Posted by SJSdude on 9/5/2007, 9:46 am Head Coach Dick Tomey's Opening Remarks: I have tremendous respect for the way they played. They played with such passion and had a great chance to win. It’s a tragedy for their program that they didn’t win. I think Ron Prince is on the right track. When Bill Snyder was there, he did the best job of coaching in the history of college football leading Kansas State from a team that had no successful history in football to one of the top teams in the Big 12. All the coaches who worked with Coach Snyder, there was a legacy of success. It’s just amazing to those who follow Big 12 football. Our task this week is to get better. We have a lot of work to do. There were some bright spots in the game. We scrimmaged Sunday. There were some bright spots there, but we have a lot of people who have to grow immensely and give a much better account of us. My biggest thing is we have to compete better. We didn’t play as hard as I would have liked. The last week, I didn’t think our upperclassmen reflected their experience in the way they played. Our task is take a good look at the tape, which we’ve done, and take major strides to be a better football team. If we can do that and give ourselves a chance to win by creating some mistakes and giving them some problems, but we’ll have to make major improvements to do that. We’re excited about the chance to go (to Kansas State). I’m really grateful to find out about us and play these teams. Had we played somebody whom we could do what we did and win, it would have been a very unrealistic feeling for us. We’re clear now about whom we are and we have to continue to get better. Question: Tomey: Sometimes, you need to get spanked and understand what you’re doing doesn’t work. And, we got spanked. That doesn’t mean it’s going to improve dramatically quickly, but it’s certainly better than playing somebody that we could be who we were, beat and get reinforced for the way we were competing. I think we’ll be better off for the experience, but it was a tough lesson. Question: Tomey: Question: Tomey: You play against yourself and you kind of get used to competing at that level. The price of poker went up on Saturday night in Tempe. I was disappointed in the defensive line. I was disappointed in the offensive line maybe with the exception of the true freshmen that played. There were some encouraging things. They graded better than the veterans, which is ridiculous. We used four freshmen. (Junior) Jon Moreno (OT) is a freshman, because he’s never played college football before. Basically, that was the first game for five guys (Moreno, Isaac Leatiota, Robbie Reed, Fred Koloto and Moa Ngatuvai). Question: Tomey: Question: Tomey: Question: Tomey: Question: Tomey: Question: Tomey: Dom is, naturally, an offensive player. He was doing some good things at safety for us. It was important for our team last year that he played defense to help us. Barring a rash of injuries some place, we’re going to leave him there (at running back) and see how he does. Nothing is forever. What you have is a valuable guy, because he can play tailback. If you lost a bunch of safeties in the middle of a game, he could go in and play safety or play corner.” Question: Tomey:
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Weekly Football Press Conference Comments
Courtesy: San Jose State Athletics
Release: 09/04/2007
“Just reflecting back on the Arizona State game, we were soundly beaten by a better team and a better coached team. So, we’re looking forward to getting better against Kansas State. We have to (get better), because Kansas State, in my mind, is a better team than Arizona State.
Is there any carryover by the veterans from last year?
“I don’t know. I know some of our young players who were playing for their first time or playing as freshmen played relatively better than guys who had played for years. I don’t know what the cause for that was, but I think that’s over. The guys saw that and saw that very clearly. We just have to pick it up. We needed that. We really did.
Any personnel moves?
“There are going to personnel moves every week. That’s business as usual. You look at the tape. The tape says you’re better than you are and you are out. In some cases, we don’t do that. In some cases, the player still may be better than what else we have. We have to make those judgments. We saw in the scrimmage on Sunday Jay Atkins, who didn’t play last year and was hurt a little bit during camp, stuck out like a sore thumb in our scrimmage. He’s going to play. Jay’s a linebacker and special teams player. He didn’t play in the last game, but he’s going to play in this game. He asserted himself in the scrimmage. He’s got four years of eligibility and I’ll be excited to watch him.
Talk about San Jose State’s defensive line play at Arizona State.
“I think we’re going to better in our defensive front than we were last year, but we didn’t play well on the inside. We lost Adonis (Davis) early. He’s our best player. We didn’t play well in there. We just got handled up front. We’re playing against four graduate students. We had three or four sophomores up against four graduate students with a great running back. That doesn’t excuse that, because I expected us to better there and we weren’t. It’s important our guys see that, because we’ve been competing in scrimmages against our offensive line. Our offense is not as far along as Arizona State’s.
The stats for the Kansas State quarterback Josh Freeman seem very misleading?
“He looks like Daunte Culpepper. He’s 260 or something and he’s 6-foot-6. He was one of the greatest high school quarterbacks in the country. Coach Prince recruited him. (Freeman) I think he’s outstanding. I think the interceptions (he’s thrown) is something that will go away this year. I think he’ll be much more efficient. He’s a tremendous threat, because he is such a good runner. He’s so tall, he can see everything and he’s tremendously accurate.”
What do you think Kansas State will do on offense?
“I expect them to try and beat our brains out like Arizona State did. They’ve got to be more balanced to compete in the Big 12. You can’t throw the ball every down and win in that conference.
What about your offense at Arizona State?
“We were woeful, because we couldn’t run. We couldn’t block them. If you can’t block, you have trouble running. We have to find a way to get some running attack and keep them off the quarterback so we can throw it. In fact, the last three games, (QB) Adam Tafralis has been our leading rusher. That can’t be that way to be a real good team. So, we have to find a way to run the football.”
What happened to (RB) Yonus Davis?
“He rolled his ankle on the first play of the game. He’s out for this week. We’re hopeful he can come back by the time we get into conference. We don’t know if it can be sooner than that. He and (DT) Adonis Davis have similar injuries. They (the injuries) just take time. We don’t want them to return until they are at full speed. I don’t want them to come back, try to limp along and play. Yonus needs to be at full speed, because his style and magic can make you miss and he can accelerate. You can’t do that on a bad ankle.
Talk about listing Jacob French as a #1 running back and Dominique Hunsucker.
“He’s the most experienced guy at this point. We’re moving Dom Hunsucker to tailback. We play Dom as much as we can. He’s got some background. He’s a smart guy and a good player. He’ll be in there some. How much depends son what he does. And, Jacob can still play wide receiver.
What about safety now that Hunsucker is a running back?
“Duke (Ihenacho) and Drew Ryan will be the two guys at safety. Duke is a very, very promising player. He made a couple of hits on tackles that I loved. At that time of the game, I was looking for someone on our team to hit somebody.”
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