLANKENSHIP: Yes, because it was an ugly injury, and, you know, some of the younger guys were over, kind of gawking. We were trying to get refocused in the huddle. Those are always really hard. You know, but again, some of the leaders were saying, some of the best things we can do right now is just to get focused and we'll be able to be there with Keyarris later. Q. They kept calling time out on Carl. COACH BLANKENSHIP: We kind of expected it. He had all three time‑outs. I didn't know if he would use all three, but all of the conversation from the box was he'll probably use all these; why wouldn't he, especially with an inexperienced kicker. It was really quite a chess match. Q. Changing personnel a little bit up front on the offensive line? COACH BLANKENSHIP: Yeah, we had an injury‑‑ at some point in time, we were missing Davis Walton and that kind of created a little bit of a shuffle, like you talked about. And so we had guys working, I know Foxworth was in there. I know‑‑ gosh, I can't even remember how we rolled everything. You went to tackle, right and Gabe moved to guard? That's what we did, yeah. It was huge, because to be able to make those changes when we have to make them; it's one thing to talk about it in practice, but to actually do it when you have to. Q. I don't know if it's coincidence or whatever, but your first down yardage average doubled versus what it had been, so apparently that combination of guys clicked. COACH BLANKENSHIP: Good. Good. I think we found our rhythm a little bit, too, with what was working. You know, we were trying to keep our backs a little fresher. It's tough because we are trying to play J.T. and Trey an awful lot, and to be able to spell them a little bit was good. But no doubt, you're going to get to talk to Stetson in a minute, because I think that's a huge deal for him to be able to bounce over there and make those plays. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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