Postgame Quotes: Central Arkansas
10/4/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
Recap | Final Stats
Conque’s opening thoughts:
“Well first I want to say that I am tremendously proud of my team. I asked them to compete at a high level I thought we did that. I asked them to empty the bucket and leave it all out on the field and I don’t think that there’s any question that they did that. Congratulations to the University of Central Arkansas. They’ve got some fabulous football players over there. With that said, we had an opportunity to win this football game and it really came down to two or three plays where we made some mistakes, and good football teams are going to take advantage of that. A tipped ball, an assignment error, special teams penalty, we can go back and look at just a handful of plays that were the difference in this football game. I’m very proud of my team and we competed at a very high level against a quality opponent. We’ll grow and we’ll learn from it.”
On the injury to Gus Johnson:
“My number one concern is for that young man’s health. He played a courageous game tonight, as well as several other young men. Obviously that one play was a key play of that game, but my number one concern is for his health. He’ll be reevaluated tomorrow and at the beginning of next week.”
On facing Central Arkansas:
“Once the game started, it was about business. I think we coached hard and we played hard, but they made fewer mistakes and they won a close football game. We’re not where we need to be yet, but I think you can see some glimpses of good things. I think our quarterback played extremely courageous and extremely well. He made some mistakes, but threw for over 300 and rushed almost 100. Like a lot of players I think he left it all on the field. Certainly there were emotions leading up to this week, but once the game started, it was all about winning a football game for Stephen F. Austin State University.”
On the progress made from last year’s 66-31 loss to UCA:
“I’m very disappointed in the defeat and we’ll learn from it. But I think we are heading in the right direction and we’ve gained some ground in a lot of areas. I told my team, when we start playing conference games, so many are decided by just a handful of plays and we haven’t been in this position in five years. In life you’re going to face a lot of different adversities. You’ve just got to keep grinding through them and come out on the other side.”
On what he wants his team to learn from tonight:
“The game really does come down to execution, crucial situations and valuing the football. It’s just fundamental things that if we can do them a little better we’ll have an opportunity to win these close football games. I challenged the coaches and players after the game to look in the mirror and see of there’s something we could have done better or a little harder, a little bit more detail, to win this game. If we learn from that, we’ll get in this situation again and respond in a more positive way. But I’m proud of my team. I asked them to leave it all out there and they did, and if anybody says any otherwise I’ll fight them, cause those kids competed tonight and those kids hurt right now. They hurt. And I told them they need to hurt and don’t forget what this pain feels like. We’ll learn from this, come back and go to work tomorrow night and continue to move forward.”
-SFA-
