Colorado University Athletics
Colorado-Texas Tech Quotes
October 23, 2010 | Football
Colorado Head Coach Dan Hawkins
On QB Tyler Hansen's status
"He was having a hard time breathing which made me a little bit nervous. We'll see how he comes out. The initial X-Ray was negative in terms of something being cracked."
General
"It was tough to come up one play short. The kids played hard, they battled in a back-and-forth game. There is going to be a lot of games like that so they'll get up tomorrow. Half of life is getting up one more time when you're down so they'll do it. It's a tough way to be in the locker room and I feel bad for those guys. It wasn't for a lack of effort. They got one more play than we did."
On the offensive performance late
"They were crowding the box a bit which took away the running game. It kind of forced us to throw. We got a couple of throws and then we were just off on a few. It would have extended some drives but we weren't able to get it done."
On rugby punt
"It's about trying to find a comfort zone for him (Zach Grossnickle), on what he feels best with."
On if P Zach Grossnickle struggles with normal punting
"Sometimes he is a little more comfortable going sideways with it."
On QB Cody Hawkins' performance
"He did ok coming off of the bench, but I would be the first one to tell you that it is about winning the game. It's not about stats and all that. He certainly made some good throws and some guys made some plays for him, but down the stretch I would have liked him to get something in there."
On team's defense
"Early on it was great. The good news-bad news I think is that us going no huddle was in sense good for us offensively, but it also puts (the defense) back on the field sooner which kind of helps them stay in rhythm. But early on we were doing a pretty good job."
On WR Paul Richardson's performance
"He's a good player. As he gets experience I think he is only going to get better. He can run, he's a very smart and smooth guy with good hands and a good feel for the position."
On what to tell fans about keeping faith in program
"We are just going to keeping hanging in there and we need them to hang in there."
On passing game
"It was kind of what they were giving us, sometimes they came up and pressed us and we kind of converted. Cody (Hawkins) told Paul (Richardson) on a certain route that if they pressed him to nod at him. The other one to Toney Clemons was built in there."
On young players
"There are a lot of good players here. I thought Terrel (Smith) did a nice job for his first time out there. He had some big plays. You can tell that he can run and as he gets more comfortable and again a tough outing for him to have to start against (Texas Tech) because they are going to put you in space a lot.
On how his well being is
"I'm good, I really am. I think we just need to go back to the grindstone every time and keep staying after it. You just have to get up one more time after you get knocked down. It is not easy for anybody."
On sticking with PK Aric Goodman for field goals
"He made three in a row."
On how tough it is to depend on the kicking game
"It is hard for those guys too. You would love to get a guy in a groove and get him going, but the good thing about it is that they keep battling. It makes it tough on everybody."
On Texas Tech's effectiveness against the run
"You never know what their alternative is. I think they didn't expect us to throw the ball like that so they stacked the box a little bit. They kind of jumped into some double Eagle Bear stuff; it really outnumbers you at the point of attack. That is why we threw it a little bit more."
On developing young players
"These guys always scrap and there is a good core of those kids. You just keep coaching them and keep working them with the little details, trying to get one play better, get practice better and stay with them."
On if one play stands out in letting the 10 point lead slip away
"No, you would like to crack the cement a little bit. Try and get one more on the board, try to open up a little bit. I thought our guys were feeling pretty relaxed and it probably hasn't had an effect that way, it didn't happen."
On if QB Tyler Hansen will start against Oklahoma
"We'll see what his health is like. We'll see how he turns out."
On if QB Tyler Hansen will start against Oklahoma if healthy
"Yeah."
Texas Tech Head Coach Tommy Tuberville
General
"It's fun to win a game. Things are hard, especially on the road. Obviously we're not playing great on both sides of the ball, but at the same time we make some mistakes, we don't get a lot of turnovers. Somehow, someway today we kept our presence about us and didn't panic when we were 10 points back. We were able to make enough plays to win the game. We fought hard, we still have some more injuries, but the thing about it is how our defense reacted. We pressed them; we played a lot of man coverage. They hit a go-route on us, that was a great throw, but other than that we pretty much shut them down defensively. The field-goal kicker (Matt Williams) did good. Our special teams did great in multiple areas. We gave up a punt return, but that was good coaching on their part; they brought it all the way from the sideline across the field. They had a picket fence set up and that was well executed. Overall, it wasn't a great day on both sides, but we scratched and we clawed and we found a way to win the game.
On Shutting Down Colorado's Running Game
"They quit running the ball when their first quarterback (Tyler Hansen) went out. They were throwing the ball more, so we went to more of a press-man coverage and played man on the wide receivers. We had eight or nine men in the box. They tried to run a little bit, but they tried to do the short routes and the curl routes. Some of them worked and some didn't. You know, number five (Rodney Stewart) is slippery, and I'm kind of glad they started throwing the ball. They're well coached; that's what you do against that defense.
On Team's Defense
"That's a new defense we put in this week. We put it in because we don't have an advantage on pass protection. What we try to do is we try to create a five-man rush and play man coverage instead of zone. That defense kind of takes you out of your game plan."
On Team's Offense
"We kept calling the run, although we're a passing team. They were playing press-man coverage on the outside, and playing their safeties deep. They were giving us the run, so we had to run the ball. They were making enough plays in the first half and they didn't give us enough first downs to get things going. Then once we got the run going our pass opened up in the second half. It was fun to watch; that's the way that offense is supposed to work. You take advantage of what they do to you. [Kicker] Matt Williams, I'm proud for him. He's been a little inconsistent throughout the year, but I knew when we had the wind in the fourth quarter he really had a shot. He's pretty accurate with the wind behind him and he made those two which were obviously huge."
On Effect of Wind
"We were going to defer anyways, but us getting the ball in the fourth quarter [with the wind] was obviously [important]. It enables you to play better man coverage, tighter man coverage when they're going into the wind. We've got the wind at our back and it [helps] your kickers and your punters. We went with two returners: I thought that was the biggest play with [Harrison Jeffers] catching that ball on the line drive and not letting it go 25 more yards. That was good of our special teams group; they did a good job of making that adjustment."
On Halftime Adjustments
"We're not a team right now that can step back, and say, 'Hey we can roll in anywhere and win.' The way we played today, we can't. We are still not getting any turnovers, but we did make plays today on both sides of the ball. The key is getting the ball back to this offense which we did several times in the fourth quarter.
"We were able to get the ball down the sideline on a couple throws on the deep routes. Our pass protection got better to be honest with you. They did a little five and six-man rush in the first half; the second half they played mostly four-man rush. That enabled Taylor [Potts] a little more time to get it down the field on them. That's pretty much what you have to do. You get tired. You can't just stay in [the same coverage as in the first half]. Sooner or later you have to play some zone, and we were able to get the ball deep."
On Impact of Win
"It's huge for us. Getting to 4-3 after our first win on the road, really, in terms of being in another teams' stadium. We've got some big ones coming up, some tough ones. But you need to win like this to get some confidence on both sides of the ball and in the kicking game. We played better today; that's one of our better overall games that we've played."
Colorado Players
QB Cody Hawkins
ON BEING PREPARED TO PLAY - "I think - having been here five years - I get used to the no huddle pace. It's stuff we do every day in practice and regardless of whether or not I'm taking snaps in practice or on Saturday's, it's something we focus a lot on doing the week. We didn't get it done in the red zone like we should have today, but we made some good plays."
ON TEXAS TECH MAKING FOURTH QUARTER ADJUSTMENTS - "No, they were doing a lot of the same stuff, we just had some miscommunication on routes and we have to get those fixed. We have to be able to throw the ball and catch it. I thought the O-line played great today, even though we didn't call upon them very often to run the ball, we started doing no huddle stuff, they responded when we needed them to and we just have to continue to make plays in the passing game, it was a little sporadic."
ON GOING DOWN FIELD MORE ON OFFENSE - "It's the same stuff we always do. I trust the athletes that we have a lot; you look at (Paul Richardson). It's funny every day in film we always have to grade ourselves and I'm always saying 'Throw it to 80 (Richardson), throw it to 80, throw it to 80,' I've been telling him the whole time, if I get in and get a shot to get him the rock, I'm going to do it. On that long touchdown, that's not even the route he's supposed to run, but I told him if he gets pressed and has a shot to go downfield, I want him to do it. Before the snap, I looked at him and he gave me a nod and he went out and made a great play."
ON HIS DAD BEING CRITICIZED - "First of all, I'm a college student so I don't have enough money to buy a newspaper which is probably a good thing. Being a fifth-year senior I spend a lot of time in here [in Dal Ward] watching film trying to get better. As a captain, it's our job to go out there and prepare, keep everybody positive and keep them focused on their assignments regardless of what your records is or who your opponent is. We try and go out every week and compete against ourselves, as a captain and leader on this football team, you have to go out when everybody's trying to drink that negative kool-aid, you have to hydrate them with the right stuff."
"There are a lot of people out there talking and a lot of people say different stuff. The same bad things you say about our football team, I'm saying bad things about you guys [the media], so it works both ways. You don't like it when somebody near and dear to you is getting criticized, but the bottom line is this is college football and you have to win football games. We know we have the talent to win. I was talking to the radio show about a drive in the second half and why we didn't have any run plays when we got to the 31, but it's not about play calling, it's just great execution. We had a miscommunication on a route and a dropped ball and then other than that, we kick a field goal. If we would've caught those balls, everybody would say 'Wow, great job, way to throw it down field and take a shot and punch one in.' Going out and competing and focusing on our assignments, that's all we can do. It's college football, it's the greatest sport in America, everybody is going to speculate and everybody loves their football team so everybody's going to talk about it all the time. We just have to go out and be as positive as we can be."
ON MISCOMMUNICATION IN PASSING GAME - "It's just new guys out there. We have so many guys. We had the one where Luke Walters, he doesn't do a whole lot of no-huddle stuff, usually that's Ryan Deehan's thing. Ryan Deehan is a real versatile guy for us, he can play both tight end positions, full back, and he runs a lot of no huddle and is in charge of protection stuff when we do run no-huddle. We tried to get him out for a breather, and Luke almost ran into Paul (Richardson) and kind of messed us up right there. You just have to keep working on those and make sure even those guys who aren't the starters are prepared as well.
"A lot of that is just reads we have to make. Because of our offense, we have to make a lot of reads down the field. When Texas Tech comes out and they're doing more man coverage than they've shown this season. They're not a big blitzing team, and they didn't do a lot of that today, but they mixed it up. Just going out and preparing is just something we're going to have to go out and keep doing just based on the defenses you're going to get, just based on adjustments going on down the field."
ON BEING SURPRISED ABOUT BEING 3-4 - "We're definitely surprised. Nobody sits in the film room over the summer or hangs out in the weight room talking about how great it would be to be 3-4 in the middle of the season. Regardless of who we're playing, we do have the talent to go out and win football games if you take care of your assignment. That's why so many people talk about taking care of their job. If everybody takes care of their assignment to the best of their ability, we have the talent, we can beat anybody on our schedule if we execute. It's the great teams that do execute. You have a team like Oklahoma; they're No. 1 in the country for a reason. They have great athletes, and they execute each and every week, that's going to put you in a great situation. We know we have the athletes; we just have to work on the execution because we know we can compete with anybody in the country."
"A lot of it is just a little bit of mojo. Regardless of how you slice it and dice it, a lot of these people are kids, you have a lot of young kids going out, Paul Richardson is 18, and he's one of the biggest contributors in the game today, but a lot of people are just kids. When a lot of negative stuff happens, you're just a kid, and it's tough not to look at the negative side of things. When you're rolling, you think you're invincible, and things are bad, people think they're really bad. You just have to keep working on your improvement, the team's improvement, and keep moving forward."
WR Paul Richardson
ON HAVING A BREAK-OUT GAME - "The coaches really prepped me well this week. I knew it was my time to step up so I was just waiting and I was ready."
ON HAVING A STRONG FINISH TO THE SEASON - "I knew coming in here I would have to prove myself. I knew in the beginning, I wasn't going to have much trust, but over time I've gained a lot of trust, so it is going to happen. Now they trust me more, I'm starting to touch the ball more and I'm getting more comfortable and making plays."
CB Jalil Brown
ON HIS INTERCEPTION - "I felt like I had the opportunity to make a play. The ball was in the air and I went ahead and took that shot and I was hoping that would get the game turned around, but unfortunately we weren't able to make the plays when it counted the most and we couldn't march down the field a little bit."
ON DB TERREL SMITH - "I thought he played great. I looked up a few times and he made a few awesome plays. You couldn't even tell he was a freshman out there. You would think he had been out there for a while. Obviously, if we watch film, he made a few negative plays, but for the most part he was great. I tip my hat to him to get out there as a freshman, first game, and make the plays he made."
ON TEXAS TECH IN THE SECOND HALF - "I feel like they came out the second half and switched up their plan a little bit and they were able to defeat our defense a little bit. We weren't able to get on the same page on some plays in the second half, and that's where we made some mistakes."
ON BEING DISCOURAGED LOSING THE LAST TWO GAMES - "It's definitely discouraging, losing close games like we have the last two weeks. We just have to go ahead at practiced and play the way we know how to play. I think a lot of times guys will try and do a little too much instead of just their job, we have to go back to the basics and play the game of football how it's supposed to be played. That will help us in the future."
ON PLAYING OKLAHOMA NEXT WEEK - "We'll approach it the same way, this week at practice we just have to put more effort into it. We need to spend as much time as we can on the practice field, as much time as we can watching film and try not to take any plays off. When you're tired out there, we have to just keep going and keep pushing because this is a big game for us. They're ranked high, they show they can play some pretty good ball, and we're going on the road. It will be tough, but if we can keep going at practice, we should be able to do a good job out there."
DB Terrel Smith
ON THE LOSS - "I felt like everyone gave it their all. We just came up short; it's disappointing, I'm upset and I know everyone else is upset. We just got to get back for next week."
ON HIS FIRST GAME - "I had fun. I really did, I enjoyed every play and every minute of it. I'm ready for next week and I just had fun. It came down to it and I felt good out there."
"I know I'm young; I'm a true freshman. I have time to learn and get better and practice and critique the mistakes that I had. I just got to get better."
ON DEFENDING THE PASS GAME - "I think we did great. All the DBs, we put in our work and we were stopping them. They had a lot of three-and-outs."
ON WHAT THE DEFENSE STRUGGLED AGAINST - "They were hitting the bubble screens and they were doing it back-to-back. That really hurt us, those back-to-back screens."
QB Tyler Hansen
ON HIS INJURY - "It was ribs. I got hit pretty hard. I was having trouble breathing and had a sharp pain in my chest. I got an x-ray at halftime and we're going to check it out right now so we'll see."
ON QB CODY HAWKINS - "He played well. He moved the offense pretty well. He mostly did no-huddle and he's comfortable doing that. I think we played to his abilities and he did well."
ON IF HE'LL PLAY NEXT WEEK - "Right now, no. But we'll see how I feel tomorrow and this week, but hopefully I'll get better."
ON THE LAST TWO LOSSES - "The last couple losses, a couple plays go our way and we're 5-2 and everyone's happy. Those plays didn't go our way and everyone's down and disappointed. It's football, so sometimes the ball is going to bounce your way and sometimes it does not. That's football and you got to love it for that."
ON REMAINING OPTIMISTIC - "It does [get harder to stay optimistic]. You feel like you're up against the world a little bit, but you just have to stay positive and I think we've done a good job of doing that."
PK Aric Goodman
ON HIS JOB SECURITY - "It's about making kicks, and it didn't go in. It is what it is."
ON HIS MISSED FIELD GOAL - "I thought it was just inside. It's kind of a judgment call, and it happens fast so it didn't go through."
ON HIS CONFIDENCE - "I still feel confident. I hit it good and kind of into a breeze going that way; it just didn't go through."
S Ray Polk
ON TEXAS TECH'S OFFENSE - "They sped it up a lot. They were playing hurry-up pretty much the whole time, which makes it difficult for us to get our calls. It makes it difficult for us because we have to line up faster than they line up just to be able to play defense. It makes it hard. We just got to make plays late in the game."
ON THE PLAYERS' CONCERN ABOUT COACH HAWKINS' FUTURE - "Nobody is really that concerned. It's out of our hands. We honestly just look week-to-week and team-to-team."
ON MAKING A BOWL GAME - "In the grand scheme of things, to get where you want to go, you have to take baby steps. Taking those steps is just looking at the next week and who you're facing. We have to win the next game and that's the most important thing to us right now."
ON THE LAST TWO LOSSES - "These two were crucial. We know we can bounce back, hopefully. We just got to keep morale up on the team."
ON DB TERREL SMITH - "Terrel did a great job out there and he's going to be a great player for us."
ON TEAM MORALE - "It's always hard coming off a loss, especially when it's at home. We're able to sulk right now, but then tomorrow it's on to a new week and a new team."
ON IF THE PLAYERS FEEL THEIR COACH'S JOB SECURITY IS IN THEIR HANDS - "No, I think that's putting way too much pressure on the players. We play for ourselves and we play for our team and we play for our family. We play for our religions. As far as keeping someone's job goes, it's really, in the grand scheme of things, I believe out of our hands. That's just the truth. You got to play for the sport and for what you love."
CB Jimmy Smith
ON TALENT IN SECONDARY FOR AFTER HE GRADUATES - "Jered Bell is a big, rangy corner. Deji Olatoye and Terrel [Smith]; we have some guys coming for the future."
ON THE REMAINDER OF THE SEASON - "Our team needs to win all five. We have to make the plays that we're not coming up with. Easily we could have won this game; put our foots on their throats and come out with it and make more plays than that."
Texas Tech Players
DT Pearlie Graves
ON THE WIN - "It's a real big win. It's given us a lot of swag back that we needed."
ON DEFENSIVE PLAY - "We didn't really do anything different. We just came out with a lot of swag. We just tried to go out there and do what we do best. That's to go out there and stop runs and do what we can."
ON PLAYING AS A FRESHMAN - "I was very excited. I had so many chills going down my spine. I had slowed down a little bit. My first time being out there. I was so amped up."
DL Colby Whitlock
ON THE WIN- "It was great. We had a lot of injuries in the last couple of weeks. We had some guys today who hadn't taken any snaps before they came out here. We gave great effort and did everything we could. It's always nice to walk out of there with a W."
"It's extremely important. Anytime you can get a win on the road in the Big 12, it's a great thing. Colorado played a great game, but we came out on top in the end, and it's great."
ON THE FINAL DEFENSIVE STAND - "We just went out there and executed our assignments, and everything went our way."
ON COLORADO'S QUARTERBACK CHANGE - "No. 7 [QB Cody Hawkins] came in and played a great game too. He was throwing the ball around, but as far as me being a defensive lineman, it didn't really change a lot. No. 7 came in and had a hell of a game."
ON SENIOR KICKER MATT WILLIAMS - "Anytime a kicker can come out and put the game winning points on the board, that's a lot of pressure. So to come out and do that, it's great."
ON STOPPING THE RUN - "That was number one on the list. We came out and we did that, and we gave up too many passing yards, but it's all stuff we're working on, and we'll get it corrected.
PK Matt Williams
ON THE GAME WINNING KICK - "I was just trying to stay relaxed. I tried to focus on other things than kicking the ball, but I just took a deep breath and kicked the ball. I know God gave me the talent to kick the ball through the uprights, and that's why he put me here. I just have to do my job."
"It's one of those things where right when you kick it, you know it's going in. I took a glance up and started celebrating."
"I didn't really win it, I just kicked the ball through the uprights to get us the extra points to win it. The offense did a great job. The defense came up with some huge stops, but it feels really good to do something for my team."
ON HAVING A WIN IN THE FOURTH QUARTER - "We haven't had a win in the fourth quarter all year, so it was really nice to have a win."
QB Taylor Potts
ON THE WIN - "It feels pretty nice. Being the first team to win here at Colorado, that's pretty nice too. It's nice that we got the win, and it's nice that we came back to win it and held onto it at the end. We know we can hang on, we know we can win. We know it, we just have to do it. You've got to make the plays. A few mistakes here and there are going to happen, but we have to eliminate anything we can. We've got guys making plays, we've just got to keep guys making plays. We've got to have the confidence to catch every ball. We've got to have the confidence to make every single run-block, and to make every single cut."
"I hope everybody remembers this. We go on the road to a place where we have never won before in school history. We go out and get the win, come from behind a win. It's something to build off of, something to kind of hang your hat on."
ON HIS CONFIDENCE IN KICKER MATT WILLIAMS- "I had a lot. He puts a little bit of pressure on Matt at the end of practices. He kicks, and if he misses, we've got to run. If he makes it, then you know we're good. We've done that a lot. He's had some people mad at him a few times, but he went out there and did what he was supposed to do."
ON BEING ABLE TO RELY ON HIS KICKER - "It's nice. Being able to get points like that when we need it is nice."
ON THE PASS BLOCKING - "They're doing really good. We had a couple holding penalties, which is not uncharacteristic of our guys with as much as we block on those types of plays. They did really good. Being able to black as well as they did is what allowed us to win the game."
ON DEFENSE GETTING TIRED - "Guys seem to focus really well when they get tired. For us as an offense, we've got to make those plays, convert those third downs. We've got to stay on the field as much as we can."
ON THE O-LINE - "The running game has also been good. We've got two really good running backs in Barron [Batch] and Eric [Stephens] and that O-line is doing a great job of run blocking, better than they've ever done. They're doing a great job of pass protecting and blocking up the run."
WR Alex Torres
ON THE WIN - "It was a fight the whole time. They came out, and we came out, and it was a dog fight and it came down to the last minute. It's real big for us and it's a really great feeling right now, but we know we've got to forget about it tomorrow and start getting ready for next week. We needed this win. We needed to come out and show that we're going to fight the rest of the season, and we're never going to give up."
