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SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 4, 2013Rocky LongNEVADA – 44 Q. Which wasone was more exciting, last year or this one's? COACH ROCKY LONG: I think in some ways, they were both the same. How do I feel? I feel different as this one was unfolding as I did last year. Last year, we were the team behind that caught up and took it to overtime and then won in overtime. This year, they were the team behind, and played a great‑‑ they played a great fourth quarter and caught up to us and put us into overtime. The best part of the deal is that we never‑‑ our players never quit and kept playing, and probably the best we played was in the over time. So I mean, we played‑‑ I thought we played a really, really good game for three quarters. And then in the fourth quarter, we moved the ball pretty well but we didn't score any points, and we had lots of chances to score points and we missed a field goal that would have put the game away. And then on defense, we couldn't slow them down except people forget that early in the fourth quarter, we had a give‑me interception that we dropped. If we catch that interception, the game is over, too. So us not making a couple plays, that's not making a field goal, that's not catching the interception, allowed them to storm back, and you've got to give them credit, because they did a great job coming back. Their quarterback, I thought we had him sacked four or five times, and he out‑ran the contained guy and got yardage with his feet or found a guy that was open and threw it.  Their quarterback did a great job of getting out of trouble and making plays, especially in the fourth quarter. So you've got to give them credit. They caught back up and put it into overtime. I thought that, as I think they thought, all the momentum was in their favor going into overtime. But I don't think they got a yard on offense, so our defense stepped up‑‑ I mean, our offense did a nice job getting down there and finding a guy in the end zone and scoring a touchdown, and the defense really stepped up for four straight plays. I don't know where all that was in the fourth quarter, but we won, so that's just fine. Q. Talk about the wide receiversstepping up. COACH ROCKY LONG: Yeah, he had to step up on short notice, too, because we didn't know that Colin Lockett wasn't going to play until he went to the trainers on Thursday and said he was still having effects from last Saturday's game. So I think Colin was trying to tough it out himself so nobody would know and that he would feel better before the game and he went to them Thursday, so Eric Judge didn't get near the reps that he would have gotten if we had known Colin wasn't going to play. So he did a nice job, really nice job. We had two freshmen that did well. Q. What does it say about the guys who stepped up? COACH ROCKY LONG: I think everybody has to do that during the season.  Everybody has some serious injuries, and how you react to them has a lot to do with whether you are successful or not. But every team, if you look across the country and into the NFL, every team has good players that get hurt and someone has to step up and play for them. If they can step up and play at a good level, still got a chance to win. If they don't step up and make plays, you don't have a chance to win. But it's all about players making plays. Q. Inaudible. COACH ROCKY LONG: Well, I thought he did nice. Except he got caught when he picked up the fumble. I mean, he took it down there and he got caught. I don't know if Jake would have scored or not. I mean, that was a pretty big play in our offense. That's what I'm talking about; the defense played really good for all three quarters. In fact, two fumble recoveries led to two touchdowns. And then I think their quarterback did unbelievable in the fourth quarter. I mean, we couldn't get a stop, and we were trying really hard. And he made some plays that I didn't think he could make; especially when we blitzed from the outside and all of the sudden he sees a guy coming free and he plants a foot and runs around him. I mean, gee whiz. Q. Talk about the play of your running backs, both had ten plus carries, ran over a hundred yards at least one touchdown run; you established the run early. COACH ROCKY LONG: I think that's the only chance we're going to have for success. I mean, we've been saying that since the first game and we haven't been able to do it, and tonight, the two running backs ran really well, but the offensive line blocked really, really well, too. And they complement each other. Just like last year, Adam Muema and Walter Casey complemented each other. D.J. Pumphrey and Adam Muema complement each other. They are different types of runners and that's hard for a defense to get used to one guy that pounds you and runs through your arms and knocks you over backwards and then another guy that makes you miss and out‑runs you. Q. Looked like‑‑ inaudible‑‑ did it appear that way to you? Did he seem to get his legs under him a bit better? COACH ROCKY LONG: I thought he looked pretty good the whole game. I thought he looked like his old self right from the beginning. Q. Inaudible. COACH ROCKY LONG: I hope so. I mean, I told you that we can't win unless he plays well. I mean, we have to establish the running game to have a chance to win. Q. He kind of did that early‑‑ what was that play call? COACH ROCKY LONG: You see a guy that's a great offensive coordinator that used the formation on third and fourth and short last week, where they put four offensive linemen to one side of the ball and handed it to the fullback for a first down last week on fourth and one. Well, this one, they faked it to him and gave it to Pumphrey around the short side, the two‑man side. As good coaches do, the Nevada coaches shifted their front to the four‑man side like they should do, but it's all execution. It's very seldom a coaching deal. They had a defensive end over there. He just wasn't good enough to tackle Pumphrey. Just like us not being good enough to tackle their quarterback when we come free on blitzes. It's execution. It's not coaches winning games; it's players winning games. Q. Inaudible. COACH ROCKY LONG: No, I mean, every offense, and every defense, by the way, every offense and every defense has two‑point defenses and they have two‑point plays that they work on that week, and they will have one or two of them ready for that game. So every week, it's a different two‑point play, because defensive coaches are smart enough to learn how to defense the ones that worked the week before. So you've got to come up with a new one. Q. Every week‑‑ COACH ROCKY LONG: On a two‑point play, I would expect something different on a two‑point play. I would expect something different on a short‑yardage situation, too. Q. Early in the game, was that some message you were sending right there? COACH ROCKY LONG: I mean, I felt like going for it because I thought it was a critical time in the game and that we as a team had to prove we were there to play. Q. Besides the fourth quarter, seems like you were able to get the quarterback‑‑ talk about that a little bit. COACH ROCKY LONG: Well, I'm not sure we did. I thought he did a great job of throwing under pressure. I thought we got decent pressure. We didn't hit him but about two or three teams. We caused one fumble when we hit him which was a big play. But we didn't hit him very much, but we were in his face a lot, so he wasn't as comfortable as he normally is, okay. But he still threw for a whole bunch of yards and he threw touchdown passes and has had a real high percentage completion rate. I think he's third in the nation in completion rate anyway before this game. He'll just probably move up on the rankings a little bit. The most disappointing thing I thought was that we had great pressure on him, and contained rushers that he out‑ran. I mean, so, here we go again. It's not the scheme, guys. It's players win games. Q. Your quarterback, what did you‑‑ COACH ROCKY LONG: I thought he played really well. We turned‑‑ we had one fumble. What we didn't do was turn the ball over and that's been giving us all kinds of problems leading up to today. But speaking from experience, a quarterback plays a whole lot better if you can establish a running game, because now it's‑‑ and I thought that Nevada did that. I thought they ran the ball well enough that we couldn't get into things that we wanted to to pressure the quarterback, because they ran the ball well. And I don't think that Nevada was able to get into pressure packages, either, because we were running the ball well. Q. The difference play by Whittaker, on the third and 11, sealed the win, especially considering his past not being able to play‑‑ COACH ROCKY LONG: I thought he broke up a couple three passes during the day. I thought he played really well. And I feel sorry for cornerbacks nowadays, because all you have to do is run a streak pattern and throw it up, and if the guy doesn't catch it, it's going to be interference. I mean, they wanted to call interference; if you remember the one down our sideline and Montae Kazee was covering the guy, he turned into the ball, put his back into the receiver, and one of those guys on our sideline reached for his flag. I mean, are you kidding me? It's like automatic, if they don't catch it, we are going to call interference. Q. Taking the win‑‑ does that change your mind? COACH ROCKY LONG: I like winning. It seems like Saturday to me, though and that's the way we practiced all week leading up like it was Saturday. And now we have to practice tomorrow, so that it feels like Saturday next Thursday, which is a really difficult thing to do. But we are playing Air Force and Air Force has to do the same thing, so there's no advantage. But I don't think it's good for players. I don't think it's good for players to play three games in 13 days. I think that's unsafe. Q. There's a chance you may not play Thursday; is that correct? Or is that locked in stone? COACH ROCKY LONG: Well, I know they have got to go play Navy, because they are using non‑government funds or something. They don't have to use any funds for us to go there, so I'm sure we're playing. Q. Do you feel your team is starting to come together? COACH ROCKY LONG: I think that when you win a couple games in a row, I think you feel better about your team. I think the team feels better about themselves. I think they feel more confident. Whether that means we are going to win a bunch of games, I don't know. I mean, last year when we won in overtime, we played much, much better after that, and we are hoping that that's the same situation now. Q. The end of the game, calling the timeout, what was the reason for calling the time out? COACH ROCKY LONG: For the what? Q. In regulation, you called a timeout before that‑‑ COACH ROCKY LONG: We called timeout, I asked Coach Toledo to call time out because my gut feeling was to go for it and I needed a little more time to think about it. So we thought about it and they convinced me that it was better to punt and go to overtime. Q. You made the final call? COACH ROCKY LONG: Yeah, I mean, I made the final call after they convinced me that that was the smartest thing to do. My competitive spirit was to go for it on fourth down. That's my competitive spirit, okay. Q. You probably would have if Taylor wasn't sacked on that series. COACH ROCKY LONG: Yeah, if it would have been fourth and two, we probably would have gone for it, yeah. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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