Sept. 19, 2009

Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery

Louisiana Tech Head Coach Derek Dooley

"It was obviously a good win, as they all are. I was very proud at how we came out in the second half. I knew it was going to be tough; they always are. They're never easy. I told the team this third quarter was going to define the character of our football team and the competitive nature of our football team, and they came out and responded."

"We were close in the first half, we had a couple of drops, had a touchdown called back, so we were close, but we stayed with the game plan, and we started making plays down the field. That's what we have to do to be a good football team."

"Ross (Jenkins) obviously had a great game, and it's about as good of a game throwing the football that we've had since I've been here."

"It's good to get some young runners in there. I think they're showing some promise. The two freshman runners made some good plays. Tyrone Duplessis and DJ Morrow."

"Defensively, obviously a few good plays by Deon Young and Antonio Baker. They really helped stop some drives. Nicholls did a good job, and they were methodical in their attack and they hurt us a couple of times up and down the field, but overall it was a good team win."

"The preseason is over. It's been a tough, hard preseason playing two good teams, but it's good to get a good win here. Now we've got to turn our attention to the WAC."

"We were really close. We weren't playing poorly the first half. We were just this close a couple of plays. I felt like we were waiting a little on the other guy to make the play instead of everybody taking responsibility to make the play. I thought that was kind of the difference in the second half. So many people contributed. We've had a lot of dependency issues the first couple of weeks. You're wanting someone else to do it."

"A lot of guys contributed, and that's what you need."

"Nicholls is a little different. They're going to throw it a little more and open it up, and they did, and they did a good job."

"I wasn't frustrated in the first half because I thought the plays were there, and we were close and nobody was playing poorly. I didn't think that we were lethargic. We weren't finishing the play. We had a holding call that negated one touchdown. We had a fourth and two we didn't convert. We had to come out in the second half and step it up. Of course the first play helps. We hit the big play with Livas, and it fed a little energy. We stayed very aggressive."

On Ross Jenkins...
'I thought he was playing fine. He was throwing as well as he ever has.'

"I'm still concerned about our secondary, especially the corner. We won't know how much we've improved in our secondary until a couple of weeks."

"The second half makes you feel better about the team. We've had two disappointing halves in the first two games. That's encouraging that we made a lot of big plays throwing the balls. I don't care who you play. That's encouraging. Hopefully we can build on that."

Louisiana Tech Quarterback Ross Jenkins
On career day...
"To my knowledge that's the most I've had here in college. A Lot of it though came from the guys running after the catch. That's a big part of it and that's what we've been stressing a lot is that big plays happen when you catch the ball and break a tackle and the guys did a great job of that tonight."

On the team's energy...
"I don't know, you try to push every game the same and I think this being our first home game had a lot to do the team's energy."

On Nicholls...
"Defensively they threw a lot of different things at us that we weren't expecting so we had to go into the second half and make some adjustments and that was probably the biggest thing for us in the second half was adjusting to what they were doing defensively."

On the win...
"I think we needed it, especially being 0-2, for us to use as a team builder. Regardless of who it was, its good to get the ball rolling a little bit and now the preseason is done with the exception of LSU in November. Now it's conference time and time for us to buckle down and start working for what our goals are."

On Hawaii...
Historically we play them well here. They have a good program and we're looking forward to the opportunity. That's we're focusing on right now is Hawaii, to get Conference play rolling on a good note."

Nicholls State Head Coach Jay Thomas

On the game...
"The first three minutes of the second half was pretty much the deciding factor."

"I got to tell you we got beat at Air Force. We had three starting safeties out that didn't play tonight so we had to get real creative on defense. I have to tip my hat off to our defense for how long they hung in there tonight. We had corners playing safety so we had a few blown coverages especially in the second half and we gave them a lot of big plays. You can't give up a bunch of big plays and expect to win."

On injuries to secondary...
"It's tough when you go into a game with only seven DBs that can play. We stayed up till 3:30 in the morning Tuesday trying to figure out what we're going to do on defense this weekend. I have to give our defensive coaches credit and our players for playing hard even when they are playing out of position. It makes it tough."

On Limiting Livas...
"He only hit us with one big play, it was good call by them and we lined up on him wrong, didn't get the right leverage and we had a new guy out there trying to cover him. We were very familiar with Livas since he came from our neck of the woods, and we knew what to expect when he returned punts and kicks. Our plan was to not kick the ball to him, and make their offense earn everything they got."

"I felt like our offense got better tonight; we were a little more productive. We made some plays, and that was something we hadn't done in the first two games. The continuity hadn't been there. I thought our fullback ran well and was physical, but we've got to get a little better blocking on the perimeter."

Nicholls State Defensive Back Bobby Felder
"We had mistakes that could have been corrected, but LA Tech is a good football team. At the same time, we have to be a good defensive team, and we have to get better. It's the little things we need to work on."