Coker
COACH COKER: This was the Kansas State team we expected. They don't make mistakes, they don't beat themselves, and for us to win, we can't beat ourselves. We had some drops, had way too many penalties. You have penalties like that, you're not going to win. And then we missed some blocks. All in all, I think the best team won today. I think we played pretty tough the first half; second half they kind of handled us pretty good. They didn't do a lot of things different the second half, they just played better. We had plays to be made and we didn't make those plays, so that's kind of the story of the game. It's very disappointing for us today, especially at home. I told our team we're going to have a good football team. I like this football team. I like these players, I like this team. Again, there's a lot of things (inaudible.) College football, winning football games is hard. It's not easy, it's not easy. We've got to realize we've got to work hard and the thing I want to see is us coming back tomorrow with a new attitude. If we had some bumps and bruises, get healed up and let's go to work.
Q. Can you describe the decision to go for it on 4th-and-goal from the 3-yard line in the first half?
COACH COKER: Fourth and 3. Well, the decision was made because I feel like we had to score a touchdown. We're not going to beat them with field goals. Now looking back at it, it probably was a bad decision because it didn't work. But again, he was open, they made a good play, and it would have been an easy touchdown had they not got a hand on the football. Looking back at it, in hindsight, we probably would have like to have taken a three, but at the time we knew we had some more touchdowns. We cannot beat them with field goals.
Q. Can you talk about the offense today, especially in the second half?
COACH COKER: I don't think I'd do anything different. I think, again they made adjustments. We didn't run the ball nearly as well as we need to do to win football games. That's going to be the solid part of our game. Did some good things in the passing game. Things happen. We missed a pass that we normally would have made or should have made. But we've got to be able to run the football. When I've been around good teams, those are the teams that can run the ball and we weren't able to do that, especially in the second half today.
Q. David Morgan was big for you last week at Arizona. Did they do anything to scheme against him today?
COACH COKER: You know, again, he had a great day last week. You know, he was actually tight end of the world I guess you could say last week after that game with Arizona. Obviously they're pretty smart coaches. They know how to scheme things up. I think Aaron Grubb had nine catches today.
Again, we really don't care as long as somebody can pick up the slack and get us where we need to be. But I think that David did some good things today blocking. We had him a few times and missed him, which is uncharacteristic of what we usually do.
Q. Was it tough to prepare because you did not have much film on their quarterback?
COACH COKER: He's a very strong runner. We didn't know that. He's a very strong runner as you can see. This is his first game to start, I believe. He's going to be a good player for them. I think that's the big thing I saw, that we really didn't know how well he could run. He ran the ball pretty well. He made the tough yards. He didn't make long, long runs, but four, five, six, nine yard runs, he did a great job of that.
Q. They seemed to have some success with the deep balls over the middle today. What did they do to open those areas up?
COACH COKER: Again, yeah, they opened the middle up and of course they took advantage of that. That's a hard play to recognize is that back out of the backfield coming down the middle, he tends to disappear. But we got hurt two or three times over the middle of the field and we're certainly going to get that corrected. Wasn't anything out of the ordinary, just did things we didn't handle very well.
Q. Some of the false start penalties were drive killers today, right?
COACH COKER: No doubt about it. Again, and foolish penalties are key, you can't do it. I think again we got a new center and a new quarterback, that's probably part of it, I guess. But again, I think the thing, we're at home and the crowd should not affect us at home. Now, if we're playing in Auburn, Alabama, or Tuscaloosa, that's a different situation, but here the crowd should be in our favor, and really no excuses for that. Things we just didn't handle it well today.
Q. Blake, did you guys feel like you just couldn't find a good rhythm today offensively?
BLAKE BOGENSCHUTZ: Right. It's the lack of execution. There was execution here and there, but we weren't putting that all together to form one good drive. There was execution here a little bit, and then the very next play would be lack of execution, whether it be false start or holding. We can't get behind the chains. They had a really good package for third and long and it was hard to get in those situations. When we got behind the chains, we couldn't convert and lack of execution. It's got to be execution by all 11 every single time we go out there.
Q. Mauricio, I'll ask you the same question I asked Coker. As the only defender out there, was it tough game planning for Hubener being that it's his first start and not really know what he's going to bring to the table?
MAURICIO SANCHEZ: It was. I thought we had a good idea of what he was going to do. We knew he was going to attack the middle of the field. We saw him run a couple times before, so we knew he was going to scramble. But lack of execution. You know, we missed some tackles. But he's a competitor, he's a tough guy to bring down. That was basically it.
Q. Blake, talking about the execution, the penalties. Y'all had a bunch of penalties. It wasn't a lot of yardage, it wasn't like it was 15-yarders, but the five-yarders really, really hurt you. For a home opener, did you feel that maybe you weren't as sharp mentally as maybe you could have been? Talk about the whole team, but especially offense.
BLAKE BOGENSCHUTZ: Right. The first few opening drives, we were going on a snap count from our voice and the Dome was really loud. We know that going in, and we knew it was going to be loud, but we didn't think that they were going cheering the whole time while we were on offense. We started going on a silent snap count and I think that kind of eliminate that kind of stuff, but that's what that was. The holding penalties, the chop blocks, that's got to be eliminated and that gets us behind the chains and we can't have that.
Q. Defensively, first half you guys did a pretty good job of bending and not breaking on them, and second half they started getting more into the end zone. Is that about conditioning or did they kind of change up the scheme to do that?
MAURICIO SANCHEZ: No, I think they were doing a good job just running the ball and they couldn't really get third-down conversions. Second half they just went big-ball on us and we gave up a couple penalties, pass interference, and then a couple big-time catches and they got in the red zone and that's where they scored most of their points, whether it was a field goal or walking into a touchdown.
Q. Blake, can you run through that play on fourth and goal a little bit before halftime where you had Triston across the middle?
BLAKE BOGENSCHUTZ: We knew they were going to be flatfooting it, expecting us to run. I think we were on the 2- or 3-yard line, so we did a little -- we've been running a stretch play and Triston had been going in and getting the inside backer. We were trying to get that same look, and Triston slipped into the back of the end zone. But like I say lack of execution. Fourth and goal, we've got to execute in that situation. If we do, it's a new ballgame, it really is. It's a completely different ballgame.
Q. David, on a positive note, can you take us through that play where you carried about two guys on your back to get that first down?
DAVID MORGAN: Yeah. Just backer left, I kind of felt the jab (inaudible) flash eyes on me ready for a ball, and especially being a big target over the middle, I felt it was kind of (inaudible.) Guy just jumped on my back, and I honestly didn't know he was on my back until they played the replay. I really didn't. I thought he was just holding onto me. Yeah, and just yeah, made a play. Bogey threw a great ball.
MAURICIO SANCHEZ: We practice that all the time.
Q. I want to ask you a question as a USTA student. I know there was a lot of buzz on campus about us maybe tipping the 40,000 viewer mark. What do you think that we need to do to get more people out here to watch you guys play?
DAVID MORGAN: I mean, winning is definitely going to help. Obviously people want to see us win and I feel like us getting involved more on campus, I feel maybe if we go out and do a little something ourselves or get involved with Roadrunner Production. People like to see that from the students, so maybe we can get involved more.
Q. Blake, what do you think should be a first priority for y'all at practice tomorrow?
BLAKE BOGENSCHUTZ: Win. We need to win. We have to win every practice, we have to win every period of practice, you've got to win every moment. When you talk about execution, there was a lot of lack of execution. I think if we execute every single time, if we win each individual moment, we really come up with that ballgame. We're not taking any moral victories from this game. That's a team that we can beat and we know that.
COACH COKER: This was the Kansas State team we expected. They don't make mistakes, they don't beat themselves, and for us to win, we can't beat ourselves. We had some drops, had way too many penalties. You have penalties like that, you're not going to win. And then we missed some blocks. All in all, I think the best team won today. I think we played pretty tough the first half; second half they kind of handled us pretty good. They didn't do a lot of things different the second half, they just played better. We had plays to be made and we didn't make those plays, so that's kind of the story of the game. It's very disappointing for us today, especially at home. I told our team we're going to have a good football team. I like this football team. I like these players, I like this team. Again, there's a lot of things (inaudible.) College football, winning football games is hard. It's not easy, it's not easy. We've got to realize we've got to work hard and the thing I want to see is us coming back tomorrow with a new attitude. If we had some bumps and bruises, get healed up and let's go to work.
Q. Can you describe the decision to go for it on 4th-and-goal from the 3-yard line in the first half?
COACH COKER: Fourth and 3. Well, the decision was made because I feel like we had to score a touchdown. We're not going to beat them with field goals. Now looking back at it, it probably was a bad decision because it didn't work. But again, he was open, they made a good play, and it would have been an easy touchdown had they not got a hand on the football. Looking back at it, in hindsight, we probably would have like to have taken a three, but at the time we knew we had some more touchdowns. We cannot beat them with field goals.
Q. Can you talk about the offense today, especially in the second half?
COACH COKER: I don't think I'd do anything different. I think, again they made adjustments. We didn't run the ball nearly as well as we need to do to win football games. That's going to be the solid part of our game. Did some good things in the passing game. Things happen. We missed a pass that we normally would have made or should have made. But we've got to be able to run the football. When I've been around good teams, those are the teams that can run the ball and we weren't able to do that, especially in the second half today.
Q. David Morgan was big for you last week at Arizona. Did they do anything to scheme against him today?
COACH COKER: You know, again, he had a great day last week. You know, he was actually tight end of the world I guess you could say last week after that game with Arizona. Obviously they're pretty smart coaches. They know how to scheme things up. I think Aaron Grubb had nine catches today.
Again, we really don't care as long as somebody can pick up the slack and get us where we need to be. But I think that David did some good things today blocking. We had him a few times and missed him, which is uncharacteristic of what we usually do.
Q. Was it tough to prepare because you did not have much film on their quarterback?
COACH COKER: He's a very strong runner. We didn't know that. He's a very strong runner as you can see. This is his first game to start, I believe. He's going to be a good player for them. I think that's the big thing I saw, that we really didn't know how well he could run. He ran the ball pretty well. He made the tough yards. He didn't make long, long runs, but four, five, six, nine yard runs, he did a great job of that.
Q. They seemed to have some success with the deep balls over the middle today. What did they do to open those areas up?
COACH COKER: Again, yeah, they opened the middle up and of course they took advantage of that. That's a hard play to recognize is that back out of the backfield coming down the middle, he tends to disappear. But we got hurt two or three times over the middle of the field and we're certainly going to get that corrected. Wasn't anything out of the ordinary, just did things we didn't handle very well.
Q. Some of the false start penalties were drive killers today, right?
COACH COKER: No doubt about it. Again, and foolish penalties are key, you can't do it. I think again we got a new center and a new quarterback, that's probably part of it, I guess. But again, I think the thing, we're at home and the crowd should not affect us at home. Now, if we're playing in Auburn, Alabama, or Tuscaloosa, that's a different situation, but here the crowd should be in our favor, and really no excuses for that. Things we just didn't handle it well today.
Q. Blake, did you guys feel like you just couldn't find a good rhythm today offensively?
BLAKE BOGENSCHUTZ: Right. It's the lack of execution. There was execution here and there, but we weren't putting that all together to form one good drive. There was execution here a little bit, and then the very next play would be lack of execution, whether it be false start or holding. We can't get behind the chains. They had a really good package for third and long and it was hard to get in those situations. When we got behind the chains, we couldn't convert and lack of execution. It's got to be execution by all 11 every single time we go out there.
Q. Mauricio, I'll ask you the same question I asked Coker. As the only defender out there, was it tough game planning for Hubener being that it's his first start and not really know what he's going to bring to the table?
MAURICIO SANCHEZ: It was. I thought we had a good idea of what he was going to do. We knew he was going to attack the middle of the field. We saw him run a couple times before, so we knew he was going to scramble. But lack of execution. You know, we missed some tackles. But he's a competitor, he's a tough guy to bring down. That was basically it.
Q. Blake, talking about the execution, the penalties. Y'all had a bunch of penalties. It wasn't a lot of yardage, it wasn't like it was 15-yarders, but the five-yarders really, really hurt you. For a home opener, did you feel that maybe you weren't as sharp mentally as maybe you could have been? Talk about the whole team, but especially offense.
BLAKE BOGENSCHUTZ: Right. The first few opening drives, we were going on a snap count from our voice and the Dome was really loud. We know that going in, and we knew it was going to be loud, but we didn't think that they were going cheering the whole time while we were on offense. We started going on a silent snap count and I think that kind of eliminate that kind of stuff, but that's what that was. The holding penalties, the chop blocks, that's got to be eliminated and that gets us behind the chains and we can't have that.
Q. Defensively, first half you guys did a pretty good job of bending and not breaking on them, and second half they started getting more into the end zone. Is that about conditioning or did they kind of change up the scheme to do that?
MAURICIO SANCHEZ: No, I think they were doing a good job just running the ball and they couldn't really get third-down conversions. Second half they just went big-ball on us and we gave up a couple penalties, pass interference, and then a couple big-time catches and they got in the red zone and that's where they scored most of their points, whether it was a field goal or walking into a touchdown.
Q. Blake, can you run through that play on fourth and goal a little bit before halftime where you had Triston across the middle?
BLAKE BOGENSCHUTZ: We knew they were going to be flatfooting it, expecting us to run. I think we were on the 2- or 3-yard line, so we did a little -- we've been running a stretch play and Triston had been going in and getting the inside backer. We were trying to get that same look, and Triston slipped into the back of the end zone. But like I say lack of execution. Fourth and goal, we've got to execute in that situation. If we do, it's a new ballgame, it really is. It's a completely different ballgame.
Q. David, on a positive note, can you take us through that play where you carried about two guys on your back to get that first down?
DAVID MORGAN: Yeah. Just backer left, I kind of felt the jab (inaudible) flash eyes on me ready for a ball, and especially being a big target over the middle, I felt it was kind of (inaudible.) Guy just jumped on my back, and I honestly didn't know he was on my back until they played the replay. I really didn't. I thought he was just holding onto me. Yeah, and just yeah, made a play. Bogey threw a great ball.
MAURICIO SANCHEZ: We practice that all the time.
Q. I want to ask you a question as a USTA student. I know there was a lot of buzz on campus about us maybe tipping the 40,000 viewer mark. What do you think that we need to do to get more people out here to watch you guys play?
DAVID MORGAN: I mean, winning is definitely going to help. Obviously people want to see us win and I feel like us getting involved more on campus, I feel maybe if we go out and do a little something ourselves or get involved with Roadrunner Production. People like to see that from the students, so maybe we can get involved more.
Q. Blake, what do you think should be a first priority for y'all at practice tomorrow?
BLAKE BOGENSCHUTZ: Win. We need to win. We have to win every practice, we have to win every period of practice, you've got to win every moment. When you talk about execution, there was a lot of lack of execution. I think if we execute every single time, if we win each individual moment, we really come up with that ballgame. We're not taking any moral victories from this game. That's a team that we can beat and we know that.
