Danny Rocco Quotations

Butch has come to me and said Rashad is really happy. That's what it's all about right there.

When his name first came across my ear, I said without hesitation that I'd love to have Stevie Ray Lloyd. He's a very dedicated, tough, committed football player who loves the game and is going to help us do what we need to get done on defense.

He's a guy that I've always felt that when this opportunity came my way, he was one of the guys I wanted to hire. I'm very excited he and his family are going to join us here.

He can play center or guard. We'll be doing some pull schemes in our offense, so it's important that our guards can run. It's also important that your center has good feet to slip the nose guard and get to the second level and block the linebackers. There are some things with the guard and center where power and size aren't as important as speed and athleticism.

I've certainly spent a lot of time thinking about it. We want to create some formations where they both can be in the game and have the opportunity to both carry the ball.

(They) all have a very, very strong commitment to this university and have a strong commitment to this program.

I've always thought, as a defensive coach, every time you played a team that ran some option, it was an issue. Whether it's three plays a game, five plays a game, eight plays a game, the thought that the option is there is something that forces the defense to be very disciplined and forces them to spend a lot of their preparation time in defending it.

They're listening and learning and they're eager. It's kind of neat to see.

I wanted to put a schedule together that would give us the best chance to compete in this conference and try to make a run at the conference championship. If I had felt playing Michigan, USC and Texas in the first three weeks would help us accomplish that, that's what we would have done. Every decision that was made was with that in mind. Is this something that can help us? Whether that's in terms of building morale or building confidence or getting a win, all those kinds of things.

I'm really excited about what we were able to accomplish here.

These kids had no confidence. They had very little self-esteem. We just wanted to give ourselves a chance early on, to give ourselves some confidence.