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Rice University Athletics
Rice Game Quotes
10/10/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 10, 2009
Head Coach David Bailiff
"First, we got beat by a good football team. The next thing, I've said it before, players win games, coaches lose them. We've got to do a better job as a coaching staff. I've said this too, it's not important how much I know or what the coaches know, it's what we can get taught to the young men, and not just taught to where they know it but how they execute it. We didn't do that and got outplayed today. It's not lack of effort. At times when something goes bad we start pressing really hard to make things work and the harder you press, the worse it gets. We've got to get to where we're not pressing and are confident in what we do. And once again, I've got to do a better job."
(on reluctancy to charge) "It's learning how to defend this offense. This is a team that took Ohio State to the brink. This team has been to six straight bowl games. This is a university we need to try to emulate to where we go to six straight bowl games."
(on QB Nick Fanuzzi's passing) "After three weeks, your timing is off. Even though you practice, you've got to play game speed. I thought Nick stepped in there and did some nice things and he will continue to improve."
(on defensive preparation) "Every adjustment we made, everything we did, nothing worked. We will put the film on."
(on watching it live) "We just couldn't get off blocks and make plays. We've got to put them in situations where they can be successful."
Defensive Back Andrew Sendejo
(on the game being a matter of momentum or Navy's option) "I think it might be a little bit of both. We had momentum in this game and we wanted to build off of that, we played hard. They might have put a few wrinkles in we were not ready for. The option is a whole different beast and we tried out best to get ready for and we just weren't ready for it."
(on confidence) "We had a good week at practice and felt confident. I thought we were going to tough it out, but it didn't work out that way and we didn't make the plays we needed to make."
(on defensive experience and tentative approach) "I didn't actually see what everyone was doing all at the same time. I was only seeing what I could see. I have to watch the film to see why guys are playing tentative, but I know I was not playing tentative so I really can not answer that question."
(on defensive appraoch) "I can't really pinpoint. After watching the films I can see why certain plays broke and why they gash us on certain plays. It's probably just getting off blocks and playing irresponsibily. Overall we played sound. I think a big thing was just getting off blocks. I will see who didn't get off blocks and who didn't make their plays. That's probably some of the things that we will see in film that we didn't execute."
(on how to rally team) "I think as a team we just have to realize we still have six games left, and we can win every single one. Just take it one game at a time, don't cash it in, don't go in the tank. We still have half of a season left that we can do big things. We can meet our goals, we're not going to quit. Rice fight never die. It's our motto and just keep going, keep our head down, and keep grinding and put the past behind us."
Quarterback Nick Fanuzzi
(on first three drives of the game) "Like you said there was lots of opportunity there. We put ourselves in third and long situations throughout the game. We kept moving down, I felt good and I felt like we were moving the ball well the whole game. We just couldn't finish our drives. In those early first three it was very close in all of them. Certain plays I will learn more after watching film, basically the play by play. I think we were close but we just need to work harder and execute better when we get in red zone and elimiate turnovers."
(on image of how he should play) "I felt great after this week of practice. I was confident with what I could do with my arm. I'm not putting how I played based on my shoulder hurting, that's not the case today. I think we just had missed opportunities and we've just got to fix them and look forward to next week. I felt prepared, I thought we were ready to go out and play Navy this week, but I give them all the credity. They played a great game offensively and defensively. We've just to keep grinding."
