Brian Smith Quotations

There are some guys we would have liked to have seen in the finals and a few others we would have liked to have been No. 1, but you take a look at the bracket and realize it was meant to be. You realize that next week is what a lot of these guys were looking to, and they wanted to make sure they got there.

We're going to go down there, turn over every stone.

When we get at least three guys in double figures we win pretty big.

We're finding we're not able to build all the roads we need to build, so we have to find other ways to move people around.

Would you like to build a house and have an unlicensed electrician wire it?

We've got five still alive. If we can keep on winning, especially on the front side of the bracket, we'll be pretty close to where we are right now.

We want to prove we can compete in the top half of the Premiership, and that challenge continues on Sunday afternoon,

We have quite a bit of nursing experience. We almost feel like we're kind of the experts in the retirement living area.

We have kept faith with the players that performed so well last Saturday. As in that match against the French we are expecting a tough, forward dominated battle, but if our backs get a chance to run with the ball then we know that we have plenty of pace out wide.

We won some matches we weren't sure about, so that's a positive for us. Everyone getting a win at the state tournament is good for the program.

When you build something like this, you have to have some kind of basis to go with. However, the decorating here is freehand.

Now that we have reached the business end of the season managing our playing resources becomes even more important.

Nick Kennedy is an exceptional talent whose recent selection for England A indicates his potential at the top level. James Hudson is a young man that I have worked with before. He is a true professional and a good 'team' player.

I would have thought either of them would do the job well if it is indeed a wing spot they are looking for.

If we could only find a fast jet stream and whiz across the Atlantic, that would be great.

Because they've been here and know other wrestlers and schools, sometimes it can be a lot to handle. It really depends on the individual.

I felt good out there. My change-up was working well, and I was able to throw strikes and put the ball in play.

Getting the seven wins was a great start to the day. We were in second place after the first session, but unfortunately the tournament doesn't end until (today).

From our perspective it would be a positive.

If we pick up some leads on our profile we're going to follow it wherever it goes.

He was always energetic in practice. You never saw him down. He's a real loyal man.

He was bleeding from inside the eye but we don't know how bad the damage is.

He is just such a hard worker that he finds a way to succeed at whatever he does. It's great having a kid like him in the room because the other kids see what he does outside of wrestling and it shows just how far you can go if you put the work in.

He got the points and the lead and we were yelling at him to just hold on for the win. But then he got the pin and those points are huge.

We're proud of Levi. He's one of 11 state finalists at Bellingham.

Going into the state tournament, we're ranked fifth or so. Every guy's going to need to win a match, and more than a few need to be pretty high on that podium so that we can reach our team goals.

Kieron has played some great rugby for us this season.

I think it's great that enough interest is there with the city of Ames and the community to improve things,

I thought our team played with great courage and conviction against Wasps so we've decided to reward their efforts and give them another shot this weekend against Saracens,

I think any way you look at that, for them to lose a player of that quality in their team from that position in their team should have been a huge advantage for us.

I think they might have some more to come yet. You never know, do you?

Our guys know the court's the same size we have here.

Our first match in the group could not be more difficult,

Our field-goal percentage wasn't good and our free throws weren't good; 14 of 23 (at the line) wasn't good.

Reid just had a great tournament. Pinning the No. 1 see and the No. 3 seed - just great.

Our lines really did a good job of establishing the line of scrimmage.

Some of our guys even contemplated getting his autograph or pictures taken with him.

My teammates were great today. I'm especially proud of C.J. Knowland. I think he scored a big upset out there. I've spent a lot of time with him in the wrestling room, and to see him do this well in a big meet is great.

Like the rest of my companions, I expected to die in the conflict.

Maybe some of our youth came out a little bit in that. But I think they learned their lessons. We were fortunate enough, like I said, to be able to walk out with one even after we blew that lead. It's all a learning experience; it's fun. I mean, a great crowd and the boy were into it -- I told Chris Newsome I thought he was going to give me an early heart attack and I'm too young to get one of those.

Manning's a big, strong kid and Cole doesn't get to bang much down low. That should be one pairing to watch.

That was one of the best first quarters we've had, one of the best first halves we've had, and definitely one of the bets defensive (efforts) we've had. The defense was really good for us tonight; obviously, they only got 31 points against us.

That's a tough one because there just isn't much scent left out there in flowers.

Mike has been brilliant for us. He is a Bath boy and there has been a massive interest in him, but if we can keep winning we might convince him to stay here. He has a great rugby intellect and is sure to figure very heavily in the future of English rugby.

When the brackets came out, Cameron was a little disappointed with the draw. Then he told me that he visualized himself winning. That must've been some dream, because it came true.

We just couldn't get past Frank on the last lap. It was a great race and a lot of fun. It was our best finish since we got fifth in 1999. Usually we don't have a lot of good luck here.

We were able to bring a lot of people off the bench. We were able to stay fresh. We have a lot of guys pushing our starters for playing time.

We played four solid quarters. It's something that we can build on for the rest of the season.

Yesterday was a joke. We don't expect that to happen again. It was a fluke. It reminded all of us about last year and how much we don't want to go through that again.

We don't feel we are putting that roadway in any significant danger at all and don't feel that this has any significant impact on the city of Eastport in any way other than the visual impact of seeing the ships go by.

We are treating the game like a Test match.

We played smart basketball and did what we had to do down the stretch; we executed well.

We hate that we won't be able to race at Joliet, but there just isn't enough time to get it done.

We had a lot of guys around the football. One of the keys to the game was that we were able to control the line of scrimmage offensively and defensively.

We know that we will face a talented team,

We have the resources we need, we've deployed additional command control staff if we need to escalate this to a major flood fight.

You didn't see him down at all this week.

We opened up that third quarter pretty much on fire. When we're hitting 3s, we're pretty tough to stop.

We're done with the tough stuff. We're fine tuning. We call this week the check-up from the neck up.

Timmy's answered questions all year long and (now) I'm hearing stuff that people say he's got to do this or he's got to do that and I'm not really sure that he does,

We want to be a top-four team but on this evidence we've still got plenty of work to do. We've lessons to learn from this.

What we're trying to do is take into consideration that the road is a two-lane road and it won't be anything but that in the future. Therefore, we're trying to be careful how much commercial development is along the corridor; it's a lot more fragile balance between commercial and residential than U.S. 19.

We would love to give them information before anybody comes to a conclusion about the facility.

The only thing I might be worried about is the kids being satisfied after beating Garber.

We all expected to win and the fact that we didn't gives us something to build on. So I think that, where our program's at right now, freshman and JV programs had winning seasons, so we're hoping to build some new traditions.

You have to pay homage to the spirit and skill of both those guys and Barry got us out of jail today.

We spend so much time in the regular season getting ready for district. The good thing going in (at Clovis is that) they don't know anything about us either. And it's a chance for us to get better as a team, grow together. I've seen some improvements.

We just like to have fun, throw caution to the wind.

We just wanted to give him some match fitness.

We moved a bunch. It definitely made things a bit more interesting.

We felt this time we took a bit of a leaf out of Lance Armstrong's book. They looked at a bit of video of his mental preparation ... I think the boys got a little bit out of that sort of thinking.

We don't think we're looking for a third party that did it.

This one's going to hurt them probably until the first ball gets thrown up next season. We all expected to win and the fact that we didn't gives us something to build on.

Boise City coming down from 11-man will have a chip on their shoulder. They will want to show they can step in and dominate right away. We're up for a challenge.

Bruce has come in and over the last three years, really changed what debate looks like. It really comes down to who is the adviser. ... If the adviser is good at what they do and promotes it and gets kids out, it thrives.

Beating Hamilton and going to the playoffs - that would be big.

At the beginning of the year, nobody was talking about us at all. With the season we've had, we're happy to get a four seed.

At the beginning of the Arkansas State game, the quarterback was calling me a skinny defensive end, and when I finally got a sack he looked kind of surprised that it was me.

Five of our guys have a state finalist or returning state champion in their weight.

The Worcester pack look to be very well-prepared, and they will take some stopping. We will have to play with persistence and patience to post a victory.

The sooner that tax agreement is signed the better it is for everybody.

Ryan Strudwick is an exceptional rugby player and person. I knew of him long before I came to London Irish and was aware of the high regard with which he is held throughout the professional rugby playing community in this country and abroad. He has been a remarkable servant of London Irish over the past eight years and ranks among the great ambassadors of the club and the game. While there will be an opportunity to say a proper farewell before he leaves at the end of the season I want to take this opportunity to express publicly the gratitude of the directors, management, players and supporters for all he has done.

Saturday is a big day for all of us and we are looking forward to our first competitive match,

This is great news for the club. In my opinion, Bob is one of the best locks in the Guinness Premiership.

The whole day I was thinking we had to win. You're going to lose sometimes. I know this team will bounce right back.

There will be a couple of changes due to bumps and bruises but basically it?s the same side.

There remains precious little reason to think that Congress really intended for the McCain-Feingold law to regulate the web.

This is the objective, right here. We're going to move down this side, take this building next door and then we'll hit (the target structure) from there.

Aaron got him when it mattered the most.

It's been really, really big this year. We already ran out of to-go boxes and the new pecan pancakes have been huge.

It wasn't too long ago that we were at the bottom. This is a big deal for our program. Being in the top five in the state shows how hard these guys have worked.

It was close throughout. They got a 10-point lead on us in the first half; I think I had four starters with two fouls. Our shooting was not good. I think we were seven of 23 from the field in the first half, and it's not like they weren't good shots.

It's a nice bright sunny day in more ways than one.

It's always encouraging to see defensive linemen get to the quarterback. If you rush the quarterback well, good things will happen for you.

It's going to be difficult to fill his shoes. He does a great job blocking and catching the football, and he did a great job of containment at linebacker.

It's been a sad day. There have been a lot of tears and hugs.

It's been a real blast. We're loving (this trip), but we're focused on a goal.

It's nice, but it means little. It helps put the program on the map. The kids sense we're accomplishing something. But every week we have to take care of business, or we won't be ranked for long.

It's still early. We're still trying to establish some things.

Everyone contributes on our team. We share the ball and have started to play defense with more consistency and aggressiveness lately.