Head Football Coach Paul Pasqualoni – December 6, 2004
Opening Statement:
“We are tremendously appreciative for this opportunity. We are committed to taking this opportunity and maximizing it as a head coach and as a coaching staff. We have made some strides this year in getting back some of the respect that we have enjoyed over the years. We are really optimistic and very enthusiastic about next year.
“On December 21, we have a great opponent, Georgia Tech. We will prepare well and go to Orlando to play an outstanding team.
“We hear the concerns of our fans. We know that there are concerns out there. I think one of the concerns that we have heard is the complication of our playbook. We have addressed that, and I think our staff has taken great strides this year in the simplification of what we are doing. There have been some very significant changes made. The changes may not always appear to the fans or the media. One of those changes is that our option attack has been greatly designed this year and has been very effective. I think the Rutgers game is probably one of the best examples of that because we had so many big plays in that area of our offense.
“I think overall our running game has been outstanding. What was accomplished against the likes of Pittsburgh and Boston College are great examples of the strides that the staff has made. I think the kids in our program would concur with that. We are still not totally where we want to be in the passing game. We are very optimistic as the experience at the quarterback position develops. We are making great strides there. We are healthy now at the wide receiver position and we have a great young corps of receivers. I think you will see some outstanding development there. We have had some outstanding Saturdays. Against Pittsburgh, we did a great job throwing the football. I thought we did a great job against Florida State, as well. I think we are poised and in position to continue to grow there. I know our fans have had some concern about that. We want them to know that we are working extremely hard in those areas. The staff has done a phenomenal job of scripting plays early in the game. We have had some great success on opening drives. I think the Boston College game was one of the great examples of that.
“We have some outstanding young talent on our team. Tony Jenkins (defensive tackle) had such a great year and he is only a redshirt freshman, playing in one of the toughest areas to play. I think Breyone Evans is going to be a rising young fullback for us. Tanard Jackson will have a chance to be the kind of cornerback that you guys have seen over the years.
“We have an outstanding group of juniors coming back. They are a very solid group. Guys like Kellen Pruitt, James Wyche, Ryan LaCasse, Anthony Smith, DeAndre LaCaille, Kader Drame and Quinn Ojinnaka. There are really some quality players there. They will not only provide the talent, but the leadership. Steven Franklin, Damien Rhodes, Steven Gregory, Joe Kowalewski and Joe Neumann, our longsnapper, there are a lot of names there of guys that have really performed well this year. Our senior class will be larger in numbers.
“This year’s senior class has done a really good job of getting us back into a bowl game and getting us a share of The BIG EAST Conference Championship.
There is also an outstanding group of sophomores, Kelvin Smith, Perry Patterson, Landel Bembo and Brendan Carney, so there is talent in that class too. There are some exciting young players that have been redshirted and have not had the opportunity to get on the field. We are very pleased with where we are in recruiting. We are still involved with some very high profile players, but at the same time we have commitments from probably 10 or 11 players. Our staff has worked very hard to get this far ahead at this point. We will continue to battle for some of those high profile guys.
“Again, we are very appreciative for this opportunity. We are very optimistic and feel very good about who we have in the program. We feel very good about the determination, quality and character of the players that we have. They are committed to do this the way that it should be done. That means going to class, being accountable undergraduate students, contributing to the undergraduate students here, and working hard on becoming the best player that you can become. We have had some great games over the years here in the Carrier Dome. The issue that we work on every day is getting better on the road. The standard of performance against Boston College is what we would all like to see. There is nobody in our program happy or proud of what happened at Temple and that takes nothing away from the great effort that the kids and coaches from Temple put into that game. To say that is a game that we are not going to forget any time soon, would be an understatement. We will probably never forget that game. At the same time we feel the approach was good and look to continue that as we head down to Orlando and get ready to play an exciting game.”
On the confidence that the University has in you:
“We really appreciate the confidence and we do not take it for granted. We understand what the standards and the expectations are here. That was one of the big reasons that I came here, to be a part of a program that is committed to excellence. That is why the players come here. That is why Walter Reyes and Matt Tarullo came here.”
On if this is a relief:
“We are certainly very happy in the way that the administration and the University feel about this. This past week this has certainly been a concern and it has been a concern of mine. I am just very happy with the way it has come out.”
On winning on the road:
“We have had some great Saturdays here (at the Carrier Dome). We have had some outstanding offensive performances here over the past two or three years. We have won as many games over the past four years as anyone in our league. It is more and more difficult to win on the road. We have do whatever we can to win on the road. We have to play collectively and as a team. We can’t dig ourselves in a hole. At Temple, we had over 500 yards of offense and Damien Rhodes had a career day with somewhere around 230 or 240 yards. We have to do a better job overall. In league games, every single week, everybody is ready to play. That is not only in the BIG EAST, but in all the conferences. Take a look at California struggling at Southern Mississippi and they lost their BCS spot. I thought Cal did a great job of winning that game.”
On if he plans on making any changes to the staff:
“I really like our staff. What we are going to do is look at everything we are doing and continue to make it more player-friendly on defense and making it simpler on offense. You cannot make it so simple that you are not effective, you have to be effective. It is just not that easy to do. This system has allowed us, over the years, to win some awfully big games.”
On the tough road schedule next year:
“We have been in Tallahassee and it is a tough place to play. We have never played, while I have been here, a game at Notre Dame, but I can imagine it is a tough place to play. At the same time, we have been to places like Michigan and Texas. Blacksburg, Va. is a tough place to play. Of all these places, Morgantown, W. Va. is also a tough place to play. We know what it takes to play well on the road. We are going to prepare the kids and do everything we can possibly do to get out there and play well. The bottom line is we can’t make mistakes. Take a look at the Boston College game. We did not allow any big plays in the run game and only two in the pass game, 19-yard and 23-yard gains. We won the turnover battle and the special teams battle and we won the game. We know what we have to do and we have won some games on the road. We are going to try to do it more consistently.”
On the uncertainty of coaching:
“When you get into this as a coach, whether you are a head coach or an assistant, you understand that. You understand that there are no guarantees and there is always the possibility that you are on a one-year deal.”
