Oct. 29, 2007

Head Coach Sonny Lubick

Oct. 29, 2007

Sonny Lubick weekly press conference transcript

"It seemed to me that Utah's first two drives knocked the heck out of us. They came right down the field. I do believe we won the toss and took the wind, which our kicker did a great job, kicking it out of the end zone. Then Utah drove the length of the field. That drive, that happens, but then the second one and it's 14 to nothing. In the second half, we looked at that film upside down and backwards yesterday. We shut them down some on defense; they didn't score again until the last drive. We had one guy who didn't make the play there that we worked on all week. That was about a 50-yard run. On defense it was a tale of two cities. Offensively, we moved the ball down there. Gartrell [Johnson] had a 40- or 50-yard run. We drove down, got on the 6-yard line and had to settle for a field goal. Again, they made a nice play on defense down there and put us in a tough situation. In the second half, neither team moved the ball very well. Utah is a pretty good football team. They have a nice offensive line. If you asked who has the best offensive line that we've played, they're right on the money. Utah always has an o-line. Special teams, I think they held their own in that area, I don't remember anything spectacular. I give a lot of credit to Jimmie Kaylor. He's been doing a nice job. I don't know what the stats show and all that, but I don't think he's punted a lot of balls into the end zone. He has that new little technique he's using and they're all coming down in the 20-, 15-, 10-yard line. I think our coverage has been pretty darn good. The bright spot of the game would be we came out and played defense in the second half. Evidently we tackled better and did some things better. Offensively, consistency grabs you. [Caleb Hanie] got sacked a few times. We have a freshman tight end who missed some blocks. That takes you out of a couple drives. Injuries, I think we came out in fairly good shape."

On DE Bob Vomhof not playing: "He was held out by the trainer. I think it's a combination of knee and calf. The calf's been bothering him and the knee is swelled up. I don't know if he even played more than five plays in the Las Vegas game. He didn't practice all week. I would think he'd be better this week."

On playing the rest of the season: "We've just got to keep playing. I think the players will play hard, and they've been doing that. At halftime we were down, and anything could have happened for the worst. All we needed was a touchdown, but anyway we didn't do that. We just got to keep on playing. I don't see any let up in the front four on defense, or the front on offense line. I can feel and see a little improvement in them."

On the Utah loss: "I give them praise, because they were a physical team. I thought they were just going to be knocking us off the ball, but our front four held their own. We missed a few tackles, but that didn't hurt us too bad. It seems that in the first half they were always playing second and 4. Our tackling was crisper in the second half. Our defensive front played against a good offensive line. Utah's running back was good, that surprised us. He was physical and tough. He averaged I think 6 yards a carry in the first half."

On disappointment stemming from another loss: "It depends who you're playing. From the win or loss thing, yes it's disappointing. But we knew we'd have to play like heck. Las Vegas probably wasn't going to power you, they're more the read option, a little more finesse. But this team [Utah] came out and they're going to run the ball right at you and see if you're tough enough to stop them. The thing that's been frustrating was not holding them on third downs. Third and 2, I'd be happy for 50-50. Third and 6 and 7s, you'd like to win at least 70 percent of those. That hurt us both ways, offense and defense."

On BYU's team, after losing two All-MWC players: "They're like USC, teams that have real good solid programs. They look bigger than they've ever looked on the offensive line, that's where all that starts. There are a lot of juniors and seniors in their offensive line, which they always have. Their quarterback this year is getting better every game. But they're not going to drop off. They might take a dip, and as those guys get experience they'll get pretty good. They have a player on defense, No. 41 [Bryan Kehl] who looks like he's as good as we've seen in this conference on defense for a long time. BYU is good on offense and solid on defense, also."

On CSU defending the run: "We've played three different opponents. One was Air Force, who I think had their best day against us. We probably shut down No. 4 from the running game decently. Coaching wise, yeah you like to hold a team to 140, 200 yards of total offense. That's nice, but that's not the major thing. I thought we played them pretty well. This week, this team was pretty good running. It seemed like we had our share of things there. I'm not too concerned. And I don't think the coaches are. It makes you look better if they don't get any yards at all, but then they start throwing the ball."

On the amount of time CSU defense is on the field: "If you can, sometimes your defense can look better if the offense plays well. But, the defense had their share too on the first drive of the game. From a coach's standpoint you like to have methodical drives. You better be at least halfway solid on both sides. I've seen our offense improve. What's next for us is to keep the offense improving, keep our offensive line getting better, running backs - I don't see any changes there whatsoever. I'd like to see one of the other guys in there to get some turns, but you have to get a lot of rushes for that. As far as quarterback goes, I'd like to see Billy [Farris] get some turns. Caleb [Hanie] is still our quarterback; he's the guy we're going with. But I'd like to see Billy get at least one series in the first, one in the second half."

On if the use of two quarterbacks will continue: "I'd like it to. The thing that happens there is you get in the game, and Caleb was in because of near scoring opportunities we had in the first half. Then we came out in the second half and gave Billy a shot. He made a couple nice plays there, but we got down to the 30-yard line and that was the end of it."

On the BYU football team's tradition: "They are a classy, good football program. They have good tradition and players. They have a solid program with a lot of resources. There's only been one dip in the program in the last 20 years. In the 14 years I've been here, BYU has always been the team to beat. Their coach puts it together and keeps it together. A team like those guys is not going to stay down. The Utah coach will get mad at me for saying that, but Utah's a good team too."

On an unfair advantage from the mission that many BYU players take: "That's part of their deal. We used to say that, and then we beat them a couple times and didn't say that anymore. It might help them a little bit. Sure, it does. They have to set their program up for that. That's been argued for 50 years, but that's the way it is. They're a little bigger."

On the challenge of playing BYU: "They always have a good quarterback. I've never heard of them having a bad quarterback. This quarterback is getting better by the day. And the reason they get better is they have a good passing attack. They are the best we've played against - throwing to backs and tight ends, and getting their backs out of the backfield. They've been doing that for 20 years."