Sept. 7, 2005

Q. Coach, what positives did you take away from the Maryland game?

A. Well, I don¹t know if there were a lot of positives. Any time that you lose it¹s disappointing. The biggest positive, I guess, is that we had a lot of guys that hadn¹t played that now have a game under their belt and hopefully they will react a little differently this week. We have to play better everywhere if we are going to have a chance to win Saturday.

Q. Stanford has a new coach this year, how hard is it to game plan against a team that hasn¹t played yet this year and has a new coach?

A. It makes it tough. At least defensively we¹re getting ready for the Pitt stuff. Offensively we have no clue how they¹re going to line up. Their defensive coordinator hasn¹t coached since 2001. We just try to practice all the different ways they could line up. That¹s the neat thing about our offense. It hopefully won¹t be that big a deal. We¹ll have to see.

Q. What¹s your opinion of Stanford¹s personnel?

A. Watching them on tape they have as good as, if not the best, personnel we will play this year. They¹ve had something like 22 guys drafted in the last five or six years and talking to pro scouts they have at least four guys that are going to get drafted this year. They are very talented and very big. They have a lot of starters coming back. It should be interesting.

Q. What will be your keys to success this week?

A. It doesn¹t change. We have to take care of the ball and execute our stuff. We have to play harder than them and be sound in the kicking game. The team that blocks and tackles the best usually wins.

Q. How do you compare Lamar Owens to Craig Candeto and Aaron Polanco?

A. Gosh, I don¹t know. Lamar¹s played one game so it would be hard to say. They are all different. Lamar¹s got some quickness and I think he¹s heady. He did some things the other night and he¹s going to learn from the other night. I think the more he plays the better he¹s going to get from a managing the game standpoint. He had a couple of critical errors last week in game management. He had a delay of game and he checked on first sound once, stuff that won¹t happen as he gets more experience. We can win with Lamar. He played about like I thought he would the other night. He has some ability.

Q. How did Lamar make the transition from Georgia Southern to Navy?

A. Lamar committed to play for us at Georgia Southern and when I took the job here one of his coaches called me and said he wasn¹t sure he wanted to go to Georgia Southern anymore and said that he might want to go here so I told our coach that recruits that area and he called him and asked him and he said yes so we started recruiting him.

Q. He was very patient, waiting behind two quarterbacks for three years. What has he learned from watching them?

A. Well, he¹s had a million reps in practice. I don¹t know that he learned anything watching them. Hopefully he learned from practice. All those guys are different. He needs to be learning from Coach Jasper, because I promise he knows more about it than Aaron and Craig. Hopefully he¹s learning from him.

Q. Even though he¹s only had one game did you feel like he did a good job of leading the team?

A. I hope he can stay out there for the whole game. That¹s going to be important. I thought he showed some courage to come back out there, but we need him out there for a whole game. It¹s early in the year so we will see how that plays out.

Q. What were you thinking when he came back out of the locker room?

A. I wasn¹t thinking anything. I asked him if he could go and he said yes so we went back to running what we were doing offensively.

Q. As far as him taking the responsibility for the loss after the game on Saturday, what does that say about his character?

A. That speaks volumes for him, but he¹s certainly not responsible for that loss. There were a zillion plays in that game that could have made a difference. He certainly wasn¹t the reason we lost that game.

Q. What do you think his potential is?

A. I don¹t know. We¹ll have to see. I think he¹s got a chance to be a good player. He has to have some help. The supporting cast has to help.

Q. What do you know about Trent Edwards, the Stanford quarterback?

A. He¹s a good player. He has a strong arm and they have some big and fast receivers. They have 10 starters back on offense. I don¹t think there¹s any question that they are probably better offensively than the last team we played.

Q. Is there anything in particular you can do against the 6-7 wide receiver they have?

A. We just have to play, try and do the best we can. Maybe at times we can get some help on him underneath, but guys are just going to have to play.

Q. Obviously you want to bounce back from a loss, but you have to turn around and play a team that might be better than the team you just lost too. Can you talk about the challenge that presents?

A. You can look at it as a challenge or you can look at it as an opportunity. I look at it as an opportunity. Our guys can make a statement by winning this game. I think we could gain a lot of credibility if we can come back and beat Stanford. People who don¹t understand what kind of football team they are aren¹t very smart. This is a very good football team in a very tough conference. It¹s only the conference that the national champion has been in two years in a row. The national champion beat them by three last year so they have a pretty good football team.

Q. Real quickly, the turf you will be playing on Saturday, it¹s new. Does it make a difference to you?

A. I don¹t worry about stuff I can¹t control. It¹s there and that¹s what we¹re going to play on.

Q. Would you prefer grass?

A. I don¹t know. I understand why it¹s in there.