MSU Tuesday Press Conference Quotes
9/24/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Comments from Montana State players recorded at Tuesday's media conference...
SAFETY KEVIN RETORIANO
Are you excited to play at home again?
“I’m real excited, I love playing home games here. I love playing in front of our fans, they’re some of the best fans I’ve ever played in front of. I’m excited to get out there. I have butterflies right now just thinking about it, so I’m excited.”
How hard is it to prepare for a mobile quarterback like Noah Shepard?
“It’s real hard. I was just watching film right now. He scrambles to throw the ball, and if there’s no one open he runs. We’ve been doing drills in practice, the quarterback will scramble and we have to find someone and stick on him. That’s really all you can do, find the receiver closest to you and stick on him.”
Does it help to have faced mobile quarterbacks in the first three games?
“The Kansas State quarterback (Josh Freeman) was scrambling to throw it. When they would have designed runs for him, obviously he’d run it. I definitely think that helps, seeing him and preparing and getting used to it. That definitely helps.”
Can you stay focused through the bye week?
“We were real focused (last week). It wasn’t a real physical week, it was mostly mental and to get guys healthy, like me. I had my shoulder hurt, and this is the closest to 100 percent that I’ve been since, I think it’s been a month-and-a-half since I hurt it, so that bye week was real good for us.”
How important is this game heading into conference play?
“Coach Ash really told us that this is a big game for us to get rolling into conference. We have eight straight conference games after this one, and we have to get rolling into conference, pick up some confidence so we can get into the conference and be confident with ourselves.”
RUNNING BACK DEMETRIUS CRAWFORD
Is it hard to turn the switch back on in preparation coming off the bye week?
“I think we had the switch on all along. We had to practice last week, we didn’t get any days off. It was a lot easier (physically) than usual, but we have to prepare and I think the extra week helps us a lot.”
How does it feel to be playing at home again?
“Good. My friends ask me, you guys only had one home game since the season started? It will be good to back in front of our fans again and have a little bit of a home field advantage instead of everybody yelling at us on the sideline, talking all a mess. That will be better, being at home.”
Is it good to face your first FCS opponent?
“I think we’re back where we need to be at. We’ve got the two (FBS) games out of the way, and that showed us exactly where we are as a team. I think now we’ll get this thing rolling.”
What have you seen from South Dakota’s defense?
“Their defense is fast, know what I mean? They move around, fly around, a lot. They’re not as big as the teams we’ve played the past couple of weeks, but they move and they play team defense. That’s something we have to be prepared for.”
How important was the showing against Minnesota?
“I think that gives us a lot of confidence. The past two (games) we held our own. We had mistakes, but the last game (against Minnesota) we fixed those mistakes. Being able to come back and play a team that’s on our level we should be able to deal with it. I have goals for myself, being back in the FCS, I think we’ll get through it. It’s going to be hard, I’m not going to say it’ll be easy just because we played those teams and did pretty good. It’s going to be hard, and we have to take every week the same.”
What are your goals?
“My goals for FCS play, my dad said before halftime you’ve got to have 100 yards or close to 100 yards at halftime, so those are my goals.”
Are you interested to see how the team will do when there’s five minutes left in a tie game, since the team hasn’t really been in that position yet?
“Being in a close game in the fourth quarter or being tied, personally that makes me go harder. I like games like that. I don’t like games like we had against Adams State where everybody got in the game and just did their thing. Those (close) games, as a team, we live and die for those types of games… This is going to be a game like that, and we just have to use all our practice preparation and get the ‘W’.”
SAFETY KEVIN RETORIANO
Are you excited to play at home again?
“I’m real excited, I love playing home games here. I love playing in front of our fans, they’re some of the best fans I’ve ever played in front of. I’m excited to get out there. I have butterflies right now just thinking about it, so I’m excited.”
How hard is it to prepare for a mobile quarterback like Noah Shepard?
“It’s real hard. I was just watching film right now. He scrambles to throw the ball, and if there’s no one open he runs. We’ve been doing drills in practice, the quarterback will scramble and we have to find someone and stick on him. That’s really all you can do, find the receiver closest to you and stick on him.”
Does it help to have faced mobile quarterbacks in the first three games?
“The Kansas State quarterback (Josh Freeman) was scrambling to throw it. When they would have designed runs for him, obviously he’d run it. I definitely think that helps, seeing him and preparing and getting used to it. That definitely helps.”
Can you stay focused through the bye week?
“We were real focused (last week). It wasn’t a real physical week, it was mostly mental and to get guys healthy, like me. I had my shoulder hurt, and this is the closest to 100 percent that I’ve been since, I think it’s been a month-and-a-half since I hurt it, so that bye week was real good for us.”
How important is this game heading into conference play?
“Coach Ash really told us that this is a big game for us to get rolling into conference. We have eight straight conference games after this one, and we have to get rolling into conference, pick up some confidence so we can get into the conference and be confident with ourselves.”
RUNNING BACK DEMETRIUS CRAWFORD
Is it hard to turn the switch back on in preparation coming off the bye week?
“I think we had the switch on all along. We had to practice last week, we didn’t get any days off. It was a lot easier (physically) than usual, but we have to prepare and I think the extra week helps us a lot.”
How does it feel to be playing at home again?
“Good. My friends ask me, you guys only had one home game since the season started? It will be good to back in front of our fans again and have a little bit of a home field advantage instead of everybody yelling at us on the sideline, talking all a mess. That will be better, being at home.”
Is it good to face your first FCS opponent?
“I think we’re back where we need to be at. We’ve got the two (FBS) games out of the way, and that showed us exactly where we are as a team. I think now we’ll get this thing rolling.”
What have you seen from South Dakota’s defense?
“Their defense is fast, know what I mean? They move around, fly around, a lot. They’re not as big as the teams we’ve played the past couple of weeks, but they move and they play team defense. That’s something we have to be prepared for.”
How important was the showing against Minnesota?
“I think that gives us a lot of confidence. The past two (games) we held our own. We had mistakes, but the last game (against Minnesota) we fixed those mistakes. Being able to come back and play a team that’s on our level we should be able to deal with it. I have goals for myself, being back in the FCS, I think we’ll get through it. It’s going to be hard, I’m not going to say it’ll be easy just because we played those teams and did pretty good. It’s going to be hard, and we have to take every week the same.”
What are your goals?
“My goals for FCS play, my dad said before halftime you’ve got to have 100 yards or close to 100 yards at halftime, so those are my goals.”
Are you interested to see how the team will do when there’s five minutes left in a tie game, since the team hasn’t really been in that position yet?
“Being in a close game in the fourth quarter or being tied, personally that makes me go harder. I like games like that. I don’t like games like we had against Adams State where everybody got in the game and just did their thing. Those (close) games, as a team, we live and die for those types of games… This is going to be a game like that, and we just have to use all our practice preparation and get the ‘W’.”
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