Rocky Long Quotations

We struggled with Texas Tech's offense, and everybody has, because they spread you sideline to sideline. It's tough to defend.

We won't change very much on offense if he's cleared to play.

We need a spark to get us to the next level. I thought we underachieved some this year.

Lucas Higgins came to me after the incident and told me what happened. He was disciplined and is in a probationary period right now with the team.

Nobody has seen it enough yet to get a real good handle on how to stop it. As long as it's going to be effective, people are going to run it. We haven't stopped it yet, so we're still in the process of trying to learn how.

People wonder sometimes whether we educate these guys because a guy slips up and makes a mistake. Well, we do extensive education. We cover steroids, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, domestic relations. We do extensive education with these guys, more than the student body gets and probably more than the general population ever gets. But for whatever reason, these guys are under more scrutiny, so we have to try to educate them.

I was surprised he was even interested in the job because he's so good.

I was stunned he was interested in the job. I really meant it when I said he's the best offensive coordinator and play-caller I've ever seen. I think he was tired of sitting around playing golf and really wanted to get back into coaching.

Chris still has some work to do with the team, but he has taken responsibility for his actions and will be traveling with us.

He is a difficult assignment especially because of the way they can throw and run the ball. You don't stop those kinds of guys, you just hope to control them enough to give you a chance to win.

He's a really strong guy who's worked really hard. It ought to be a real good battle between him and Tyler Donaldson in the fall for the starting job.

I think it's helped our league image dramatically. I'm just really disappointed that the powers to be in the BCS didn't really jump up there and put them against Auburn or something.

I think anybody that's drafted late and makes a team is a big accomplishment. I look forward to his future. I think we all do.

(Wide receiver Johnny Lee) Higgins got a lot of attention last week because he scored three touchdowns, but Ebell can hurt you just as much. They don't run the spread offense, but they've got enough threats to stretch you across the field and make things difficult.

Usually you can get a feel for them by the way they look and their personalities. There are some classic symptoms that can be easy to spot. There are some guys who probably hide it well.

The defense continues to improve, and we're seeing some guys start to step up. I'm just not confident when it comes to stopping the spread offense. It's a really tough offense to deal with no matter who runs it.

We wouldn't have had a chance to travel, but we would have been able to play, and that's a pretty big deal for us.

We're resilient. I think people were questioning that. I mean maybe even I was questioning it some. But they hung in there in some critical situations and overcame some real good players going out of the game for different reasons. And they overcame some bad breaks and turnovers. I just told them it won't go down in history as one of the great victories in Lobo football, but it was a damn nice victory for us.

The scouts and NFL executives all watch the practices real closely, so outside of the combine, it's the players' best chance to improve their draft status.

As of right now, no one on our staff has been offered another job, and no one has been fired.

They may not get as much attention, but scouts still go to those bowls so it was a very good opportunity for them.

It's a retention rate, not just an academic rate. The spirit of this rule is right on. We're always pushing to get better. I don't think it's fair, but I am very confident we will be over 925 for the 2005-06 school year.

It's not necessarily a disadvantage to play so quickly, but it will be tough. They're a very talented team, so we're going to have to make a lot of improvements and be extremely focused with the time that we do have this week.

It's very exciting for us, as a coaching staff, to have so many guys get invited to the combine. That's never happened before and is a compliment to the work we've done here. That would have been unbelievable five years ago, but we've made a lot of progress and these guys have earned it.

They hung in there in some critical situations. They overcame some real good players going out of the game for different reasons and overcame some bad breaks and some turnovers. I just told them it won't go down in history as one of the great victories in Lobo football, but it's a damn nice victory for us.

I know Grady is excited about coaching close to his hometown. We wish him well, and we'll fill the opening as soon as we can.

In my opinion Utah, last year, could have played with any of those guys and had a legitimate chance to beat them. I'm guessing that none of those guys wanted to play them either.

He started off this season as a confident, veteran quarterback.

He played most of the game, so we got a pretty good sense of what he is capable of doing from watching the tape. He'll definitely test our defense.

And I don't want to learn. We're kind of an old group. We don't have too many people who do it.