Hawkins' Tuesday Press Conference Quotes
Head Coach Dan Hawkins
ON SENIOR DAY?“Clearly, I told these guys in the team meeting the other day that they could probably write a variety of short stories that most guys didn’t ever go through in their college career on most teams. You certainly feel bad that you couldn’t send them off on a better note. Even though they are different guys you know the similar stories because you’ve been in it long enough. You know all of the injuries, the tough academic times, personal times they all have to go through and football is different from other sports. You can go play pretty competitive pick-up basketball, go play some adult baseball but there aren’t a lot of adult football leagues around. So when you hang it up for a lot of these guys, they won’t play again and that’s always a little sad.”
ON THE SENIOR CLASS?“Again those guys have been through some tough times, they really have. They have been through a lot of change, I said before when people asked me the things that surprised me when I came here, I think just their whole acceptance of the whole situation. I think a lot of that was those guys (the seniors).”
ON FINISHING THE LAST HOME GAME STRONG?“It has been trying for them too, trust me. Yeah, you definitely want to have a good crowd, it is good for college football and for us, where we aren’t always able to ride our own emotional energy you need to be able to rely on the crowd a little bit there sometimes.”
ON PLAYING YOUTH OVER SENIORS?“No, I told those seniors I am never going to abandon them and we’ve always tried to take this thing a day at a time, a week at a time and that’s just how I’ve always been. You know, we’re fully centered on trying to beat
ON GETTING A FRESH START NEXT SEASON?“No, you never want to. You always carry those things with you a little bit, so you just have to continue to work on that infrastructure stuff that you know is important in the off season so you can be ready to go in spring ball. There aren’t enough days to be in this job or in this life to begin with, so you have to enjoy them all.”
ON ILB THADDAEUS
ON PLAYERS OTHER THAN BERNARD JACKSON THAT HAVE STEPPED UP?“Well, obviously (safety) Ryan Walters has kind of emerged a little bit; I think (linebacker) Jordon Dizon no matter what he says he has definitely emerged, you know we kind of knew what he was about. I think our guys down inside, (defensive tackle) George Hypolite and (nose tackle) Brandon Nicolas have played pretty well?a lot better than we thought they were going to play. (Tight end) Riar Geer is a guy that I think has really come on and done a nice job; (tight end) Tyson DeVree has come on and done a nice job. Obviously (wide receiver) Cody Crawford has done some nice things.”