Football Quotes From Tuesday's Press Conference
September 07, 2004 | Football
Sept. 7, 2004
Audio Clips
Louisville, Ky. - Head Coach Bobby Petrino and selected players made themselves available to the media for the weekly football press conference on Tuesday at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium. They discussed U of L's season-opening shutout win over Kentucky last Sunday and previewed this Saturday's Conference USA opener at Army. Kick-off is set for 1 p.m. ET in West Point, N.Y. After the Army game, the Cardinals travel to face Tulane on Saturday, Sept. 18 at 7:00 p.m. in New Orleans, La. Head Coach Bobby Petrino
On the Kentucky Game:
"The victory was a good one for us.I was very happy with the way our defense played. Offensively, I thought we played a little better after watching the film. You have to give UK's defense credit. They had a lo of guys flying around and playing hard. They ran full speed to the ball. We didn't throw the ball as much as I would've like to. I thought it was important to run the ball and wear them out. I thought Michael Bush took the game over. He made a great play on the screen pas, and Lionel Gates' speed took over. Our defense was playing fast. They knew the game plan going in. It was overly complicated, but they played well. On the play calling:
"I was a little conservative I thought. I think we got the QB's hit a couple times and we were running the ball. I think we need to open it up a little more and take a couple more shots down the field." On Michael Bush:
"He's going to do that. He was cramping during the game. They did a nice job on the sideline getting him ready. He's a great playmaker. You know sooner or later he'll break a long one. He gets harder and harder to tackle as the game goes on. He was close on a couple to going the distance." Being able to run the ball:
"It was good. It was good to be able to control the football like that. The second scrimmage we had, we called 14 run plays in a row to try and make the OL understand that's how you finish a game. I was trying to make a point. Some of that carried over into the third and fourth quarters the other day." On putting Brian Brohm in:
"If they were critical then I'm not sure what they were critical about. I don't think you could've put him in there in a better situation where it was 0-0. We had driven down to the one and didn't score. Great pressure situations and he took us down and scored. I don't think you could've wrote a better script. He converted two big third downs and then the fourth down call, it was a play he had never practiced. He was in at the time to run, but you still had to execute it and run it." How will use Brian this week:
"I think you just go out and practice and evaluate the games. How it worked out. You either stay on the same path or adjust. I don't think you can map it out." The criticism on the Brohm experiement would have an adverse effect on Stefan:
"No not at all. I thought he played well. He threw the ball well. He made good decisions. He took us on a long opening drive like the one we had scripted. Went right down to the one-yard line." On the running backs blocking:
"Eric had some really good blocks, and had more opportunities to block then the other guys did. Lionel seemed to be the quicker of the backs and Michael was making a lot of plays. Eric's day will come when he gets a majority of the carries. Kolby Smith played really wel.. I thought he played really well."
