Weekly Press Conference

Head Coach Ron Prince
Opening statement...

"Well, we have had a couple of days to look at this Louisville game, analyze it pretty well and move on to Louisiana. I thought it was pretty clear, defensively, let us start from there, early in the game, particularly in the first quarter, I thought our kids did a really good job of pursuing hard and getting off blocks and making some stops, particularly the fourth down stop. What happened to us was a little bit of our own worst enemy. Louisville did a really good job of finding the cutback lanes on us and we did not do a very good job of squeezing and constricting some of those lanes and then when the ball got through on us, we did not make the kind of tackles we would have liked to make. We missed too many. As the game started to progress, Louisville was able to get the ball out into space, particularly to No. 20. We missed some critical plays and he was able to score and break the game, from a scoring standpoint, make it very challenging, and forcing us to play from behind. I think the loss of leverage on some of the routes we had in the red zone were very similar to the missed tackles that we had. We had somebody in the position and just did not make the play. That is where we will continue to work and improve on those areas.

"Offensively, the story of the game, after being there in person and then watching on tape, turnovers are the number one story. When you do not get any and you give up three, you are going to have a hard time beating people, especially really good teams on the road. The kind of turnovers we had not only gave them time of possession, but more cracks at really pushing on our defense and finding those lanes in there and I think that was really destructive to our defensive effort; the offensive turnovers that we had. We did have some poor execution on runs, both from a blocker and runner standpoint, and then we did have some very nice production at the wide receiver position; though we had a couple of penalties that hurt us in key situations. So, it sounds very simple what I just gave, but that is the truth, the unbiased truth, and we just have to make sure we work to correct that and we will. From a very positive standpoint, we had a kicking game play that gave us a chance to get back into the game. We couldn’t make the appropriate stops or get the appropriate drives to capitalize on it, along with a fake punt, and so we did some nice things with the kicking game, but very concerned about our kickoff return unit. We are not anywhere close to where we need to be on that.

"Coming into this game, I think it is pretty obvious that this offense we are going to play, being one of the top rushing offensives in the country; they have a very unique combination of a quarterback. And you hear a lot about the terms called dual-threat quarterback, and I think about all the ones I have seen, this one might be the best one. Legitimately, an unbelievable passer, very accurate, has tremendous sense of timing on his passes; he can pass from within the pocket and on the move. And then he is the leading rusher among quarterbacks in the country. And when you have the all-time leading rusher in the backfield with you, it gives you a pretty potent combination. We are pretty aware that the Ragin Cajuns’ have an excellent running game. So they can run the ball which sets up a nice play action pass which establishes a good tempo to maintain position of the ball and wear teams down.

"Offensively, it will be clear that we will need to hold onto the football. This team has had four interceptions defensively on the season and that is something that we were prone to last week so we will have to do a better job of holding onto the ball. I think we will have to get into a good rhythm early with this team because they have some disruptive defenders, 20, 43 and 58, all have two or more tackles for loss so that will be something that we will obviously want to stay away from. I think more than anything offensively that we need to eliminate penalties. We had some real killer penalties when we were trying to get some things going late in the game and that was very destructive. Louisiana is a very unusual program, they have great athletes. They have a terrific coach who I am familiar with his time at Virginia Tech. They are unusual because they are on of the programs that put as much emphasis on the kicking game as anyone else I’ve seen. They have the most blocked kicks in the country since 2002; they have never gone more than five games without blocking a kick. During that same period of time we are fourth in the country. You will see the very best of the best in that area of the game this week and it will take our very best effort to make sure we come out on top of that.”

Wide Receiver Brandon Banks
On his thoughts about the Louisville game...

“Obviously we are very disappointed because we felt we beat ourselves. We are going to use the loss as a learning moment and learn from our mistakes to get better. It is now in the past and we are going to look forward to the game this Saturday.”

Defensive End Ian Campbell
On how offenses are playing him...

“It could be half speculation and half truth; I still need to make the plays when they come to me no matter what. This is the type of defense where my objective is to do my job and if I take a double team then I take a double team. If that happens then that means someone is freed up so it all works out. A team will scheme for you if you’re a good player. It is not anything new, we just have to take advantage of it.”

On the defensive play against Louisville...

“It was definitely disappointing just because of the kind of effort that went into the game preparation. It was frustrating and a tough loss because of what was put into it. I think it probably showed on our faces after the game that we were frustrated, but we came home and have resolved to be better. The most important thing is to not let Louisville beat you twice.”

Quarterback Josh Freeman
On recovering from the Louisville game...

“It has been a team related theme to not let Louisville beat us twice during the few days that we have had off so we are trying no to let that game affect how we prepare for this week. It will still be in the back of our minds because we lost but nobody waits for you to get over it so we have got to be ready to play the next week.”

On his knowledge of Louisiana...

“I know they have a pretty good secondary. Their front seven, from what I saw on film, does a pretty good job. They held Juice Williams of Illinois to a pretty bad game and played him really well. As a defense they do a lot of different things. They play cover two and cover three, but I wouldn’t say it is anything two radical. It is something we have dealt with many times before. I know they are going to come in ready to play. Keithen Valentine has some friends from there, so we have got to defend our ground.”

On Louisiana’s performance against Illinois...

“It does gather some attention. We try to respect every opponent exactly the same. We understand they are a hungry bunch of guys and they play hard. We have areas where we are going to try to exploit them and I know they are going to come in here and give us everything they have got.”