Opening Statement:
"Good to see everybody today. It's good to get one under our belt. I really enjoyed watching our kids play the other night. I thought they played with a lot of enthusiasm. They were probably as excited as I've seen a football team to get out and play. I thought our defense was very aggressive. I was really pleased with the defensive front and how they played. I thought offensively we did some really good things. I thought our special teams stepped up and did some really great things. Overall, in all three phases I was pleased with what we did. Obviously, in a first game there are a lot of things to clean up, but as far as those three areas I'm happy where we are and think we can improve. I'm happy to get a win."

On the strong defensive performance upfront Friday night:
"As I watched the video, I was like, 'gosh, we have a lot of tackles behind the line of scrimmage.' I was disappointed that we didn't force any turnovers the other night, but a lot of those tackles for loss were big. It got us off the field. I think (Northwestern State was) 1-of-15 on third downs, so those tackles for loss were huge. I think we're pretty athletic up front. Coach [Phil] Bennett was telling me that we lost some big guys up front, but he really liked the athleticism of those defensive linemen. So, I was really pleased with how well we moved. I thought we were really aggressive, and we got under a lot of blocks and get in their back field and made big plays. It was rewarding to see the [defensive] front play that well."

On emphasizing special teams and how they performed vs. Northwestern State:
"We've basically talked to the team a lot about how important special teams are. I thought the other night we got a little crazy in the second half. We were using a lot of people in our punt teams. Our substitutions were a little crazy with that, but we kicked all of our extra points and field goals. Kicking off, Drew [Galitz] did really well, but he got zapped a couple of times. I thought the first ball was inside the pylon. The official thought otherwise, but it was a really good kick. The one that went out of bounds that hit on the one-yard line, I was surprised the Northwestern State player didn't field that because if that hits and goes backwards, then you have to scramble for the ball. It hit and then went 90 degrees straight out of bounds, so he got zapped there. But I thought we kicked off really well. Our kickoff coverage team was phenomenal. I think we had two drives that started on the 10-yard line and one that started on the 14-yard line from really good coverage. I thought our punt return team was pretty good. We get really no way to evaluate our kickoff return team because both of their kicks were surprise on-sides, but the good thing is that we recovered both of them. I think because of our kicking game we had a lot of hidden yardage that we picked up. For me personally, that was probably the most rewarding part, but I think more than anything else we just stressed it to the team that it was going to be really important. We have to continue to see Chris Callahan kicking extra points and field goals the way he is right now. From Drew Galitz's standpoint, he can punt better. We didn't have a yard returned, so we had good hang time on our punts, but we were only around 38 net yards on punting. We have to get up over 40 [yards]. He's got a better leg than that. I'd rather take the hang time and no returns, but I'd like to see the hang time and a little better punting average."

On what he saw from RB Shock Linwood:
"What I really liked about Shock was his energy. I thought that when he got on the field, you could just tell that he was ready to roll. Some of the runs I thought we had really good blocking up front, but the extra yardage he got the other night was fun to see. I liked that he hung onto the football. Sometimes guys are trying to get the extra yards and they don't bother to take care of the football, but I thought he was really aggressive in the way that he handled the ball. He made a lot of extra yards on his own, and he was just a guy that was electric the other night and fun to watch. Hopefully every time out he will have that kind of energy because he really impressed me Friday night."

On answering any questions he may have had going into Friday's game:
"A couple of things I worried about were tackles. We really didn't tackle much in practice. We had three scrimmages, and even in those three scrimmages we did a little bit of live tackling but not much. I thought we tackled for the most part okay. We missed too many tackles, but for a first game and not having much live tackling in practice I thought we were pretty good. We were very aggressive. We went after tackles in the right way. Some of the ones we missed were aggressive misses. Some of those kind of deals where the guy that was carrying the ball was like, 'I'm glad he missed me,' kind of thing. Then, I thought offensively we took really good care of the football. That was something that I worried about going in. We had a turnover, but I think it was a deal where a young back without as much experience as the other guys had was just trying to lean forward and get extra yards and didn't take the football with him. But I thought we took care of the ball pretty well offensively, and I thought defensively we didn't tackle as well as I hope we will going forward, and I know SMU is going to give us a real challenge this week as far as tackling those skilled guys. Those were the two things I was pleased with, and I wouldn't say they surprised me, but we tackled a little better than I expected and took care of the football better in a first game."

On the running backs overall:
"We talked about Shock, and he was very impressive the other night. Not to take anything away from Shock, but I thought Terence Williams played great. I thought he really did some nice things running the football. One of my disappointments is that we waited too long to put JaMycal Hasty out there. As we got into the second half, we didn't get enough snaps for Zach Smith or JaMycal Hasty. I wish we had gotten those guys in earlier than we did, but going forward I know they will get a lot of reps. I thought JaMycal was really electric. You could tell the speed that he's got jumped at you a little bit. Shock's got the shiftiness, and Terence is the more downhill runner, a powerful runner. And then you get JaMycal out there, and he's got the great foot speed. All three of them were fun to watch, and going forward I'm hoping we can all those guys a bunch of carries."

On Chad Morris and the SMU Mustangs:
"I think one of the things that Chad Morris has done a good job of ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" we had some success of this at Wake Forest ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" is bringing in young kids and he's being patient with them. He's redshirting a bunch of these kids, and they're getting a lot of experience. They're a young football team, and I think Chad is building from the ground up, which you should do. I think you notice how hard these kids play. They're having a lot of fun playing. They're a very talent group on both sides of the ball. They're very athletic. I think offensively Chad is doing the same things he did at Clemson, and when I was at Wake Forest I had to go against that stuff, so I know how hard it is for Phil Bennett and the defensive guys to get ready. One of the things that Phil Bennett was concerned about last year is that we missed too many tackles. If you look at SMU against North Texas, they broke a lot of tackles and made them miss a lot. That's a real challenge going into this one for us. But I think what we're seeing and what you would expect is that the longer Chad is there, the more experience they'll get and the better they'll play. So, I'm expecting a real challenge Saturday, and I know they challenged us last year, especially early. I would not expect anything different. They have really good speed at the receiver positions, running back, quarterback. What Chad wants is a guy who can hurt you with his feet as well as throw the football. He's got that. I was impressed with more than one of their running backs and their quickness and speed. They've got athletic guys all over the field. That the thing that Chad will do to you. He's going to spread you out and force you to make one-on-one tackles. The thing that he did a great job of at Clemson that impressed me is that you feel like you have to go back and play coverage, but the thing is that he loves to run the football. You can't hunker down on one thing."

On playing 12 true freshmen vs. Northwestern State:
"There are some kids that you get on the field because you don't know if you're going to get them on a lot, so you try to get those kids out there and you have a good lead and you feel like you can. You want to reward as many kids. I think it helps you in practice that they might know they're scout team players, but if we play really well and they do a great job of getting the varsity guys ready, then they're going to get the chance to play on the field. The scholarship kids we're playing because we need them. They primarily got special teams roles the other night, but there are certainly kids we don't just want to play on special teams. We want them to think that they're going to get some time on offense and defense down the road. I think Zach Smith ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" as I mentioned earlier, my biggest disappointment is that he didn't get enough snaps. We should have gotten him out there a little earlier, but you never know. Your first goal going in is to win. So, that's your only thought. But then you look up and look at the score you say, 'wow, we haven't played this guy enough.' We didn't want to take a chance on losing him, and what we feel like coming out of the game is that we have a really good quarterback backing up Seth Russell right now. Going forward, you never know how things are going to work out, but we would like to find more reps for Zach. He's obviously got some talent and as a young guy needs more work. I've been very impressed with how much he's developed over a short period of time in the summer."

On scoring a lot of points and breaking his career record Friday night:
"It's really fun. We've all had games where you score more points than you counted on going into the game, but I think the biggest problem we have when we get into that situation is managing the game once you're up 48-0 at halftime. We knew we had a lot of young guys we had to get work for, and I think we did that. It's probably a little more for the offensive guys once they have the job done. The first half ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" not many things to complain about. A few penalties, a few kicking game things that we need to work. The best thing about the second half is that we played some of the older guys to start the third quarter, and once the game went on some of the guys that are going to need to play down the stretch got some work. That's the best thing about scoring that many points. You get a little breathing room and you can play a lot of guys."

On if he's expecting an improved defense this year from SMU:
"Definitely. We always want to expect the best out of people. Every year people are going to improve. They did a great job on offense last year, but I know our defense is going to be ready for it. I haven't started watching film on them yet. I probably will later tonight, sitting at the house, and just try to get a rough estimate of what they do but I'm expecting them to come out and play as hard or harder than last year."

On what it was this like for the Russell family with his brother getting a chance to play Friday too:
"It's pretty cool, just to watch him. He went in at guard and I don't think he's played guard since he's been here. It was exciting to see him go out there and play, especially at the collegiate level. He's a great kid, a great brother, and I was excited for him."

On if he felt there was any rust at all being in the game and how he felt about his performance:
"I felt great. That's what preparation is for. We had three weeks to prepare for them. Anything they were going to throw at us we had been preparing for it. They stayed pretty base, pretty soft, I think they didn't want to get burned too much deep, so they just kept everything up in front, which made it easy on us because we just kept throwing the short stuff. We ran the ball well and the defense played really well on their part."

On the way the team performed and scored so fast being something that was nice to get off his shoulders:
"A little bit. That's what we expected to do. That's the way we run our offense, to put up a lot of points quick, and take the other team out of the game as quickly as we can. But it's also good for the defense. They hadn't done full live tackling for a while. It's good to get some experience from that standpoint. I think the defense held them to 18 plays or something like that in the first half, so they didn't get a whole lot of reps, that's why they played more of the second half, just to get more reps, game-like reps and focus on tackling and stuff like that. With the offense, just going up against guys you haven't seen, it definitely helped us improve as an offense."

On how much easier RB Shock Linwood makes his job:
"It's huge. We have a lot of good guys in the backfield. JaMycal [Hasty] and Terence [Williams], I think he had two touchdowns that game, and then Shock Linwood ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢' ¬" his stats prove it for himself, the way he plays the game is second to none and he is a tough guy and is going to fight for every yard he's going to get. He's also smart, too. He helps us with moving the ball, getting the ball set, tempo-wise, he knows all the plays. He's calling them out before I can even get the plays. It definitely helps with tempo and it's huge, experience-wise, because he's able to sit back there and if he sees something he can kind of nudge me, and say expect this or I'm getting out quick. It's always good to have another quarterback in the backfield."

On WR Lynx Hawthorne and his team-first mentality:
"He's a great guy. I'm rooming again with him this year. I consider him one of my best friends, for sure. We came in at the same time and I try to stay close to him because I feel like he's going to help me out. He's one of the older guys in the offense and he's going to help those younger guys, too. I think he knows his role, which is really good. Everybody needs to know their role, and I feel like all the guys do. Not just him, but it's really exciting to see him play football. I know he's been dealing with a knee injury for the past several years, and I think he feels really healthy this year from all that and it's going to be good to see him in the long run and see how he can stay healthy and help the team out."

On throwing two TDs to tight ends and if that was planned or just how the game went:
"It kind of depends on what we're going to play and who were going to play and stuff like that. We definitely want to get them involved, they're big guys that can catch. If we can get them matched up one-on-one with a linebacker we'll take that any day. A lot of guys like to cover the stuff we've been running for a while, but anytime we can throw a little wrinkle in there and get the defense thinking to stay based rather than coming flat down on a run it definitely opens up another option on the offensive side of the ball."

On how Coach Grobe has helped with the special teams units:
"Coach Grobe has really been great to me, [kicker] Chris [Callahan], and all the other specialists. He's said really good things about us and I really thank him for that. I feel like we've done a good job so far out there, with Chris making all those extra points, field goals. Tony Nicholson out there returning punts, averaging, what 21 yards a carry on punt return. I feel like we're doing pretty well so far."

On pinning his kickoffs deep vs. Northwestern State:
"I feel like I did pretty well on kickoffs. That one that hit the one-yard line and bounced out, I was pretty aggravated about that, but overall, I feel like I did pretty well on kickoffs. I did my job, you know, pin them deep. It's all about field position when it comes to special teams. Whether it's punting or kickoffs, it's all about where the other team starts for your defense so I feel like I did a pretty good job of that."

On the importance of hang time:
"I've been working on that, you know, hang time is a really big deal for me. Just getting that ball up there and letting our guys get down there and having a chance to make a tackle, make a play around the five-yard line. I've been really working on that this fall camp, this offseason. So I feel like I've done a pretty good job of that."

On if there's more emphasis on special teams or the hidden yardage:
"For sure, yeah, hidden yardage, definitely. Offense, defense, they do their job, you know, perfectly and then special teams gets out there and it's kind of overlooked sometimes by a bunch of people and they don't really realize there's a big difference between the other team starting on their 40 or their 10 or their five-yard line. So yeah, hidden yardage has definitely been a big deal."

On how nice it was finally getting to see someone in another jersey:
"It was very exciting. We were kind of tired of scrimmaging against our defense every other week, so coming out there to play against another team and to see what our offense and defense was against another team was great."

On if the younger receivers stepped up vs. Northwestern State:
"Yeah, it was actually exciting to see those young guys, those freshmen out there later in the game to see what they can do, because we're going to need them down the road."

On liking the defensive line's penetration up front vs. Northwestern State:
"Oh, absolutely. I try to tell people that the defensive line, they're young, but they're going to fight, even the linebackers, and it's nice, it's real nice. They're going to make a mistake, and I have to capitalize on their mistake. But they're going to get there and I know they are, but I feel so comfortable back there hearing the crowd going crazy when the receiver is trying to run the route."

On the atmosphere vs. Northwestern State:
"It was fun. It was, I want to say kind of emotional for me because of everything we've been through you know, but I loved that everybody was there and supported us."