Larry Coker transcript
Monday, Aug. 29, 2011
On how much sleep he is going to get with the anticipation of the big week ahead …
"I actually go to sleep well. Last night, I woke up and a lot of things went through my head between pregame warmups, the hotel and other things out there. It's not really smart, but there's nothing you can do at two o'clock in the morning. It's like what Pat Riley said. Maybe I'll lose some weight or gain some stress weight. We'll see."
On the amount of former coaches that have reached out to him in the last week or so …
"It hasn't been so much coaches, but I have had a lot of former players text and email me. I really appreciate that. What's neat as a coach is when you connect with your former players."
On how often he has visualized the first game …
"We'll get our kids down to the Dome and practice out there on Friday with a walkthrough. I try to make that home for them so it's not such a big shock on game day. If anyone should get a shock, it should be Northeastern. I visualize it a lot and there's many things you cannot do anything about. You just have to play. I know we may make some mistakes, but then again, the New England Patriots might make some mistakes this weekend as well. We're just going to play, and when we make mistakes, we'll correct them."
On being hired back in March 6, 2009, and now being just five days away from the program's inaugural game …
"It's really unbelievable. It seems like only yesterday that I was being introduced at a press conference and now I've been here for almost three years. I didn't know my way around when I first got here, but i'll tell you, the anticipation in the air for our players is so different this week because they know they finally have a game to play. To practice football for a year with no games was really tough for them."
On playing his alma mater …
"I remember them giving me a great opportunity. I was a great student but not a great football player. Northeastern gave me the opportunity to walk on and I played quarterback before moving into the secondary. I just remember the opportunity to play big-time football. At least that was big-time football to me. I felt like I learned a lot there. We didn't even win a game my first year, but my last year, we were ranked third in the nation. To go from nothing to that really stood out to me."
On the realization that the players will play in front of the largest crowd they've probably ever seen before …
"One of the coaches from Northeastern who I know from coaching together at Tulsa called me and told me that he had heard it was going to be a sellout. I told him it was a possibility and I hope it is. Forty-nine thousand is the record crowd for a start-up program, so hopefully we can get past that because I feel this would be great publicity for both programs. It's going to be a good crowd regardless. I tell our players not get caught up in the ticket business or the pep rallies because all that truly matters is what goes down inside the green. We have to take care of what we have to take care of on the field and the fans can enjoy the rest of it."
