Colorado University Athletics
CU-CSU Quotes
September 04, 2004 | Football
Colorado Head Coach Gary Barnett
GENERAL ? “First of all I want to say I really admire Sonny Lubick in the last series. I admire his decisions to do it (to go for the final play). He went for the win. That was coaching without fear. I tip my hat to him.
“It was a heck of a game. They found spots to take advantage of our defense. We sort of got flat. They did some things to cause that and I didn't make some adjustments.
“You never feel at ease in a CU-CSU game. It was exciting for me. I enjoyed every minute of it.”
ON RUN DEFENSE ? “Our run defense was pretty effective. We knew coming in, that would be our strength and the inexperience in the secondary would be a weakness.”
ON
ON
ON BOBBY PURIFY ? “Bobby had an outstanding game. We were a little more explosive when he was in there. Bobby was the guy we could go to and rely on and it felt like we had an advantage in the run game and that's why we stuck with it.
ON ILB JORDAN DIZON ? “(Dizon) Just gets to the ball. He has a feel for the ball. He wants to get to the ball.”
ON CSU'S LAST SERIES ? “We were trying to get away, to pressure the quarterback, but their protections weren't letting us get the pressure. There was a sense that we were going to do it, stop them, in that last series.”
ON OLB BRIAN IWUH'S INTERCEPTION ? “I was happy he ran it back and got it in the end zone.”
ON EMOTION ? “I tend to deal with it (emotion) season by season. Every game you play or win are emotional but this one is a little more special because of what we've been through this past year. The fans were outstanding. We might not have won this if we'd played at Invesco.”
ON CSU QB JUSTIN HOLLAND ? “Justin was just what he was advertised to be. He's just what we were expecting. He had a slow start, I think. They did a good job finding plays for him. He's such a good player and he catches the ball so well.”
GENERAL ? “It was a hard game to lose. I'm so proud of this team. They gave everything they had, played with heart, played a heck of a game. I'm walking out of here with my head held high. Everything was going against us. It's hard to kick a field goal when you're on the one-yard line in a hostile environment.” ON OFFENSE ? “The offense needs to keep doing what they're doing and we have to shore up a couple of things on defense. CU is a great football team with a great offense.” ON THE FINAL PLAY ? “We were all out of sync. The crowd was so loud we couldn't hear a darn thing. I think it was a good call to try to go in, but I wish we would have spiked it.” ON QB JUSTIN HOLLAND ? “He did a heck of a job proving he can pass the football. He got heated up ther ein the second half. I wish we could have gotten him started earlier. When Justin got the ball at mid-field, I knew he was going to get it down the field.”
PK Mason Crosby ON 55-YARD FIELD GOAL- “I'm happy that they let me try it. It shows that they have the confidence in me after I missed the first one. “I didn't get to see the end of it because I ran off the field. After I took one look at it, I ran off the field to start celebrating.” OLB Brian Iwuh GENERAL- “All off-season we talked about bending and not breaking, and that's what we did.” ON INTERCEPTION RETURN TD- “The quarterback looked at the receiver right away and I read it. I tried to go north and south with it.” “The game was coming down to who was playing harder and the coach was saying, ?get a turnover, get a turnover,' and I was able to make a play. It really lifted up the team and gave us the momentum.” ON FINAL PLAY OF GAME- “I was just reading my keys and I had Coach Brays in my head saying, ?read the keys, read the keys.' We practiced against that play all week and that play is one that stuck in my head and I was able to make the play. To tell you the truth I heard cheering because we were so close to the CSU fans, that I didn't know what happened. I thought they scored, but then all of the sudden I turned around and saw (Tristian Walker) on the ground. I guess I got the first part of the hit and then Dominique (Brooks) cleaned it up.” ON IMPROVING DEFENSE- “We'll short it up. We'll look at film. We know what we did wrong and now we have to make plays and keep improving. We're going to fix a lot of things and be ready for TB Bobby Purify ON EYE INJURY- “On the tackle, my helmet came down and blurred my vision. You can't really run with out seeing.” ON IMPROVEMENT OF OFFENSIVE LINE- “You can see the improvement. I wasn't getting hit until seven to eight yards down the field and I was in the secondary. The offensive line, wide receivers and tight ends did a great job.” ON IMPROVEMENT OF THE TEAM- “This win is leading us in the right direction. We're just taking it step by step.” ON FEELING UNSTOPPABLE- “No, never. I never felt unstoppable. The offensive line and wide receivers were just doing a great job of opening up the field.” ON RIVALRY WITH CSU- “I don't think too much of the rivalry because I take every week the same. No opponent is bigger than another.” ON OFF-SEASON- “With everything that happened and everything we've been through, we had a lot to prove.” ON HELPING THE TEAM WIN- “It's very satisfying, I don't care if I run for negative five yards, as long as I'm helping my team win.” QB Joel Klatt ON CSU DEFENSE- “They did a really nice job of making some adjustments. We were able to run the ball and get them on their heels. They got us out of our rhythm.” ON LAST PLAY- “I've never seen anything like that in all my years of playing football. I just hoped that our defense was ready to make a play and J.J. (Billingsley) did.” ON RUNNING GAME- “Our offensive line did a tremendous job and Bobby (Purify) just did a tremendous job. You can see the results of his working in the off-season.” ON WIN- “With everything that happened in the off-season and us not going to a bowl game, I can't even put it in to words. This was a full team victory. I can't put it in to words how I feel.” ON EMOTION OF GAME- “The only other time I can remember the emotion being this high was in 2001 against ON EMOTION OF GAME- “I don't know, we put so much into winning this game. We either stop them and we win, or they kick a field goal and they go to overtime. I can't describe the emotion.” ON LAST DEFENSIVE HUDDLE- “They had to get it in (the end zone) to beat us, and we weren't going to let them get in.” ON DEFENSIVE MENTALITY- “There is always down moments but we pride ourselves on picking each other up.” Colorado State Ram Players QB Justin
GENERAL ? “I'm proud of my team and proud of my effort. We have nothing to be ashamed of. We never considered ourselves out of the game. We teach fighting here and that's what we did.” “This is a team loss. We were well prepared we just have to start better and maybe we wouldn't have been put in this position at the end of the game.” “The receivers were carrying me on their backs and the way the defense stepped it up in the second half was unbelievable.” ON THE FINAL PLAY ? “Basically it was just confusion. Tristan (Walker) was yelling the p;ay to me. The offensive line was already lined up. We just didn't block right. We ran the wrong way and we had the wrong personnel. It was just a horrible way to lose a game.” “(I felt) Disbelief. I didn't know it was fourth down, then I just saw everybody rushing the field and it hit me. It was the worse feeling I've felt in my whole life. I wanted this game really bad. Everybody did. Everyone refused to lose. Both teams played great and neither team deserved to lose.” CB Cathy Brandon- “It's a tough loss, we were that close. Both teams played hard, they fought and then we would fight, it's a tough one for me to swallow.” “This team is full of character, it was just a matter of executing and once we did we were successful. We'll have to put this one behind us, step up, and get ready for the next game.” LB Luke Adkins- “It was the little mistakes, the little yards here and there. In the second half we stepped it up, made some changes and were successful. It's going to take the small things to improve. It's definitely encouraging how we played. It's tough to play in this environment, but I felt we stepped up.” WR Johnny Walker- “We gained more confidence as the game went on. We came out sluggish but adjusted some things at half time, then Justin ( “Most guys had nerves. I didn't. I felt some butterflies but I love the game and had angels at my side.” TE Joel Dreessen- “Any time you play in this atmosphere, with this kind of rivalry, it makes it hard to swallow a loss like this. We were a yard from victory and our team feels they got away with one this time.” OL Albert Bimper- “We showed a lot of heart, especially for being such a young team. We came back strong and it was good to see. It will set a positive tone for the rest of the season. We just need to improve on the small teams. We fought hard. We just need to stick with what we do well and play our game.”
Colorado Buffalo Players
