Nov. 4, 2008

Tickets | More Coverage: Lafayette News Stand

EASTON, Pa.
- Bucknell Head Coach Tim Landis
On what his team needs to do to be successful vs. Lafayette: "It's a challenge, definitely, because, they have an outstanding defense and they've got a vaunted offense. Our struggles this year have been defensively. We've had a tough time; we've given up yardage and points. On the flip side, we've been pretty successful in scoring some points so I think the key to the game for us is that somehow we have to find a way to hold on to the football a little longer than we have the past couple weeks. Obviously if we're holding onto the football that means hopefully we're getting first downs, shortening the game and we were able to do that in the first half against Holy Cross, but in the second half we weren't so successful, so it's a tall challenge for us this weekend but our players keep getting better every week and they're tough young men and I know they'll be up for the challenge."

On status of QB Marcello Trigg: "I'm sure he'll play. He's a tough kid. If he can play he'll go. This time of year you have a lot of guys who are sore and beat up. Usually you really don't know until midweek or later in the week how effective they'll be, but truthfully the last few weeks he hasn't practiced early in the week so knowing Marcello if he can go, he'll go."

On what he's looking to do as a "spoiler": "I think the team we have this year is an improved team from last year but it's still pretty young. We've got to take it week by week. We respect everybody we play and at the same time I can't get our guys too high or too low. We've got to keep an even keel as we move through the league schedule. It seems like there are some veteran football teams this year in this conference. We know we're going to have to battle real hard these final few weeks. We're coming off two very difficult games against Colgate and Holy Cross. It doesn't get any easier when you get to Lafayette."

On starting four freshmen and if they've been starting all year: "Bryce Robertson at corner broke into the starting lineup I think it was week four, so for him it was a matter of getting better and he came from a very good high school background and was able to be of help to some of the upperclassmen. The two guards have been starting the entire season and that was really based primarily on offseason injuries we had. We had two offensive linemen returning this year that ended up getting surgery after spring football, something we didn't anticipate, so these freshmen had to step in and they've really done a nice job for us and we think they're going to be really, really good players down the line. Not to say they haven't done good things this year because they certainly have, but they get better each week they go out there."

Lafayette Head Coach Frank Tavani
On what the team needs to do better in game against Bucknell: "We've got to execute better in critical situations. Two of the things that stand out most to me right after the game and even the day after is the missed field goal; got a little bit of a high snap and missed the field goal, pushed it left, right before the half, and then driving the length of the field and down to the five-yard line and unfortunately turning it over and then allowing two critical third and longs in that drive that allowed Colgate to drive 95 yards and drive down and put a touchdown on the board which certainly shifted the momentum."

On the different challenges Bucknell creates for Lafayette: "Bucknell always has a different challenge and they're a much improved football team from a year ago. You look at the games they've played...they were ahead the week before against Colgate 24-21 before kind of falling apart, but certainly they were giving Colgate all they could handle up until that point. They were beating Holy Cross 10-0, so they are a very capable football team. They play very hard. The defense is very solid, he's got a couple of young kids on both sides of the ball who are performing well for them and as a I said they're much improved and I'm sure they're looking to make or break their season. They've had two tough games, obviously we're the third one in a row now and I know Coach Landis well. He's doing a great job and they'll be more than ready for us and we have to make sure we're not having any lingering bad feelings about last weekend. We're moving forward and will have a great week of practice and be prepared and go up there and let out a little bit of our frustration and our anger over lack of execution a week ago and play a good football game."

On defense's reaction to offense turning the ball over on the five-yard line: "I think they (the defense) were anticipating getting back out there after us scoring and of course that didn't happen. They were certainly well-rested. It was the first series; they hadn't been out on the field yet. In terms of utilizing the timeouts, you have to save those things, especially with the way the clock is now. I can tell you I gave no thought at all to taking a timeout during that series. Someone might look at it differently, but my own philosophy is not to do that. I knew they would come back and run the ball and everybody wants to talk about (Nate) Eachus and all that, and he certainly is a good football player, but it was really the quarterback and the offensive line that made a difference. Their offensive line came out and in the first half they tried to scheme us a little bit and we were doing some things that were fooling them or we were able to make plays, but they made the determination at halftime that they were going to pound us with that offensive line and the quarterback made some great decisions and some plays and the running thing was one thing--you know that's going to happen. The thing that was most disturbing was we didn't make plays on the two passes on the third down where we needed to to stop that drive and have them punt and give us the ball back. Again, we got outplayed in the second half and there's really no other way to put it. We had our opportunities even beyond that and we didn't execute. Certainly the change of quarterbacks along with the situation in the backfield, and these things are tough and you've got to overcome them and we just didn't quite find them out."

On whether the defense was caught by surprise on the turnover on the five-yard line: "I don't think so. We were there; we were in a position to make plays. We were missing tackles, and again, to Colgate's credit, they came out with a vengeance like I knew they would, and we anticipated that and again, it just comes down to blocking, tackling and making plays and they did that and we didn't."

On the play of Marc Quilling: "I thought he did a very good job. He made some mistakes and some errors that was just through a lack of playing in that situation, but getting thrown into that...that's a tough situation to get thrown into--a championship-type atmosphere, a lot riding on the game, us falling behind and then getting thrown in there...I thought he threw some excellent footballs, even the few that were dropped. The pass to Shaun (Adair) was as good a ball as I've seen thrown all year. He made the right choices on the line of scrimmage because he's prepared very well. To his credit, he just prepares like he's going to get into the game every week and I thought he did a good job. He's real physical. On the last series someone said he's taking all those sacks but they're coming with pressure, he's trying to hold the ball and make a play and that's just game experience. I have no reservations or hesitancy about playing Marc. He comes from tough stock, having played for Coach Morgan, and nothing really shakes him. We'll proceed just like we have at every other position--we have played without Joe Russo, we played most of the game without Andy Romans."

On Rob Curley vs. Marc Quilling and if the game plan is adjusted for each: "We'll make no adjustment. He (Quilling) has been running that package. Believe it or not, he's a bigger kid, might not look like he has movement but he really does. He has decent feet. I think he'll practice with more confidence this week. He'll be more confident going into the game knowing that potentially I'm going to be starting, not being asked to come off the bench. It's a matter of the preparation."

Freshman tailback Jerome Rudolph
On major, classes: "I'm a Business and Econ major. One of my interesting classes this year is my first year seminar, Living and Dying in America. In that class, we're basically going over how Americans view death and how they go through the mourning process and how different cultures look at the mourning process and everything related to death."

Sophomore linebacker Michael Schmidlein
On major, classes: "I'm an Economics and Business major also. Right now, two economics classes I'm taking are Microeconomics and Financial Accounting."