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BELL HELICOPTER ARMED FORCES BOWL: NAVY v MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATEDecember 30, 2013George JamisonKen NiumataloloCody PetersonKeenan ReynoldsFORT WORTH, TEXAS Navy: 24 THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Navy Head Coach Ken Niumatalolo, quarterback Keenan Reynolds, safety George Jamison, and linebacker Cody Peterson. Coach, an opening statement? COACH NIUMATALOLO: First of all, I want to thank you guys for waiting. There was a lot of celebrating going on. First and foremost, very happy for our team, all of our players, all of these young men up here, our seniors. It's just a special way to send them out. These guys worked so hard. I have so much respect for players who come to the Naval Academy. Everything they go through, all of their responsibilities as a Midshipman, a student, a Division I football player, my hat's off to these guys. So these young men that are going to go out and serve our country, you know, I couldn't think of a better way to send our seniors out this way. So just happy for all of them. Happy for our players and just grateful for them. Q. Just your thoughts on how the defense played holding them out of the end zone the entire game and that's a team that can move the ball? Your thoughts on their performance? COACH NIUMATALOLO: In the last two games our defense has played phenomenal. Army has moved the ball against everybody. We played very well against them. Like you said, Middle has been moving the ball against a lot of people, running the football. I thought our guys played really, really well, played physical. We knew it would be a physical ballgame. I'm just proud of the way our guys battled and kept them out of the end zone. Q. Keenan, who do you have with you there? KEENAN REYNOLDS: That's my little brother, Quinton. Q. How old is he? KEENAN REYNOLDS: He's eight. Q. Keenan and Ken, can you talk about the general chippiness it seemed like on their defensive end? They had several un‑Sportsmanlike conducts called. Do you think they crossed the line at points there? How tough is it to keep your composure? COACH NIUMATALOLO: We just play football. You know what I mean? We've just got to play between the white lines, play to the whistle. We try to just keep our composure, and keep playing ball and we're grateful to come out of here with a victory. KEENAN REYNOLDS: Like Coach said. You can't really worry about what's going on. We can only take care of our end of the bargain. Execute on offense, and can't really worry about different things being said or different things being done. We've just got to get up and play and stay mentally tough. I think that comes from the workouts and in the off‑season we're grinding. It's cold outside. We're doing fourth quarters and your body breaks down, but you've got to be mentally tough. That was a mental test for us, and fortunately we were able to pass it. Q. First of all, nine players with over 378 yards rushing and 67 carries. Can you explain how that happened today? COACH NIUMATALOLO: That's a great testament to who we are. Just we're an unselfish team. We're going to take what people give us. It's kind of been our thing all year. There are a lot of guys that carry the ball, and we're an unselfish team. Everybody knows if it's their turn to carry the ball, they're going to do the best they can. If you block you block. Whatever your position, kickoff coverage, holder, snapper, scout team guys, we have a great group of young men that are so unselfish and they do their job, whatever it is, to the best of their ability. Q. Cody, two‑parter for you. First as a senior, you've accomplished so much as a group. Finally have a bowl victory to add to that. Your thoughts on that? And where would you rank the defensive performance today and throughout the course of the season? CODY PETERSON: It just feels great. Defensively as a group we've come together, especially at the end of the season. I think it was the first time we've completely kept the team out of the end zone this season. So I'm just super proud of the guys. It's just a testament to their determination, guys stepping up and making plays when we need it just like George did today. Just a totally selfless group. It's huge to finish like this. I'm so happy for the seniors that we were able to finish on a positive note and win nine games. It feels great. Q. Coach, the Middle Tennessee State Coach said even though they were prepared for this game they weren't able to accurately prepare for what your offense shows. What makes your offense so hard to prepare for? Also in the fourth quarter you guys kind of grinded them down. What's that say about the conditioning of your team? COACH NIUMATALOLO: Well, first, that's easy. This guy gets us in good plays. Coach Jasper and he do a great job of getting our offense ready to go. The guys played well. You know what I mean? It's a very unselfish offense, so just proud of the way we've been able to execute. Things didn't always look great, but we just continued to battle. The toughness comes from, as Keenan said, the off‑season workouts. We've been pushing guys hard. Probably I'm a prick in off‑season, and I know guys don't like me too often in the off‑season, but we recognize it's hard to win. It's hard to win football games. We're not in it to be people's best friends. Our guys know it's going to be hard. Our strength and conditioning staff does a great job of pushing these guys and all of our coaches push them hard and they're great young men. So that combination of coaching great young men hopefully keeps it going. Q. Two and a half weeks removed from your win over Army in Philadelphia, talk about your experiences here in Fort Worth for a bowl game that is steep in tradition here for us? COACH NIUMATALOLO: Just the people here have been so hospitable. It's been a great, great week for us. From the escort, to the bus drivers, to the people who fed us, to Brant Ringler and the bowl people, I mean, all of the volunteers, just everything has been so first class. I'm grateful that our guys were able to have a great experience, enjoy themselves over here and finish up on top. I know they've treated our players very well and their families. GEORGE JAMISON: Fort Worth has been awesome. We have a lot of kids from Texas on the team, And they were kind of like, oh, it's Fort Worth. But I've enjoyed every minute of it. Fort Worth has been awesome, food was great. The Helicopter treated us perfect, did everything right. We had enough free time and time to practice, and we did everything we needed to do to accomplish our victory today. KEENAN REYNOLDS: Like George said, this has been an awesome experience. I'd never been to Texas. It was a great first time. The facilities are obviously really nice, and just being able to do a lot of things and see Fort Worth, and go to Whataburger and all that stuff. It seems pretty trivial for people that haven't been are there, but that's something people are looking for. When are we going to In & Out? When are we going to Whataburger? It's been an awesome experience. Hospitable like Coach said, nicest people ever. I couldn't be more grateful we ended up in this ballgame. COACH NIUMATALOLO: Real quick before Cody goes. Coach Patterson and everyone at TCU has been so beautiful too. This Tajh Mahal, man, this is beautiful. CODY PETERSON: Going off what these guys said, they've been incredible hosts. The whole city of Fort Worth, even people on the streets have welcomed us with open arms. Just the military in general. It's been a really great experience. Q. I've been fortunate to speak to a couple of you guys on the field, and every time I spoke to you, you talked about your seniors and everybody knows about your leadership program. If you could speak briefly about how much it means to complete the officer training and being a senior. Also, coming into this game Middle Tennessee State and you guys were pretty even in the record. Even tonight on paper you guys ended up right around the same yardage. What was the point of differentiation? What set you apart from them and gave you the win? CODY PETERSON: It's just the toughness of our group of seniors, the resilience. We just focused on the goal the whole time. Just focused on our job and everything in our control. That's kind of how it's been all season. We kept our mouth shut; we've worked and we've taken care of everything that's in our power. Q. Keenan, today you became the fourth player in NCAA history to eclipse 30 touchdowns in a season. What's that mean to you to be in air with Barry Sanders and Montee Ball and those guys? KEENAN REYNOLDS: It's huge. You just say the name Barry Sanders and you can stop right there. That is probably one of the greatest college football players there was. Just to be even in the conversation with guys like that is a humbling experience. I never thought I'd be in that category. But, like I said many times, it takes 11 guys to make a play go. So as much credit as I've gotten, it has to be shuffled to the offensive linemen and the As and B backs and the wide receivers because those guys spring me. They give me good blocks. The offensive line has been grinding it out, had a lot of injuries, but guys just played through it and kept grinding. I couldn't be more proud of them because without them this couldn't be possible. Q. George, you had a rather unique experience today. First of all, how much defense had you played before today this season? GEORGE JAMISON: I've gotten in in a few games, not much. Q. When you came here, did you expect to get into this one? When you're suddenly you're the guy and it's your job the rest of the game, how did you react to that? GEORGE JAMISON: Yes, sir. Well, we always expect to play. It's football. It's a contact sport, so when people go down, you have to be the next guy ready. As soon as Wade was out I knew I was the next guy in, so I needed to get focused and ready to go. So it was truly a blessing to get in and play today. Q. Talk about the goal line stop and also your interception and the two big plays of the game? GEORGE JAMISON: Yes, sir. On the goal line stop we were running a coverage, and I knew I had that gap. As soon as I saw it open up, I knew I had to fill and just did my job and my responsibility and everybody else on defense did theirs. I was just doing my job. Q. Ken, go back to the defense again. With Quessenberry out one of your best pass rushers, you lose Wade, yet the defense still turns in that kind of performance, what's it say about the unit and the toughness it showed? COACH NIUMATALOLO: It's a great testament to our kids. It's been like that all year. Somebody goes down and somebody steps up. When Bernie Sarra got hurt, Travis stepped up in early in the year. There were guys that got injured. Ezell got injured in camp, and Brendon Clements came out of nowhere and had a great year. It's just a testament to our players. Like Cody said, our guys love each other. Football is the ultimate team sport. Everybody does their job. Not really worried about who gets the accolades. All we want is the W. So just proud of all of our guys. When their number was called, they stepped up. Guys like George who has been a special teams player for us had a great game. This is what coaching is all about. Just very happy for them. Q. There was a lot of talk about the bowl record the last six years. How great was it to finish and win a game, be out there, accepting the trophy and all of that and celebrating with the team. COACH NIUMATALOLO: First and foremost, I saw some of these people talked about our players were an embarrassment last year. These kids aren't an embarrassment. I don't care if these guys don't win another football game; these guys are going to be protecting us. I couldn't have done it. For people to say our game, these guys are an embarrassment the way we played. I could care a less if we lost zero to 100; these are the greatest young men in the world. I don't even look at the record. I'm just grateful that our seniors are going to leave with the W. I'm not worried about the past; I'm worried about these guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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