Notes & Quotes: 2001 Nebraska vs. Kansas State football

By NU Athletic Communications

NEBRASKA COACH FRANK SOLICH
OPENING COMMENTS
“Looking back on it, it was as tough game that we expected it to be. I think our players gave a great effort. Kansas State also played very hard, and I think they deserve a lot of credit for the way they’re playing as they go down the stretch. I thought their coaches did a very good job of having their players hang in there and get through the worst of times and then come back and play excellent football.”

ON BEING DOWN AT HALFTIME
“Being down at halftime was a little discouraging. They were very quiet in the locker room. They did not feel good about the fact that they did not have the lead. In any case, I was real encouraged to see the fight and the drive and the energy that they had in the second half. I think the opening drive of the second half was really crucial for us. All in all, it was the kind of game we expected, and we feel pretty good about the way our players have responded now for 11 games in a row.”

ON THE MOOD IN THE LOCKER ROOM AT HALFTIME
“I think they were a little quieter than normal. They felt that they let a good lead slip away, and that’s not generally how this team has been. Certainly the determination and the effort was there. We knew that if we just played good ball, we had shown the ability to move the ball. (We) had shown the ability to make plays on defense and make plays on special teams. If we were going to be a great football team, we needed to come out and do that in the second half. They were certainly challenged, and I think they responded very well.”

ON THE BIG THIRD DOWN PLAYS
“We had some ideas coming out at halftime that we thought had a chance of working. It’s a little bit of a guessing game, because sometimes they’re slanting their tackles sometimes they’re not. You know that it’s not going to be every play is going to click off the way you want it to click off. We were able to get a good enough feel for what they were doing. We thought maybe we could get some things called to give our players the best chance of getting some points on the board.”

ON WILLIE AMOS’ TWO INTERCEPTIONS
“It was obvious the interceptions were outstanding. He has the ability to cover the field and has got great speed. Willie had come off of a hamstring injury that had bothered him and kept him out of a few games and bothered him for a period of time in the middle of the season. But it was great to see him come back and have this kind of a game. This should give him a great deal of confidence.”

ON ERIC CROUCH
“You can’t run an offense against these people on the ground without having a quarterback like Eric Crouch. He gives you so many things that you can go to. He just gives you an added dimension that most people don’t have in their offense. He certainly was a key, and we built around him the entire game.”

Quarterback Eric Crouch
On the offensive performance
“It wasn’t pretty, but that is part of football. You are going to get stopped once in a while, and you have to make adjustments. It’s just part of the game. We did exactly that. We made our adjustments, came back in the second half and drove down the field and scored.

On the defense’s play
“You have to credit the defense for playing the way they did, and putting us into positions to score and put points on the board.”

Running Back Dahrran Diedrick
On his performance
“It was rough going at the beginning of the game, but we found a way to run the ball pretty good up the middle. The fullbacks were making great blocks, and like every week, the offensive line was creating creases for us to run through. My job is just to find those holes and run through them.”

On the win for the seniors
“This win is really exciting for our seniors. We are really glad the seniors get to go out as winners at home. I would hate to be on a team that let its seniors go out as losers.”

Linebacker Jamie Burrow
On Nebraska’s defense
“In the first half we were put in situations that were pretty difficult with the turnovers. We can’t give up any points at that time, but we gave up a couple. In the second half, we just went out and set the tone, both defensively and offensively. It is fun playing on this defense. Everyone gets along well. There is no one just out there for themselves. We are a very unified group, and we have great chemistry. We just have to go out there and play up to our potential.”

Free Safety Willie Amos
On his interceptions
“I was just in the right place at the right time. It was a combination of technique and play calling by the coaches that allowed me to be in the right spot.”

KANSAS STATE COACH BILL SNYDER
ON THE GAME
The first quarter was pretty costly and the third quarter was pretty costly. We just couldn’t get started. We got beat by a tremendous football team. Against a team like Nebraska, you can’t do the things that we did and expect to have a chance. I am not a big believer in stats, but it is all right here. Thirty-seven yards passing, three interceptions and that’s our demise.

ON KSU’s OFFENSE
I don’t know so much if it is devising it (a new offensive scheme). It’s being able to improve our execution on the things we are attempting to do and identifying the things we cannot do and try to eliminate those from our offense. But we cannot eliminate the pass. We are not capable of doing that. Nobody can just run the ball against Nebraska and beat them. I didn’t come in here and expect to throw the ball 40 times and have the chance to beat them either, but I thought you have to have some balance in your offense. To a certain degree, to take a little bit of pressure off the running game. I thought we could run the ball OK and we ran the ball perhaps OK. We ran better than OK at times, but you just got to have some other facets to your game.

ON WHAT HE SAID TO HIS TEAM AT HALFTIME
We have got to started in the third quarter. We didn’t start the first quarter and gave away all of the points on the board. It was important to get started on the right foot and obviously whatever I said didn’t happen. We did exactly the same thing in the third quarter that we did in the first quarter. Defensively, we played so very, very well in the ball game. The only drive that we really gave up was the first drive of the third quarter. We got started off on the wrong foot. That happened first with the defense, then with our offense and then the kicking game. We were three strikes and out.

ON HIS TEAM’s MENTALITY AFTER NU’s FIRST DRIVE OF THE THIRD QUARTER
Always, when someone runs close to eight minutes off the clock and get points off of it, then it has a little bit of an impact. We came back from being down two (touchdowns) in the first half, I didn’t see why anybody would have any types of thoughts that they couldn’t come back after that one. But we didn’t.

ON THE PASSING GAME
We had some problems. I don’t know how many sacks there were in the ball game. Protection becomes a little bit of a problem on occasion. You can’t throw the ball to the other team. That’s not the way you execute your pass offense. You can throw it out of bounds, you can throw it in the dirt, you can go to the ground with it, you can do a lot of things, you just can’t throw it to those other guys.

Defensive Back Derrick Yates
On Kansas State’s mood at Halftime
“The mood was really good at halftime. We felt that the second half was ours, because we had momentum with the late score in the first half. We felt we could have taken control of the game. But we just didn’t make enough plays and eliminate the mistakes”

On the Loss
“We felt tonight that we could of beaten the number one team in the nation. I give Nebraska all the credit and the respect that they deserve. We could have made a mark tonight for Kansas State football by beating Nebraska in Lincoln. We just didn’t make enough plays.”

Defensive Back Jon McGraw
On Kansas State’s Mind Set After the Game
“Our backs our against the for the fifth time this year. It is critical that we win the remaining two games so we can make it to a bowl game. All of the seniors want to go to a bowl game.”

Quarterback Marc Dunn
On KSU’s Passing Difficulties
“We have the talent, the schemes and the players, everything we need to get it done. We practice well, but we just need to step up and show it on the field. “

On the First Drive After Halftime
“We had the momentum going into half time with the long touchdown pass, then they came out in the second half and scored on a long touchdown drive and got the crowd back into the game.”

Wide Receiver Aaron Lockett
On KSU’s Passing Difficulties
“It comes from getting ourselves in the position to catch the ball, pass blocking and making the transition from practice to the game. Tonight we really missed some opportunities, especially with Nebraska putting nine men in the box. Passing for only 37 yards is not going to get the job done. After the long touchdown pass, I thought we would start throwing the ball deeper a little more. When we did throw it deep, they seemed to intercept the ball.”