Tyler Horn
On his interception return:
The back came up, we knew he was cutting a lot, he didn’t cut m, and he kind of let me go free. I saw the
quarterback’s eyes, read it, and he threw it to me. It was good to catch it and run. I was pretty tired
when I caught it. I was just thinking hold onto the ball. I felt him close in on me fast. He has a lot more
speed than I do. I just saw the end zone; saw Kamalei was blocking the quarterback, so I just ran as fast
as I could.
On the team’s performance:
We knew we had to come in and compete today. Those guys come in and fight. We knew we were going
to get their best. We had a great week of preparation. It paid off.
On Wyoming running back Brian Hill
We had some busted plays and things we have to do better. That’s something we’ll watch in film and
hopefully get better next week.
Jeremy McNichols
On following in Jay’s footsteps
It was just the flow of the game. They can give me 30 carries, 10 carries, as long as we win. I looked up
to Jay. I kind of wanted to follow in his footsteps. He went to the NFL and mentored me a lot last year.
On getting the offense rolling:
You get in a groove and everything comes easier to you. The offensive line, it gets easier for them. We
wanted to come in running the ball. It’s all what Coach Drink and Harsin call going into the game.
On being missing the Utah State loss:
It hurt just watching them. I came in with a chip on my shoulder. I wanted to help my team. With the
extra week off, my body got to heal a little bit. I was ready and wanted to help the team get a win
tonight.
We have guys that can step in whenever they need to. Watching the game last week, I saw a lot of
things I’m not normally able to see, and just applied it to this week.
I just feel like I’m getting stronger throughout the year. Our identity is to run the ball first, and pass
second.
Thomas Sperbeck
On that one handed catch
I haven’t looked at it yet. I’m not sure if they reviewed it. I just had one hand free so I just tipped it to
myself and brought it in.
On chemistry with quarterback Brett Rypien:
I hope so. That just goes with us having trust with each other. I know he’s going to put it in my vicinity
and…I feel like we’ve had chemistry before. We got all of our reps together. Finley too in fall camp. I
think it’s just growing with each week.
The only way we can make that chemistry work is if he trusts me and gives me those plays.
On running back Jeremy McNichols’ play:
He’s been huge. He’s been playing lights out. It opens up the pass game, and the pass game opens up
the run game. We just build off of each other. J-Mac’s a tough kid, you guys see it. He fights for every
yard he gets. We appreciate that a lot.
On Utah State loss to Fresno State opening up chances of a MW Title berth:
Right now it’s kind of out of our hands; we’re just taking it one game at a time. In the back of our mind
we knew it had happened.
Joey Martarano
On the defense’s performance:
I thought we were better tonight, more disciplined as a defense. We all prepared hard all week. The big
emphasis was going out there and doing our jobs.
On getting the start:
It’s a good feeling. You prepare every week for that chance, so whenever you get that chance you can
make the best of it. I felt like I had a pretty good game. There’s always stuff to work on.
On the next man up mentality:
Ever since I got here we’ve talked about carrying the flag. I’ve always taken that to heart. Every
opportunity that comes up, I want to make the best of it.
On the rash of injuries:
Everyone’s body’s is hurt, but every team in the country is like that also. We just have to prepare every
week, and get in the training room and get treatment.
Bryan Harsin
On the effective run game
It’s nice to have McNichols back. You can play a team that prides themselves on running the football; it
comes down to who runs the football better. I think you saw that tonight. He came back and carried the
ball. He towed the load carrying the run game and was effective doing it. We played without four
starters tonight, that’s how it is.
I think he’s a part of what we’re trying to get done offensively. You get him in space; you’re able to use
him in the pass game. He’s got speed when he does get on the perimeter to make things happen. He’s
been playing with confidence as well. It’s never a one man show for anybody on our team. He’s just
another guy that’s part of what we’re trying to do on the offensive side. That helps the other running
backs that help the quarterbacks.
On Brett’s turnaround:
He hung onto the ball. He did a better job in the pocket. Stepped up and made throws. Those are things
you want to see the next week, those mistakes being corrected. He did that. I thought he threw the ball
down the field well. I thought he was late on some throws, even though we scored on a couple of them.
That will be a continuation on his growth each and every game. The nice thing is he understands that.
On success on The Blue
I think our guys take a lot of pride in that. I know that people in this program, throughout the history of
this program, have all taken pride of that. I think its part of our fan base and playing in Albertsons
Stadium. It’s a different deal. Our guys take a lot of pride in that.
On Brett/Thomas’ chemistry
I think Thomas is a very good player. I think Brett is getting opportunities to utilize him and take
advantage of it. Thomas has really made some spectacular catches. I go back to one of the first catches
we’ve seen him make against Air Force. That to me right there, that’s not anything that we worked on.
That’s something he has that not many people do.
On this past week after USU loss
Our week of prep for Utah State was very good. Our prep for this week was very good. Our coaches
don’t get surprised by what we have to work on. Our practice this week was better because there was a
better understanding of why this is so important. That’s what I keep emphasizing. We got after it. Our
guys were prepared coming into the game. That won’t be any different next week.
On team’s response to Utah State losing to Fresno State:
I didn’t get any sense of that because we never addressed it. It didn’t have anything to do with our
preparation. The 1-0 will be the same mindset each week. All we can do is prepare ourselves and go play
to try and win the game and take care of the little things. For us, the little things are turnovers. Out of
the 30 losses I think we’ve had over the past 15 years, we lost the turnover battle in 26 of them. If you
want to pick a stat out that matters, that’s it.
Wyoming Head Coach – Craig Bohl
On the overall game…
“We caused some turnovers and got some breaks, you know we got that one break in the end zone, but
we’re going to need more than that. Certainly the interception that they brought back was a tough thing
to overcome as well, but I thought our guys continued to stand and fight and compete, but we’re a ways
away. We’re just not on their same level right now and they’re a good football team.”
Thoughts on Nick Smith’s play tonight…
“I thought he went in and competed, played a little bit better than he did before, so that was positive. I
think we have to hone up his passing skills a little bit.”
On Boise State’s long drives to start the game…
“Well some of it is that they have some good players, and we’ve gotten better as far as not giving up big
plays, but certainly we needed to get off the field. I think at the time when we had them third down and
long and somebody got balled for a facemask – that’s the one that really hurt us.”
On the short week ahead…
“We’re down a day so we’ll take tomorrow and use that like a Monday. As soon as we land we’ll
probably start watching tape and players will get in the training room, and then we’ll start meetings
tomorrow afternoon.”
On the team not giving up…
“Our players have been resilient and they’ve stayed in the fight. It doesn’t take much positive
encouragement to get those guys to play hard. They’ve been a joy to coach, obviously we would have
liked to have won more games at this time of the year but they have been competing.”
Quarterback – Nick Smith
On taking what he saw on the sideline, and bringing that to field when he got in…
“I think its similar things that we prepared for, I think the things we saw while Cam was in is the same
things we prepared for, nothing really new or surprising. Our preparation this week did a good enough
job for us to understand what was going on the field, and I felt like I carried that over when I got in.”
On what it was like coming in to play against Eastern Michigan compared with what it was like tonight...
“Tonight was a big difference for me. I felt more comfortable out there, I was able to kind of just get
past the first experience against Eastern Michigan – which obviously had a lot of emotions going on –
and then to kind of have this time leading up to this point to dissect it and get myself to where I need to
be up to this point. I felt like this opportunity and this time was a little bit different, I felt more
comfortable and more confident in myself.”
On what he saw on the touchdown run…
“It was just a naked and they covered the two guys and there was an opening. They left the end zone
open and I was going to take it.
Linebacker – D.J. May
On how tough it was to get off the field early on, and why they couldn’t get the necessary stops…
“We had them in a lot of third downs, but the thing is as a defense we have to be able to finish, and you
know we didn’t do that today. We didn’t finish, we didn’t get them off the field in third down, we kept
giving them chance after chance after chance, and when you keep giving an offense like Boise chance
after chance after chance, they’re going to put some points up. That was on us, we have to be able to
come out there as a defense and play physical through first, second, third downs and get them off the
field, and then let our offense go out there and try to put up some points.”
When Cam went out, was there anything different felt from the sideline…
“I didn’t really notice too big of a difference because we got people who are ready to step up. I don’t
know what’s going on with Cam, I hope he is alright, it didn’t really look too bad to me when I was
watching, but I don’t know what’s going on. I’m just on the bench talking to the defensive coaches,
we’re just scheming while they’re out there playing. I hope he is good, but you know we got people who
can come in and step up because that’s their job.”
What’s the mood like in the locker room…
“It’s tough. When you lose, it hurts, especially when you’ve lost a lot and you’re having a losing season.
You can’t use the excuse, ‘Oh we’re a young team’, because we got experience now, we played game
after game after game, we played a whole bunch of different competition, but it’s like we’re not going
to quit. We’re never going to give up, everyone in there is going to fight until the last second is off the
clock.”