DeBerry Talks About the Loss to UNLV
10/2/2000 12:00:00 AM | Football
About the UNLV game
"I told our football team that the UNLV game was our wakeup call. What
happened Saturday is we got beat by a good football team. We were not ready
to play and UNLV wanted it more than we did. The question this week is if
we're ready to respond. I know the character of this football team and I
think they'll respond positively."
"I told our team that we could win every game on our schedule is we don't beat ourselves and I think we beat ourselves Saturday because we we're not ready to play."
About what concerns him about Air Force
"We need to have a better attitude to start the second half. You better have
a strong message for you opponent when you come out of the locker room at
halftime. UNLV took control of the game last week in the early part of the
second half."
"We're not doing a good job of dominating time of possession and turnovers. We have only forced one turnover the last two games. We need to do a better in both areas."
About running the football
"We're a rushing football team, not a passing team. We're not supposed to be
out-rushed. We're supposed to lead the conference in rushing and we need to
rush the football better. We don't pass to set up the run, we run to set up
the pass. We need to get back to what makes us successful and that's the
running game."
About the Navy game
"I don't have to remind our football team who they are playing this week. I
don't have to remind them what a dogfight they will be in. Our players who
this is the first step in the No. 1 goal of our football program."
"I don't think our football team has come anywhere close to putting it all together. We have not played a complete game on offense, defense and special teams yet. Hopefully, we'll do it this week."
"Our approach is last week was a detour. We need to get back on track this week and do it one play, one day and one game at a time. I'm glad this is such a big game because our players will have no problem being ready to play."
"We're going to get right at it today and prepare for Navy's option. Navy plays hard and we have a lot of respect for their football team. Their defense really plays hard. They did a great job last week against a good running back."
"When you play a service academy game it doesn't matter what each team has done previously. This will be a tough, hard-nosed football game. I've always believed that if you block and tackle better than your opponent, you'll win football games. That's the key to this game."
