Tulsa/Southwest Missouri State Post-Game Quotes

Sept. 25, 2004

Tulsa Post-Game Quotes

Head Coach Steve Kragthorpe:
"Its good to win. There is still a lot of room for improvement. There's no doubt about it. We did the things that we had to do to win the football game tonight. I thought our guys did some good things in terms of creating momentum for ourselves: the blocked punt, Montese makes a big play on fourth down after James scrambles out. We still need to do a better job finishing drives and getting off the field on third down. Overall I'm pleased.

Offensive wasn't clicking, did that change over half time? "The biggest thing is finishing drives. We had 257 yards of offense at halftime, we just didn't finish drives. Those numbers would correlate into more points and we didn't do a good job at finishing off drives in those situations. So we just decided to stay the course and keep playing and working hard and I knew the touchdowns would come.

Big plays early in the game, their effect? "Those plays got the ball rolling. They got us into a little bit of a rhythm and got us going from a momentum standpoint. Up until that time we had moved the ball relatively well, we just hadn't finished drives. We didn't get off the filed on third downs.

Did the blocked punt help achieve some momentum in the game? "Oh yeah, we make a big play and it ignites the crowd. Obviously the punt block situation we knew going into the game that we would block a punt and we just went for the right time. We just couldn't get them into a fourth down situation. We knew we would be able to block a punt going into the game so we just waited for the opportunity to get it done, I was kind of chopping at the bit to call it, we just didn't get the chance to call it till then

Linebacker Nick Bunting:
"I thought they played like we expected them to play. They came in 3-0 and had a lot of confidence, and they were stomping on our 50-yard line before the game. They obviously thought they were going to come here and rough us up."

"We go out there and play the same week no matter what the score. This is a confidence booster for us. It feels really good to get the first win. I thought early in the first half we weren't getting any breaks. I thought we were playing well, but we didn't get some calls, and we missed some assignments, which we shouldn't have been missing. I think we were just too aggressive on defense. I know I missed a couple of assignments when they scored their first seven points. We just had to calm down, play our game and do what we are coached to do."

Defensive Back Clint Rountree:
"I think this was a big confidence booster for our team. We had some adversity early in the game, but we came together as a defense and were able to get some turnovers, which we hadn't done in the first three games."

On the interception return for the touchdown:
"I wasn't going to get caught. Last year on an interception I got caught at about the 10-yard line. I just hit the x-button and started running."

Running Back Uril Parrish:
"We really wanted to establish the running game tonight. The last three weeks we really haven't had the running game clicking, and without the running game we really cannot get the whole offense clicking. I think we did a good job of that tonight."

Southwest Missouri State Post-Game Quotes

Head Coach Randy Ball:
General statement
"Their quarterback was the key to their offense. I told you they were going to utilize him a great deal and they did that. We didn't respond very well. He had a great game and he's the difference on their team. If he wasn't there, we'd have a much better chance to beat them."

On the SMS defense not making key tackles
"I think part of us missing tackles was that Tulsa has some real good players, and secondly I think our guys were anticipating getting good hits instead of trying to wrap up and take the guy down. With those two elements it gave their guys a lot of running room and they took it."

On the SMS offense not having a large output in the 2nd half
"We knew it was going to be difficult to run the ball against them. The thing that was most disappointing was we weren't able to give our quarterback more pass protection. It was a very hard hitting, physical game. There are a lot of positives that we have to get sorted out. It's a matter of where we go from here move on. We have to get back to practice. Some of the mistakes we had were the same mistakes we saw in practice last week."

On the difference of playing NAIA school (Union) last week to playing Tulsa
"I don't think it was a shock to the team. I think Tulsa's two quick touchdowns really took us out of what we were doing. It really shook our confidence. I know at half time the kids were frustrated on how we played and performed. I know they pressed harder in the second half instead of going out there and playing hard and getting better at what we were doing wrong in the first half."

A.J. Potter, quarterback
General Thoughts "Our offense had a great deal of confidence and then the defense made that goal line stand so we were feeling pretty good. It kind of went down during the course of the game. We didn't capitalize on a few key opportunities we had and we just let it slip away."

On TU's defense
"It was pretty much what we practiced all week. We got off to a good start but we made a couple of bad decisions in the second half, one was thrown right to the guy. But basically its what we practiced. We just didn't execute like we should have. We just let it slip away."

Steve Watson, linebacker
On the play of the defense
"I thought in the first half we did a great job. We had one let down late in the second quarter. Like A.J. said, we just let it slip away. We broke down a little bit so we just have to try and get back there next week."

On the potential fatigue of the defense
"I don't want to make excuses. The bottom line is we just didn't execute. We didn't take care of business. All we can do is go home and get out there next week, try to learn something from the film and try and make corrections and get ready for Western Illinois."

On the TU Punt Block
"I didn't really think that was the turning point. I thought it was somewhere in the second half. I think we came out there in the after halftime and we were still pretty pumped, we still felt we could beat those guys. We just didn't go out there and execute. I didn't really think that had too much to do with it."