Sept. 5, 2004

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Head Coach Gary Pinkel

Opening Statement: "First of all, I want to say that Arkansas State played very well. (We) were concerned about him (ASU quarterback Nick Noce) being a quality quarterback and he made some great throws. Overall, he played very well. We're excited about the victory. Obviously, it was very sloppy at times. We had two turnovers in the red zone. It was very, very sloppy. We didn't play good pass defense. The good thing is that we have a quick turnaround and a chance to make some adjustments."

 

On Damien Nash: "He was just making some plays. He showed great potential. Not only was he making plays with his quickness and acceleration, but also his toughness. I was really pleased with that."

 

On offense: "Overall, offensively we did some good things, but as you will recall a year ago, we couldn't do that two games in a row. We're going to hold ourselves back here and relax a little. The name of the game is consistency. I feel real good about the offense, but my focus is 'can we do it two weeks in a row?'"

 

On the new pass offense: "We didn't do anything different this year than we did last year. We executed better, we threw the ball better, we caught the ball better. There was nothing new about the pass offense. We just executed better; we didn't create a new passing game or anything else. The question is now, 'can we do it two weeks in a row?' Last year we couldn't do it."

 

On getting everyone involved: "We want to get everybody involved- tight ends, tailbacks, and receivers. Certainly I felt that we did do that. I think that [Martin] Rucker playing as a redshirt freshman, and some of those offensive guys did some really good things. We got some redshirt freshman some real good work."

 

On defense: "We made lots of mistakes on defense. First I give Arkansas State credit because they made some good plays, but I have to believe we're better than that. And I do. The good news is we can correct that with a victory.

 

On the five day turn-around: "There's really not much adjustment from the standpoint that we'll be ready to play. All around the country they play, in the NFL, they do it when they play Monday night football. Sometimes they play Thursday night games. They do it in college all the time. We have a schedule. We'll rest on Sunday, practice on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning before we leave. We'll correct any of the problems that we have, and we'll be ready to go."

 

Junior QB Brad Smith

On the performance of the offensive line: "They did a great job today. There were a few guys out there that today was their first game. They didn't have any penalties or false starts or anything. They just focused on getting their jobs done."

 

On the performance of Damien Nash: "He's pretty much always been out there, but today he got the start. It was great to see him do so well."

 

On Martin Rucker's first career touchdown: "You know I was kind of thinking about it. It would be nice for him to get his first touchdown in the first game on the first pass to him."

 

Game against Troy State on Thursday: "Every game is big. Our next game will be our next step. We need to make sure we can take what we did good here and make it work for us on the road and we are really going to be focused on that."

 

On his comfort passing during the game: "It builds confidence among both the players and the coaches when we can get long passes going for us. We then can use the pass to help us make big plays."

 

Senior JB James Kinney

On the second half: "We just have people in the right spots. We've just got to make the right plays. Coach talked to us about that at half time, and we did a little bit better of a job, but we still didn't do as good a job as we'd like to. Every pass they completed, we had guys around the ball. They've got to want it."

 

On Arkansas States efficiency: "They were there. It's just the fact of making the right plays. They did a good job of completing the plays, and on some of their catches."

 

On getting the ball right away: "We got the chance to make a good play, but they got the ball right back. You've got to expect that with a good offense, and they have got to expect us to give them the ball back."

 

Junior RB Damien Nash

On the first win: "It feels good just going in there. I've been in separation, and that's what set the tone for the game. The offensive line came up and made some good blocks and just ran hard."

 

On his scoring in the game: "That's big. Every time I get the ball, I look to the end zone."

 

On being injured and coming back to be the feature runner: "It is satisfying just being out there, just being a starter, but it's not that satisfying because we've got to do a little better out there."

 

On Troy State: "I just know Troy State had a big win today. We just have to go out there and give it our best."

 

On his performance being the "New Damien Nash": "That's the new Damien Nash. I'm a new person. I'm a more mature guy and more educated towards the game."

 

On being at game speed: "I just went out there and played my game, and that's always at full speed. That's game speed. You have to just go out there and run hard."

 

Senior DL Phil Pitts

On his touchdown: "It definitely felt good. It felt good to contribute a little bit."

 

On almost having another one: "It was probably actually a little easier of a catch, but I dropped it, and some guy hit me from behind. I actually think it was a fumble. I wish we would have got the fumble."

 

On touchdowns/interceptions in the past: "That's the first interception I've ever had."

 

On his way to a touchdown: "I saw a lot of green grass, a lot of open field. I was real excited. Atiyyah threw a great block that helped me get into the end zone."

 

On the defense: "We struggled at times. We need to go in tomorrow and get right back to work because we have to play Troy State on Thursday, and their going to be ready."

 

Sean Coffey:

On the passing game: "We've been working hard on it everyday. Everybody got together. Brad's a great runner... You've just got to make plays."

 

On his 60-yard touchdown catch: "All you see is the ball dropping there. Those are the easy ones to catch."

 

Martin Rucker:

On his first catch being a touchdown: "Doesn't get any better than that. You always dream when you're a little kid. It was just a great feeling to hear the crowd go crazy."

 

On his debut: "It means a lot. Even though I won the job, there were still a lot of doubters out there thinking that I couldn't perform, but I was glad to get that first touchdown to prove to everybody that I am out here to play."

 

On depth at the tight end spot: "We've got a lot of depth, and that helps because if someone goes down or someone gets hurt, someone can just come right in and fill that spot."

 

On his evaluation of his first-game performance: "I think I did real good. I think I did a lot better blocking, and I was a lot more physical than I thought. I moved guys, and I think I did what I needed to do."