Head Coach Rick Stockstill
“I appreciate everybody being here. Seems like we just started this a few days ago. We have FAU this week. You guys are going to look at their record and think they aren’t very good. They are 3-8 and have lost four games by one possession. If you look at us, we have won four games by one possession. This is a good football team coming in here. They have had some close losses. Don’t determine how good this team is by looking at their record. They have won two of the last three games. This game over the history of these two schools, at least since I have been here, has always been a close game, especially the last three or four. It’s a good team. Any time you play a Florida Atlantic, FIU, or teams from Texas, they are going to be very athletic. They can run at every position. Their big guys on both sides of the ball are athletic and can run. This is going to be a very talented team coming in that we will have to play very well. Where we are right now – we’re disappointed in our ball security. We’ve turned the ball over 10 times in the last 11 quarters, and we have only gotten two turnovers. We are not doing a very good job protecting the ball, and we are not doing a good job in getting take-aways. We lost the turnover ball at Charlotte 2-0. When you lose the turnover ball, usually the games are close and have a hard time winning. That was a close game last week because of that. We’ve got to worry about us, focus on us and what we can control. We need to improve on this last regular season game. That’s where we are right now.”
On John Urzua’s performance at Charlotte and progression…
“I thought John did a better job than he did the previous two games. He’s still making mistakes, and I don’t want to say it’s understandable or acceptable because it’s not, but he did play better and he is getting better. Hopefully with each snap he will gain more confidence and poise. I think what we did offensively with Richie, Dennis and Ty really helped. We just have to do a better job protecting the football. I thought John played better, and hopefully he will play better this week than he did last week. That’s what you want. I thought John did some good things Saturday.”
LB DJ Sanders
On what the defense can improve on this season:
“For me personally, I’ve learned from the team to never think the game is over and never take life for granted because you never know when you last game is going to be. We can learn a lot from these last two games. We have to go out there and finish. Just because we won last week doesn’t mean it’ll be given to us this week. We have to approach every day like we lost because we have to get better.”
On the group of seniors:
“They’ve meant a lot to me. When I came in, they were sophomores and we all got close overtime. Now, it’s like a brotherhood. I’m going to miss all of them. I’ll miss playing with them, especially the defensive line. We don’t have any senior linebackers, so we’re not losing any of them. I’ll miss Jeremy [Cutrer]. I’ll miss them all. I’ll miss Maurquice [Shakir] and [Josh] Chester and the offensive guys too. It’s been a fun season.”
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