Completed Event: Football at Montana on December 6, 2025 , Loss , 29, to, 50
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FINAL
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South Dakota State University Athletics
Quotes: SDSU vs. Southern Illinois, 11-7-09
11/21/2009 1:00:00 AM | Football
I think the one word that really describes today embarrassing for our whole team in all aspects. It was disappointing when you go out and have so many play that we could have done better on and we didn't.
We'll watch the film tomorrow, see what we did wrong. We have to win next week. That's the way we are going to look at it. We have to win this next week and that is all we can control right now.
It's really tough. We talked right after the game; it's kind of a shock to us. We knew they were a good team, but we didn't execute. It's even more disappointing when you a playing a good team and you know you have to execute as much as you can to stay in the game and have a chance to winning.
They are such a good defense. A lot of the time no matter if they are in the right spot it is up to us to execute plays and we didn't do that.
Did they do anything different then what you were expecting?
No, not really. They decided to cover a couple of our route combinations a little bit differently, but within the routes there are alternatives. Coming down to it, I don't know what it was, but we just didn't execute the plays they were meant to be.
Any loss is tough. Last year was a pretty bitter feeling knowing that they took our playoff hopes away from us. We are right back at square one right now. 1-0 every week and we know we have to continue to win to make the playoffs. There is no guarantee for us anymore so we have to fight to get in.
QB situation
I know when Ryan was in there, he did his best. It's tough and then again I'm a receiver so I'm running routes and I don't see what's going on back there. Their defense is tough. Any quarterback that is back there, whether it's Ryan Berry from last year, Ryan Crawford or Thomas O'Brien, any QB back there is not going to have an easy day playing against that defense. We are going to watch the film and see what we need to do better as receivers, quarterbacks and O-Line and try to move on.
Coach Stiegelmeier
As always, I am proud of our football team and proud of our football program. I'm tremendously disappointed in some of the things that we did on the football field today. I think there are two things that come into play; how you respond to pressure and who you are playing against and who puts the pressure on you. Coach Lennon and his staff have a good team and that combination of those two things caused us to not play our best football today. My hat goes off to that program. They have been there and they are still there and we didn't play well enough to be there. That's the goal and we will get there. I promise you that.
Surprised, yeah probably. Disappointed. Some of those things were so uncharacteristic of a team that had played the kind of football that we had played. I'm sure somebody will insert that we weren't prepared to play in a big game like this. I would disagree with that and you can quote me on that. We were ready. I think what happens is when things don't go well, it isn't the game, it's the focus whether you are playing whatever team and we lost our focus. It's always a combination of a bunch of things, but we were ready to play that football game. We had a good game plan and we just did not execute. Again, I want to give credit to Southern Illinois. There is a reason why they are ranked number three in America. They are a good football team.
QB situation
I was already asked twice. I talked to Ryan Crawford in the locker room after the game. I love Ryan Crawford and what he has done for South Dakota State in so many ways. We will look at the film and if we deem that Thomas O'Brien is the best quarterback for us to go try and beat Minnesota we will go do that. If we think it is Ryan Crawford we will do that. Thomas O'Brien played against their second team much of the second half. I don't know if he was sack at all. Ryan Crawford was sacked six times I believe. It's a little hard to evaluate objectively, but we will do the best that we can.
It's not like Thomas O'Brien hasn't proven that he can play some good football, so we thought after the first series and it didn't go as well in the second half, we thought lets give him a shot. I don't want to be a program that flips a coin and says “Hey it's your turn.”
A senior that has paid his dues. I may go to my grave hating some of those decision, but I will always lean that way to a senior. It's just not about winning football games. It never has been and never will be.
Where they better than I thought they were? No. We knew that running back was good. They don't have a real complicated scheme. They run zone and he's a quick guy that runs with some power, so he finds the opening. A couple of his longs runs, we missed tackles and that football. We have 11 guys and they have 11 guys and we have to make a play. I am not taking anything away from him, but make the play, make them line up again and we didn't do that. The thing that I think hurt us the most was their quarterback. When he dropped back and he saw that it wasn't there, he ran and he ran pretty effectively. We knew that. We schemed some things against that and we just didn't get it done.
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