Oct. 22, 2005

Recap |  Final Stats

Northwestern State vs. Texas State
Post-Game Quotes
Oct. 22, 2005

NORTHWESTERN STATE HEAD COACH SCOTT STOKER
"Texas State has got a good football team. We've just got to go back to the drawing board after this one.

"(Our quarterback, Davon Vinson) didn't play very well, but he also had a lot of pressure on him. They have a quick defensive line. We knew that coming in, but we couldn't handle it.

"We'll go back to work and figure things out on Sunday, this league's a crazy league, and with one loss we just have to worry about controlling our own destiny.

"Barrick Nealy is just a good player, he ad-libs about as good as I've ever seen it.

"I don't think we would have given up some of those scores if we would just play third-down defense.

"We definitely had some opportunities, we just weren't able to take advantage of them ... we didn't play a perfect game, but the kids played hard. We just couldn't do anything right offensively to help out our defense."

TEXAS STATE HEAD COACH David Bailiff...
On what the win means:
"It means we beat Northwestern State who was picked to win our conference and we were picked second. They dominated us the last four years and at some point this program is going to catch so much momentum that no one's going to be able to stop it. And every time we come over one of these obstacles, we'll keep raising the bar and it's going to take off."

On the defense:
"The defense has played extremely well in every game. Take out that A&M game and our defense has dominated in each of our six wins. Our special teams were pretty good too except for the blocked punt which was my fault, and I told Cory (Elolf) we'd never do it again."

On field position:
"You look at where Cory was laying those punts down, and the coverage and the ball placement. He kept our field position to where we had it almost all night. I haven't seen the drive chart but it's going to be amazing where our starting point was and where their starting point was. When they got points they had to go a long way to get them."

TEXAS STATE QUARTERBACK Barrick Nealy
On the Payton Award: "I'm not worried about that. What we do on the field is for each other. We've been through so much. I go out there and do the best I can at my position because I know the other guys on the field are bustin' their butts for me. I don't worry about all the accolades."

On the Northwestern State streak:
"To go out on a winning note against those guys makes it better. It was kind of like the A&M game - we knew they'd beat us in the past but we were going to show up and see how good we can be. We played hard on both sides of the ball."

TEXAS STATE LINEBACKER David Simmons
"Ever since Christmas break, we watched the tape of that game. All summer, we worked hard to get stronger and get ready for this. Our coaches had a great game plan and we executed it tonight."

TEXAS STATE OFFENSIVE LINEMAN THOMAS KERESZTORY
"Last year we weren't as strong as we are now. We got to where they are now over the summer. Last year they were all over us and this year it was who wanted it more. Tonight that was us."

TEXAS STATE DEFENSIVE TACKLE Fred Evans
On the team's preparation:
"Basically it shows you how much goes into an off season. As soon as we got back we knew that if we wanted to beat these guys, it was like Muhammed Ali said. He prepared and once the lights went on, he knew he'd already won the game. We knew if we prepared and played how we play every day, we could beat them."

On his performance tonight
"It's the team first. But last year they beat us bad. Last year it was my birthday and it was horrible. I refused to let it be like that again. They're a vocal team and we pride ourselves on composure."