Oct. 28, 1997
Tom Holmoe Press Conference
"Our guys are thirsting for a win. It's been a long time since we had that feeling of accomplishment in our locker room. Granted we've played some very good team of late, but we have lost five in a row.
"The guys' attitude remains very strong. I'm impressed by their willingness to continue on and fight and work hard. And that gives me hope that they'll continue to play hard and strive to put things together.
"They are starting to get a little upset with themselves for constantly being prone to the big play. They realize that giving up those kinds of plays must end in order for us to be successful again.
"Saturday's game is against a team that I think is improved from what you might have thought of them in the past. They have a new, more wide-open offense that gives them chances to win. It's a game that we have to play to the best of our ability and eliminate mistakes in order to win."
Q & A
Q: Oregon State is running a new offensive scheme under first-year head coach Mike Riley, how are they executing it and who are some of their key players?
A: "I think that coach Riley has given them a great opportunity to win. They have a quarterback, Tim Alexander, who has been in their system for a long time. He was an option quarterback and he was a big threat then and continues to be a big threat in the new system. He's on the move a lot and will run the ball. He also throws on the run well. They do a lot of things to take advantage of his talents. They also have another quarterback, Tyler Tomich, who is more of a traditional thrower. They have very good receivers and are throwing the ball quite a bit.
"They are better than they were last year. I think they are revitalized and are similar to us in the fact that their players play hard because they know that their best games are ahead of them. Its not like there are 15 senior starters who are graduating out of their starting lineup. So they continue to play hard with a lot of passion for the game as OSU has always done. I really respect the way the players and coaches come in every week, considering that they haven't always had a lot of success over the years."
Q: What about Oregon State's defensive scheme?
A: "Defensively, they are playing more of a traditional look than they have in the past.They play what we would call a hawk or eagle front which is basically a 4-3 look. In the secondary, they play a lot of cover three and man-to-man. But most of all they play smart. They don't make a lot of mistakes and they play within the framework of the scheme. Statistically, they are ranked in the 40s or 50s in many categories on a national basis."
Q: Do you think that continuing to give up big plays is beginning to have a snowball effect?
A: "I don't know that it's snowballing, I just think that, especially in the last three games, we've just come up against some opponents that are pretty darn good. I don't think guys are thinking 'Oh my goodness, it's going to happen again.' I think versus UCLA, outside of the three or four big plays that we gave up, the performances overall were very much improved. The defensive line played extremely well. The big plays, though, just erased the positive things that happened."
Q: Is it difficult to continue to believe in yourself until you've had some success?
A: "In baseball, players have slumps. When a player is in a slump, not only is he unable to hit the ball, but he also stops getting the calls. Then everything is going wrong. But sooner or later, you fight your way out of it. You take a little extra batting practice or you stay on the field a little more to work on technique and if the attitude is right you overcome it."
Q: Can you talk a little bit about how Marcus Fields is playing?
A: "Marcus has done a very good job for us. He's a pleasure to watch and when he gets the ball good things happen. When we call his number, we're confident that he's going to give us a few yards. So there are some aspects of our team that people have a lot of confidence in and that's one of them. We started to get him the ball more versus UCLA, that was the plan and I think it started to pay off. I think he'll continue to play a larger role with each coming week."
