Sept. 11, 2010

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LOUISIANA TECH

Head Coach Sonny Dykes

"We played pretty hard in the first half. We made a ton of mistakes but we had a chance to win the game and they got a little separation [at the end of the first half]. We just made a lot of mistakes, too many mistakes. This is a tough atmosphere to play in. It is loud and we had some guys who didn't handle the crowd especially well early in the game. Once we got settled in, we were able to make some plays and try and get competitive in the game. Just too many mistakes. We turned it over five times and it is hard to win when you turn it over five times."

On Colby Cameron and the quarterback position:
"He did some good things, definitely. We need to get that position settled, just settle on a guy and find somebody to lead the team and build some confidence. What's hurting us right now is we're just not doing a very good job executing on a consistent basis."

On the bad snaps:
"We had a couple of simple snaps that were high, maybe some that were hard. Those are the ones that we could've handled easily. We're playing a quarterback that hasn't played much. They have to do a better job of catching the ball, and we have to do a better job of snapping it."

On the crowd:
"The crowd was a factor a little bit early. When you come here and play there's a little bit of an adjustment period to the crowd noise. Good teams don't let it affect them, and we've got to be able to work through it."

On the penalty before halftime:
"The ball was tipped and we intercepted it, I guess we had head to head contact blocking. The referee said the contact occurred while the ball was still in the air. That was the explanation, which I thought it was a good 2 or 3 seconds afterwards. We'll look at the film and see."

On the touchdown pass before half:
"Their guy just made a play. That's the thing we're not doing right now. We're not making plays. That's the difference in these types of football games. We had a chance twice to go score and get ourselves back in the game. We turned it over and we weren't making plays."

Junior Defensive End Matt Broha
"We were on the field a good bit, but that's what you have to do. We can't help the offense when stuff like that goes A&M's way. The best we can do is go out there get three and out and get the offense back on the field. The first half went well for us. We hung in there with them; we really wanted to see how fast their offense was going to go. That was the big thing this week. We knew they were going to try and run a lot of plays. We did a great job hanging with them the first half, we played hard. We needed to come out and finish the second half better."

Sophomore Quarterback Colby Cameron
"It was a big crowd and a tough environment. I kind of messed up the first couple drives. The bad snaps were my fault. I should've caught the ball as the quarterback. In my first start everything got going and I was a little anxious. I didn't know what to expect, so once a few drives did go down it was easier to get focused in the game. We have to execute better, when we go down we have to score. I threw two crucial interceptions I shouldn't have thrown."




TEXAS A&M

FRESHMAN JOKER DAMONTRE MOORE

On the difference in halves…
"I think we did alright tonight. We started off slow but then refocused. In the first half we weren't on our game, but once we refocused and got our minds right we did what we needed to do."

On his first-half effort and forcing the first fumble…
"Honestly it's just second nature for me. We focus so much on that (forcing turnovers) in practice and staying focused in a pressure environment."

On his first two weeks…
"I think I'm doing alright. There's always room for improvement. I just wanted to get in here and make a contribution to the team and help make my team better. Von (Miller) has been a tremendous leader in showing me the way."

On the questions about defense heading into the year and the play of the unit so far…
"I think we've answered some questions, but there's always room for improvement. As long as we keep doing what we're supposed to do I think all the questions will be answered."


HEAD COACH MIKE SHERMAN

"It's always good to win, there's no question about that. You always have to remember that. We put the ball on the ground four times, and lost four possessions offensively, and that's unacceptable. You can't usually win games like that. We were very fortunate to win a game like that with the turnovers we had today. You usually don't win a football game with that. Fortunately they turned the ball over a lot too, which kind of balanced things out. We work hard on ball security all week every week, but obviously we have to do more."

On the punt returning…
"We lost Kenric (McNeal), and we had some guys back there we thought were ready. Certainly they were not ready to do the job we wanted them to do. I do admire Dustin (Harris) for coming back. We pulled him and then put him back in there after Terrence Frederick fumbled his punt, and he returns it for a touchdown."

On the unusual touchdown right before the half…
"The half can't end on a penalty, so it's an untimed play. I've had a play like that against Tampa Bay a few years ago, but I was on the other side of that. That was a neat deal. We practice that play a lot. We practiced it yesterday, before yesterday, and we practice the end of half and end of game plays a lot. I think we've put our kids in that situation enough times where they feel confident they can go make the play. I felt very confident that if Jerrod was able to buy time with his feet and make a great throw down the middle it would happen. EZ (Nwachukwu) went up and got it."

On special teams…
"Well, I thought we did some very good things in coverage. I thought Randy (Bullock) and Kyle Serres kicked the ball off better. Randy did come back and make a field goal. He makes them in practice. He has a very strong leg, He's been very consistent in practice. I have to look real hard at his fundamentals and what he's doing wrong physically. That's the second week in a row that we've missed the first kick and that will come up costly in a close game."

On whether the team's play the first two weeks will answer critics' questions about the team…
"I've got to be honest with you, I really don't care or worry about the skeptics or what people think about our team. I care about what I think of our team. I like our team. They are a fun group of guys. They work hard. That's all I worry about. I want to win, the players want to win. They work extremely hard and do whatever we ask them to do. I'm not trying to navigate my way through the question, but I really don't care what critics or skeptics think about us. I think at the end of the season we'll have had plenty of chances to prove ourselves."

On the play of Jerrod Johnson…
"He missed a couple of throws but I thought he was more on target today. He threw for over 300 yards. He didn't get a whole lot of cheap yards today. We took some shots down the field and I thought he made some good throws. He did a good job with his feet of converting third downs. He got better this weekend and I think he played well last week."

On being concerned about slow starts…
"Well, our defense has not had slow starts at all. The defense has really risen to the challenge. I like our offense a lot but it is a work in progress. Mistakes are happening in there that we need to fix. Once we do that we'll be fine. You can analyze the offense, but when you're averaging about 550 yards of offense and you think you should be better, that's a good sign. I think we left a lot of yards on the field today."

On Patriot's Day…
"We were fortunate enough to have five of the soldiers that were with me in Iraq here today. They ran out with the team and I was afraid they were going to get stampeded on. But it seems like they had pretty good 40-yard dashes. They represent a larger contingency of soldiers over seas, and we can't do this for all of them, but we can do it for them."

On Christine Michael…
"He amazed me today. He made two moves I thought that were extraordinary. Sometimes you're mad at him for going towards the wrong end zone on some plays, but he always turns them up. That run was probably as impressive of a run that I've seen in a long time. He was tackled, it was going to be second-and-15 and he turned it into that run."



SOPHOMORE DB DUSTIN HARRIS

On returning punts…
"When I dropped that first punt, it kept going through my mind. I told myself next time I got on punt return, I'd protect the ball and get what I could, and we got a touchdown."

On his punt return for a touchdown…
"It felt really good. It felt good for the whole special teams. You could tell we were down after we dropped those punts. Then for something like that to happen, it picked us up onto our feet, got us back in the game, got us playing back to the abilities we know we can play."

On the different ways he's scored…
"It takes me back to the old days, but sometimes you have to throw those away. You're in a much more competitive level, something like that doesn't happen on a daily basis. But when you get a play like that, you have to take it all in and do it for the team."

On Jeff Fuller…
"He comes up with catches in practice; it's unbelievable. [Uzoma Nwachukwu] as well. All Jerrod has to do is throw it up and they're going to go get it. As a corner, you're sometimes not going to have a chance to get a handle on it and you're going to lose them."

On the team's defensive performance…
"At the beginning of the game, the defense was fanatical. But every game, you'll run into adversity and you have to get past that. Hats off to Louisiana Tech. We gave up some big plays, but we played our game. We did what the coaches taught us."


SOPHOMORE WR UZOMA NWACHUKWU

On the touchdown at the end of the half…
"We work on that and those types of situations every day in practice and at the end of practice. Louisiana Tech was doing well on offense and defense. Our defense was keeping us in the game, so the offense had to make a play. When your number is called you have to make a play. The ball was in the air and I had to go up and get it."

On the confidence boost from the end of half touchdown…
'It definitely was a confidence boost. We knew the offense had to definitely step up and make some plays. Jerrod put up a perfect ball for me and put me in position to make that play. We have tons of guys who can make that play, but he threw it to me. We had to make a play so we made it."

JUNIOR WR JEFF FULLER

On his night tonight…
"It was definitely a blessing to get the ball early and contribute to the offense like that. There were a lot of things to play for tonight. I dedicated the game to not only September 11, but I had a cousin and an uncle pass away. There was a lot to play for today and I was trying to lay it all out on the field."

On the touchdown catch that matched the school record…
"It was actually a run play called. I saw the corner pressed up in man and I was looking inside and hoping Jerrod was giving me the 'Aggie' signal. He did and threw it up. He positioned the ball perfectly and I was able to make a good catch."


SENIOR QB JERROD JOHNSON

On the jump ball touchdown to end the first half…
"We practice that all the time but I think there was a little luck too. I dropped back, and my biggest thing there is you don't take a sack. You have to at least give your receivers a chance. Initially when I stepped up, I thought they left Jeff (Fuller) in 1-on-1, but then I saw a guy chasing Jeff so actually there were two chasing him. I threw right when I was set up to throw left, so I kind of shorted it. Maybe that helped us a bit because the DBs were thinking the ball would go into the end zone. Ez came back for it. It wasn't the best of passes but he came back and made a great play on it."

On his comfort level throwing the ball…
"I was pretty comfortable. The scheme was a little different this week. We knew they'd play man and we 'd be able to get some shots deep. With the skill guys we have we have so many options. All those guys are so good. I think we definitely had room to take those chances but at the same time you have to understand you need to take your dinks and dumps."

On the offense…
"I think we have not played up to our potential yet. We had several drive stoppers. We havnet had that game when we are completely in sync. We had some great individual efforts. We can be more fluid as an offense."

On having Jeff Fuller to throw to…
"It gives me tons of confidence. We talked about it last week where Jeff had just one pass thrown to him in the first half. He's such a threat downfield, and we knew they'd play a lot of man. All I try to do is not overthrow him and just give him a chance to be great. They were right there in coverage, Jeff just made great plays. Those guys were blanketing him, but he was able to make great plays."