Eastern Oregon University Athletics

Howard McDonald
LB
How EOU defense played…

“Uh that first half we came out a little sluggish. We just needed to stop their short passes. We gave up a couple big plays, but that second half we really buckled down and played tough “D”. and got the ball back for our offense so we could score.”

Impressions of UMW Offense…

“I don’t know. A lot of things they were successful at, some busted plays by us, and Coach Levi always talks about only we can defeat ourselves, and assignments broke down in that first half, Western is a solid team, they play hard, they hit, and they get after it, we just had a lot of mental breakdowns in that first half, which allowed them to score a lot of points.”

Defensive Improvements for Next Week…

“Just coming out on fire in that first quarter, and just come out fast.”


Chris Ware
QB
Thoughts on Offensive start…

“I think at times people let the numbers that they see in the papers get to them. I think that we got to come out focused no matter who were playing against. To come out here and play like that I hope it is a wake-up call to the team that there is so many other things we could be good at.”

Thoughts on Montana Western…

“Montana Western’s a good team. They were able to mix up their pressures and put in the coverages that they do and they fly to the ball. They came out and they wanted to win, and if we wouldn’t have opened our eyes to see that, as late as we did, then there’s a good chance we could have lost to a good team. Their record means nothing.”

Thoughts on the First Home Game…

“It was good. To me its another game, I mean, it’s nice to be at home to not be on the bus and that’s the biggest deal but, other than that it’s just the ability to play the game.”


Kevin Sampson
RB
Thoughts on Offense Performance…

“I felt like I played O.K., always room for improvement. The thing is coach always tells me to be patient so that’s what I was trying to be, and even though sometimes it wasn’t a big hole, I’m still being patient and know I’m not going to get those big plays every play, and that’s what I have learned.”

Conference Toughness…

“It’s very tough, especially when we play a team twice. It’s always harder to beat them twice and it’s like they know, or I feel like they can know all our plays. I just feel we just have to prepare better just so they don’t know.”

Thoughts on Prolific Offense…

“Feels good. We get overhyped, but other than that we just try not too take it to our heads. We just try to come out and play our game that we know.”


Tim Camp
Head Coach
Western’s Effort…

“There’s no doubt about it. Tried to prepare the team as well as I possibly could to let them know it didn’t matter what records were. I can do a better job, I didn’t do a good enough job preparing them for what the Frontier Conference is going to bring week in and week out. So, I looked at myself and made sure I do a better job next week, because the one thing I told the team was, sometimes it’s O.K. to win ugly, but when you are the one holding yourself back consistently that is an issue with me.”

Keeping the Focus on Football…

“Well that’s the thing we started out with on Sunday last week and went to Monday, Tuesday, and had something each day to try and remind them that when people tell you how good you are and you remember four short years ago when nobody knew who you were, and now their telling you how good you really are, you’re one loss away from being back to right where you started, and we built a foundation with good kids and I really enjoy coaching these kids, cause the one thing I know about  this Eastern Oregon football team and my Eastern Oregon program is that these kids won’t quit, they have great resolve, but again Western’s a good football team. I broke that film down and these coaches broke that film down and I tried to do my very best to let them know that they will give everything that they got to come out with a win. And they did, we played just good enough to squeak out a victory today. I tried to tell everybody that were just a good football team trying to get better and I think that showed today.”

Halftime Adjustments ...

“I told the coaches it’s not a “ra-ra” speech, it’s not let’s lose our head, let’s just stick to the plan, let’s hold the rope, let’s stay the course and let’s do what we do and the same thing we’ve been able to do the last three weeks. We’ve been in this situation before, let’s not panic, let’s continue to do what we do, stay level-headed and do what we love to do which is coach these kids. I asked the team, in fact I told the team in last night’s meeting, it’s not individual defense or offense or kicking game it’s everything that we’re doing to the best of our ability. It was important to realize we can all do more and when I’m talking I’m talking to myself first and foremost.”


Thoughts on Big Home Crowd…

“It means the world to these kids. We got to be on the road for so long, we kind of became accustomed to that. To be home it was great to see all the people, the community support and that’s something we’ve been building, and to be able to see it. We haven’t arrived as a football program yet and I know that we haven’t arrived as community support yet. So we could do more to build the relationship with the community. But it was awesome to be able to see that. We just have to continue to be upstanding citizens in the community and people would want to come and be around us.”