Sept. 6, 2005

Head Coach Guy Morriss

On SMU:

"First and foremost the thing that pleased me the most was the way that we won the football game, the way our kids responded in the second half. I got the impression walking the sidelines that our kids all through the course of the ball game were very confident that they were going to win the football game."

"I thought that the entire defense ran to the football well. I don't think I've seen a defense since we've been here run to the football as hard and as long as we did Saturday night."

"I was particularly pleased with the way our offense came back in the second half. Our O-Line took control of the ball game, of their front. Of course we were pleased with the success the running backs had and that's in large part due to the guys up front. Paul [Mosley] is a guy who's very capable of hammering the football up inside twenty to twenty-five times a game and still has enough speed to get to the edge. When you put [Brandon Whitaker] in, the whole speed of the tailback position picks up a notch. He's a guy who's got great feet, a slasher kind of guy. He can start and restart, change direction. For a defense on a hot night and starting to get tired, that's double trouble. I think that's going to be a problem for defenses all season long."

On Samford:

"If we're not ready to play, we can get beat. I want to make sure that we're focused and ready to go play. As far as we're concerned, it's step two toward our goal and it would be a shame to drop this one. We as coaches are not going to allow that to happen. If we take these guys lightly we'll have a dog fight on our hands. If we're mentally ready to play, I think we can take control of the game early."

"Our fans were just phenomenal up at SMU, the number that went and the racket they were making. I'm expecting a big, excited crowd which will help our kids. They feed off of us, and we feed off of them and so it can't be anything but a positive."

Offensive Coordinator Brent Pease

On SMU:

"Last week in regard to the SMU game, we had talked about it with the kids and talked about it amongst coaches, the game kind of went as planned. We didn't necessarily want it to go that way. But we thought it would be a grind through half time; then we hoped that somewhere during the third or fourth quarter we'd be able to take some control. And that's really how it worked out. But looking back, one thing to be critical about is red zone offense. We have to be a lot better at red zone opportunities for ourselves."

On Samford:

"They've got some skill and ability in the middle. Upfront they're not real big. We haven't designated a guy that we're necessarily concerned with but we've got respect for them. They do a lot of twists so we're going to have to be good at handling a lot of their game inside. I think that they'll probably mix and match what they do trying to put some pressure on us and keep us out of rhythm because that's their opportunity to get to the quarterback."

"If we don't handle the pressure or have good calls that allow our kids to be successful and we stay out of rhythm, then we'll sputter. And we shouldn't. Our plan is to not be in that situation. We need to make sure we're executing on the right cylinders so that we can handle all that they're going to throw at us."

Defensive Coordinator Bill Bradley

On SMU:

"Defensively speaking, I think we had a very sound football game. For the first game of the year it's always kind of scary. We emphasized the fact that going into the game we had to play up to game speed and I think our guys did that."

"The keys defensively to having a good game are that we overcame a little bit of adversity early, field position was a challenge, and we played excellent sudden change defense. We had a lot of good pass knock downs. That's a big play and we have three of those in pretty key moments. We had three sacks which is pretty good for a first game."

"We basically had three real good turnovers on defense, two over on downs. A tremendous job by our D-line and linebackers on fourth and one."

"I think it's a great deal- one for 13 was really good on third downs and we earned them. Big time stat for that game. We held them really well and that was fun to watch."

On Samford:

"It's one of those games that you can't afford to take lightly; they're a solid football team offensively. We should be better than them as far as athletic ability and team speed on defense but that doesn't mean anything unless you use it. And we plan on using it. We're going to come after them again and we're going to take care of our responsibilities. We're going to play our football which is swarm defense and that's what we're going to do. We can do that against this team."