Texas Tech University Athletics
Iowa State Vs. Texas Tech Postgame Quotes
October 14, 2002 | Football
Oct. 14, 2002
Recap?|? Final Stats?|? Notes
Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach
"Both offense and defense did many things well, but we came up short. Iowa State made the big plays when they had to, give them credit for that. On key plays and key downs, Iowa State made the big plays. The Danielsen reverse was the biggest play of the game. It was a backbreaker. It was a good call for ISU at the right time."
"We needed to rise up and get a stop and we didn't on a couple of drives in the second half. I felt good what we did defensively getting pressure on Seneca. He is a great quarterback. I felt our defense helped out disrupting them. We did not have trouble moving ball. The biggest thing that plagued us was turnovers and giving up key plays."
Texas Tech Linebacker Mike Smith
"I thought our defense played great tonight. We were running to the ball well, but we just weren't able to stop the big plays. The offense made a few turnovers. Our job was to stop the momentum, but we weren't able to do it. We had them in a lot of third and long situations. We have to make those plays. (Seneca) Wallace is a great athlete. He makes big plays every game, and he made some great plays tonight."
Texas Tech Wide Receiver Anton Paige
"Our defense played well in the first half, but our offense didn't execute in key situations. There were key points where we needed to rise to the occasion, and we didn't do that tonight.. Iowa State's defense was dropping off, and our running game was going pretty well. They took away the big play. We have to find ways to turn small yardage into big yardage. Iowa State's offense did a great job controlling the clock."
On third quarter fumble ...
"We work on ball security every day in practice. I think that was a turning point in the game; that started them rolling."
Iowa State head coach Dan McCarney
"Congratulations to Texas Tech. They played an excellent football game. They have a great coaching staff. We beat a great football team tonight. It was hard-fought and tough. The kids played hard and played a great game. I'm very proud of the kids and coaches. I'm excited to come tomorrow and meet with my coaches and on Monday to meet with my team. On defense, we didn't do anything differently. Kliff Kingsbury is one of the best QB's in the league. He played a great game and he was hard to defend but I thought we played well against him."
On Seneca's run ...
"All I was thinking was score Seneca, score... he's something special. He's so calm and cool.... he didn't think it was any big deal that he made 11 guys miss him twice."
On the upcoming schedule ...
"It's an amazing challenge. I think we can go down and play Oklahoma tough and we'll see what happens but we've got a great team but it'll be quite the challenge."
Iowa State WR Lane Danielsen
"Wagner had an incredible block on Seneca's touchdown. I pretty much was in the endzone waving my hand and watched the whole thing unfold. It was great and I really think that got us open in the second half. He knew we needed to make plays and we got it done. We just didn't get things going in the first half. We knew we wanted to run the ball because if we did that we knew that we could set the tempo."
on the rankings ...
"We don't really look at that too much. We're just going to go out and play our game and see what happens."
Iowa State Running Back Michael Wagner
"This was a great team victory. Everyone did their part and we came away with the win."
Iowa State Linebacker Matt Word
"I thought the defense played excellent today. This was a big step for us heading into this next stretch of games."
Iowa State Offensive Lineman Zach Butler
"We started off a little slow today but managed to come back in the second half. Seneca made some big plays as well, as did the defense. I thought the effort in the second half really showed the character of this team. We're excited to get this win and get down to Norman and see what we can do."
