WKU Hilltoppers College Football Pregame Quote, 11/11/2019

Had a great weekend obviously ‚Äì a big win against an SEC opponent. It was kind of a signature win for us. I’m very excited for our players and staff. Really just proud today to be a Hilltopper. But, that’s now over. We’re moving forward to some other great opponents that we have in store. We’ll get ready for those guys. But, we have a bye week this week and we’ll focus towards recruiting; we’ll be out Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It should be a good time for us to get out and make sure that we’re doing all the right things.

On closing out the regular season strong:

I think we’re in a good spot, I really do. We’ve got a lot of momentum moving forward. But there are two tough games ahead of us; have to go on the road to Southern Miss then come home and play Middle Tennessee. But, we’re in about as good of a position as we can be during this time of the year. We really want to do well in the month of November, that’s a big goal of ours to try to finish really strong and make everybody proud of the full body of work we did this year. I said it and I’ll say it again ‚Äì there’s no question these guys do a great job of playing as hard as they can play and doing all the right things. So, really just want everyone to feel great about this season and what we were able to accomplish ‚Äì so that’s a big goal for us right now.

On the team’s offensive success against Arkansas:

I was talking to Coach [Bryan] Ellis about it and said it really felt like old times, to be honest with you. It was kind of the first time for us. I don’t mind talking about it and saying it; we hadn’t been able to find the formula. The plays were there and the kids were doing things right, but for whatever reason, we weren’t able to stay in rhythm all the time and move the chains and create the explosive plays or series would stall out. So, it was the first game where we were able to really get done what our offense is supposed to do. Now we have to take the next step. We’ve got to be able to continue to do that. But, to have the third down conversions and the fourth down conversions and then be able to follow up right after those plays with explosive plays right behind them ‚Äì that’s really what created the momentum for us in the game. So, it was great to see what we were able to do offensively.

On the impact a high-profile win has on recruiting:

That’s why I’m really excited about the opportunity to go recruit this week because now you have the WKU brand that everybody nationally has heard about over the past three days. So, you’re able to go into a high school and see a high school coach and sit down and talk with him and you immediately get that name-brand recognition. I think it will help us tremendously in recruiting this week. It couldn’t have happened at a better time, so we’ll definitely have to capitalize on that momentum right now.

On the team’s mood after beating Arkansas:

I thought our guys ‚Äì they were great, they celebrated and all that ‚Äì but it was really just kind of a normal win for them. They went in there with the mindset of ‚Äòwe can beat these guys, let’s go make it happen’ and it came to fruition. They were happy and all that, but really, they were their normal selves once we were on the plane and those kinds of things. It was kind of that business mentality again. I said ‚Äòguys, enjoy this win, have a great day off’ you know we gave them the day off yesterday. Then I said ‚Äòwhen we come back to work next week you shouldn’t be able to tell the difference whether we won or lost.’ But, they’ve done that all year. They’ve really handled it like pros, and they handled this one like pros.‚Äù