For 45 minutes the other night we played pretty good football in
a lot of areas, but you have to finish, and we did not do that.
We have to execute, when the opportunities come, to make plays. We
have to do a better job there. Some of that is having confidence
to go make a play and some of it is making sure you are doing
your job every play. We have a great opportunity this week, a
great challenge ahead of us. I think our guys have moved forward
pretty well. We bled on Sunday, but that is a part of it.
Its
football. We have a schedule to finish. We have a lot to play
for and we have a great opportunity.
We ran real well on Sunday, the guys have been up looking at
tape; back to work. That's mentality that you like to see.
On injuries:
No, Roberto had a little bit of an ankle, but we should be all
set.
On Vincent Brown coming back:
There is some speculation that he may come back. He has been
running and looks great, but I think he went to the doctor
yesterday and we still have not heard exactly where he is at.
On
Vincent Brown playing with cast on: "Depending on how many fingers he has. [We have been
speculating] a little bit, trainers, doctors, me, [Vincent
Brown]."
On learning how to win and the fourth quarter being a step
backward in that progress: "I think it's part of it. The only thing that I can judge is
how our guys played during the fourth quarter. When you look at
the tape, the intensity and hearing football on the field.
That's one of my biggest pet peeves is I want to hear football.
I don't necessarily have to see it but I want to hear it. They're playing with good effort and they're chasing
guys and they're throwing blocks. We ran a couple screens that I
thought our offensive linemen did a good job. For the most part,
offensively I thought we played pretty well. I think it's a
learning process that we've got to get through as a team."
On losing to Wyoming being the low point of the season: "I don't know. I think any [loss] is a low point. I think
any time you lose, that's a low point."
On learning from the Wyoming loss: "I don't know. It's still a loss. It doesn't change
anything. To me, it's another learning experience and what we
have to do as a football team and as a staff is take the good
things that we did and learn things we didn't do as well."
On mentality after loss: "I've done this a long time so I've been through it. You
feel badly for your players and that's hard the thing hard thing
because you want them as hard as they work, you want them to be
successful. I'm sure every coach feels that way, because you're
coaching for the kids anyway and life lessons and everything
else. It's one of those things that this is a big life lesson
that we're learning. You just feel bad because of the hard
work."
On how important Ryan Lindley has been: "I think he's really important. I think his maturity and his
leadership and that's probably what I've noticed the most is his
leadership, that he's taking more of every day. Our seniors are
very important to us and sometimes it takes an underclassman a
little bit to feel `I'm not a senior so maybe I shouldn't." I
think he has stepped forward in that and done a nice job."
On how he has grown physically: "I think he's grown a lot. I think he's ... the understanding
of it from the first to the second read or whatever it might be
in the throwing game to getting us into good plays at the line
scrimmage. I think he's done a really good job of that."
When looking at tape, what he sees go wrong defensively: "When you have an opportunity to make a play, you've got to
make the play. I think there were a couple different instances ...
right at end of the third quarter on the one drive. We've got
some guys in position to play the ball and we play the man
instead of playing the ball. Darryn Lewis did a great job on the
one down the sideline; he jumps up, gets the ball out, the guy
falls on his back, and the ball falls in his chest. What are you
going to do? That's part of it. That takes a little bit of
emotion from you every time you put yourself out there and then
sometimes you have a tendency to play safe and you can't play
safe. There's nothing safe about it."
On Utah's running game: "They run it as well as anybody. I think you see the speed
that they have. They're similar when you look at TCU to that
degree, when you see the speed that they have on the perimeter.
Those guys can go get it. I think the running back is a guy who
really wide does nice job of finding the creases in there and
accelerating through holes. They've got a young quarterback
who's a good quarterback, makes good decisions, and I think
they've done a nice job of bringing him along at the same time."
On Utah's altitude: "It hasn't bothered us. I think there's more made of it than
there is from a psychological standpoint."
On if the buzz about a bowl game has fizzled after the loss: "I don't think so. I don't see that. I thought we played
three quarters of really good football and fell apart one way or
another in the fourth quarter. Some of it was ... we've kicked
those sky kicks all year and made some substitutions to make
sure guys who handle balls a lot ... just didn't make plays we
wanted to."
On the season so far: LINDLEY: "There's bright spots and there's also spots
that we know we could have improved on. It's nowhere near over.
We're still looking forward to Utah and the opportunities that
we have there. Obviously you look back and you're always going
to second-guess yourself and you're always going to know that
you can do better, but with the way we prepared and the way we
worked this season, I think as a whole this team expected more.
We're going to continue to expect more and that's what's going
to make us a better team."
On how he feels he's grown into the new offense this season:
LINDLEY: "I think it's been a growing process, exactly like
you said. I've grown but I think this offense has grown. You see
the way we've run the ball the last couple of weeks. It's
exciting to see how balanced and that balanced attack we've been
talking about since spring ball, it's really coming to play for
us. It's a good thing. I think we'll continue to improve on
that."
On moving on from the Wyoming game:
LINDLEY: "I think, especially the seniors, considering
that's a tough loss. It's your last game at home. To lose a game
like that, obviously it hurts and it's tough but they're pushing
forward. I see, and we all see, what we have ahead of us in two
games and the first of which being Utah this week. It's a great
challenge for us, a great team, and a great opportunity for us
to go up there and play."
On Sunday's film study:
TOLEDO: "Sunday's always obviously a little rough. We're
looking forward to the opportunity, like Ryan said, to go out
and focus all of our energy on Utah."
On whether there will be any kind of a hangover from the
Wyoming loss:
TOLEDO: "I don't think so. Obviously any loss that you have
is going to hurt but that week [after the TCU loss], we focused
on Wyoming the best that we could and this week we're going to
focus all of our energy on Utah."
On what it is about Utah's defense that frustrates offenses:
LINDLEY: "I think they've got a good scheme. They've got
some pretty talented and quick [defensive backs], I think is
what they rely on a lot. Also up front, they've got some big
boys. I think all around they're pretty solid. They've got some
team speed on that side of the ball. A lot of times they just
let their athletes play. On defense, like we do, like we've done
this year, you allow your team to make plays when you let guys
go out there and use their athletic ability to their advantage."
On what the offense will do to counteract all those athletes:
LINDLEY: "Coach [Al] Borges every week has dialed something
good up for us. He's seen so much, with so much experience that
he has, he's always got something for somebody. There's
something that he pulls out that he's used before that's worked
that he's found a way to make it work with us and it's going to
be all about us executing come Saturday."
On going up against local quarterback product Wynn:
LINDLEY: "I think they took advantage of an opportunity that
they had and kind of found a way to fit in that way. Obviously
it's worked out for them and good luck to them and how they
continue to grow. I feel like everything happens for a reason
and I feel extremely blessed ... the situation I've been in and
how everything's worked out these past three years."
On the biggest thing he learned in his redshirt year under
Kevin O'Connell:
LINDLEY: "Just management of a season with school and
everything that goes on. Kevin was a great role model and a
great leader for me to kind of sit under. I am extremely
thankful for everything that he showed me through that year. I'm
sure I was a pain sometimes, especially with what he was going
through, but he was a great guy and a great player to sit
under."
On going head-to-head with other San Diego section
quarterbacks in the Mountain West Conference:
LINDLEY: "I didn't really think about that. To be honest,
when you're preparing you kind of look at the other side of the
ball and you don't get a chance to look at their offense much.
It's awesome that [Utah quarterback Jordan Wynn] has had success
and he's had a chance to get into that starting role and just
work out with their offense as a true freshman."
