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Rice University Athletics
Football: Hatfield's Monday Quotes
10/2/2000 12:00:00 AM | Football
On the short week -- "We have to start out differently this week on Monday, because we have to concentrate completely on Fresno and not worry about San Jose. That game's behind us, and we have to get ready for the Bulldogs. That's our goal this week."
On the 1-4 start -- "The season is never lost until the last game is over. I don't care what you've done. You make a committment throughout the whole season. Things change for every team as the season goes along. The mark of a champion is how well you respond to adverse situations, whether it be personal adversity or team adversity. Individually, you find out how you handle those situations. If it makes you stronger, you gain from it playing the game.
"In the meantime, the task at hand is to be at our best and find a way to beat Fresno Thursday night."
On the San Jose State game -- "We didn't make a lot of progress last week. Once again, we're not playing the kicking game as well as we need to. We gave up a couple of kick returns and a punt return that were really devastating.
"At the same time, we had too many penalties that stopped drives. We moved the ball extremely well. When it was 9-6 and we had driven about 75 yards, we had a critical third-down play that we should have made five or six yards on, and we didn't.
"We had five holding penalties on plays that really offset some good yardage. A good team doesn't let that happen, and we certainly are not a good football team when we allow those things to happen.
"I have to take my hat off to Isaac Allison. We had to have some help on the defensive line with Jarrett Erwin and B.J. Forguson out, and Ike played his best game since he's been here. Brandy Manning, our tight end, also played his best game. He blocked extremely well.
"We just have not gotten the ball in the end zone offensively, and we are giving up too many yards throwing the ball. We've got to do a better job."
