Sept. 30, 2008

In Attendance: Camille Powell (Washington Post), Bill Wagner (Annapolis Capital), Mike Fratto (Washington Times), Dave Carey (Baltimore Examiner)

Wagner: How are your stocks?

Niumatalolo: I don’t know anything about the outside world right now. We don’t get to watch TV much during the season unless we are on the road. I didn’t know what was happening with the economy until I turned on the TV at the hotel last Friday. When you are a coach you are in a dungeon all day.

Wagner: Can you talk about the dramatic turnaround the last two weeks? It has gone from starting 1-2 and some fans jumping off the ship to beating two BCS teams in a row. It’s a whole new outlook isn’t it?

Niumatalolo: It is never as good as it looks and it is never as bad as it looks. We just had to keep going. I knew we weren’t far off. On the other hand, we know it could go back the other way too. We just have to continue to progress and try to get better.

Carey: Is keeping the guys grounded after last weeks win a concern at all?

Niumatalolo: No. We have to move on. Hopefully our kids understand that this is our biggest game of the season. This is a huge game for us. Winning the Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy is our number one goal every year. Air Force has a good team and Coach Calhoun has done a great job there. We are going to have our hands full. They are well coached and they play hard. If you look at them they are just like us. It is going to be a tough battle.

Carey: What is it like playing at Air Force?

Niumatalolo: It is going to be a hostile environment. The Cadets there are going to be revved up and they are going to be ready for this game. We know we are stepping into a hornet’s nest; we just have to be ready. We have to work as hard as we can and as smart as we can to be ready on Saturday.

Carey: How pleased are you with the way the defense has been playing the last two weeks? They look like a different unit.

Niumatalolo: They have been playing great. The most encouraging thing from a coaching standpoint is they continue to get better every game. Things that Buddy and the defensive staff have stressed they have gotten better at. That’s all you can ask as coaches. There is no such thing as the perfect football player, but hopefully a guy is getting better and better every game and you’ve seen that with the defense.

Fratto: What has been the difference in Kettani from the first two games to the last three games?

Niumatalolo: What the defense has given us. Towson was bent on not letting him carry the ball so Shun did. It is all predicated on what the defense gives us.

Wagner: You had said though that you thought Kettani had more to give and could play better. Are you happy to see him respond the last two games?

Niumatalolo: Especially from the standpoint that we just played two very physical football teams and Kettani was a horse in the middle. He played with great determination. He’s been big for us.

Carey: What’s the status of Kaipo?

Niumatalolo: Day-to-day. We are just going to try and get him as healthy as we can.

Wagner: Is this what you feared, that this would occur all season?

Niumatalolo: You always worry about hamstrings. That is why we took our time with him in the first place. Some people were saying we should have pushed him more early on, but this was the reason. We just have to deal with it.

Carey: Are you going to keep Jarod at quarterback the rest of the season?

Niumatalolo: For right now he is definitely just a quarterback. A lot of it depends on how things are going with Kaipo. He is going to get a ton of reps at quarterback this week.

Carey: I know last week he was taking a lot of reps at slot back is there a point where it starts having an effect on the offense with him moving back and forth like that?

Niumatalolo: No. He was rolling in and out at quarterback anyway with Ricky so when Ricky was playing quarterback with the two’s, Jarod would play some slot. He didn’t miss any snaps at quarterback.

Wagner: Beyond poor field position what is your take on what happened to the offense in the second half?

Niumatalolo: They are pretty good on defense. They only gave up three points to Florida State. We weren’t playing well, but a lot of that had to do with them. You can always point out that our guy didn’t do this or that, but sometimes you have to give them credit too. They are pretty good on defense.

Wagner: Is it harder to run the option offense when you are backed up on your own goal line?

Niumatalolo: I don’t know if there is any offense that likes starting on the one-yard line. If you ask any coordinator where is the last place you would want to start a series it would be at your own one yard line and their punter did a great job of pinning us down there. Most of the balls that hit were inside the 10-yard line so having a returner back there wouldn’t have helped because we had worked all week with Mario on no catching it inside the 10. The guy did a great job of punting.

Powell: How is Angelo?

Niumatalolo: He is OK. It was a pretty severe concussion.

Powell: Is he out this week?

Niumatalolo: Yes.

Wagner: Was he knocked out?

Niumatalolo: Oh yeah. That was a pretty violent collision.

Wagner: Some of the calls on Saturday were beyond belief. The chop blocks that weren’t chop blocks. What do you do about that?

Niumatalolo: We go through the normal process. We write it up and send in the clips to the official’s observer and let him review it. I know they are human and they make mistakes.

Wagner: Last thing about Air Force, does the Utah game open your eyes a little bit? You played Utah last year so you know how good they are.

Niumatalolo: Air Force is a good team. They are good.

Wagner: They were supposed to be young this year.

Niumatalolo: They are similar to us in that they have guys playing JV and they are getting better playing JV. It isn’t like those young guys were sitting on the bench last year. They have good coaches and their kids have bought into what they are doing.