Utah State at Nevada Saturday, Nov. 11, 2006
Nevada Head Coach Chris Ault
On Deron Thorp and his funeral:
“I had the privilege and honor yesterday to go to the funeral of Deron Thorp, who was part of the Wolf Pack family in the mid 90’s. At his funeral, I have never seen the outcome of former players come around and rally around Deron and his family. I told our players this, the great thing about Wolf Pack football is it has so much tradition. Football is only one experience here and the other is that when you leave, you are still part of the Wolf Pack family. Football is much more than just a sport; it’s about family, people being together and giving something for people to cheer about.”
On the Defense:
“Our defense continued to give consistent play and played good hard-nosed football. I am very pleased with the defense and our defensive coaches are doing a great job of making sure that we can execute our game plan.”
On RB Luke Lippincott:
“When he fumbled the ball in the first half I was upset because we had prepared him really well. When he came back and played like he did after he fumbled is what I expected from him. From that point on he played the way he is capable of playing”
On Playing in the Cold Weather:
“You have to run the ball in this weather. Your run game has to happen; there is no question about it. The problem with our run game in the first half was our offensive line.”
On the upcoming schedule:
“We have two tough games, one on the road and one at home. They are going to challenge us.”
Senior quarterback Jeff Rowe
On the weather:
“Any time you have to play in weather like that and can win, it’s a good experience and can happen later in the season. You know the weather in Reno is unpredictable, so you never know when you’re going to have to play in it.”
On sophomore running back Luke Lippincott:
“He ran really well. It was his first 100-yard game. I’m glad for Luke, he deserves it.”
On the defense:
“All game, it’s 3-and-out, 3-and-out. It’s awesome for us. It’s the first time here in a long time when I’ve been comfortable with a 14-0 lead. They’re awesome. They’re playing great, getting us the ball, getting turnovers. You can’t ask for anything else.”
On the progress of the team:
“We’re 7-3 now. That sounds a lot better than 3-3, but 9-3 sounds better than 7-3. We’re going to focus on the last three. You won’t see any dropoff out of us. The coaches won’t allow us to drop off. We’ve got two big games, I don’t think we’ve ever won at La Tech. It’s big time coming up.”
Senior defensive end J.J. Milan
On the play of the defense:
“It felt like we were getting a lot of pressure on the run and the pass. We did a good job executing what we were supposed to do. We raised havoc back there, and that’s what we plan on doing.”
On Utah State’s offense:
“When they are running on all cylinders, they can move the ball. Today I think the cold kind of affected them a little bit. They could move the ball every once in a while, but they couldn’t consistently do it. When they are on, they are on, but today we were just the better team.”
On the play of the defense this year:
“It’s my best experience playing for this defense and for this team since I’ve been here and that’s including the days when I was with Jorge Cordova and all of those guys. I think the group we have is so solid, and our team unity and camaraderie on the defense, it just feels like everybody trusts each other and we’re just playing for each other. It’s just clicking, and we’re going to keep on rolling.”
Sophomore running back Luke Lippincott
On his first career 100-yard running game:
“It was a good experience. The line blocked really well and everything seemed to just click into place. Coach K (Chris Klenakis) made some very good calls.”
On his fumble:
“Any time something like that happens in a game where you make a big mistake or a critical error like that, you’ve got to try to block it out and come back and not think about it a lot. When the score is that close and you give the ball back to them, it was all me. I knew I had made a mistake. Even if they had gotten the review, it was still a fumble. You’ve just got to bounce back from stuff like that and play hard again.”
“I knew they (the coaches) were going to give me another shot to make up for it. People make mistakes in games, there are fumbles in football. I knew I had to keep two hands strong on the ball and come back.”
On the mindset of the team:
“We’re ready to go, we’re just trying to run the table now and win out the rest of our games. We think we are actually a better team than our record is. We’re just trying to prove that to everyone and show that we are champions and definitely should be in a bowl game.”
Senior cornerback Joe Garcia
On getting the shutout:
“It’s finally nice to get the shutout. We’ve been close a couple of times this year. It’s a good feeling, something we’ve wanted and haven’t had in a long time, but the greater overall feeling is that we are just playing so well together right now. Every one is feeding off each other’s energy. We’ve got the attitude and the mindset right now that we all trust each other and we have each other’s backs. We’re just going out there having fun playing together and are just playing really well.”
On redshirt freshman Dwayne Sanders’ 89-yard kickoff return:
“That was great. It was an awesome play. He made some nice cuts and showed his running ability right there.”
“It was nice to get all phases of the game working today, the special teams especially. The kick return (team) did pretty well today.”
Redshirt freshman Dwayne Sanders
On his 89-yard kickoff return:
“I caught the ball, I saw the seam and I took it and ran as fast as I could.”
“It felt great to have a big return like that to start off the game.”
Utah State Head Coach Brent Guy
On the Game:
“We started out the quarter with four consecutive penalties and that’s the most disappointing thing. We didn’t have problems with penalties until last week. Then we got the ball down inside the five and couldn’t score.”
“We gave up a big play. We give them a third and five; the guy scrambles out and misses him. Rowe does a nice job of continuing to drive there. And then three or four plays later they get a big one on us. They drove 21 yards, and it was like the game was over.”
On the first half and third quarter:
“I don’t think we made first down in the whole third quarter. We gave up all the points in the third quarter, and we didn’t give ourselves a chance at all to get into the fourth quarter.”
“When we got down inside the five it was a 14-0 game and we still had a chance. It’s a one score game at that point. All we have to do it score one time at that point.”
On the wind:
“The wind was a factor today when throwing the football, for both teams, especially when it got bad there in the 2nd and 3rd quarters. It was tough to throw the ball if you want to catch the football.”
On Nevada quarterback Jeff Rowe:
“I thought Rowe did a really nice job. We did create some plays to sack him a couple of times, and there were some times when guys weren’t blocked but he still scrambled around and made plays.”
Utah State Player Quotes
Quarterback Riley Nelson
On the weather:
“It was pretty tough and I was having some trouble gripping the ball at times. When you’re in that situation you have to rise up and overcome and we didn’t do that. We missed on some key situations.”
On first half and Nevada’s goal line stop:
“To allow any home team a stop on the goal line like that will definitely give them serious momentum. We felt like we were still in it at the half, but we just couldn’t do anything in the second half. We have no one else to blame but ourselves.”
On the Nevada defense:
“Those guys were just solid. With how well they called their assignments and the effort they put out, they are one of the best we’ve played.”
Defensive Tackle Ben Childs
On the game:
“For me there was a huge difference in our play between the first and second halves. It was all just about fundamentals. In the first half we did a great job, in the second it was like we were just swinging off guys.”
On bouncing back after the loss:
“We will have to come together as a team. For us to pull it together out on the field, it has to come from us. We have to believe we can make it happen.
