Opening statement…
 
Overall, a great team win. Something that we've been working for a long time. Last week I thought we got punched in the mouth and there was a lot of tough conversations and these kids responded. That's what we talk about all the time about showing back up and getting back to work, regardless of what happened just keep swinging. I was proud of this team. I thought that the defense played extremely well. We were very inconsistent at times but we showed some playmaking ability that I know we're capable of doing. We still left a lot out there and offensively speaking, they know that that's not even close to our best performance. Still disappointed with the penalties, the unnecessary penalties. And we're going to address that and make sure that's fixed. You know it's a hard game, it's hard to win and these kids I'm happy for them. I know all the work they put into it and just to see them celebrate in the locker room, it's always a great feeling and understand why you struggle and you train to overcome adversity. We still got a lot more ball left to play and we are still not even close to playing our best ball. Sp we got to enjoy tonight, then we got to get back to work tomorrow. Obviously we play a tough Baylor team on the road on a national television kickoff but we got to worry about ourselves and continue to minimize the mistakes, find a rhythm and consistency. I think every single week we are finding the guys that we're going to go to war with. These first 3 or 4 games of the season, they're trying to figure out who they're going to lean on for the rest of the year. We're getting there, we're getting better every single day.
 
Scary injury to Chris Mills. Do you have an update on him?
 
No update now, just thoughts and prayers are with Chris and his family. That was a very scary deal. You take that for granted at times where you see an injury, so hopefully we'll have a good update. I'll check in with the doctors after this and just make sure that he's okay.
 
You had a lot of success running the ball today. Was that the plan going into it or did you just kind of feel it out as the game went on?
 
Yeah, I'm always trying to run the football and last week it turned into a passing game because we couldn't establish anything at the line of scrimmage. We challenged the O-line all week and Coach Hamilton does a great job with those guys. He puts them in a great position and we know that we were inconsistent in that first half. We'd hit a 13-yard run and then we'd hit a no gain and then we'd hit three-yard run and then we'd hit a no gain. And then we'd hit an eight-yard run and then we'd go a three-yard run and then we'd go to a negative yard run. So like, it was just kind like up and down. And then finally we found our rhythm in that third, fourth quarter. That's something that you've got to do to win football games is establish a line of scrimmage to run the ball. If not, it's a long day for them to pin their ears back and go sack the quarterback. And, um, I thought that the run game established us to be able to throw the ball down to field a little bit more efficiently than what we were able to do in Nevada. That was the plan going into, it was to run the ball and I think Coach MacIntyre does a great job in terms, especially on defense and just making it hard on guys and on quarterbacks and just on offenses in general. So he was really extreme with things at times where he was loading the box for the run and selling out for it. And he was dropping a lot into coverage at times. And there were some moments where he was dropping a lot of guys in coverage and we couldn't establish a run game and that's what we got to clean up. We're going to keep pressing away at it. But in order for us to be a successful team, we got to run the ball more efficiently.
 
Last week you gave your defense a lot of credit for playing hard with their backs against the wall. How much credit do they get after this week when it was actually a win?
 
They make it easier on the offense. I can tell you that it's a team game and you got to play off of each other, because every side of the ball is going to have their ups and downs. But Zac has done a good job with those guys. I think the new personnel that we brought in, I think they're very disruptive in what they do. I think they're pressuring the quarterback a lot of times. I thought their quarterback Grayson James did a great job at scrambling and using his feet to get some yards. We're playing coverage and rushing four and when we're getting to the quarterback, that's something we've not been able to do here. They put us in good situations. You got a pick six, Rodgers got two turnovers. That defense gets a ton of credit because they're playing at an extremely high level right now and offensively, we got to keep coming along because there's going to be a moment where we need to, we need to elevate our play on offense because there will be a moment where the defense goes through a lot of adversity.
 
You know, you've mentioned it a little bit with the run game, but throughout this week in practice, you talked about matching physicality. What was your evaluation of the physicality today on both sides of the ball?
 
I thought we played hard and I thought we were hitting people. I thought we were getting some great yards in the run game. You know even in the past game, I thought the O-line was holding up and allowing us to get through some things. And more importantly, our guys on the perimeter were getting open and they're contesting a lot of things. Last week we got contested and we didn't do all we were capable of doing and this just kind of shows them that we can get open and we can block and protect and establish a run. So, I was pleased with physicality and that's something in this game you got to bring every single week. If you don't play physical, then you're probably going to lose because the toughest team always ends up winning.
 
We're still at the non-conference part of the schedule, but some huge wins today around the league. When you look around, does that kind of make you think that you got to kind of step it up in these last few non-conference games before you get to the conference slate?
 
It's a tough league. It is. You got to bring it every single week. That's why I call it the fun belt, you know, cause like it's just so random at times, but you got to play clean football and we have to make strides. I thought we made strides from week one to week two and we got to make strides from two to three and then three to four. And we're like, it's got to happen every single week because you're going to get the best out of everybody. It's going to be a challenge. So like we've got to continuously play smarter football. Like these penalties are a little bit irritating to me and we got to fix that and the efficiency of things. So we've got to make these strides every single week because it is a very tough league to go through. We got to stay healthy too that's the main thing.
 
Commissioner Keith Gill was here at the game and, you know, he had a whole bunch of games he could have gone to, but he, he chose to be here in San Marcos. How much has that meant to you to know that the commissioner was here?
 
Commissioner Gill's been awesome. Just what he's done with his conference, just the additions that he's had. And, you know, he had Old Dominion beat Virginia tech. He had Marshall beat Notre Dame. James Madison has been playing at a high level. He is a kind of a big-picture guy. He puts this conference in a position to be successful.
 
How much credit do you give Dr. Damphousse for firing up the troops by riding out on a motorcycle?

I can tell you that, you know I was actually like worried to see if he could do it, but he knows what he is doing with the motorcycle. It's awesome. He's been a great supporter. I'm telling you, I've never been around a president that is this engaged and we ended up giving him a game ball because he got us all fired up to go out there and play. Extremely excited for him to get his first victory here for football.
 
So this past week Kyle Hergel talked about how the fans deserve more from this team and getting this first win here at home for the first time in a couple years. What does that mean for setting the tone for these fans to be coming back and bringing the energy to Bobcat Stadium for the rest of the season?
 
These kids work extremely hard, they do. And they're very proud of this university. They're proud of their team. I gave out two game balls to Rod and Calvin and they really didn't want 'em. They said it's for the team. And that just shows you who these guys are. They at the end of the day, they play for the men in the locker room. They have a lot of pride just trying to do something here that has never been done here and be a part of something special and something that they've been come back years from now and say that we helped build this program on where it went to. They appreciate anybody that comes out and help support. I thought when we pulled up in the tailgate and then saw the fans and just how rowdy they were. It elevated our play a little bit more. Some of the new guys were fired up for the game and I encourage them to keep them coming. Our kids are going to leave everything they got out there on the field. They're going to empty the tank in everything that they do. They have a lot of pride in this university. That's something that we instill and that we talk about. A lot of these team talks are about the culture of this university and how great of a place this is. What a special opportunity for these guys, if we can continue to play ball at a high level and put a product out there on the field that get these fans coming back.