About the quick and animated play calls that CSU head coach Mills signals on the sidelines, offensive coordinator Chuck Kelly said:
“It’s a waggle deal. Coach Mills works hard on Saturdays.” (HA)
About how their no-huddle spread offense is like a constant 2-minute offense, Kelly said:
“You’re in the hurry-up mode. You’re trying to get to the ball. You don’t huddle. You signal all of that in. It puts so much pressure on the defense.” (HA)
About his photographic memory, QB Eli Byrd said:
“I like to pay attention to detail.” (HA)
About how last year’s QB, Collin Drafts, is an assistant coach now, Byrd said:
“He helps me out, and gives me confidence.” (HA)
HA Note: “Two offensive linemen who started last year, Zach Mitchell and J.W. Myers, won’t play because of injuries. Right tackle Lancaster, and receivers Jones and Murry are “questionable” for the game.”
About going to Hawaii to play UH, Byrd said:
“It’s still kind of like a dream, basically.” (HA)
“We understand it’s going to be a faster pace. It’s a high level of play. But we’re a college team, and anybody can win at any given moment. We’re trying to prepare to win.” (HA)
About their 2 hybrid LB/S players on D, Defensive coordinator Darrell Perkins said:
“Those guys can run, they can tackle and they can cover, as well.” (HA)
About how they might need to blitz a player instead of just rushing 3 players, Perkins said:
“We might have to mix it up and get a fourth man rushing the passer.” (HA)
About how they cannot take CSU for granted, John Estes said:
“Any team can beat any team. Stuff happens. We have injuries. We’re down a couple of people. We have to worry about ourselves and play our technique. The only way we’re going to lose is if we beat ourselves. We can’t shoot ourselves in the foot.” (HA)
About how CSU is more athletic than UNC, Patek said:
“They’re more athletic than Northern Colorado. We can’t put anything past them. If you have athletes, athletes can do anything. It’s going to come down to playing the game the way you were coached and playing to the best of your ability, then letting everything else take care of itself.” (HA)
About how CSU’s offense is similar to UNLV’s (except CSU goes without a huddle), Michael Lafaele said:
“It’s basically the same offense as we played against last week. We’ll do what we have to do to stop them.” (HSB)
About how during a pregame talk in Las Vegas Tony Tuioti told their D how a national sportscaster dismissed their D:
“That fired us up.” (HA)
About how they were fired up for the UNLV game by those comments, Michael Lafaele said:
“We took it personally when we went out on the field.” (HA)
About the enthusiasm of their D, Brad Kalilimoku said:
“It’s like we can’t wait to go in on defense. That’s our character. We want the offense to do its job so we can go back out there and hit and make plays.” (HA)
About what their coaches have told the players about playing CSU, Dennis McKnight said:
“We told our kids to go out and do what we do. No matter if it’s USC or whoever, the theme of the fight song is ‘let’s take care of business.’ ” (HA)
