Kansas Postgame Quotes

Sept. 17, 2005

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LAWRENCE, Kan. –

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Kansas Postgame Quotes

Kansas 34, Louisiana Tech 14

Head Coach Mark Mangino

On the second half:

“We knew that we just had to stay with our game plan. We came in at halftime and just made adjustments. The kids were calm and cool. We just went out and executed the way that we should in the second half.”

On Brandon Perkins:

“I thought we put good pressure on the quarterback. Brandon Perkins set a school record tonight with five sacks. He is a tremendous player for us. He doesn’t get a lot of credit when people talk about our linebackers. He is seldom mentioned. He is a consummate team player. He plays well week-in and week-out. He has done that now for three seasons. He comes in with certain packages and on certain situations. He is not an every-down player for us, but he is a force for us.”

On Brian Luke:

“Credit Brian Luke. Things didn’t go his way in the first half. He didn’t make the kind of plays that he is capable of. He kept his poise. He could have very easily collapsed. His coaches talked with him and he collected himself at halftime. He came out and did a very nice job in the second half.”

On Louisiana Tech:

“I want to give credit to Louisiana Tech. They played inspired football tonight. We only had one game of theirs to watch, and they played Florida vanilla all night long because they didn’t believe they could beat them. They played completely different against us. They gave us different looks on defense. I talked with their coach before the game. There is a player on the team that has 70 family members living in a dormitory. They have several members on the team who have family members with no place to go. They are sharing a facility with Tulane. I want to give credit to (Head Coach) Jack Bicknell and his staff for working through a tough situation. They really played inspiring football.”

On heading into the Big 12 Season:

“I think we found out a lot about our team tonight. We are a team that keeps our poise. We are a team with character, and we can play pretty good defense. I would have liked to have run the ball better tonight, which is something that we will take a look at. We made plays when we had to. I think we are coming around just fine, and we will use this week to find out what we need to shore up. We will do some conditioning so that we be stronger in the second half.”

Senior Quarterback Brian Luke

On second half adjustments:

“We knew our first half wasn’t our best play. Just by looking into each other’s eyes we knew we had to pick it up. Fortunately, we came out in the second half and played a lot better football.”

On his poise:

“My experience has helped me with that. I am my biggest critic. I wasn’t pleased by any means with my first half of play. I’m glad I was able to come out the second half and help the team.”

Senior Wide Receiver Mark Simmons

On preparing to go on the road:

“We have a tough schedule coming up, but who doesn’t have a tough schedule? Everybody going into conference play has a tough schedule. We’ve got a big challenge ahead going on the road in the Big 12. It’s always hostile on the road.”

On being tied at half :

“I know this team has a strong mental edge. We do fourth quarter drills everyday in practice. I knew if we played like we were supposed to play, we would be just fine.”

On lifting the team in the second half

“I told our wide receivers that this game was going to be on our shoulders and that we would have to come out and make some big plays. I’m one of our senior leaders and I knew we would have to make the big plays. I made a couple of plays and our offense got rolling. Brian Luke looked great and gave us plenty of time.”

Senior Linebacker Brandon Perkins

On his performance:

“I just tried to work hard all week and apply it to the game. I felt pretty good today and everything just went right. I was in the right place at the right time and the other side [of the KU defense] did a good job of containing.”

On KU’s defense:

“We knew how good we could be. We came out, worked hard all week and tried to set the tempo for the rest of the year.”

Louisiana Tech Postgame Quotes

Head Coach Jack Bicknell

On the game:

“I’m very disappointed to be honest. They’re very good defensively. We couldn’t seem to block them very well. I felt like we protected better against Florida. I was concerned heading into the game when I saw that they had pretty much everybody coming back this year. They lost some tough games last year, but I knew this was a good football team. I felt like our defense played extremely well. They hurt us with a lot of screens.”

On the second half:

“I was so sure that we were going to come out and win the game in the second half. I felt like we were going to get our offense going and that our defense was going to shut them down. Their quarterback threw some good balls.”

On the Louisiana Tech defense:

“I was proud of our defense. I was surprised that we did so well against the run, which is encouraging. Most of their plays were screens to their wide receivers and backs. If you take those plays out of the equation, I think we did pretty well against them. Screens are a part of offense and that’s a good job by them.”

On Hurricane Katrina:

“It does make you realize what’s more important in life. You see evacuees coming up and some of the Tulane coaches, and you realize that they’ve lost their homes. They just have what’s on their backs. They don’t really know what’s going on right now. A lot of our players know people who have lost their homes, and there are evacuees in their dorms. It really puts things in perspective. It was really tough the week right after the hurricane because we weren’t sure that people were okay. Once you figure out that everyone is okay, you can move on from there and that’s what our team did.”

On KU’s defense:

“They had some good outside rushers. We have a tackle that has a bad ankle that just couldn’t block them. I don’t blame him. It was everyone and I’m not using the bad ankle as an excuse. They’re just a good football team defensively. Kansas came hard and they played hard.”

Senior Cornerback Tramon Williams

On the game:

“I think we did some good things. I think we can improve in some respects. I think the defense was put in some bad positions, but that’s no excuse.”

On the second half:

“They hit us with some plays. I don’t know what kind, but when you look at the stats there wasn’t much difference between us.”

On Louisiana Tech’s improved defense from last week:

“Florida had a wide open offense. With five receivers they hit us with a lot of stuff too. We came out and thought we were prepared. We were very prepared. Things just didn’t go the way we planned.”

Senior Wide Receiver Seneca Chambers

On the Kansas defense compared to Florida’s:

“KU plays a little more zone. Florida plays mostly man. Kansas was all around the ball–they were everywhere. They do a really good job on defense.”

On expectation and preparation of KU:

“We pretty much saw what they did in the film room. We knew the things they were doing, then we just tried to execute.”

On the Kansas defensive pressure:

“I was very surprised by the KU defense. On the film they weren’t blitzing that much. I think that was pretty much the key to the game.”