2015 AUTONATION CURE BOWL PRESS CONFERENCE
GEORGIA STATE VS. SAN JOSE STATE
DEC. 17, 2015
GARDENIA ROOM AT LOEWS ROYAL PACIFIC CONVENTION CENTER
San Jose State Head Coach Ron Caragher
Opening Statement:
“I am really looking forward to having one more chance for our seniors to play and this 2015 team come out to compete as a team. We have a running back in Tyler Ervin, who is 109 yards away from being the all-time leading rusher – that would be nice if it could come about (Saturday). Overall, I am really looking forward to playing a great game on Saturday night. I appreciate all the hospitality that the staff of the Cure Bowl has provided. We haven’t even been here 24 hours and it has been a great experience.”
On the team’s academic accomplishment, which lead to bowl eligibility:
“I think that postseason play is a reward for doing things the right way. Why should it just be limited to your record? If someone really wants to look under a microscope at our season. While we had five wins, we had a couple games that were really close. We lost to a really good BYU team by a point. Their coach went for two at the end of regulation and we didn’t make the play. We also lost an overtime game to Nevada. If you look at our schedule, we had strong non-conference play. We were down in the southeastern part of the country and played Auburn. We play up in Corvallis and Oregon State on the road and had a lead at halftime. Our starting quarterback went down to an injury in the second quarter. It is not a world of ifs and being close. Our team has been very competitive. I think we are much improved from a year ago and are making some steps in the right direction. I am really excited about the future of this team. There are four senior starters. We are going to have eight junior starters back next year. Some years six-win teams don’t get invited and sometimes even seven-win teams don’t get invited. This is the first time that the top half of college football did not all have six wins or more. They had to reach for some five-win teams and I love that they went with APR (Academic Progress Report) because there is a lot of talk in college football about the importance of the academic side. Let’s reward those programs that are doing things the right way – their players are graduating and eligible. I would like to go back and commend Don Casting our former president. He told me in 2008, when I took this job that our APR was 888 and now it is 975. We still have work to do. We don’t have all the answers, because we still have to keep striving to reach a higher standard. Credit goes to a lot of people over a period of time that have contributed to that.”
On the emotional rollercoaster after not being able to get that sixth win:
“The first practice or two after the bowl was announced, we had to restart the engines, shake the cobwebs out and get the rust out of the system. I think some of the guys, particularly some of the seniors had shut it down. They had the feeling that the season was over and turned in their gear. Football is a body, mind, spirit game – you commit your heart and spirit to it and they had shutdown that part. Once it was announced, the excitement was there, now it was time to go out on the practice field. Now, we have a purpose and an opponent in Georgia State that we are playing against. The emotional side was good. I think one thing that added some excitement to it that is so great about going to a bowl game is the development of some younger players. We had two spirited practices with scrimmages of our first-year players and they were getting after it. It was so nice for them to be at the center of attention and our starters were on the sidelines cheering them on. That is an exciting part about having an opportunity of playing in a bowl game.”
On the play of running back Tyler Ervin:
“We want to run the ball downhill between the tackles. Tyler is very strong and explosive, so when the hole opens up he can accelerate through it. He can also catch the ball out of the backfield. He is very multi-talented young man and was our Team MVP for the second-consecutive year.
“During my first year with the program, he had a season-ending injury after the first game. It was tough, but I could see the talent that was there. Tyler did a lot of work with our strength coach ?Gary Reibe?, who did a great job in the offseason building a base, so he could continue to stay healthy. In the last two years he has stayed healthy and it has paid off. He rushed nearly 1,000 yards last year and is near 1,400 yards this year. In one single game alone, he rushed for 300 yards. That is a lot of carries for a guy that weighs 180 pounds. I am really pleased to have him. He is a really talented young man.”
On the San Jose State Spartans’ personality as a team:
“We had a tough year and brought our team in and had some Thursday night meetings. We talked our purpose. What is our purpose? Not as a football team, but as young men taking care of business. Football ends someday. What will they do beyond football – building the foundation for success – is our motto on the football field, in the classroom and in the community. I think I saw the buildings of a really close-knit group of young men, a team. I felt like they came together. We did not reach our goal, and obviously we want to win every game that we play. I do feel that we improved and are moving in the direction to build upon that next year. I would say the culture of this team is a brotherhood. They are a very close-knit group of young men that supports each other and plays hard for one another.
“It is very ironic that we are playing in the Cure Bowl. We have two young men that were hit hard. Simon (Connette) will be here in a minute. He lost his mom in the spring to cancer. It was really tragic and the team felt that pain and supported him through that. Another young man on our team, a finalist for the Ray Guy Award, ?Michael Carrizosa? has been dealing with it too as his mom is working through it. It just hits home. If I asked everyone in the room to raise their hand if they have been effected by cancer, everyone would probably raise their hand. When it’s your mom, it really hits home – the person who raised you and brought you up. The team has really come together and it is really conclusive that we can finish our season playing in the Cure Bowl with what our team has been through.”
On the impact that this bowl is making in raising awareness for cancer:
“My first meeting with the team after the announcement was Monday morning. I brought the team in and discussed what is the purpose of this bowl. The purpose became apparent when we talked as a group – raising awareness and also to contributing towards finding a cure. The fact that we have experienced it and it has touched so close to home with our parents or moms. We get to play in this game and it is an honor to be able to do so.”
On the plays that quarterback Kenny Potter has made in leading the offense:
“Kenny has traveled a long road, too. He has gone the long road and went to San Pedro High School. He wasn’t recruited even though he led his team to an 11-1 record in his senior year. When I research and recruit a quarterback in particular, I want to talk to the high school coach and every coach that has worked with him. There were nothing but good things to say about Kenny. He played volleyball and baseball. He sprained his ankle playing volleyball during his senior year, so he could start at junior college and became a gray shirt. He went to Long Beach City College and really turned around a program that went 1-10 during the year he sat out. He turned them around and two years later, they upset the No. 1 team in the state and had 10 wins last year. I went down during contact period last December, because our staff knew we needed to bring in a quarterback. I had a great visit here and he did great talking football. I had a good sense of who he was as a leader when I walk around the building and talked to the other players, who all spoke highly of him. We brought Kenny in on a visit and he committed. He came in during spring ball, which is always a challenge for guys coming out of a junior college or high school. It is harder than a foreign language and you are thrown into the fire a little bit on day one. Kenny showed signs of talent, but it was a matter of learning the system. We came out of spring ball with two guys competing for the starting job. We carried that over to fall camp and Kenny really rose. We went into our first game of the year with two quarterbacks that were equivalent. ?Joe Greg” started eight games for us the year before. We went into our first game with two guys sharing time. Both guys played very well in the opener against New Hampshire. Of course, it became apparent that Kenny was our starting quarterback. I mentioned after the Oregon State game that he was playing flawless ball in the first half, going 8-of-9. We had a 21-14 lead at half. Unfortunately, in the second quarter, he went down, so he missed the next two and a half weeks of football. It was apparent that he was our guy. When he came back, he picked up where he left off. In the last four weeks Kenny has been making really good decisions with this throws., where he keeps the ball or runs the ball. His energy and enthusiasm for the game rubs off on his teammates.”
On the impact that Simon Connette and Tyler Ervin have made on the program:
“I would like to speak about Simon Connette, who has been a team player from the day that I got there. Special teams play doesn’t always show up in statistics and the effort that guys put forth. Simon has been a tremendous special teams player. He has played safety. He has played linebacker in the nickel position. He has played a lot of football for San Jose State and I really value having a guy like Simon. He is one of many leaders of our football team. He may not be a vocal leader out there, but leads by his actions and sets a great example for our younger players. I mentioned earlier the challenge in his life that he faced that no one at the age of 22 or younger should have to face. His strength and bounce-back is very inspiring to myself and our team members that supported him through it. When he was ready, he came back and fully immersed in football preparation for his senior year. We are really fortunate to have Simon a part of our football team as student, athlete and young-man off the field.
“These two young men (Same Connette and Tyler Ervin) are really outstanding ambassadors for our program. I am fortunate to have them. Two seniors that we will miss when they go on. They have made San Jose State a better place after being at our university. We look forward to them being Spartans as they move on from college football.”
San Jose State RB Tyler Ervin
On the impact that is teammate Simon Connette has made on the program:
“My guy right here, Simon, we came in a while ago and are both fifth-year seniors. I can’t say enough about him. His dedication to the game and everything that he puts out there on the field is something to admire. It is just an honor to be able to go out here and play with him. He is battling with his situation and we are all brothers and have his back. He is just a strong guy to be around. I really appreciate being able to join him have one last chance to go out there as Spartans and try to get a win.”
On the team’s reaction to going to a bowl game:
“We were having our banquet and were ecstatic to actually have a chance to go to a bowl. I think that it is an honor to go to a bowl. This one has a significant purpose. A cure for breast cancer is something that people have been wanting to happen. I know that breast cancer has affected a lot of people in this room in some way. To be able to play in a game like this is such an honor.”
On being able to rally around the bowl’s cause – bringing teams together to find a cure for cancer:
“Most definitely, whenever you have a player that has something impact his life directly. We all want to rally behind him. As a team, we are going to do just that with our play in the game.”
On being the leaders during the quick turnaround:
“Like Coach had mentioned, we were playing in five different time zones. Being in so many different time zones, we have to really understand that we don’t have all that much time to really prepare ourselves. When we do, we have to make the most out of it and prepare with quality reps. We did that today. We went out and practiced. We just got the guys and we rallied together. We’re getting ready to play a good game.”
On being the team barber and if he’s offered to cut Connette’s hair:
“Yeah, yeah. We did get that going. Hopefully we can get something going after the season. There was a small little wager, but that’s something that we’ll talk about after the game.”
On his offensive line:
“Those are some of the hardest working guys on our team. They go out every day during practice and they work hard. I think that’s an ode to their coach, Coach Stenavich. He’s on them, and it’s for a good reason, because they go out there and they fight. Just being behind them is such a luxury because when I know I have guys that are protecting me, it makes my job a little easier to do. I can’t say enough good things about the o-line. They do a great job.”
San Jose State DB Simon Connette
On what it means to play in this bowl:
“Obviously going through what my family and I have gone through, it really means a lot coming to this bowl game because of the significance of its message – finding a cure for cancer, which has affected so many people. First and foremost, I want to thank AutoNation for putting it on along with Florida Hospital. Just to be a part of this and knowing that it is supporting such a good cause, really means a lot to me because I don’t want anyone to feel what I and my family have to feel.”
On carrying his mother’s memory with him on the field:
“Every single day and every second, I have a wristband with breast cancer (awareness) on it. Everything I do, she always said to play your hardest and do the best at what you do. I strive to achieve that.”
On being able to play in Orlando and participate in the events leading up to the game:
“It is definitely a blessing to go to the hospital and support other people that are struggling through such a hard time. I am blessed enough to come to a bowl game. It is very nice to give back at this time.”
“I have never been to Universal (Studio) before, so I plan on having a really good time.”
On coming back to the team after taking time to spend with his mother:
“It was everything. During that time, I got countless phone calls every single day from coaches – coach Caragher and Donte Williams, my position coach. I got countless cards from players. It is actually a cool little story. Christian Tago our linebacker on one of the cards he sent me was this year is for Mother Connette. As it turns out, we are in the Cure Bowl. It is kind of ironic at how it worked out. It was huge to have all the support. The first day that I walked back into the locker room I could barely keep the tears inside. Everyone is just giving me hugs and says that they are praying for me. It was really cool to feel that a part from my family, I had another Spartan family. It was awesome.”
On the advice given to Michael Carrizosa, who is now dealing with a similar thing with his mother:
“I try to talk to him all the time about it. I tell him to stay positive about it. There is a fight and the fight can be won. I just try to pray for him and really have everyone rally around him because I know how tough this time can be and all the different thoughts that you have. Clearly, he has done a very good job with it as well as he has done this year. I just try rallying around him.”
On the meaning of playing in the Cure Bowl:
“We were looking at all of the bowl games and projections – there were many. This one stuck a little bit more to my heart than others, just because of the cause. I know what this cause can do and, basically, how the whole system works. I was extremely happy when I found out we were going to the AutoNation Cure Bowl. It was definitely a very exciting time to be a part of it, especially the first one. It’s very exciting.”
Georgia State Head Coach Ron Caragher
Opening Statement:
“Very excited for our young men, and our program to be here in Orlando. We’ve had a great time so far. We want to thank the Cure Bowl and everyone at the Loews Portifino Bay for their hospitality. It’s been an excellent stay and we can’t thank them enough. And the Cure Bowl people for everything they’ve done so far for us to be here and make this a great experience for our student-athletes.”
On what it means to be in a bowl game:
“For me, it means that we’ve got a bunch of great young men that do about everything that we ask and are able to perform on Saturdays. Go out and perform in the community and in the classroom and do everything that it takes to be an excellent student-athlete. For our program, I think it’s just a reflection of where Georgia State University is growing as a university. In January, our enrollment had jumped from 32,000 to, I think, 52,000. We’re a very progressive university with a president that has great vision and an administration that wants Georgia State Athletics to go to the next level. So it means a lot to us in the grand scheme of things.”
On what got the team back on track at the end of the season:
“I think our young men, our players and our student-athletes, are such good people. They’re high character guys that are smart, tough and love the game and they found a way to bond and come together. They did everything that we asked them to do. We didn’t change anything; we stayed the course with what we were doing. They accepted it; they went on and they fought for each other and they put us in this position. It’s all about those young men that suite up for us.”
On how the team went from one-win each of the last two seasons to a six-win team:
“Well they bought in; they bought in from day one. It’s a system that we run. Most of the staff, or some of the staff was with me at a previous stop. My first head coaching job, it was my alma mater (Indiana State) that I took over and they were 1-54. We went 0-12, 1-11 and then had six wins or more each year after that. The first year at Georgia State we were 0-12; our second year we were 1-11 and now we’re 6-6. So, it’s running the system. Running the system that we do and that includes everything. From going to class, to monitoring their academics, to community service, to the weight room, to the practice field, to everything. There’s a lot of people that are involved in why these young men are doing well. The strength coach, Scott Holsopple, our trainer. Everybody, especially our assistants, but, most importantly, those young men. We’ve got good guys. They are tough guys.”
On if he’s using this opportunity to showcase the program:
“Being in this situation could propel your recruiting. The exposure that we get is excellent for us in the state of Florida and the state of Georgia. Between Florida and Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina, from a high school standpoint, we really don’t have to go anywhere else. We have a few people from other places; that’s just through friends, connections and things, but we’ve based our recruiting just in this southeast region and it’s huge for us to be here and to be in this game. But you have got to go win it. You can’t just show up; you have go win it.”
On if the Georgia Southern game felt like a playoff game:
“Well, we got to 2-6, so everyone was a do-or-die. Every game, because you knew if you got to seven losses, you were out. When we were 2-6, we knew that our backs were against the wall and you’ve got to keep playing. Just like that they are in this game. Our backs are against the wall and we’ve got to come out and play because we’ve got to have a winning season.”
On what the Cure Bowl’s purpose means to him:
“It means a lot to me. Cancer has touched my family quite a bit. My dad had prostate cancer. He passed away; not from prostate cancer, but he had prostate cancer. My mother, who is alive and flying in tomorrow, has breast cancer. My uncle died of pancreatic cancer. My grandmother died of lung cancer; my grandfather died of cancer. So it runs in my genes. It’s nothing to laugh about, but it’s been involved in my family. It’s been in a lot of families. They say if you live long enough, it’s going to affect you. It means a lot to a lot of people in my family.”
On how his mom is doing:
“She’s doing well. She’s doing well. Other than the fact that she’s got to get on an airplane; she doesn’t like to fly. I’ve got a buddy that’s bringing her down. She’s doing well.”
On the exposure that the Cure Bowl will provide for cancer research:
“I think that’s correct. It goes back to what we talk to our players about all the time: who are you playing for? We do a PowerPoint presentation; we talk about our expectations, starting fast and expecting certain things. One of the things that we talk about is who are we playing for? There’s always a bigger power than just you. Playing in a game like this, for a cause like this is bigger than us. It touches a lot of people. If we go out there and we have a great performance, it could open up a lot of people’s eyes. Hopefully people realize that we need to start doing something about getting a cure and doing all you can to support it.”
On Georgia State’s passing offense going against San Jose State’s passing defense:
“Well, on San Jose State’s side, I see athletes. I see a well-coached team; Greg Robinson, their (defensive) coordinator, does a great job. He’s always been an excellent coach; I have known who he is for years. They have a very athletic corner; couple of corners, but one in particular. I don’t really know names; I know more numbers, No. 8 (Jimmy Pruitt). Their linebacker is a very good player, No. 4 (Christian Tago). Again, they’re well-coached. They will be where they’re supposed to be. From our side of it, we’ve just got to do what we do. We’re not going to invent a whole new offense in two weeks. We have to get the ball to our strength, hide our weaknesses and go play and compete.”
On the reason why he coaches:
“The players. The players and my wife and children. We are a family. When they say Panther family, it truly is. These young men know what’s mine is theirs, and what’s theirs is theirs. They understand that and they understand that you’ll do anything for your family. Anything. And they understand that’s the why for me. Because I look at all of those young men as being part of my family. I have a big, big family. Not only do I have the players there, but on my wife’s side, there’s eight brothers and sisters. On my side, there’s four and about everybody’s coming. My mother-in-law has 17 grandchildren, ages 3-14, so there’s a big family. That’s what gets me going. Everything that I’ve worked for is family. That means those young men that are playing for us and my immediate family.”
On WR Penny Hart:
“Phenomenal person and athlete. We had him in our one-day camp. He didn’t get recruited by anybody he played at a small 1A school. There’s 1A through 6A or 7A in Georgia and he played at the small school. It was a private school and I think John Schmoltz, the ex-pitcher for the Braves, started a private Christian school, King’s Ridge, and that’s where Penny was going. We invited him to our one-day camp. He took every rep at corner; he took every rep at running back and then he went and took every rep at wide receiver. We couldn’t get him off the field. He wanted to show you that he could run, he could jump, he could do everything. But the thing that impressed you the most about him as a person was the way he talked to you. The way he was coachable, his attitude, everything. It was a no-brainer. We offered him from the one-day camp. We couldn’t have done better, because this young man could play for anybody. I’ve been doing this 29 years, been to some pretty good places, been in the NFL. This kid could play for anyone, anywhere. He’s that explosive. If you want to go to YouTube and look him up. When they say he’s five-foot-eight, I’m five-seven and I’m looking down on him. You can go to YouTube and look at him take two steps, take a basketball and do a windmill dunk on a 10-foot goal. That’s explosiveness. Some people made a recruiting mistake by not recruiting him, but their mistake is our gain.”
On the upperclassmen’s unselfish play:
“Well they didn’t have a choice. The only one that controls that is the line and Nick (Arbuckle) throwing the ball. We don’t have selfish guys. You walk into our locker room and we have sayings all over the wall. The first one you see says ‘it’s not about you; it’s not about me; it’s about us.’ Nobody’s really selfish or pouting because they didn’t get balls or anything like that. Everybody just wants to win, so if it meant Penny Hart being over 1,000 yards as a freshman, so be it. We’re here, in a bowl game. I don’t think anybody’s upset about that.”
On what the first bowl win since leaving the Sun Belt would mean:
“Well we have never been to a bowl. We’ve only been playing football for six years. We’re different than the schools that have been playing football for six years because the other schools, like UT San Antonio and Old Dominion and South Alabama, just to name a couple of them, they went in with the plan to start football and within five years, be FBS. We started football, jumped into FCS and then midstream, after three years, boom, let’s go FBS. That takes a whole different planning when it comes to scholarship and balancing your classes and things like that. For us, winning the game, number one would mean a winning season. Number two would be sending our seniors out the right way. Number three would be sending the guys that are coming back into the offseason with great momentum and even more confidence. It would say a lot for our community, our campus community, as a whole. We’ve only been playing football for six years. There’s teams that have been out there playing since the late 1890s or 1900. We’re in a bowl game that fast, in only three years of FBS. It says a lot for our university. It says a lot for how we bring people together. It says a lot about the Atlanta area and it will do wonders for everybody involved, from a confidence standpoint and everything else.”
Georgia State Senior QB Nick Arbuckle
On being able to start a tradition of going to a bowl game:
“Just keep it going, but keep getting better. Not be satisfied with just getting bowl eligible on your last game of the season, but to keep striving for even better things to be able to turn this into a program that wins conference championships, that maybe goes to bowl games in January. Those kind of things. Because the things that are around Georgia State, with the city that we’re in, and the university as a whole, there’s just so much potential for the football program. In six short years, we were able to get to this point. Who knows where we’ll be in another six years.”
On why he chose Georgia State:
“For me, I established a really good relationship with Coach (Luke) Huard, my quarterback coach, and the other coaches on the staff. This was the first place to give me a scholarship and offer me an opportunity to play at the Division I level. Since high school and in junior college, I’d heard no from so many different schools in so many different ways that, to finally be the one team that gave me an opportunity, really made it close to my heart. So I wanted to give back by letting Georgia State be my first official visit. When I came to Georgia State, and I saw Atlanta and I saw the coaches and the players, everything was just so perfect and I felt completely at home. I didn’t need to go anywhere else.”
On the San Jose State’s defense:
“Their defense is really well coached. Everything you see on film from them and their statistics so far really speak to their coaching and discipline and their player’s ability to take the coaching and transfer it on to the field. They have really good technique; they are really well disciplined. They are good athletes. They just do a lot of things right. A lot of times we have seen defenses on film that are good defenses, but will have mental lapses and make mistakes and let receivers run wide open. You don’t see that a lot from their defense. They are really well-taught and they just do a tremendous job.”
On if facing the SJSU defense is something he looks forward to on Saturday:
“Yeah, because it brings a whole new focus to us, because we’re no longer just going to be able to out-athlete the guy across from us. But we have to bring the same type of discipline and focus and attention to detail on our routes and all of our execution. They’re going to be well disciplined, well taught and use their technique. We’ve got to be able to do the same things and then our athleticism will hopefully win the battles.”
On if he always thought he was a quarterback:
“Yeah, I became a quarterback when I was starting to come into high school because all of my brothers, my cousins, everybody was a quarterback. I have always gone to camps, different college camps and things like that, as a quarterback. I just never had the opportunity in high school to be able to start. I was able to contribute to the team in other ways, as well as being the captain of the team in high school. But it really helped me to be where I am now, because I got to see the game at a different position. I know what the receivers see when they are running routes; I know what our tight ends see when they are running routes. What they are looking at, what they feel. So it’s easier for me to communicate with them and understand their thought process as the play is going on and be able to communicate and coach with them in that way. In the same thing, I was a tight end. I was part of the blocking schemes. It was really the first time I have ever learned how blocking schemes worked, how the run game works. Who goes where against what defenses and stuff like that. It all just really helped, in the long run, of my understanding of the game.”
On if he ever expected to have the type of season he’s had:
“With the kind of work and things that we have put in, there was no doubt in my mind. As long as we executed and did what we had practiced, then everything that’s happened so far, would happen. It’s been the result, last year and before at my previous school, of all the hard work. We have always produced really good numbers because me and the receivers and the tight ends have always had such a great chemistry wherever I have gone. I just spend a lot of personal time with them. We are always on the same page and we are all really close and you can see that on the field. We all just have a connection with each other.”
Georgia State Senior LB Joseph Peterson
On why he chose Georgia State:
“Well for me, I had a defensive coordinator that was from my high school that came to Georgia State and he really sold me here. Especially with it being its third year, coming in, I was able to set a lot of records, be the leading tackler, have a lot of accolades, but also be able to play close to home. It was a really good sales pitch from him. When I got here, it felt like home. That’s when I had the coaching staff from Coach (Bill) Curry then and later on Coach Miles. The program continues to take the steps that has brought Georgia State to where we are now.”
On the reason behind the turnaround to finish the season with four straight wins:
“Continuing to do what we do. We had created winning habits throughout the summer and throughout spring that Coach (Miles) instilled in us. We understand that we weren’t playing well, at 2-5. So a lot of guys had to do self-checking, look at their self in the mirror and see how we could turn it around and guys did that. You’d see guys staying extra to watch more film; guys doing all of the extra things that you need to do to create winning habits. That finally all happened and you saw our season turn around.”
On what this season means to him:
“It means a lot. It really means a lot. Coming from not winning any games my first year to winning one game the next and, before you know it, we are in a bowl game, sitting here right now. It means a lot. It just shows you how hard work actually does pay off. Continue to stick with it; continue to believe. Believe in the coaching staff; believe in yourself; believe in your players, and it finally paid off.”
On San Jose State’s offense:
“Well Tyler (Ervin) has had a great year this year. Watching them on film, probably one of the best backs that I have played. They do a great job of getting him the ball, spreading it out in different formations. They are finding ways to put the ball in his hands. So it will be pretty hard to actually say we will try to stop him, but we will do our best to slow him down.”
On the Spartan passing scheme:
“They run a bunch of different formations and different route combinations, but we’ve been doing a great job in practice of preparing for them and we’ll be ready.”
On what it means to be in the Cure Bowl and put a spotlight on breast cancer:
“It means a lot, actually. I have an aunt that actually just was a breast cancer survivor. It means a lot because I think it’s like over 3 million people a year that are diagnosed with breast cancer. It’s really something that needs to be talked about more. I think we are not all really aware of it. It hurts more than just women; it’s men and many different ages. It needs to be very much talked about. It’s a big thing to play in a game like this. We are all very proud to be a part of it.”
