Tommy Johnson Quotations

We had 10 penalties two weeks ago. When you do that and drop the ball several times, you're not supposed to win.

We did not match their level of intensity.

When I head that Chris McKeown was available I said 'Yes' I would be interested in having him join us, ... The talk was can two head coaches work together...you know, too many chiefs and not enough Indians. Chris was such a professional person and he told me this was my deal. He was very thoughtful and he is a phenomenal head coach. He is also a great recruiter. He has a knack of finding good talent. I learned so much from him.

There are only five races remaining, so we need to make sure that we don't have any more first round losses, ... We certainly didn't do ourselves any favors at Indy. Qualifying will be really important at Reading. It has been known to be a one lane race track with a narrow groove. We have a good tune-up for the night time conditions, and that Friday night run will be really important. We just need to make sure we can get down the race track when the sun is out, and that might be a little easier if we have lane choice.

So from the 2003 season to the 2004 season we cleaned house. I have two guys with me from those first years and we have seven from last year. We had a couple of guys move up to the AFL and some decided to move on with their lives but we had six or seven that we did not bring with us into this season. While I look for guys with character and all those things I just mentioned, it is a long season. Most guys are use to a 10-week season in college and we play sixteen. Some guys taper down towards the end of the season. That was something we couldn't see in guys when we recruited. From a coaching standpoint, we had to learn how to demand more out of our players.

I feel like this will be a fun battle to watch during camp. All three of these guys have the talent to be starters.

Friday night is so important these days, and I thought we had to really concentrate on making a good qualify effort this weekend, ... After being No. 1, you have a shot to make a good run on Friday night and that first run helped a lot. It's so important to make a good pass on the first run to put yourself near the back of the order for the night run.

I think the people here demonstrated that they care very much about this school.

I think we're still learning. But we can't have those penalties. And we had an abundance of turnovers.

Our first run was a really good run, ... To repeat what we ran last night during the day with the sun on the track, I'm really happy with that. This is the best race car that I've driven in a long time.

Please get down off the wall-bars, stay off the seats,

This will be another great challenge for our players to play against a great field in the Cowboy Classic. I hope we can put a couple good rounds together and make a good showing.

We had a tough weekend getting a handle on the race track, ... This time of year, (John) Force is the toughest car and you have to elevate your game. We've come up just a little short against them three times lately. We're still a competitive car. He's always a tough guy to run, but especially at this time of year.

We need to show more consistency as a team. We can compete with these teams, but we haven't shown that we can be as consistent as they are, but we will get there.

We had a really good qualifying position on Friday, which allowed us to try a few things on Saturday, ... We learned that we can't be as aggressive as we wanted to be. We got a little aggressive with the tune-up on the first run and the tires came loose. It just about made it on the second run. We've got a good race car for Sunday. I'm looking to go some rounds.

I've seen what he does as a coach. Even though I took a lot of what I do from him, I mix in some of my own. He's never seen me as a coach.

You run the whole season, and then you run Indy. It's that special that it separates itself from the rest of the season. We're having a good year, but if we can win Indy or the Skoal Showdown, it will be a great year.

You run the whole season and then you run Indy, ... It's that special that it separates itself from the rest of the season. We're having a good year, but if we can win Indy, it will be a great year.

It's a serious problem from our standpoint. We wish we'd known about it sooner.

It's always good to have one of your players move onto the next level. That's what this league is all about, ... Matt had a great season and I know he will excel at the next level.

Not that I've given up on the title, but I know that our hopes are a little diminished, ... My goal is to buckle down and make sure that we finish in the top five. I'm excited about the final three race swing. My attention is off the point chase and back to racing each race. We need to have a good showing and finish strong.

It'll be interesting to see the student go up against the teacher.

Any time you have a turnover, it hurts. Ours came at bad times.

The issue has been resolved to our satisfaction.

If we tried to analyze it, our minds would be pretzels.

Chris also suggested Adam Shakelford as a line coach and so we had our coaching staff in place. Then we had to get players. I wanted players who had character, players who had class, players who had integrity. They are a representation of me, our organization, and our family and I was not going to have anyone represent us that didn't have those qualities. Even if a great athlete came in, if he had a character flaw, he was gone. Matt Sauk was our first transaction. When I heard he wanted to play for us I couldn't believe it! He is a quarterback that I knew could get us where we wanted to go. He was a proven quarterback. Coach Petrino (University of Louisville) called and recommended him.

The guys are trying some different things this weekend, ... It's really showing a lot of promise. They weren't trying to go much quicker than that. They were trying to run a 4.78 or 4.79. It was a good solid run. Sure, I would have liked to have stayed No. 1, but there's nothing wrong with No. 2.

All of these pardons seemed appropriate. None of these (17 pardons) jumped out at us as something that would be untoward at all. It's a long, drawn-out and thorough process, as it should be.

The last pass was actually a pretty decent one, ... It dropped a hole (cylinder) about 500-feet into the run. We addressed the tire smoking problem and I think we can go down there and run a high 4.70 in the first round. Even racing John Force, I'm as confident as I can be. We qualified ok, but we've got the setup to race on Sunday.