Oct. 17, 2009

Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery

RUSTON, La. - LA Tech Coach Derek Dooley

"It was obviously a dominant performance by the team. I'm proud of how well we hit the field, especially in the third quarter. We played hard for four quarters. The only disappointment was giving up the touchdown at the end."

"We ran the ball well. I'm proud for Ross, he made plays with his feet, which we need him to do. Overall, it was a great effort. It was a good team win. We have to learn to recommit ourselves each week and perform on the road."

"Travelling is tough. There's a comfort zone at our home. We say travelling is no factor; it's not an excuse to not play well. Good football teams can go on the road and win. You go out there, bring your best and win."

"I like it when we come out and play with great energy and play with passion. When we can do that, we play really well."

"The team took some ownership this week in their practice. The challenge is to recommit themselves tomorrow. It's another week."

"This league is a competitive, tough football league. If we don't play those teams with a lot of passion and emotion, we won't win."

On Ross Jenkins' play

"He played a good game. Ross is good when we play good around Ross. When we can manage our offense and run the ball, we can put 45 points. I don't know how much better you can get."

On Dennis Morris' play

"We've seen that out of Dennis all spring during practice. This game we put it all together."

Corner back Olajawon Paige

On Interception: "It was a great feeling; I give all credit to the defensive line because without that pressure he probably would've thrown a spiral on the line."

On practice this past week "We've been practicing, playing, preparing hard knowing we were going to have to put on a show today. With the rain all this week we thought it was going to keep us out, but with the rain we had more fun."

On playing at home "Us being at home with everyone behind us and supporting us, getting the crowd into it on third down-that's a big thing Coach Dooley gets onto us about. And everything turned out well."

Tight end Dennis Morris

On Win "It was a lot of fun coming off a bad game at Nevada; this week I had to recommit myself to the team."

On difference this game "My main focus was being consistent. In the Nevada came I was worried about the last play; this game I took one play at a time."

On 2nd TD catch "The referee hadn't blown the whistle so I was going to keep going and trying until I got in there."

On attitude overall "Our attitude is pretty good but we have to stay focused, keep going, practice harder."

On second half "Going into the locker room Coach Dooley talked to us about not getting too relaxed. We stayed focused and kept on pounding."

On practice past week "It was raining, but we weren't going to let it stop us; we knew we didn't want to lost this game."

Linebacker Adrian Cole

On defense "The defense played extraordinarily better than last week. We knew last week wasn't our best week and it was our chance to prove we are way more physical of a team than we showed last week."

Running back Daniel Porter

On Rushing Attack "Offensive line came through and did a real good job opening holes for me to run through, and I did what I do."

On playing on the road "We have to come back the next week for practice with the same energy and intensity. We can win on the road, it's just another game. I'm a running back so I shouldn't feel any different whether at home or on the road. I just go out there-give me the ball and I'm going to run it."

NMSU Coach DeWayne Walker

"From start to finish, it was just one of those days. I've been in games like this and it just wasn't our day. We have got to go back, evaluate the tape, get back to the drawing board and try to get our act together for next week."

On what the Aggies need to focus on for next week: "We'll start with the defense and just tackling. That was probably our worst tackling game, we've struggled the past couple weeks. I just thought it was poor tackling. Offensively we just couldn't get anything generated to take the hit off the defense. Our punting was very poor today with Kyle Hughes. It was just a bad day across the board. It happens, but we have to get it fixed."