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POINSETTIA BOWL: BOISE STATE VS NORTHERN ILLINOIS

December 16, 2015

Rod Carey

San Diego, California

THE MODERATOR: Everybody, I'm Bruce Benkowski. My title is executive consultant, and for some reason they have asked me to run the press conference. This is my final year with the Bowl, but it kinda takes me back, because I was the original PR director of the original Holiday Bowl back in 1978, so 38 years later, I get to run my last press conference.

We will begin with the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl. We have Coach Rod Carey from Northern Illinois and Coach Bryan Harsin from Boise State. We will start with Rod, and what we will ask each coach to do is get up, say a few words, answer any questions, and when they're both done we will take about 10 minutes to do one-on-one interviews, and they be welcomed back, and we will do the Holiday Bowl, and hopefully we're out of here in about half an hour. Let's start with the coaches from the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl.

Making his second Poinsettia Bowl appearance and just finishing up his third full season as head coach, Rod Carey, Rod?

COACH CAREY: Well, welcome everybody. We're certainly excited to be back out here. It feels good to be home, Bruce. You guys make us feel so welcome out here, it's unbelievable.

You know, we've got a great opponent in Boise State. We are certainly looking forward to the game and just the utmost respect for Boise State and what they have accomplished over the last decade or so, maybe even longer than that. Coach Harsin, I've met him a few times now, I have a ton of respect for him, he's been there from the beginning. I know about Boise, and he is certainly doing a fantastic job there.

We expect a physical game. Both teams like to run the ball, both teams are dynamic on offense and very good on defense, just what you would expect from a Boise State team. You look at the film and pop it on, and there is certainly no weakness in any way, shape or form that I see, to my eyes. So we're excited about it, like I said. We will be back here in about 48 hours from now, 72, however you look at it, and the team will be here, and they will certainly be happy, even though we have had a mild winter back in the midwest, certainly good to get out in the San Diego sun. So with that, I will open it up for questions that you guys have.

Q. Coach, you mentioned you looked at some film here of the Bronco and you didn't find any weaknesses, does that make you want to go back home?
COACH CAREY: It's warmer out here, so we like staying out here! They're a good football team. You know, hadn't studied them a whole ton until obviously we got the match-up, and we obviously have a year's worth of film and at this point been through it all. You see a team that like every good coached team is, they starred at one point, and they're further along the next, at the end of the season.

Certainly had, you know, things that they had to deal with along the line, like anybody does, but they're a really good football team, and well coached.

Q. Coach, Northern Illinois and Boise State have had two of the longest running successful streaks in the last 12 years or so. Do you see any similarities in studying Boise State to what you have been able to do at Northern Illinois in terms of sustaining success?
COACH CAREY: Yeah, I do, and really that's a compliment to them because of how long they've been doing it. You look at it, they're committed to the run and committed to stopping the run and being dynamic both sides of the ball, and they do it the right way. You can tell that their players are physical and, you know, just, you know, pursuit of the ball on defense and really, you know, well coached on offense.

You can see those similarities, and I would like to think we're coming in that area, and we have done some good things that way, too, but certainly it's a little bit like looking in the mirror.

Q. Rod, having said it, it's like look in the mirror, what do you think the differences are in the programs, too? You guys have been just as successful as they have been since 2010 in number of wins. Is it where you are in the country? The conference that you play in? The opportunities that you get to be on television? What do you think the differences are between you guys and Boise State?
COACH CAREY: There are probably -- I don't want to speak for Coach, because I haven't, you know, studied it a ton, but looking from a 10,000-foot view, there are probably more similarities than there are differences. Every time you turn on the TV, Boise is on TV, Friday night, Mountain West gets that. In November, we seem to have the Tuesday and Wednesday slot in the MAC, so we have been fortunate to be on TV a ton that way.

But definitely geographically, we don't recruit against each other, I know that; they're more out west, and we're more in the midwest and down south some, but certainly more similarities.

Q. You have described them just recently as the "benchmark" program in this five. So what makes you think they're the benchmark program and not you guys?
COACH CAREY: Well, they have been doing it for a longer period of time, and they have been to more -- back then, BCS Bowls and last year New Years Six Bowls. They are the benchmark in the group of five, there is no doubt, and you have to give credit where credit is due. They've done a great job.

Q. You had some rather bad luck at quarterback this year.
COACH CAREY: Yeah. (Chuckles.)

Q. Sorry.
COACH CAREY: It's all right.

Q. The kid who is at the helm now, assuming that he is going to start, how has he developed as a freshman?
COACH CAREY: We will expect to have Ryan Graham back.

Q. Oh, you will?
COACH CAREY: Yeah. He practiced the other day and we expect him to be back and ready to go. Tommy --

Q. -- handled himself well.
COACH CAREY: He really did. He played his guts out, Shelly, he really did; he was fantastic. Probably a little sooner than we wanted him to be on that stage, but certainly played hard and executed what we asked him to execute. But we expect to have Ryan back, and Ryan right now in his development, he's just a redshirt freshman, too, but certainly happy that he got out there, and he looked pretty sharp.

Q. No rust?
COACH CAREY: Well, there was rust. We're talking about a redshirt freshman, but, certainly, he was moving around, which is really good.

THE MODERATOR: Anything else? Thanks, Coach.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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