Ken Hatfield's Monday Quotes
10/31/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 31, 2005
Opening Statement -- "We're disappointed in not getting our first victory. We're still try to find out how to make one more play than what we have been making. Saturday was definitely our finest game of the year, which is a real tribute to John Syptak and Adam Herrin. The leadership they provided all last week in practice was phenomenal. They were not going to let the guys get their daubers down, and that could have happened when they (UTEP) scored on the first play of the game and hit 13 of 15 passes in the first half. It was a real tribute to the leadership we have. The younger guys believed in those guys, that we would fight and somehow find a way to make something happen.
"We got three turnovers. We got a fumble and two interceptions, plus an on-sides kick. Brennan Landry kicked as fine an on-sides kick as you'd ever want to see anywhere, and Tommy Henderson had a chance to catch it in the air. In the scramble, Carl Taylor comes up with it. That was a big, big play.
"(This week), we're playing for the Mayors' Cup. We won it last year. It's the city of Houston playing the city of Dallas, and it's always a big game. We know they're a good, solid team. They are the last team we'll play this year that will have had an extra off-week before we play them. We are also their homecoming opponent, and that was not picked by chance."
On playing SMU in Dallas -- "It goes back to our Southwest Conference days. This game goes back a long way, there are a lot more historical games and memorable moments. When I first got here we played them in the Cotton Bowl, and we've been in their new stadium the last few times. They beat us there in 2001, and we had a good football team. We played well in the first half and in the second half they outplayed us. Two years ago, we played a good football game from beginning to end on their new turf. We know each other.
"I've been most impressed watching them. They're the only team to beat TCU this year, and they beat TCU the week after TCU goes into Norman and beats Oklahoma. They whipped them, too. It wasn't any fluke. We also see that they go to Birmingham and defeat UAB, which we didn't do, scoring from 80 yards in 27 seconds, which is a long way to win that game. They threw it up to the big, 6-5 receiver, and he catches it to win the game. Against Tulsa, it's a seven-point game.
"They've played a lot of close games. They've won a couple against some key people. We know they're a good team and well-coached. They play solid football, and we know nothing's going to come easy."
On Rice -- "Like I told you last Monday, I wasn't a bit worried about UTEP. I was worried about the Rice Owls and what kind of team that we would have to show up on Saturday. We spent our time focusing on ourselves and what we could do better. While we weren't perfect, we did make a few more plays than we had before and we stayed in the fight. We improved as a football team last week.
"We've got to do that again this week. Whatever SMU does, they do. We're going to focus on the Owls and how we can be better. If we can put ourselves in position to win the game in the fourth quarter, we need to do it."
On Rice's 44-10 win over SMU in 2004 -- "We had a lot of things go right early in that game. We had a real good first half which gave us some breathing room.
"This is a whole different year, and we'll see what happens. You look at Central Florida. This time last year, they were 0-11, and now they're sitting on top of the other division of Conference USA at 5-3 right now."