April 12, 2007
• ALL-ACCESS: Watch coach Long's entire press conference.
Overall comments on the 2007 team:
"Much more experience than last year. We had our Night of Champions last night and we're a lot stronger. A little bit bigger, not tremendously bigger, but more experience. We've got experience at almost every position. Great offseason workout and we'll see how much we improve in the spring."
On why he is excited to start spring football:
"I think this is the longest offseason we've ever had without having practice, so it feels like it's time to practice. But I also think we're pretty optimistic about the possibilities of having a good football team."
On the quarterback situation:
"Last year's problems at quarterback were a blessing for this year. They were a big time drawback last year because I thought we had an outstanding quarterback that was a senior, and I still think if Kole (McKamey) were to have been healthy for the whole year we would have had a better year. But because Kole got hurt we ended up playing Donovan (Porterie) a lot more than anticipated before the season started. Donovan was the starting quarterback for several games and that wasn't planned before the season, which makes him a much better quarterback coming into this year. So in one sense it was good for this year's team and in another sense it was bad for last year's team that Donovan had to play that much."
On the loss of starting kicker Kenny Byrd:
"The biggest position on our whole team that we have to replace will be Kenny Byrd. Most people won't realize that. Not only was he an outstanding field goal kicker that won us several games by making clutch field goals, some of them from a long way off, but we led the league and were one of the top-ten teams in the nation in kickoff coverage. And that was for one reason and one reason only - because they never returned them. In my opinion he is the hardest guy to replace off of last year's team."
On the growth of the UNM football program:
"When you have an opportunity to sit back as a coach and look at the things that have happened over the last nine years, going on ten, the progress that has been made in this program is astronomical. I don't think anybody has given our players that have come through this program the credit they deserve for changing the climate or the culture of this football program. We want to compare ourselves with Ohio State instead of comparing ourselves with what New Mexico football used to be. We are all striving to be like Ohio State as far as on the football field, but you've got to start somewhere and it does not happen overnight."
• All-ACCESS: Watch Porterie's entire press conference.
On his improved confidence overall entering the 2007 season.
"In this particular game, experience counts for a lot and I believe I got a great amount of experience last year. I'm just going to try to transfer that onto the field during spring ball and take in a lot. With this new offense, I've learned a lot of new concepts from coach (Dave) Baldwin and I'm going to try to execute them when I get out there."
• All-ACCESS: Watch Quin's entire press conference.
"Last year the big man was Quincy (Black), but this year we don't have too many big names. It's going to be a whole group effort. We're going to have to come together as a team, as a whole defense, get everybody wanting to do it, get the job done and hopefully be the No. 1 defense in the conference."
• All-ACCESS: Watch Ferguson's entire press conference.
On how this spring practice season compares to the spring of 2006 when he rotated carries:
"I could say it's kind of the same because I go out there to compete with three backs every time and I could lose my job at any point in time. So I go out there and practice as hard as I can all the time. We have a new coach and we have to prove ourselves. So I look at it as the same as last year."
