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GILDAN NEW MEXICO BOWL: WASHINGTON STATE v COLORADO STATEDecember 21, 2013Jim McElwainALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO Colorado State – 48 THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Coach, how do you feel? COACH McELWAIN: We feel good. First of all, I just want to take this opportunity, the state of New Mexico and town of Albuquerque, what a great bowl these guys put on. I can't tell you. I talked to guys over the years that have been here, the hospitality, the professionalism. I've had an opportunity to be in a couple of these bowls over the years, and this one is right up there. They just did an outstanding job for our teams, our players and our fans. That win right there, it's pretty amazing how it worked. At the end of the day, it's about being resilient. It's about understanding every play has a history and life of its own. I think that was the epitome of it. For our guys to figure out a way to get it done and finish, I thought that really speaks volumes for how far our program has come. The foundation is starting to be settled and built. We've got a long ways to go. Can't turn the ball over like that and expect to win. Yet they kept after them. I just can't tell you how proud I am of their effort. Q. Jim, what can you say about Shaq Barrett's performance in the last two minutes? COACH McELWAIN: You guys have had a chance to be around him. First, he's a great person. He's a great father. He's a guy that doesn't do a lot of talking. Plays the game the way it's supposed to be played. To me he represents, you know, what the Rams are all about. I feel he found a way to make a play. He did that over and over this season in some big moments for us. We need to get a sack, he gets a sack, that kind of stuff. You know what, he did his job. Q. Especially your start, as sloppy as it was at the beginning, how important was it for your team to finish the way it did, not let that be the lingering memory for the off‑season? COACH McELWAIN: It's interesting because when we talked at halftime, at the end of the day when you look at it, was it something they did or was it us? Guys, you know, we gave them some gifts. Here I think is the good thing: we learned how to overcome. That's part of building a program. Q. Do you think it's about time to start calling Kicker by his name? COACH McELWAIN: 'Kicker'. He tried to miss that son of a gun. Didn't quite put it right down the middle, so we'll have to talk about that in the post‑season wrap‑up (laughter). Kicker, he's been big for us. There was no doubt in that situation, you got total confidence in the guy. The wind was behind him. We are at elevation. He did his job. Q. Coach, I know there's a lot of games where the emotional rollercoaster goes crazy. When you guys get that fumble, the apparent fumble, throw all that electricity into the place, it gets overturned, how do you possibly keep your guys motivated to go back out there and turn it around again? COACH McELWAIN: The big part of that is when you drum the mentality of never look at the scoreboard, go out and win this play, no matter what happened before. There were times this season we let emotional things kind of cloud how we played. Just unbelievable. You don't write scripts like this. You know what I'm getting at?  I can't tell you how proud I am of our guys, really our seniors. I want to know how many guys already filed their stories because you had a 5:00 deadline? Rams fumbled away another one (laughter). Q. Who would you say showed up to play the most in today's game? COACH McELWAIN: It's hard to put your finger on a guy. I know the score was in the 40s or whatever, but I truly believe it was a team win. What I mean by that, our special teams, we were horrible in the punt game, gave them 14 points in essence, and yet, you know what, they kept at it. I mean, there at the end, there's a perfect example, special teams came up with a play when we needed to have something happen, right? There's so many of those you can point at. I don't know how well you know me, but the guys who didn't show up in the box score, I guarantee you they're the ones who won the game. Q. You're always a guy that regardless of the score or team, you expect to win every single game. What was going through your head when you were down towards the end? COACH McELWAIN: I think we were down two scores or whatever. I was trying to figure out when we scored the first one do we go for 2 or wait for the second one. That's what was going through my mind, knowing we were going to get some scores. It was just a matter of how we had to even it up. We made the choice before going in, Hey, guys, we're going to go for it after our second touchdown. That's what we did. So I don't know. Q. Some of your big names stepped up. You talked about the guys that don't show up in the box score. Steven Michel son, Jake Schlager. What does it tell you about your young guys, the production they give you? COACH McELWAIN: When you think about guys going out and giving their all, and as we always say, you never know when that play is going to happen. It could happen in the first part of the game, could happen in the middle, could happen in the end. Yet to see those guys just grinding it out makes you real happy. Of course, Schlager and Steve‑O have been good on special teams all year. Q. You had two plays under review in the last two minutes. Did you have a feeling that he was in on the Statue of Liberty play? COACH McELWAIN: We're on a tight schedule. We were able to work a deal on a charter. I thought they were trying to make us miss because we got to get to the airport and get out of here. Whether he was in or not, that's why we have review. Some get overturned, some that's the call. So the way I felt, we had both kickoff teams on the mat, whether we had to go the obvious onside or whether we had our kickoff team. You're always trying to think ahead because at the end of the day it's really out of your control. I'm glad that he reached it over and touched that pylon. Q. You talked about the resiliency of your team. Earlier in the season your guys might have folded a little bit down in the second half. This game they did not do that. Can you frame how they've grown over the season. COACH McELWAIN: When you see our guys, based on when I got here and now, how they just carried themselves, how they take time to say, How you doing? They take time to say 'please' and 'thank you', how they take time for the betterment of others. That's where you start to see the culture is starting to change. I'm proud of them. There's a lot of those simple life lessons that if you take care of every day, take care of the now, the games take care of themselves. That's how you establish a program. Q. Jim, that first quarter, you probably couldn't have done more things wrong. What were you able to do? What did you tell the team to recover from that? COACH McELWAIN: Well, I know Gildan is probably mad at me because everyone turned to the other games (laughter). I go back and it comes down to really, are they that good, are they that much better, or is it something we're doing. Really, we didn't panic. I thought it was big. We caught some beans there right before half, got us a little momentum. Then we come out and go basically three‑and‑out on offense. Great job there, huh? We kept plugging away. That's really what it's about. Q. Were you aware of the interaction with Greg Lupfer and Washington State's quarterback? COACH McELWAIN: I heard something about it, but honestly I don't know anything until I look at it. We'll definitely handle it in a quick manner, whatever it is. Right now I'm really concerned about these guys in the locker room, how excited they are, what they have overcome to learn what it is to be a champion. Right now they're the champions of the Gildan New Mexico Bowl. Last time I checked there's only one of those and I'm proud of them. Q. This might not be the record that you hoped for at the beginning of the season, 8‑6. COACH McELWAIN: No, not even close. Q. But looking for how quickly you turned around this program, do you feel a sense of pride sitting up there today after this win? COACH McELWAIN: You know, I don't know. Sometime this summer when I take those couple days and go to Flathead Lake, sit on the dock, I'll probably think about something to get mad about. But we're building something special. We're a long ways from being there now. But, guys, when you hear the Rams are on the rise, it's a good time to get on the bandwagon because good things are happening in this program. Thanks, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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