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FAMOUS IDAHO POTATO BOWL: OHIO VS NEVADAJanuary 2, 2020Jay NorvellKelton MooreLucas WeberBoise, Idaho KELTON MOORE: I know for me personally, I had an ankle injury the whole season, and that was tough. I was like, my senior year, I want to go out the right way, and of course, you know, some things don't go as you plan them, but just for seeing the team and just watching them grow, honestly, just being able to be there and seeing plays develop, it was better than me -- it's sad to say, but it was better than me playing, honestly, because the growth that this team made over the year is crazy, and we've grown together as a family, a brotherhood, and that bond is just unbreakable. LUCAS WEBER: Yeah, to follow up with what Kelton said, I sat out the majority of the year with an ankle injury, as well. In those first few games, there was some games in there that were pretty tough, but it seemed like everybody was kind of buying in that like there's still a lot of opportunity and chances for this team, and no one was really too down on themselves, and we pushed hard, and when I was out we won a lot of big games. Seeing everybody bond together was really special, and yeah, I mean, just the closeness of the team, when you sit back and take a step back, you can really see how the team started to develop and the closeness of everybody, and it was really something special to see. JAY NORVELL: I think, too, just to add to that, this last 16 practices we've seen our young guys really grow, and these guys have done a great job leading them, but our freshmen are not freshmen anymore. They've really worked hard. They've really developed. It's like an extra month of spring practice, and that's been so valuable to our program, and these guys get to plant trees that they never see. They watch these guys practice and how they prepare and they learn from that, and so that'll just help our program continue to grow. Q. Coach, kind of rolling with that, the defense will have a new look, obviously. Can you tell us what you've seen from the last few practices as you get a new defensive look on the field? JAY NORVELL: I just see our kids really practicing with great attention and great effort. We've had so many guys show up and make plays in practice that I haven't seen make plays earlier in the year, and it's a credit to our players. Football every week is different. Every game is a different challenge, and you know, I've always challenged our guys to be mature about that, and they have about this game. And like I said, there's no excuses to a ballgame. We've got a game to play, and we've got to go play it, and we're prepared to do that. It will look different. I mean, it ain't gonna be the same. What it looks like, that's yet to be seen. But we'll find out tomorrow. But I think we have a little different chemistry, obviously. We have new coaches working with our defense. But I have to give credit to our seniors and our leadership, that they understand that they are players, and players play, coaches coach. They're excited, ready to do their job, and they've been focused. In 2020 that's the hardest thing for coaches to do is get players focused, and when you get their attention, boy, you can really do some positive things, and they've been incredibly attentive over the last three weeks, and we've had some of our best practices since I've been at Nevada. I'm pretty excited about that. Q. For both the seniors, with so much history between Boise and Nevada, what are your thoughts on your final collegiate game taking place in the stadium? JAY NORVELL: Is this a Boise press conference? LUCAS WEBER: Yeah, no, I -- we're playing Ohio, and to me, it's just another game. We're going to go out there and prepare to win each game. It doesn't matter where we're playing, who we're playing. We're always going to prepare to win. KELTON MOORE: I mean, pretty much the same for me. Coach always says what goes on in between the hashes, that's just what goes on. So whoever plays the best gets the win. Q. What do you think of this match-up? Obviously you guys come in as underdogs, Ohio comes in, 11 straight bowl games, I think they won their first ever bowl game here. So you know what they're going to bring. JAY NORVELL: No, we have a lot of respect for Coach Solich. He's one of the great coaches in college football and the Ohio program. They've had tons of success. You know, a very solid team. Very similar to us this year where they've had to overcome adversity and lost some close games and really working to finish strong so there's a lot of parallels. I think it's a great match-up, contrasting styles of play. Their quarterback has been tremendous, great leader, very efficient player. They've got good backs, they've got a good line, they've got good receivers. They do a good job defensively. So you know, we're going to have to play our best, and it's just like a lot of the games down the stretch the last month of the season. We've got to outplay them. It's really that simple. We've got to score points on offense, we've got to play good smart defense, and we've got to get the edge in special teams. But have tremendous respect, I've followed Coach Solich's whole career. He was roommates with one of my college coaches, Barry Alvarez, at Nebraska, so I feel like I know him. I told him that the other night, I said, Coach, I feel like I know you even though I don't really know you that well. But no, I think it's a great college match-up to contrast two conferences. We have different styles of play in our conference. The MAC has a different style and brand of football in their conference. So we're excited to represent the Mountain West Conference and go out and play our best brand of football. Last time I checked I think the Mountain West was 4-2 in bowl games, and we want to add to that and play very well tomorrow. KELTON MOORE: Just same thing what Coach was saying earlier. A lot of people are going hard in practice every day these last couple months -- like I said, this last month, we haven't just stopped. We've just progressively gotten better. We're just excited to get out there and play. It's been a while. Just as far as Ohio U, they're a good team. Defensively they fly around to the ball. We've got to execute everything that we've been practicing, like I said, over these past couple months, but we've just got to go out there and play our you best. LUCAS WEBER: Watching them on film, they're really a fundamentally sound team. I like seeing that in teams because it just shows players take the coaching. They buy in. It's something we're trying to do, as well. Up front they're physical. I have a lot of respect for their quarterback. He sticks his neck out there, and they have playmakers all over the field. It'll be a fun match-up. It's not too similar to the Mountain West, but it's still football, still Xs and Os, so once we dial into that, really excited to play. Our guys have been doing a great job every practice staying focused. It is a bowl game and everything, so there's distractions going on, but they do a really job staying focused and going really hard at practice and paying attention to the details of the game plan. Q. For Coach and Lucas, what are some of the biggest challenges you see in quarterback Nathan Rourke for Ohio? JAY NORVELL: He's just a very experienced player. He knows where to go with the football. He plays with a lot of confidence and poise. He's seen a lot of defenses over his career. He's an excellent runner. They use him in their running game, as well, and so we just have to do a good job of containing him. We can't let him just be a one-man show, running the ball and passing the ball. We've got to do a great job of playing our responsibilities. Coach Solich and Coach Albin, they have a long history of running option and speed option and all those plays from their Nebraska years, and so you have to be accountable for him. So no, I'm really impressed with the receivers and the running backs and the O-line. I think they've done a very good job on offense, and so we're going to have to play sound defense, we're going to have to contain the quarterback, and we're going to have to score points on offense, as well. It's going to be a challenge, which you'd expect in a bowl game. So we're very impressed with him. Q. Coach Norvell, you have an opportunity to make program history and win back-to-back bowl games. What would that mean for this program? JAY NORVELL: You know, we're just very proud of our winning tradition at Nevada. Since 1898, Nevada has been playing football. You know, we've done something this year that hasn't been done, and it really surprised me when we beat San Diego State on the road. It's the first time Nevada has ever beat a ranked team on the road. I was surprised by that when Chad told me that coming off the field. I really wasn't thinking about that at all. And then to find out that we have an opportunity to win back-to-back bowl games, which has not been done at our school, is -- it's an honor, really. It's a great opportunity. You know, and we talk about it all the time, when you play college football, it's all about opportunity. There's thousands and thousands of people that would trade places with us, to have this opportunity. So we're very humbled by it. We're excited about the opportunity. And you know, we've respected the opportunity by preparing the right way, and so that's really the most important thing. But we're excited about that, and to represent that history and to add to it would be special. Q. Lucas, you guys have had a month to practice with the new defense. What's it been like to practice both a new defense and to prepare for Ohio's offense? LUCAS WEBER: I mean, it's really just schemes. Once you learn them and everybody buys into it, it's just practice. As far as Ohio, they're talented. They run their 11 and 12 personnel, and they have some good plays off of it, plays we've seen in the past. So we have schemed about that. As far as the new staff, everybody is bought in. They're very similar to the last staff schematically and everything. But yeah, just excited, really excited. Q. For the players, what would it mean for you guys as seniors, winning, going through this program and this Nevada culture to finish off your college careers with a win? KELTON MOORE: You're about to make me go into tears a little bit. It would mean a lot, you know. We've just been through a lot, you know, the senior class. Went through the coaching changes and everything of that nature. But we've overcame it, overcame everything that we had to go through, and as Coach had said, we've been through so much adversity. It would be an honor to just go out the right way but also to leave our jersey in a better place, as we always say, for the younger guys, just to see -- just keep going, no matter what. Just keep going. And then we've got some players at home that we're missing right now, my boy Haus, DB, Foss, man, we miss y'all guys. Wish y'all was here. But we've got a lot of people to do this for, our community back at home that supports us all the time. So it would mean a lot. LUCAS WEBER: Yeah, it would mean a lot. Last year coming off a bowl win, it was great for our program. The young guys kind of saw this is what Nevada is about. We expect to go to these things. And I think just to continue that this year would be huge for the program. And you know, kind of -- the last game has a bad taste in our mouth, I want to say, and there's guys that aren't here because of it, and we miss them. We really miss them. They're tremendous players but also better teammates. You know, it would be huge. I think we need that as a program and as a senior class, as well. Q. Coach, early you mentioned the contrasting styles between the two conferences. Can you go into a little more detail about what the contrasts are between the MAC and the Mountain West? JAY NORVELL: I think one of the strengths of our conference is that there's such a diversity of styles. I mean, you can be playing a run-and-shoot one week and you can play triple option the next week at Air Force, and then there's everything in between offensively. You know, I've got a chance to watch all the Ohio games. The MAC is just different. You know, it's not better or worse, it's just different. Different style of offenses, different style of preparation every week, and probably just -- probably not as diverse as our league as far as different styles of offenses, but very well-coached, very well-coached. And that's the way all bowl games are. This is my 21st bowl game, and the great thing about bowl games is you play a team from a different region that's not from your league, and they play a different conference, they play different opponents, different regions, and so I'm just excited to have a chance to play Ohio and just -- it's a chance to measure yourself against a very good team from another league, another region and match up our style of play against theirs. It's a great challenge. Q. Lucas, I'm wondering how close you came -- if you guys had been invited to a December 20th game, would it have been that close to you playing or not playing and did it help that this game was in January? LUCAS WEBER: You know, I was pushing myself pretty hard in rehab to get back. I was planning on playing, and if the New Mexico Bowl would have happened I was planning on playing in that. But yeah, probably going to be a little less painful now that it's on the 3rd. But yeah. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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