Petrino begins around the 22:00 mark.

BOBBY PETRINO: Well, I’m very proud of
our win last week. It was a good job to go on the
road in a hostile environment against a good
football team and win a game. I thought our
defense played extremely well. Offensively we
played real well in the first half and did enough in
the second half to get the win, and our special
teams played well.
We’ve got a bye week. We’re working
hard on the practice field, and certainly going to
take advantage of all the time we get to work hard
to prepare for a very good Florida State team.

Q. I was just wondering how you’ve
had to change your recruiting approach at
Louisville as opposed to what you were doing
to attract players at Arkansas?

BOBBY PETRINO: Well, we’re going to
go back to when I was here before and really hit
hard in the states of Florida, Mississippi, Alabama,
Georgia, recruiting hard obviously here in the state
of Kentucky, and then we kind of go — we do have
everyone assigned to places throughout the
country. Last year I think we signed guys from 11
different states. So it’s been a good place to be
able to recruit to. We just feel like we need to get
guys on campus.

Q. How much different has it been from
Arkansas, or has it been pretty similar?

BOBBY PETRINO: You know, I don’t like
to compare things. I just know this, that we go out
and we’ve got a very good reputation in Florida
and Georgia and Alabama. Kids have come here
and been very successful, both on and off the field
and in getting their degree.
Q. I was wondering, how did you feel
like Kenny Thomas did as you went back and
reviewed the film and just thoughts on his play
and how he did stepping in at — I guess
switching over a position from when we had
seen him earlier in the season?

BOBBY PETRINO: He did a good job.
He’s been working hard at that position for about a
month now, and I thought he did a good job. He
did a good job in pass pro. He missed a couple
things in the run game, but overall I thought he had
a good game.

Q. Have you ever had a time, or just
what are your thoughts on the fact that you
have a true freshman quarterback and two true
freshmen at offensive tackle? At least in my
mind you would think those are the three
hardest spots for freshmen to play.

BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, they definitely
are, but we’re just worrying about trying to get
better on the practice field and working hard. We
don’t think a lot about it right now. We kind of feel
like we know what we are and where we need to
improve. So we’re really focusing hard on our
technique and fundamentals in practice and getting
better on the practice field.

Q. Does it make you feel good about —
if not the present, then the future, that you’ve
already got guys that good that can step in and
play those spots?

BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, I mean, it’s nice
to have the young guys and try to build, but right
now our important thing is to win every game that
we play. You know, prepare hard, learn how to
practice the way you need to practice, what you’re
supposed to do in the meeting rooms, how we play
off our defense because we’re playing great
defense, and kind of felt like a little bit in the fourth
quarter there the other day we were playing the
four-corner style of basketball, just trying to work
the clock. But that’s what we needed to do to win
the game.

Q. Did you come away injury-wise okay
from NC State?

BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, we’re in good
shape.

Q. Just curious with the recruiting with
Lamar (Jackson) going down to the wire when I
know he was looking at Florida toward the end
there. What do you think it was about the way
that you recruited him that had him stick to his
commitment to you guys?

BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, I was nervous
about it going down to the end there because it
was close, but you know, we had a good
relationship with him. Our wide receiver coach
Lamar Thomas had been recruiting him for a very
long time. We’ve got a very good relationship with
his mother, who was able to really get to know us
and understand that he would have an opportunity
to play early, and he really liked it when he came
up here on his visit. He felt comfortable with the
players on our team and the atmosphere and
culture here at Louisville.
It all played out, and I was really happy he
stuck to his commitment.

Q. Can you just flash back to the first
time you saw some of his tape and what your
initial impressions were of him?

BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, well, initially we
were not going to recruit a quarterback in this
class. We felt like, you know, we had enough guys
here, and then the first time I watched the video
and I knew that he had a real interest in coming
here, you know, it was something where you
change your mind. You make a decision that,
okay, well, we’ll take this guy right here because
he’s got a chance to be a great player.
He basically changed our philosophy and
how we were approaching recruiting last year.

Q. About the bye week, do you feel like
this bye week is coming at a good time for you
in light of the start, and what does this bye
week kind of allow you to work on looking at
these first five games?

BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, it’s a pretty
good time for us. You know, being between two
very difficult road teams, you know, I think it’s a
good time to have a bye.
What we always try to do is spend half of it
going back to camp I guess you would say where

we go back to working hard on our technique and
fundamentals and getting back to doing some of
the drills that we haven’t done for a while and
going against each other, and then we spend
about the other half of it getting some extra
preparation for our next opponent. It always
seems to work out pretty well for us.

Q. You alluded to going to NC State
and getting a win there. How big a win was that
maybe for this team’s confidence? It’s one
thing to get a win against Samford, but when
you get a conference win like that, what did it
kind of do for the team’s morale?

BOBBY PETRINO: Well, they’ve all been
extremely coachable and have been working very,
very hard in practice. We had a very good early
schedule, and we came down to basically one
possession in the three games that we didn’t find a
way to win. So for them to continue to work hard
and see it pay off, it was a really good win for our
momentum and for our attitude and the
understanding that when you do work hard, good
things will happen.

Q. Obviously you guys have a bye
week this week, and you’re going to have a lot
of time to get prepared for Florida State.
What’s one of the main things that you’re really
trying to emphasize to your guys about going
up against a team like Florida State?

BOBBY PETRINO: I mean, you really just
prepare like you do for every other game. The
good thing that we have is extra time to work on
what they do, understanding what their different
looks are, what they do in the run game, in the
pass game, what they do in 3rd down. You really
just work hard on the situations of the game, get
some extra reps at that, and then work on getting
better yourself and preparing during the week this
week on the bye of getting better as a football
player.

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@UofLSheriff50. Louisville native, University of Louisville Business School Grad c/o 2004. Co-Founder of TheCrunchZone.com

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