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POINSETTIA BOWL: BOISE STATE VS NORTHERN ILLINOIS

December 22, 2015

Bryan Harsin

San Diego, California

THE MODERATOR: Good morning everyone, we will get started in just a couple of minutes. We will wait for Head Coach Carey. Thank you guys all for coming out to the 2015 San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl press conference. Kick-off is tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. at Qualcomm Stadium, it will be followed by a postgame fireworks show, Stadium Spectacular. We will start with Coach Bryan Harsin of the Boise State Broncos.

COACH HARSIN: Well, it's been a great week, and really just appreciate the hospitality of the Poinsettia Bowl, all the volunteers, Mark Neville, just for what our guys have had a chance to do. We're at that point we're ready for the game, excited about tomorrow and looking forward to the final prep tomorrow to get ready and go out there and hopefully have our best performance of the seen. With that, open it up for questions.

Q. (No microphone.)
COACH HARSIN: We won't be able to get on the field. We will just go out there and take a look at it, no we won't be on the field. It will be there seeing it and getting a visual before we head back for final meetings tonight.

Q. (No microphone.)
COACH HARSIN: We haven't talked about that much to be honest with you. I think guys know that's been brought up in the media, that hasn't been our main conversation. Main conversation has been about our preparation, leading into the game. It's been about Northern Illinois and watching their personnel and what they do and the type of team we're playing against. So the focus really has been about the game. Obviously both teams, we want to finish with a win, and that's important, whether that means 40 for the seniors or not, most importantly it's for this team that we go play well and we can find a way to get it done.

Q. (No microphone.)
COACH HARSIN: Sure. I think that's something in the back of people's minds they might think about, but that hasn't been our focus. Our focus has been on Northern Illinois and playing that team and trying to be 1-0 in this bowl game.

Q. What has preparation week been like for you guys?
COACH HARSIN: Yeah. Really normal. I think not much different when it comes to how we prepare during the season. We've had our Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday practices in there, we will have our Friday practice today to go out there and go through all the different scenarios. I think the guys have been really focused. I think they've gone a nice job in our proposition even while we've been here, focused in the meetings, enjoying the festivities they've had for us and the different events and then refocusing back at practice. And to me I think we've got the work that we wanted to get done, done, because of that.

Today will be the final, final, and we will go into meetings tonight and we will finish up with our final meetings and be ready to play in the morning. The nice thing is we don't have to wait around very long. We've had that schedule a couple of times this year. We have got up, we prepared in the morning, had breakfast, and then on our way to the stadium to go play, and we will have a chance to do that again.

Q. Coach, what does it mean for your team and recruiting to get to play in the Poinsettia Bowl, specifically Southern California?
COACH HARSIN: We talked about this a few days ago, Southern California, I think we have 30-plus guys from this area; obviously that's a large portion of our team. California is a large area, or a big area for us in recruiting, and so I think obviously coming here and playing well, having guys that are from here and having family around, that's obviously a big part of it as well. And I know that Coach Carey was talking about some of his team, maybe 50 guys that hadn't been to California.

Surprisingly enough we've had about 10 on our team as well, some of the Texas guys and all that. So for them to be here in Southern California and to see where a lot of our guys come from is also an experience as well, but, yeah, we will have people at the game and families, more so than we might have at home from the California area and that's going to be big for our guys when they go play.

Q. Big quarterback decision this week in Texas, I don't know if you heard. What are your thoughts on Kellen getting a chance after all these years to start a game this week?
COACH HARSIN: The other night at the end of practice, the first thing I told the team was Kellen was 5 of 8, had one interception, one touchdown, and everybody was all excited for him because he's a Bronco, and it's exciting to see him have an opportunity to go play.

I will have my -- excuse me, I will have my Dallas gear and all that ready to watch him and to go out there and hopefully see him succeed and play well. The thing for Kellen is it's all about opportunity, and I think for him, I know he's been waiting for it. I know this is something that he's going to take advantage of, and hopefully it shows up when he goes out there and plays. We're all excited for him, we're looking forward to watching him go out and there and start. It was good to see him up there at the podium, having the press conference, answering those questions, it's been a while since he's done that, and he did a great job, so fully anticipate him doing a great job when he plays.

Q. You guys went to Sea World yesterday, obviously doing a lot of fun stuff during the time here. Is it difficult to keep the guys focused and how do you as a coaching staff keep that balance between enjoying the week's festivities and keeping your eyes on the prize?
COACH HARSIN: Are you talking about getting kissed by sea lions and white whales and things like that? No, they've been really good. That's part of a bowl game, is there is going to be activities like that. You're going to have meeting; you need to focus during the meetings. You're going to have activities; enjoy those.

You're going to have practice, focus on practice. That's where I think our guys have been able to go back and forth and do a nice job this week and enjoy those opportunities.

So the zoo was fantastic; they enjoyed that. Sea World was great; they enjoyed that, but we prepared well afterwards both times.

Q. First bowl go-round for Brett, Obviously for him preparing the last few weeks. How ready is he for this game tomorrow?
COACH HARSIN: Really no different. That's one thing about Brett, I think his preparation habits are very good. He's had more time in bowl prep than you do week-to-week. So for him he's probably seen for film in every game than what he would during a normal week of prep. Other than that, great in the film room, great on the field, really understands the game plan, hopefully, showed up in practice, but Brett's a guy that's always had those qualities and this is just an opportunity to have more time to do that.

Thank you very much, go Broncos!

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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