Tulsa-Rice Post-Game Quotes
10/30/2004 12:00:00 AM | Football
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
Head Coach Steve Kragthorpe:
Opening Statement:
"Well obviously it is good to win. I thought our team did some good things tonight. They overcame some errors that we made in the first half. Some self induced errors that we certainly need to cleanup in order to be the team that we want to be. But it obviously good to get a win under our belt and to win going away the way that we did to make some plays in the second half both offensively, defensively and then obviously with Ashlan's kickoff return for the touchdown."
On the spark that Davis has provided:
"Well it's been a big spark. I don't think that there is any question. You know, the game is still in the balance and not only is a big play in terms of putting seven points on the board but from a momentum standpoint; that's certainly a huge play. And that's one of those plays where you could see us kind of catch our breath and you could see some of the wind taken out of their sails. So no question, it was a huge play and great job by entire kickoff return team of putting the ball in the endzone."
On how they adjusted to Rice kicking the ball away from Davis:
"They were kicking away from him so we changed our routine there. I told him you handle anything in front and Uril Parrish, you handle anything in back. So we line up in our normal return look and then as the kicker approached the ball we just sprinted Davis to the middle of the field to the 20-yard line so that he could get to any short ball. We anticipated that they would do that. We just wanted to try and get the ball in his hands."
On the most complete game you have played all year:
"No, in some respects yes, but to me the most complete game I thought we played was Boise State, because I think that Boise is a very good football team. Not to take anything away from Rice, but I think that Boise State is a little bit better football team, right now, than rice is. But again, I am pleased with the way our guys played tonight but there is still a lot of room for improvement. We have to improve dramatically and rapidly, if we want to be the team we want to be."
Clint Rountree:
"We changed things up in our game plan. We played Navy a different way. We went back and look at tape of how other teams like Army, Navy and Air Force played the option. We critiqued the way we were playing and changed our defense, and it seemed to work pretty well for us. They play against the option every day in practice, so you might as well an do what they do."
On winning tonight after back-to-back heartbreaks:
"It was big four our team. It feels good. We've had some tough games the last couple of weeks against Boise State and Nevada, and losing the way we did. We've just got to keep fighting. We're not going to give up. We've got some good guys on this team and we just need to take it one game at a time.
Ashlan Davis:
On his kickoff return for a touchdown:
"I try every week to go out and have a kickoff return and I was just blessed tonight to have a kick-off return for touchdown. It really hasn't hit me yet. It's just something that happened and luckily it was just my time.
"I started to the middle and one of their players got a hand on me and I almost lost the ball and I went back out to the right. I knew I was gone because all I saw were the blockers on our team.
Rice Head Coach Ken Hatfield:
"I thought the biggest thing was the heart we had to fight back. When it was 29-22. I thought we could win the game. At that time it was a seven-point game and momentum was clearly on our side. The kick return just broke our back."
