Northwestern State Southland Football Media Day Quotes
Head Coach Bradley Dale Peveto
"I feel like we've come a long way. My first year was a great building block for us. I was proud of our first year. We don't hide behind it. We did a lot of good things and lost a lot of close football games.
"This past season, I thought we took a big step and played for the conference championship the last week. We went into the spring and felt like there were three things we have to improve on. One is our turnover ratio. Our turnover ratio was minus 19 our first year, minus 15 our second year. When your turnover ratio is that bad, you're not going to win many football games, period. And the fact that we won five games with a turnover ratio of minus 15 is pretty incredible to be honest with you.
"Secondly, we felt like had to take our run game to the next level. We've got to be able to run the football game-in and game-out.
"And then thirdly, eliminate foolish penalties. We have shot ourselves in the foot with foolish penalties, and we have worked hard on that.
"Those were the three areas that we felt like we had to lock in and focus on and make improvements going into the 2011 season.
ABOUT THE ATHLON PREVIEW OF SELECTING NSU NO. 1 IN THE CONFERENCE
"I was proud when that publication came out because it told me that somebody was noticing progress with Northwestern State football. I agree with the poll that I looked at today (Southland Conference poll). I like where we're set and I think the Southland Conference is wide open. I don't care if you're ranked No. 1 or No. 8, it's anybody's game week in and week out. This is a great conference coached by great football coaches and played by very good players. It's a tough league with great parity and I think it's anybody's league to be totally honest."
Tight End Justin Aldredge
"We're all excited about the upcoming season. We had a really good summer with almost everybody on campus participating in workouts. Everyone is on board. We all have one thing on our mind and that's winning a championship.
ABOUT THE PRESEASON SOUTHLAND POLL
"This conference is so wide open. It's hard to sit at the beginning of the season and guess who can win it all. The polls, I know they mean a lot and smart people vote on it, I just don't take it into account because we're all going to play the same way no matter what."
ABOUT THE 2011 SCHEDULE
"We've got a tough schedule starting out with Delta State and then LSU. Delta State played for the Division II National Championship last season, so we're definitely not overlooking them. We're really excited about our schedule and we know we're going to have our work cut out for the wins."
Linebacker Yaser Elqutub
"My expectations on the season are as high as they've ever been. It's my final year and I can't help but think back when I first came here until now, we have yet to win a Southland Conference championship. I remember the look on the seniors' faces in that 0-11 year and I thought to myself 'that's not going to be us'. Our work ethic has been at the top and our expectations are extremely high."
ABOUT THE 2011 SCHEDULE
"We have a tough schedule. We're not going to overlook any game. We're going to take them week-by-week. And that's how you've got to play the game if you really want to win, it's to pay attention to what you have and it goes beyond that. Day-by-day, practice- by-practice, playbook-by-playbook, it what it comes down to."
ABOUT THE PRESEASON SOUTHLAND POLL
"All the coaches will tell you it's anybody's game in the conference and I've been witnessed to that the past four years. In my mind, I don't feel like Northwestern State is a fourth place team or a last place team. The effort and the hard work you're going to see this season is going to be indicative of where we really place in the conference standings."
