Oct. 1, 2005

Recap |  Final Stats

SDSU Coach John Stiegelmeier: "They are very skilled, they understand their system very well ... their guy at the point of attack was just better than ours a lot of the time." Athleticism is an understatement, I don't know if you should say it with capital letters - Texas State is just very athletic. Hats off to the Texas State coach, he's done a good job and will continue to do a good job...he's got a lot of things going for him."

"I told my guys (after the game), get your heads up. That was a good football team. You lost to a good football team."

"We blitzed Nealy on that touchdown run, I think it was a good call...but once he gets in the open field, he's scary."

"You've got to be able to duplicate the emotion, the feeling, the energy you have in the locker room. Against a good, seasoned football team you just can't make mistakes."

Texas State head coach David Bailiff: "We want to be a balanced football team, but we're going to take what teams give us. We were having success running the football and running the option, but we also had some quick-strike in there."

"We go into every game with a goal of being balanced but it could be heavier on the pass one week or heavier on the run another. It depends on what we're having success doing and especially this week with the run in the fourth quarter we just wanted to eat up the clock."

"South Dakota (State's) defense played as hard and with as much passion as anyone's defense we've played all year but it got to a point where we were a little bigger and able to push them around a little."

"We wanted to eliminate stupid penalties and we worked hard at that for the last three weeks. You can guarantee no penalties in every football game but that'll take the aggressiveness out of those guys."

On Jamarqus O'Neal's interception...
"That was huge. It was a huge momentum changer. Jamarqus just continues to improve. He's only been here two months but he's already taken great ownership in this university. We're very fortunate that we recruited him and he chose us."

Texas State offensive lineman Thomas Keresztury: "Coach (Blake Miller prepares us to focus each week. It's hard not to play your best. He pushes us all week and we work together."

"We knew we could run on them. If we know who to block and we do it nobody can stop our running game."

Texas State quarterback Barrick Nealy: "Our O-Line can play. I've never doubted them and they just get better as the weeks go by. They get more assignment-sound every week."

"To us, A&M was a loss. Inside these field-house doors, that was a loss. Outside those doors everyone was excited, but we looked at it as a loss. We tried to push it harder this week and win today. We're not satisfied with anything. We won tonight but we're still hungry. We'll celebrate in late December."

"These are the games (SLC) that count. Everything counts now, and these past couple of games are really warm ups. We play in a tough conference and you'll get beat if you don't show up one week."

On KR's run...
"When he made the first defender miss I was saying to myself, `You better jump!", but that's just K.R.'s personality. He'll give up his body and he'll do anything for the team"

Texas State wide receiver K.R. Carpenter: "I hadn't been in the end zone this year and this was the closest I'd been all year. I saw four guys coming and I just ran as hard as I could and jumped as high as I could. I got over the top of them all and I actually broke my nose a little bit on the play. I was too determined to get in."

Texas State defensive back Jamarqus O'Neal: "Our coaches tell us to protect the post. If you protect the post you'll have a good game. When I saw the ball I jumped on the post and then he started running a little faster. I just ran right underneath it and thankfully I was able to make the catch and get a big return."

Texas State Notes
Texas State scored touchdowns on its first four drives of the game, a first this season, and led 28-12 at halftime.

For the first time since 2003, Texas State had a 100-yard rusher (Nealy for 121 yards) and a 100-yard receiver (Carpenter for 118 yards) in the same game. Carpenter combined with former Texas State running back Terrell Harris for the feat against Angelo State on Sept. 6, 2003.

Texas State also came close to its first 2-100 rushing night. In addition to Nealy's 121 rushing yards, senior tailback Douglas Sherman had 100 yards on 14 carries before being dropped for a loss for two on his 15th and final rushing attempt of the game.

The game time temperature for the contest was 27 degrees warmer than South Dakota State's last game - a home contest against Cal Poly last week.