Sept. 6, 2005

Q. Tell us some of the positives you took out of the Maryland game.

A. I thought we made some plays and did some things at times. We just made too many mistakes and we didn't take advantage of all the opportunities we had.

Q. Anything in particular, after looking at the tape, on offense that you saw where you missed reads that could have been big plays?

A. You always do. This wasn't any different than any other game. You aren't going to get every read right. We had some huge opportunities that we didn't take advantage of.

Q. Talk to me again about that play on fourth down and two. What exactly happened?

A. They were short a guy. All they had were two guys on the boundary and the corner was our pitch key so if he would have pitched the ball he probably would have scored.

Q. So he should have pitched?

A. Yes. It was just a mistake.

Q. Did inexperience show through in your opinion? Did you see things that were a result of inexperience?

A. We had a lot of guys playing for the first time. I had to laugh how everybody talked about how inexperienced Maryland was. We were the team that lost all the starters, not Maryland. They kept saying for a young team Maryland played pretty well, golly day I've watched those receivers play for three years down there. The tight end has been playing, the running back is a senior, the quarterback is a senior, we are the ones that had a bunch of guys that hadn't played. Those three linebackers, they've been playing for a while.

Q. Do you feel like one guy, like D'Qwell Jackson who made 18 tackles, can dramatically impact the game?

A. He's a good player. We should have won the game. I don't care if he made 30 tackles, we should have won the game. We should have scored 30 points or more, easily, but we didn't do it.

Q. Did you feel that having Lamar go out of the game broke your rhythm a little bit?

A. It didn't help. At the same time, the two series he was out, we don't convert on third-and-two both times. One time we semi-missed a read, but the other time both guards went the wrong way.

Q. Any injuries coming out of the game?

A. Nothing serious.

Q. Lamar's fine?

A. Yes.

Q. Is Lisante and Green reinstated for this week?

A. Yep.

Q. What about Stanford? What do you see in them?

A. I think they are the best team we will have played.

Q. Does that offense present any problems? Is it similar to Tulane?

A. Yeah, anybody that spreads you out will give you problems. Walt Harris is a really good coach. They had good offenses at Pitt and they are going to be good. There's no question they are going to be better offensively than Maryland. Personnel wise, defensively, they are pretty sporty too. I was talking to a pro scout today and he told me they probably have three or four guys that are going to get drafted. The nose tackle, defensive end and outside linebacker are all going to be early draft picks. They had six guys drafted last year. If you pick up their press guide and look at it, every one of their players was a Parade High School All-American. Last year they lost to Southern Cal by three, they lost to Oregon by three, they lost to Oregon State by five, they lost to Notre Dame by six, every one of their games against those type of people they were right there. In the last game of the year Cal blew them out, but if I'm not mistaken they might have already fired the coach by then so it was one of those deals.

Q. So do you watch Pitt tape more than Stanford for the offense?

A. We don't have any Stanford tape. For us on offense we don't have any tape. Their defensive coordinator hasn't coached since 2001.

Q. You don't watch tape just to see personnel?

A. Yeah, we watch it for personnel, but they haven't played this year so we have to watch last year's tape. Defensively we can watch Pitt tape for schemes.

Q. But he's not really running the same offense that he did at Pitt?

A. I'm sure he will. The defense will be different.

Q. Is it an advantage to have already played one game?

A. It might have been if they had the same coaches and you had a lot of film to watch, but this is tough for us because we have nothing to get ready for. They have film. They have all of our film from a year ago plus our first game and we really have nothing.

Q. Were you encouraged just by the way you matched up against Maryland? It seems clear that you have better athletes on the field than when you first got here. They weren't running by you a lot.

A. We weren't intimidated by them. We weren't scared of them. We've played a lot of teams that are their caliber or better. We just didn't make enough plays. In that game they were three points better. On paper they were supposed to win.

Q. What I'm saying though is with your personnel have you seen an improvement?

A. I'm fine with our personnel. I think we are getting better. Do we have the same personnel they do? No. We probably aren't ever going too. We recruit from different pools. But that doesn't mean we can't give our guys something they can do where we can win and I think we saw that on Saturday night. If we had made just a couple of more plays we could have won.