Kansas State Head Coach and Player Quotes
Oct 15, 2005 | General
KANSAS STATE HEAD COACH BILL SNYDER
On keeping their dignity after the loss
"I’m not thinking about dignity right now, but what happened to us and how it happened and what we need to do to make sure it doesn’t happen again. We had our opportunities, as bad as the score was, we did have the opportunities in the ball game to make a difference. We didn’t take advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves, and that’s us. And what has been said over a period of time, they are an awfully good offensive football team and (Cody) Hodges really did a nice job today."
On the team turnovers
"When I said to not let this happen again, I’m talking about the things we did that negated the opportunities that presented themselves that gave us a chance to be more than just in the ball game. The turnovers and penalties were part it. Those are bad things that happened that shouldn’t happen. The penalty that we got on the blocked punt was a major, major play in this ball game, even with the score what it was. The two back-to-back turnovers which came right along side that penalty, were major in this ball game, those were opportunities that we had to make a difference in the ball game and make it a different ball game than it was."
On Tech quarterback Cody Hodges
"His presence and his poise over an extended period of time, there were times early, particular in the first half that maybe we left a little uncertainty with him in regards to what we were doing. But he fought through it and threw out of it and even if we didn’t confuse him a little bit, he still managed to make the plays."
On putting the loss behind and preparing for Texas A&M
"That is the nature of athletics, you get knocked on your back, do you have enough character, toughness, pride and discipline about you to get off your back and go take care of what lies in front of you. As I said before, we will find out whether we have some character to this football team, whether we really have the disciple to get it behind us."
On Tech’s offense hard to stop
"Once again, I think it is a collective thing, if your offense is going to give that unit four down territory and that’s almost any place on the field. If they are in the middle of the field all the time, yes it probably is pretty difficult for anyone to stop. If you can get some field position and you give them the three and four yard completion and you tackle them when they catch the football, then eventually they miss one of them and that is like somebody trying to run the football on every snap and now you end up with that fourth down. If you can get that fourth down on their end of the field, rather than our end of the field, then you have a chance and I thought we did a pretty decent job of that the first half, although we did give up two big plays in the first half and one of them led to a touchdown and the other led to a field goal. We can’t afford to do that against that football team because they are going to get their completion, but you can’t let them have the 45-yarder down field."
KANSAS STATE DEFENSIVE BACK MARCUS WATTS
On the game
"It was a tough task, we just gave up too many big plays and they played a great game."
On the Tech offense
"You think you have them covered and they are open. A team like that you know you have to limited their yardage and not give up too many big plays."
KANSAS STATE FULLBACK VICTOR MANN
On his impressions of the game
"We played good in the second quarter and in the first half but we just didn’t come out of the locker room with any fire and we didn’t get the job done as a whole team. Our special teams got the kick-off return, but at the same time, we didn’t hold them like we needed to do in the second half to get a win. They played us hard and they were the fourth quarter team today and we were not."
