Senior cornerback Brandon Harrison
Brandon, they had such a big day running the ball against you. Can
you explain what happened?
"First, I think it's important to know that Coach [A.J.] Christoff has done a
great job these first couple of weeks, really getting us in good positions to
make plays. I think it's on us - and by us I mean myself, Trevor [Hooper]
and David [Lofton], who are seniors on the defense - to really get guys going.
I think we are getting ourselves in great positions to make plays, and we're
just not making them. Whether it is tackling or just being in the gap
we're supposed to be in. We're going to have to get a little bit of a
renewed focus as a team, and as a defense especially, to make sure we get our
job done on every play."
How much are you guys missing Michael Okwo?
"You can't replace a guy like that. We've got talent on the field, even
without Michael out there, but he's a special player. I think it's pretty
much a consensus amongst everybody who knows our team that he is probably our
best defensive player. Anytime you lose a guy like that, he's going to be
missed. He's a special kind of player. But the fact still remains
that on most plays and in most situations, we have guys who are in the right
place. It just boils down to whether we have enough concentration and
enough focus to do the fundamentals, do what we're coached to do and make a
play."
How much does confidence play a factor? Is it like a snowball
rolling downhill, with some of the young guys particularly?
"You know, I don't think so. I know from being in the huddle these last
couple of weeks, on the defense for the most part, I think it was a positive
focus in the huddle both weeks. Guys weren't getting down. Guys
weren't getting on each other. I don't think necessarily that confidence
was becoming a problem. I don't think anybody fell by the wayside in that
respect. Again, I just think we're in the right spot, and we just need to
be able to tackle better. We need to get in our gaps better. But I
don't think confidence was really playing a big role."
On one scoring play, they had a guy run left and then right all the way
back to the right and score a touchdown. Can you describe what happened
from you guys' perspective?
"It was kind of eerily similar to a play a few years back, where we
over-pursued. They ran a reverse. We had great pursuit - guys
running across the field. We cut them off in the backfield. We had a
bunch of guys around the ball. He stopped, picked up a couple blindside
blocks and was off to the races."
How much emotion did you feel that they were picking up as they countered
and climbed back into the game? Did you feel that these guys on the other
side of the ball were getting higher and higher?
"Yeah, I think there is where your snowball aspect came into play - for them.
You could feel it. As things went better and better for them, they got
more and more excited. They came out with more fire on defense. Then
if they got a stop, their offense came out really believing that the game wasn't
over. Even down two or three touchdowns, things got better and better for
them. They kept capitalizing and kept using it to build the momentum, to
get the fire behind them. Then they never lost belief. What we said
in the locker room is that we need to take our hats off to them because they
came out and they beat us. That's it."
What is going through your mind when you see the offense take the field
with 2:12 left and you're down by one?
"Not a doubt that we're going to win. I have that much confidence in
Trent [Edwards]. I have that much confidence in Evan [Moore], in Anthony Kimble and in the offensive line. That's not going to change going into
the Navy game. If you put us into the situation down a point to Navy with
1:36 left on the clock, I'm going to be on the sideline expecting us score and
not having a doubt that we're going to win the game. Just like I did
today."
What are you thinking when you see them charging the field after the game
is over?
"For me personally, I tried to congratulate their players because they
deserved it. They played hard for four quarters, and they proved that they
played better football for a total of four quarters than we did. That's
why they won the game. We couldn't make plays when they were available for
us in the second half. I could see the excitement on their faces. It
just hurts to be on the other side of that obviously."
Can you comment on getting hurt two weeks in a row by a big running back
effort? This week it was Yonus Davis. What kind of back is he?
"A little bit different back than we saw last week. Last week was a
big, strong guy who was fast, too. Davis is a little bit of a smaller guy,
who has good speed and great quickness - good feet. Sometimes guys like
that are even harder to tackle than the big guys because they have so much
shiftiness His center of gravity is so low. You really have to
wrap up and get a lot of guys around the ball to bring him down. I think
he had a pretty solid game last week, and he came out and played another good
game this week. Unfortunately we were on the other side of it."
Brandon, how is team morale right now?
"10 minutes after a game, it's not too great. I think, on the whole, in
the locker room there is still a very positive attitude about what the rest of
the season holds for the team. Going into the Navy game, I think you'll
see a renewed focus and a lot of people still being positive."
Fifth-year senior safety Trevor Hooper
What happened between the first and second halves today?
"It's really tough. I felt like we came into halftime... Even though we
were up, we have been preaching to play the next play. That's what we were
hoping to do in the second half. We had good energy coming out. They
scored really quickly on us a couple times. It's really disappointing to
have a result like this."
How difficult is this? There was so much optimism a couple weeks
ago. Now you're 0-2 going into the opening of your new stadium. Can
you describe what the state of the team is at this point?
"Well, there's nowhere to look but up, and there's no reason for us to get
down. That's just going to hurt us even more. We have to keep our
heads up. We have a great opportunity in front of us and a great season in
front of us. Like it has been said before with this team, we have a really
high goals for ourselves. If we can get the things corrected that have had
us suffering the last two weeks, then we are going to turn around our season.
We have to start and focus in practice and keep it going. We're hoping
that next week we play really good football."
You were up 20 by one point, and then they scored at the end of the half
and the momentum started swinging back. Did you have any sense of that?
"Their guys were fired up, and they were definitely ready to play today.
I felt like we were as well. They scored a touchdown; we weren't getting
riled up too much. We just kept playing. Momentum obviously can go
back and forth, with the fans getting more into the game, but we tried to stay
focused. My hat's off to San Jose State tonight."
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