Oct. 2, 2006

In Attendance: Bill Wagner (Annapolis Capital)

Q. What's the mood of the team coming off a great win over Connecticut? It has to give the team confidence entering one of your biggest games of the year?

A. Actually every week is the same. We come in on Monday and watch the tape, we correct the mistakes, we talk about it and then it's over with. We move on. That one is behind us. We have to focus on the next game, which is Air Force.

Q. What are you seeing out of Air Force? I know last night you said they are playing pretty good defense and it looks like they are committed to running the ball a little more this year.

A. If you look at their games they are throwing the ball efficiently but they aren't attempting as many passes and they have gone back to their roots. They are running a lot more option plays than what they were the last couple of years.

Q. Triple?

A. Triple, mid-line, all of it. They have gone back to their roots. That doesn't mean they can't throw, it just means they've chosen not to.

Q. Talk about a couple of players. Carney is in his third year as the starting quarterback and then Chad Hall the slot back.

A. Carney's a good player. He's very good at what they do. Chad Hall has been very productive for them. He's made a lot of big plays. I'm impressed with their fullback, #21.

Q. Is he a returning starter?

A. No, actually the other kid was a starter but I guess he beat him out. He's really quick. I've been very impressed by him. He's a good player. They are big on the offensive line; they have a couple of tight ends. They look like a typical Air Force team.

Q. The Tennessee game. What did you see there? When you think about Tennessee you think of a powerhouse SEC team, that's pretty impressive to think that they were a two-point conversion away from beating them.

A. They executed well and they took advantage of some things. Tennessee is up 31-17 with seven minutes to go and has the ball at the Air Force 14 yard line and threw a pick and Air Force takes it in and scores, recovers the onside kick and takes it in and scores and goes for two and has a chance to win. There's a valuable lesson there. It ain't over until it's over.

Q. That has to show you something?

A. It shows they have a lot of grit, they executed extremely well offensively and they got a stop on defense when they had to. They made some plays. They did what they had to do to give themselves a chance to win the game.

Q. Speaking of doing what you have to do to win the game, that's what has happened the last three times you beat them. You have won three games by three points.

A. Three years ago we were up by 10 and they scored with 30 seconds left.

Q. The last two have been on a last second field goal.

A. It's as good as winning by 30.

Q. What do you think has been the reason why you've been able to pull these games out?

A. We've been fortunate that we've made plays.

Q. How important would it be for your seniors to finish their careers not losing to Air Force? That would be one heck of an accomplishment.

A. Yeah, it would be a big deal. They have a chance to go through here and not lose to an Academy. That would be huge. Nobody on our team has lost an Academy game that I'm aware of.

Q. Is there anything in particular you do differently when you go to Colorado Springs?

A. No. We do the same thing we do for every road trip. Just play. You can't worry about all that other stuff.

Q. What about Coach DeBerry? A lot of people were saying that he was on the way out last year because he had that problem with his comments and obviously they haven't had success the last few years. Do you think a guy like Fisher should be able to go out on his own terms?

A. I would hope so. Having coached at an Academy for five years and knowing what all he's accomplished I have the utmost respect for the job he's done. I know how hard it is to win at an Academy and everything you have to do so I would think he's earned the right to coach there as long as he wants. Besides that, they still look pretty good to me. I don't know that he's fallen off any. They look the same.

Q. But they have had a couple of down years, which is uncharacteristic of them. It is amazing the number of non-losing seasons he's had.

A. You know what happens? I actually get tickled at that because if one of the Academy teams is winning then the other team has to lose. If they were beating us then we would be having some down years probably. Historically they have beaten Navy and Army pretty good so that is two wins and if they split the rest of the games they would be 7-4. There's a thin line between winning and losing.

Q. Do you think it's hard for multiple Service Academies to be good at the same time? There seems to be a cycle where when one gets good the other two slip. It would seem to me that you are going after the same recruits so if you are getting those recruits the other two wouldn't be as good.

A. I don't know the answer to that. I know when I was here in '96 both Army and us were good. It's happened before. I don't know about all three being good at the same time. I guess it could happen.

Q. Do you think your success has had a direct correlation to Air Force having a fall off? Do you think that you are getting players that might normally would have gone to Air Force that are now here?

A. We recruit a lot head-to-head, but I think we have the same kind of kids.

Q. Do they have kids in their program that you recruited?

A. Sure. We have kids that they recruited and they have kids that we recruited. That's the way it works.

Q. How is Ballard?

A. He should be OK.

Q. He will be ready to play?

A. Yeah.

Q. Any other injuries?

A. Not that I'm aware of.

Q. Is there a chance of Price coming back?

A. This week? That would be a reach.

Q. Bullen?

A. I don't know. We will see.

Q. Has he been kicking in practice?

A. Not yet.