Week 12 Football Presser - LA Tech - Western Kentucky University Athletics

Head Coach MIKE SANFORD (Full Video)

Opening statement:
"Went back and reviewed the film and it confirmed exactly what we thought: just a group of players who were so committed to getting a win in their last game at Houchens-Smith Stadium as a senior class. And not just that, it was everybody in all three phases of football playing with incredible effort and obviously, that's great to see. Great to see the locker room and have that feeling in the locker room. Now we have another great opportunity to go play in an environment that has been one of the best in Conference USA, a place where we haven't won as a program in Ruston, Louisiana, in three trips there. It's against a team that we have a lot of respect for, had a battle with them last year that came down to a field goal. This is going to be a big game for our seniors, this is truly their last game. This past game was their last home game, this is the real senior day for us. 11 a.m. kick time for us is going to be a little bit different, it will be an interesting environment, you just never know with those early kick times, what that ends up looking like ... We're going to prepare for a great environment and a fast start because we have to do that against a very, very talented team."

On preparing for the LA Tech offense:
"I think it's a very similar team to a year ago, just a very veteran group. [Coach Holtz] does a great job recruiting because he's a relationship builder, and also as a play-caller offensively. You can tell he's going to play to his strengths, you know, when he had the receiver tandem of Carlos Henderson and Trent Taylor back in 15-16, those two guys were so dynamic with Ryan Higgins at quarterback, they were going to throw the ball all over the yard. Now they're a team that has a good quarterback in J'Mar Smith, has some good receivers in Teddy Veal and Adrian Hardy, but they also have a great, veteran group of offensive linemen. Big group, you have four of their starting five offensive linemen who have been on campus for four or five years, and that's the kind of stuff that you see. They've won close games because they've been able to rely on the leading running back, Jaqwis Dancy. He and that offensive line, they really compliment each other well, and they're all guys who have been on campus for quite some time."

The feeling going into the LA Tech game:
"We're going to take the confidence, no matter what the circumstances are, no matter what the records are, no matter what's being said. The only thing that matters is there's going to be two teams playing each other on Saturday morning at 11 a.m., they're going to bring different records in. It doesn't matter, that particular day it's about playing great football, and that's the opportunity that we love. We have 60 minutes of football, or three hours of true time, for these seniors and this team in 2018 to play together one last time. There's going to be absolutely no variance in how we fought, from Game 1 to Game 12. We're going to give it everything we got and we're going to go play together, and we're going to play with the confidence that we attained from seeing something come to fruition, and that's playing good football a week ago."

Defensive Coordinator CLAYTON WHITE (Full Video)

On the beginning of the UTEP game:
"The first 30 plays were probably something I've never been a part of, to be honest with you. Our guys prepared all week, we knew UTEP coming into this game had an athletic quarterback and had things that they liked to do. From the very first play, Ben Holt gets the tip, strictly off of a key that linebackers coach Maurice Crum taught him, and Roger Cray finished the play. I think our players did a great job of the details and it paid off in the first 30 plays."

On the defense and offense playing complimentary:
"It's always exciting to watch your offense go down and score on a long drive, then get a fourth-down conversion. It definitely got our guys hyped up, they were bouncing around, they were ready to take the field. I think that was the most important part of that, how [the offense] scored, then [the defense] came back and answered back, and then we continued that. Those are the things that, as a team, we haven't been able to kind of accomplish that a lot. But it was great for us to get that feeling that we can play together and the outcome can be really good for us."

The feeling going into the LA Tech game:
"It would be awesome to carry some of those plays over. It's all about really doing your job on the back end, if you don't do your job then you have no chance of making plays whatsoever. Those guys did their jobs. Sometimes people will say some of those were luck, but I watched those plays on Sunday morning to make sure it wasn't luck. It was strictly technique and fundamentals and key moments from previous games that came to that very first quarter of the UTEP game. We would love to carry those details over and when we have an opportunity to make plays, let's finish those plays."

Week 12 Football Presser - LA Tech

Players Mentioned

Roger Cray

Ben Holt

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