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Rice University Athletics
Football: Ken Hatfield's Monday Quotes
11/13/2000 12:00:00 AM | Football
"That represents all our seniors who would have liked to have had a better record, but at the same time, nobody has played harder than this senior group. They have tried to contribute any way they can."
On the UTEP game -- "We went to El Paso to win and we expected to win. We knew it would be a very hostile environment, but it was the type situation that our players enjoyed being in. That's the type situation you have to play in to win a championship. Here it was, undefeated in the WAC, the best team in 33 years, the big crowd and everything going for them, and we lose our quarterback on the first play of the game.That's tough, but you start adjusting in a hurry.
"A real joy was watching Kyle Herm trying to gain experience on the fly. He took us right down for a score with two big option runs and a pass for a touchdown. I can't say enough about his character. He had a chance to show the reasons we recruited him.
"We hung in there. They have a great offense, one that is very difficult to stop. We came back in the second half and shut them down three series in a row. That gave us a chance to get back in the game at 28-21. We just stayed in the fight."
On Rice's kicking game -- "Our kicking game has been the best it has been this season over the past three weeks. Travis Hale has punted the ball as well as any punter in America. Our coverage people have been getting down there. Jeff Vanover, Dan Dawson, Travis Ortega, Jason Hebert, all of them, have done a terrific job to help our kicking game really pick up the last three weeks. That's given us a chance to stay in every game."
On the Owls' turnover margin - "We're eighth in America in turnover ratio. Even with four quarterbacks playing, we've only turned it over 14 times in 10 games. That's good. That margin and the kicking game have given us chances to win, where our first three losses in the conference were lost because of a kicking play in all three."
On the end of the season -- "We certainly want to finish strong. That's been our goal all year. It would do us a world of good to win a game on the road going into next year."
On the Rice quarterback situation -- "Ben Wulf and Kyle Herm will be quarterbacking today (in practice). Jeremy Hurd is getting x-rayed today and we'll have a better idea whether he'll be able to play or even contribute this week at all.
"We might dip back into high school days and see who else can play quarterback, whether it be Travis Ortega, Dan Dawson, Jeff Vanover. We may get everybody ready in case the worst case scenario happens."
On the WAC coaches' favorite in the TCU/UTEP game -- "If I was to take a secret poll -- whether it was a secret ballot or a punch card -- I think it might come out for UTEP. It's going to be a great game. Certainly, we'd like any of our WAC people who are going to be back to have good success and win the game."
On Nevada -- "Nevada's quarterback was back healthy last week and threw for 300 yards in Hawaii. They have also had some injuries, so they have some different people playing right now. They're playing hard. I watched them against TCU earlier and now against UTEP a couple of weeks ago.
"I expect Chris (Tormey, Nevada head coach) to be setting up for the future. When you end up a year like this, getting ready to go into recruiting, you think a lot about the future of the program. I think he'll be doing the things that he envisions doing next year, too. You're not sure how much they'll be doing something new or what you've already seen on film.
"They're playing at home and playing hard. I know they're rooting for a snowstorm or a blizzard, and that could happen out there."
