Rice Postgame Quotes
10/22/2011 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 22, 2011
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
Rice Head Coach David Bailiff
"We worked all week about starting fast and you can't have three turnovers in the first 11 plays and give up 17 points off of those turnovers.
"I am proud of this football team, they kept fighting back. That's a tough way to start and they hung in there.
"I thought Nick Fanuzzi did a fabulous job coming off the bench and calming us. We still can't get penetrations in the red zone and come out of it with field goals. We eliminate our mistakes in that football game and have an opportunity to win.
"I am very proud of Nick Fanuzzi. I think he came in and played very well. The one turnover we had - the last play offensively, he had nothing to do with it, so he didn't turn the football over tonight. For us to have the best opportunity to win, we can't turn it over and that's an important position he plays.
"I thought the defense was put in some really bad situations and they caused a big take away down on the one to keep Tulsa out of the end zone. I hate the fact that we gave that last one up. We had coverage, just misjudged the football."
Nick Fanuzzi, Senior Quarterback
"At the beginning of this year I knew my role and prepared myself if the opportunity would ever come that I would be ready and go in and help the team to the best of my ability. I think (Playing) against Southern Miss was good preparation of getting in there, getting back on the field and getting some reps definitely helped out."
(on short week)
"You want as much preparation as you can. But we can get right to work right away, clear out the bad thoughts of this game and focus on Houston."
Paul Porras, Sophomore Safety
"We had to stay positive through all of the turnovers on the first three possessions and we just had to buckle down and hopefully just hold them (Tulsa) to field goal position and stop them for a field goal, which we did on the third series. After that, our defense really held strong throughout the middle of the game up to basically the end of the game. I really think our defense played strong for most of the game, just some bad situations we were put in at the beginning.
"I think we had a great game plan going in. Coach Driesbach really prepared us well on defense. We held our ground for the most part."
