Paul Petrino — Head coach
- On the future of the program
“There’s a lot of good young players. You can see you’re not there yet, but you can definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel. Especially with the quarterback that we have and some of the young players and how well they’re playing. We just got to keep grinding. It doesn’t come easy, but when you got to work really hard for it, it makes it a lot nicer when you get there.”
“I think they see themselves getting better. They remember being out on that field last year playing Texas State and on the road playing them — they know the difference. They’re out there battling and they feel the difference. When you’re actually in the game you feel it physically when you’re getting after someone, or physically when you’re just getting your butt kicked. They feel the difference of how the game is going and they know that we’re right there on the edge. I think their confidence is good right now.”
“You just don’t look at the record. It’s a night and day difference in the team in just the way we execute and the way we play football right now.”
“We’re working as hard as we can. Every program you go into, different ones are going to get turned around at a different speed. A lot of that depends on where they were at when you got there.”
“If anybody wants to come spend a day with me and see how hard we’re working, they can do it. They’ll see that I can look at them in the eye and say we’re doing everything we can and we’re going to get it turned around, there’s not one doubt in my mind. I’m sorry that it hasn’t turned as fast as we’ve had, but we’re getting there and we’re going to get it done.”
- On the slow starts
“That’s what we keep talking to them about — confidence. We got to step on that field and believe right from the get go that we’re good enough to go win … We got to believe from the start that we can play with them and go get after them right from the beginning.”
“We didn’t start as slow as we had some games, we just didn’t get touchdowns when we were down there … Defense comes out and gets two turnovers right off the bat. We really could have started out with a nice lead, but you got to convert and get touchdowns when you’re down there.”
“I think we’re doing a better job as a staff making adjustments and correcting things at halftime. Last year we were really bad in the third quarter. Our players know the offense and defense better so they understand it. We have to play better in the first half, there’s no question.”
- On the big plays surrendered against Texas State
“For most of them it was just one different guy. In option football each guy has their own responsible and a couple of times they had their eyes in the backfield and didn’t take their gap. A couple of times they just flowed too fast and one-time they just missed a tackle.”
- On the running game
“Penny ran hard, I think Kris really competed hard — he did a good job, both catching the ball a couple times and running. Then the youngster, I think Aaron has the chance to be a star around here for years to come, I really do. I’ve been saying it each week in practice, sometimes you just get nervous as a coach of sometimes putting that freshman in there … but then you just got to do it and I think he played really well and I think he’ll improve each week.”
- On the status of freshman wide receiver David Ungerer
“Hopefully he’ll be back to at least return punts if nothing else. He was out there yesterday — he’s a tough kid. He came back in a week that some guys wouldn’t come back for two or three or four. He’s just a tough kid, he’s kind of like Jordan Rose. Those are two tough freshmen that we got to get the whole program filled with people like that. Then we’ll be in great shape.”
- On the criticism of freshman quarterback Matt Linehan
“It’s kind of like being the head coach, the quarterback, everybody either loves you or they all hate you — there’s usually no gray area. It’s just one of those things you just have to have great mental toughness.”
- On Georgia Southern
“They got a great chance (to win the Sun Belt). We got to beat them or they might run the table. They don’t play Louisiana-Lafayette or Arkansas State either. They got a great chance at winning the league this year. So we got to go down there and beat them and give them one loss.”
“They’ve had a great program forever … When you won year after year, players step on the field and expect to win and that’s where we got to get. We got to start winning so three years down the road, when Matt’s a senior, and when we step on the field every game, the whole team expects to win and there’s no question we’re going to win.”
“Their (GSU) quarterback (Kevin Ellison) is really fast. His whole life he’s been running the wishbone from underneath center, now he just does it from shotgun.”
“Their linebacker (Antwione Williams), 37, he’s probably one of the best linebackers in the league.”
“They’re a team that we can go beat and a team that we can go play with. We just got to go battle them and find a way to get it done. I think our players should feel like they’ve proven to themselves that they can play with all the teams in this league. Now it’s time to step up and find a way to get a win.”
- On Joshua McCain being named to the Biletnikoff Award watch list
“They finally recognized him. That’s great I’m glad he’s on that list, he should be on that list. He’s been consistent week in week out. It’s not like he’s had a bad game. Like I’ve said for a couple weeks, I think he can get better and better each week … we need him to go have an even bigger game this week. I’m proud of him and happy for him, that’s great deal.”
Maxx Forde — senior defensive end
- On preparing for Georgia Southern
“It helps having the scout team obviously, but being able to run it against an actual live offense is good and having that experience going forward against more option teams will help.”
“Last week Texas State ran the option a lot, this team runs it even more. They don’t like to pass it very much at all. It’s just going to be won in the trenches really.”
“Playing option defense is about having discipline. Just making sure everybody has their assignment. If you can do that, you can shut down the option. That’s the biggest thing on option defense.”
“I think every week is a new challenge for us and we go out there fighting and expecting to win. The motivation is always there every game, every week.”
- On the improved play of the defense
“I think that we’re playing a lot better overall … The big plays are still hitting us, we got to limit that … Last week it would have been a great defensive performance if we would have stopped those few big plays, but we can’t have that. We can’t say if we stop these big plays, we got to actually go out there and do it.”
Kris Cinkovich — Assistant head coach/offensive coordinator/offensive line coach
- On close outcome of the Texas State game
“We just had to do a couple things to get the outcome to the other side, so that’s frustrating. I think our players understand that, I think their probably tired of it too … Hopefully we can start rising above that.”
- On the slow starts
“That’s on the coaches, that’s on the leadership. It’s just the process of believing in ourselves. I think sometimes we’re not sure of who we’re playing and how good they’re going to be and we kind of feel it out and that’s not what good teams do. Good teams come out all in and that’s what we have to do — and not be the boxer who gets hit and wakes up because sometimes you get too far behind.”
“We can beat the teams that we’re playing and not worry about how good they are.”
- On Georgia Southern
“They’re a good solid defense. They’re big upfront, their linebackers run well and they’re really sound. So we’ll have to be sound and have better technique than they do and give better effort than they do.”
- On the improvement of the running game
“Big time, because it’s a lot easier to call plays, it’s a lot easier to execute the offense. You wear people down, I hope that becomes our personality because that was kind of what we want.”
Kristoffer Olugbode — senior running back
- On getting the first start of his career against Texas State last week
“Coach actually told me right before the game that I was going to get the start. I’m just excited, anytime you get the opportunity to go out there and start … I just wanted to take advantage of it.”
- On his playing style
“Definitely down hill. I’m more of just one cut and go kind of guy. I don’t dance too much, I try to hit it down hill.”
- On the improvement of the running game
“The offensive line just did a great job of opening holes. I think we had almost 200 yards rushing. They made my job really easy, I was just running behind them and doing what I could do.”
“All of us had a pretty good game. Obviously we want to win, but I felt like it was our best rushing output of the year. So anytime you can do that its good but we just got to continue to build on that.”
“We’re just going to go in there and run our offense. We feel like we can be successful against any defense that we play against.”
- On the slow starts to games
“We just need to finish (drives). Yeah we have slow starts, but we’re moving the ball, we’re moving the ball really well. We had four drives inside the red zone, we just weren’t able to capitalize on that. If were able to that then the outcome is probably different and in our favor.”
Eric Brown — Linebackers coach
- On surrendering big plays
“Just execution. Obviously we’re trying to eliminate those big plays. We’ve done a better job, playing better defense, being more focused — but its got to be 100 percent every single play. The issue is that one-play really hurts you — it cost you seven points. If there’s three of those one plays, it really hurts you. If we get rid of those big plays, we beat Texas State 30-7, that’s what we talked about in our room today.”
- On how the team is preparing to face a duel-threat quarterback
“Trying to get receivers at quarterback, trying to give the best look we can. Coach Petrino always gives us a great look when he comes down and runs the offense against us, that’s been helpful. Definitely just preaching to execute, to do your job. Anytime you play an option football team it’s all about doing your job and doing it the most physical that you can do it.”
“He reminds me more of a wide receiver. He throws the ball pretty decent when he’s on the run, but he’s more of a straight option quarterback. I don’t want to say he’s not dual-threat, because he can throw the football, but he’s a run first guy when it’s all said and done. He’s almost a receiver playing quarterback.”
- On Georgia Southern
“They were a really good FCS team and they transitioned well because they had talent. They had great talent level at the FCS and it transitioned to the really good talent for our level in the Sun Belt. It doesn’t shock me because they’re a well coached football program.”
“I think they do throw the ball on the run pretty well and they give some good play action. They don’t throw it very often, which at times it lulls you to sleep. It’s kind of been our focus, we try to preach staying alert, staying focus and doing your job every play.”
“They do a little bit of smoke and mirrors and make you think it’s a play and run something else at you. That helps them.”
- On the Idaho defense
“We got to continue to get the ball back to our offense. Our offense is about as explosive as they get throwing the ball. So as much as we can get them the football, the more points we’re going to get on the board, the more we’re going to win. We just got to continue to get turnovers.”