September 16, 1999

Rob Morris

About the tough rush defense: "The way we were playing, they could have had Herschel Walker and we still would have won." 

On his injury: "It will be a long week off so I'll be ready to go next week, I've had worse."

Kevin Feterik

About Luke Staley: "He doesn't play like a freshman, does he?  He's our starting halfback and he's a big part of our game plan." 

On his success so far this year:  “This is a good time, but you’ve always got to remember the bad times, because that’s what keeps you steady.  You never know when you’re going to have a bad game, and all of the sudden no one’s going to be behind you; you’re going to be walking by yourself.  So you’ve just got to relish the good times and remember the bad times.”

On his ability to find so many different receivers this season:  “I don’t really look for a receiver, I look to the open spot, and whoever’s in there, I have confidence that they’re going to catch the ball.  So I just go to whoever’s open, or whatever the defense is giving us, I’ll just take it, and if it happens to be Dabney or Tevita or whoever, I’m going to throw it to them.”

On playing against zone coverage as opposed to Washington’s man-to-man:  “Yeah, they played a lot of zone and did a lot of zone blitzing, which kind of threw us off a few times, but our offensive line did a great job of picking that up and gave me a lot of time back there.  When they were trying to blitz the free safety and drop back the end, our line would shift right off the block.  They caught us a couple times, but we adjusted to it.”

On the high passing yards:  “Yeah, 310, but we could have had at least 400 tonight.  We cut it back a little at the end.”

On being sacked more tonight after only one sack versus Washington:  “I feel great.  On one of the sacks I jammed my shoulder a little bit, but the hits that really hurt are when you throw it because your body’s exposed to the hit, whereas with sacks, you see it coming and you can guard yourself a little bit.  This offense is so much different.  Last year, if we got sacked, it was like, ‘Oh great, we have to punt,’ but now, it’s not even a big deal any more. It’s just like, ‘All right, we’re just backed up ten more yards, let’s just go get a first down.’”

Byron Frisch

On the D-line’s play:  “We put some good pressure on the quarterback.  We didn’t have too many sacks, but I think the play was solid.”

On controlling the tempo of the game:  “We saw what their offensive line had done in their first two games, and we didn’t think it would be too hard to battle it.  A lot of what they did was not really aggressive blocking.  They’d end up a couple yards deep in the backfield before they turned it upfield.”

When asked if he was confident in the defense right now:  “Very.”

Luke Staley

When asked if he felt like he should still be playing high school ball (it was his 19^th birthday):  “No, I’ve been ready for this for a while.”

When asked if he had expected to play this much:  “Yes and no.  When I was being recruited, no, because the other two guys were here, but now, yes, because coming into camp I knew that Fahu and I would have to carry the load.”

On Feterik’s confidence in throwing it to a true freshman:  “It helps.  Kevin’s confidence in me carries through the team to all the other players.” 

Comparing his second collegiate game to his first:  “There wasn’t really much difference.  Last game I thought I would be nervous, but I wasn’t.  I was pretty comfortable out there, just because I’ve been going against our own guys in scrimmage.”

Comparing the college game to high school:  “If you make two moves, you’re tackled.  You only have time to do one move.  It’s just bigger and faster.”

 
Margin Hooks

On the receiving corps coming together:  “There’s no selfish player among the receivers.  Kevin has confidence in every receiver out there.  We’re all in accord, and it makes a difference out there.”

On the two big wins:  “Last week we had to kind of pull off some stuff at the end of the game.  This week was more confident.  It was enthusiastic, but we were more confident, so we were able to play a little more mellow and just go out and perform.”

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