Dave Rader Quotations

Please tell him that we are so very proud of him. And I don't even know how he did today.

For me to come say 'Yeah, I taught him how to coach,' that would not only be laughable, but inaccurate. He had, in my opinion, that mental and emotional makeup at (age) 18.

He had some interceptions on the first day of spring, and we told him we can't afford them. He did a good job all spring, until today.

He has to learn how to take care of the ball while still being aggressive. You can't just do quarterback sneaks all the time and win, but we can't afford turnovers.

We have a more complete way to cover game situations when we have the field to our unit.

We progressed the other day. Guys were making plays, catching the ball, doing things right. They come to the stadium today and the only people fired up may have been the people here from Middle Tennessee or Southern Miss.

We missed some reads, we missed some throws. Things we've been doing this spring, we didn't do them enough today. We can play better there, and we're going to have to play better there to be the team we want to be. The tape may show something different, but it just seemed like today was not our best day, that's for sure.

There will be some changes, but it depends on your point of view. Some of those plays we tried to work with Tyrone are not going to be available. There may be some other special types of plays we can do with other players, but as far as Tyrone being a triple threat -- because we even kicked around letting him throw a pass -- it's not there.

Coming out of last spring, we had a lot of confidence in John Parker and what he could do. If Brodie could not have gone the distance, we could have won a lot of games with John Parker.

Always thought he might do that. One of the most intense competitors I've ever been around. Very good communicator. Will do well.

As much as it ticks me off, I don't want to forget all the good things they did because we threw a lot of plays at them and they handled a great majority of them.

The last couple of games, we had a lot of (the same) goals, but one thing we haven't done is have more big plays than the other team. We operate on big plays. We need those big plays to happen.

I'm ticked off. Sometimes, you have days where it all sums up to an inefficient day. We haven't had that day yet. Today was the day.

I think our guys have an attitude about them (heading into the bowl) to play tougher than what they've shown.

He's still not full speed. That's really too bad for the young man. He had an opportunity here and his body hasn't let him do it. He's a talented young man. He could help our team.

I don't think so. Running through the game plan in my head, each one is different, but they're the same in that we feel like we have an offensive scheme we like to use that our guys understand. I don't see it changing a lot.