Gary Andersen Quotations

It gives kids more opportunity to come in and compete. It's a window of opportunity. We've got good football players here and we'll be just fine.

At the end of the day, am I happy with the way we played? Absolutely. Bottom line, we beat 'em.

He's an unbelievable playmaker. He's just one of those kids who has a knack to make plays. Now he has to be a leader off the field, too, for our defense, and I think he's accepted that role.

I felt like we got in a rhythm there in the second half. I think it was a definite improvement.

One of those guys will step up and do a nice job in there. But the maturity and being in a game situation definitely goes to Eric.

We started playing a little bit soft, playing some zone. Probably shouldn't have done it. Probably should have just kept on going and kept on grinding. But the third quarter was lights out. That was an awesome performance out of the kids, and we got turnovers.

It's not a big deal. We've got good players behind him and we're ready to go. That's life. It's a window of opportunity for those two kids and they need to jump on it and go get it.

When you play safety in this defense, you have to know a lot about where people fit, what's going on and the whole big picture. Eric has a very good grasp of the picture, of our whole defense. He's going to get the guys lined up in the right spots.

You have to grind every single day and work very hard to play here. Maybe it's not for everybody. . . . I can't tell you why they did what they did. I just know we've got a bunch of kids here who are very good players and they are going to continue to work hard.

There isn't much difference. The positions are very interchangeable.