To a large extent, his dreams and aspirations of his college career are going to be packed into one season, and from a team standpoint, it's going to be important that we get a real big season out of him. He's going to be one of the featured performers this year, and is going to have to make things happen when he gets the ball. |
Tony's started at corner for a year and a half, he's had two spring practices [and] two training camps, so he's pretty well-versed in what the corners have to do, |
Vic has some of those Marques personal qualities in that it would be advantageous to the team to have him in the game. We all think, Vic included, that we're anxious to see Vic in the game. So we want to give him the best possible opportunity to compete for the most possible playing time at the soonest possible time in his career. |
We all understand that this was a good win for us, ... It wasn't a season-ending win. There are more games to come, and to make this really worthwhile we need to be ready to win again. |
We could just as easily lose a player in the fall as we can right now. This is an opportunity for us to build a little background for some of the things that could possibly happen during the course of a real season. |
We didn't score enough. We gave up too much. |
We don't care who or where. We just want to play. If we can have the same effort we did tonight, it doesn't matter what their name is, what color their jersey is, what bowl it is. If we play the same way we did tonight, we'll be all right. |
We don't have Pawtucket, ... There's a lot of catching up to do with Ahmad's game, things he hasn't done since August 5 to polish and improve his game. |
We encourage him to do that. God has blessed him with a talent that all those 6-5 quarterbacks wished they had. |
We go from day to day. When he's game ready, he's going to play. I'm really being honest when I say months ago I made plans to go on without him. When he comes back it's going to be like picking up a free agent at midseason. |
We got more of what we wanted from him than we did from anybody else. |
We had emphasized all week long that it was everybody's job in this game to find a way to win. What we put into it is for moments like this -- the satisfaction from accomplishment. |
We had some very specific purposes in this [recruiting]. We tried to address those purposes from the start. Inside linebacker was one of those spots that we needed a number of talented players. Looking down towards the future, we wanted to get a good supply of players to begin developing that position. |
We had to play Mark Miller outside today which really just left us with a three-man rotation inside. It seemed like Antonio's time is here. He had a good week of practice. We're committed to playing these young players and the only way they are going to improve is to play them in the game. |
We haven't pursued this with great urgency. He wasn't in particular discomfort Sunday and he said he was feeling even better Monday. |