RUSTON – Louisiana Tech head coach Sonny Cumbie and select players spoke with the media on Friday in advance of the Bulldogs' matchup with New Mexico State on Tuesday at 6 p.m. The game will be televised nationally on CBS Sports Network.

Sonny Cumbie

Opening Statement…
"Our football team is excited to get back into game mode. For us this is a Tuesday practice. We are trying to keep our guys as in routine as best as we can. We try to look at it from that standpoint. So Tuesday will be a Saturday for us and we just count back our days from there in terms of our prep. The time off has been helpful for our players in terms of a mental standpoint to be refreshed. We have been going extremely hard since July 24. It has been a long time that our guys have had before they can get a chance to catch their breath. I am excited to see their response. They have a great football team that is coming to play on a Tuesday night at our place. They are led by Jerry Kill who is probably the Coach of the Year if you look at the things that he has done, staff he has assembled and the roster that he has assembled. They have done a great job with the transfer portal and with the players that they have from the previous staff. From the last two years he is doing exactly what he has done everywhere he has been and that is finding a way to flip a team and culture to win football games. They do it with a physical nature and are very aggressive on defense and offense. They are one of the top-five teams in the country when it comes to explosive plays. Tim Beck their offensive coordinator is very creative and very smart. They have a great staff from the standpoint of a mix of a lot of guys that have great experience and a lot of wisdom and connection when it comes to football and building a roster. They also  have a lot of very young, talented and bright coaches on their staff that I have been fortunate to work with. I know exactly what we are getting into. It is going to be a physical football game. If you have watched these midweek games around Conference USA I don't think you can not be entertained. Most of them have came down to the fourth quarter and some of the scores have been two score games but you have watched it and they have been highly contested games. There has been games where teams have came out and started with a big lead and maybe they have lost it . There has been teams where you see at very end it has been great football to watch and a credit to our league's talent, competition and just how close everybody is in this league. It is our job as a coaching staff to put a good plan together each week. This is a midweek game and it is our last one at home. We only have two home games left. It is going to be a 6 p.m. kickoff with great weather so I think our players would love to see a great crowd from our students and everybody around North Louisiana to come support our football players. I am looking forward to that."

On Personnel…
"From an injury standpoint our running back room is holding on by a thread. Tyre Shelton at this point is questionable, Keith Willis Jr. is very questionable, Charvis Thornton is probable in terms of him playing. So we have Keldric Moody, Dakota Williams and Jacob Fields. Those three guys have done a great job in practice preparing themselves to play well in a football game on Tuesday night. Defensively, J'Dan Burnett is still a ways away. Hopefully we can get him back here in the near future. Myles Heard has practiced some this week. It will be a game time decision with Myles to see if he can get out there and play. The quarterbacks have both looked good in practice we are still in our Tuesday practice so we will take some time to evaluate that in terms of who gives us the best chance. Both of those guys have done a very good job in practice this week. From an injury report that is where we are at. From the quarterbacks and overall our outlook on this football game and we know the type of game we are going to have to play against a very physical, talented and very well coached New Mexico State football team.

On the team…
"Our guys when challenged have done a nice job of responding. Our guys play really hard. There is no quit in them. Our execution is what has really been lacking. We have to do a better job of executing on defense, offense and special teams. Sometimes when you catch your breath and little bit and get outside of the forest and look at the trees you realize that some of the things that attribute to those type of mistakes at times can be fatigue whether it be mental or physical. Hopefully we have been given a chance to clear our minds from a player standpoint mentally. They have gone through midterms last week so now we are out of it and have had some time to catch our breath. The response we are looking for is a team that plays tough tenacious and together. Does that for four quarters, starts the game that way and no matter what the score is continues to be that way. Those are the things we are trying to challenge our players on, on a weekly basis."

On the message…
"You have to remind our players that during the FIU game we were losing almost the whole game and then came back. We never blinked, were not phased and then made plays at the end to win the football game. The UTEP game was a really close game at their place. We ended up winning by two scores but it was always a close back-and-forth game. It shows our players how much better we have gotten from last year but then again we have talked about in this room with our players is that we are not looking for close or anything other than going out there and playing our absolute best for four quarters. That is the message that our guys have and outlook that we have taken as coaches from day one. It is what we are striving to do."

On defending New Mexico State and Diego Pavia…
"Diego Pavia has done a phenomenal job if you look at the improvements he has made throwing the football. His improvements from last year to this year has really gotten better in terms of his accuracy throwing the football down the field. He is a complete quarterback and he is dynamic in terms of running the football. He is very explosive. Very powerful. He has a great understanding of what they are trying to accomplish on offense. Coach Beck is a very smart coach and you can tell by how hard they play and how well they execute. The power read is a huge part of what they do. Whether they give it to Ahmonte Watkins the back they got out of TCU. They have two big backs that they hand it to so they have a great combination there. They have explosive receivers. They do a really nice job of involving their tight ends you saw that the other night in the game against UTEP of how they use their tight ends differently and play their skill sets. Diego is what makes that football team go. They play with a lot of confidence because of how he operates and executes."

On evaluating quarterback position…
"I think if you have the time to look back. Stats do tell the story. Completion percentage Hank (Bachmeier) has been higher. When you look at efficiency and does the ball move and how explosive have you been on offense there is not a lot of difference when you look at the numbers. At the end of the day Hank health in terms of how is shoulder is pretty significant in terms of a guy that throws the ball a lot. Our players believe in both of them. Both of them can win the football games that we need to win in this last stretch. They have been great teammates and been very supportive of each other. They have made each other better throughout the spring, summer, fall camp and this season. There is a lot of confidence to be drawn from both of them playing from themselves, our quarterback room and our football team."

On if goals have changed from start of the season…
"Our goals have not changed. You see how this league is so wide open and I think it will continue to be wide open as we play out these last four games. The players and the teams that are on our schedule can impact where we are playing and what we are doing come late November and early December. We still have that in front of us. The main thing for us is a focus on this week. Getting this win against a challenging and really talented 5-3 New Mexico State team."

On Willie Roberts…
"The work that he has put in this spring and summer has helped him succeed. Willie is a really good player. He is tested every week we take the field Willie is going against the best receiver of the other team we are playing against. This league has a lot of really good skill players at receiver. Whether it is in the slot or split out wide. Willie has been matched up with their best receiver and he has responded. With the type of defense we play the secondary is very aggressive. It is aggressive man coverage. You are on an island and there is going to be time where they challenge and times where we are looking for 10-out-of-10 and that is Willie's expectations. He has done that a lot this year. The area I have been really proud of Willie is teams challenging with the perimeter screen and the impact that he has made in the run game. He has made a conscious effort to destroy blocks on the perimeter and become a better tackler. That is really compliment and wrap up his game. He can cover anybody that we play and now whenever they try to push to our safeties who make a lot of our tackles, now our corners and Willie are making tackles. I have been really proud in terms of his development in the two year that he has been here. That is what you really look at the players that have been in your program, have they gotten better from one year to the next. Absolutely he came here without a ceiling of what he could become and he has really done a nice job of becoming one of the best cover corners in our league."

Carson Bruno

On bouncing back after the New Mexico State loss…
"It hurts to lose that game. We never want to lose any game. To lose that was tough but we just have to look forward and focus on the next four games one week at a time. This week with New Mexico State and getting after them."

On starting quarterback effecting offensive line…
"Not really we just put our head forward and get the call and play as we should it does not matter who I back there."

On correcting false starts from last game…
"Being able to lock in in those situations whenever it gets loud in hard, tense situations we need to lock in."

On getting off to better starts offensively…
"It starts in practice. Coming into practice ready to go and also during pregame on game day just getting our pads set, making sure everybody knows that we are getting ready to go out there and play right now not in the second half."

On message during 13 days between games…
"Just to stay sharp. This is not a time to slack off and take it as a rest. Yes we need to rest our bodies but it is not a break."

Willie Roberts

On what has played into his success…
"It is more so paying attention to detail in my technique and our scheme. Being able to just refocus after each play. I credit by coaches for coaching me hard and making sure I don't slack. I show up every day ready to work."

On defending Diego Pavia…
"I am just focusing on doing my 1/11^th and trusting the scheme, coaching and my teammates."

On being more of a downhill tackler…
"Just showing that I can be physical. I can tackle and come downhill to help the team in any aspect of the game."

On responding from Middle Tennessee…
"We are using this bye week to regain and refocus, recuperate and approach the game with the same mindset that each day we are going to come out and be better to put an emphasis on that."

On the secondary…
"Our chemistry is second to none. Playing with those guys they make coming in here and playing every day fun. Knowing that behind me I got Myles Heard or Cecil Singleton it does not matter because I feel like we all have confidence and trust each other."

On mentality through the final four games…
"Our mentality is to finish strong. How you start the race is not as important as how you finish. That is where our focus is. This week we have New Mexico State and that is where our focus is this week."