Brian Cross Quotations

We're still a very young football team. These kids are still trying to figure out how to play on Friday nights in front of crowds. We still have a lot of room for improvement.

We're playing a team that beat us, 22-0, last year. I don't think we're going to get complacent. The game will be in their house, it'll be our first road trip, and we'll be ready to play.

We didn't want to let them hang around.

We're harder to defend this year because we're throwing the ball with more success, we have some good receivers and the line is protecting well.

He's got more speed than you think he has, and he's more physical than you think.

He's a very special athlete. He can run, and he hits. He just explodes on people. ... He's not that big, but he does know how to deliver a hit.

I thought our offensive line did a good job of handling those fronts.

I still want to see how we perform when every throw means something and every catch is pressure-filled. We haven't been in that type of game.

... We have some other juniors who are capable if they have all the other things in line. D.C. Alexander is as talented as anyone we have. We're playing him at wide receiver.

We knew we had a speed factor on them that was going to pay big dividends for us. They had a hard time catching us.

We kind of felt with the people we had coming back that if we just came out and kept getting better and better, we'd have a chance to be pretty good. But never did we dream we'd win by this margin against them.

We think we have a chance to be pretty good. Good teams execute, and good teams overcome adversity. At this point, we haven't faced any adversity or had to play from behind. So we'll see. I'm still feeling my way through this team. I think they are still trying to figure out how good they can be, too.

But most of our mistakes came when our No. 2s and 3s were in the game. I was pretty happy with the way our regulars played.

We're going to be challenged physically. They are by far the most physical team we've played to date. We've got to be very disciplined to stop them.

We're very physical, and that's something we've carried over from last year. It's something we pride ourselves on. ... I like the way our defense played the entire game.

The threat of us being able to throw the football doesn't allow them to bring the secondary up to stop the run. They can't put eight or nine guys in the box. They have to defend us with seven, and with our line playing well and our backs, it's pretty difficult (for defenses).

Defensively, I thought we played outstanding. ... We're very aggressive, we run to the ball, and that's what we've talked about 11 people to the ball.

All and all, it was a successful night.

It's been going on here forever. You hope guys ... look at what happened just last year and see where they are. There were guys last year who were good enough to have an opportunity, but didn't get to walk in their freshman year and play. It's something we talk about, but not in a demeaning way.

It takes a lot away from them offensively when he can't run.

In my mind, it's a goal-line offense, and they run it in the middle of the field. It can be very difficult to stop at times.

He ran really well. We want him to be a very physical runner, and you saw his speed. He has more speed than people think.

Their offensive line comes off the ball, and I didn't know if we could handle them. They did a good job of blocking last year, and we couldn't stop them. We stopped them on offense.