Don Patterson Game Quotations

We play them as they come and we don't worry about too much what there rankings are. We weren't ranked and we almost played a really good game against Southern. We realize that if we play up to our potential we can play with anyone and we proved that last Saturday night. I would expect that we will prove it all over again on Saturday afternoon.

We're going to have our work cut out for us (today). Of course, this will be the first game of the day for both of us.

The thing that made me feel positive in many ways was the way our defense played in the early stages when the game was in doubt. They ran an interception back and had the ball after the punt block. At that point it would have been in a lot of peoples minds that Toledo would knock it in, but they had to kick it. There was another red-zone stand that left them with a field-goal attempt.

This game does mean a lot to me. Having grown up in the state of Texas, I'll have a lot of family and friends at the game. I think the whole town will be there. I've only had one opportunity as a head coach to coach a game in Texas, and that one didn't work out so well against a good Sam Houston State team in 2001.

Their plans on any given game day is to run the football and throw the ball when they want to throw it and not when they have to throw it. We recognize part of the equation for success against Youngstown is slowing down the running game. Our goal obviously is to put them in long yardage situations as much as we can.

The kicking game is key. Last week our mistakes in kicking had everything to do with the outcome of the game. I'd like to think at the end of the game this week that our kicking game has the edge.

They (Marcus) held the ball most of the night. They controlled the game for the most part because of that, but at least we left with a win.