Quotes following Saturday night's NMSU win over Idaho

Aggie head coach DeWayne Walker
On the team's defensive performance
I'm just happy for those guys. Defense is playing without three D-lineman, without a starting linebacker. These guys work their tail off. Try to put together schemes, walk throughs, meetings. They do it all. Anytime you have coaches on that side of the ball who work their butts off — you like to see them have success. And it was a great game for them.

On Aggies goal line stand
I mean, shoot…I was worried about, (like) when they played Virginia, that they score a touchdown and try to go for two. I didn't want to go through that. I was hoping and praying that the defense would keep them out of the endzone. They did.

Did you feel like they under utilized Princeton McCarty?
Robb (Akey) had mentioned in the paper that he wanted to turn run the ball more…..They only ran it 29 times and we ran it 41 times. They threw it 35 times so….They were playing from behind quite a bit too. Maybe that had a little bit to do with it. They were pretty close to 50/50.

Was quarterback Matt Christian able to go back into the game?
Yeah, he just hurt his shoulder a little bit. Doug (Martin) and I talked about it and I just said ‘hey, we're going to need him next week.’ The youngster (freshman quarterback Travaughn Colwell) was doing his thing, he was getting ripped on the phone from coach Martin (chuckle). He kept us in it and it was a great game for him to get his feet wet….If it had got to a two-minute situation where we would have had to put Matt in there, maybe in that situation, than we probably would have done that. But it was good to see the youngster get some snaps and do a good job.

On special teams
There's always something to work on. I know coach Murphy — and I love him to death — he kept his distance from me most of the game. That's an area we're definitely going to have to get fixed. Again, we're going to enjoy this one, but Hawaii is a good football team. I'm already thinking about next week, personally.

On second half of schedule
You know, I wasn't going to say anything about this — but this is deja vu. My first year, were in the same situation. We were 3-3 and our last seven games weren't very good. Now we're sitting in that same situation. And I'm looking forward to these last seven games regardless of who we are playing. Because we know what it feels like to experience the other part. We want to get a chance to compete in these last seven games better than we did in 2009.

On Kenny's performance
Yeah, he said at halftime, he said…I brought the whole team up and said, ‘look, guys we're going to support our freshman quarterback.’ And Kenny pulled me aside and said, ‘coach, give me the ball.’ Any time a player wants to put the team on his back, you've got to give him a lot of credit. Kenny had a helluva game.

Aggie quarterback Travaughn Colwell
On experience of playing quarterback
It was exciting. I've been working on it in practice, been working hard, just getting ready for when my time comes. It was pretty exciting.

On quick turnaround — Christian hurt, Colwell in
Basically, it was just me doing what I've been coached to do. That's what I did. That's how the touchdown play happened.

On if he surprised some people
One thing I have been doing is staying after practice and working on things I haven't been comfortable with. It shows in a game. Coach Martin tells me all the time…A lot of drills I do to warm up, I'll see in a game.

How would you grade your performance
I think it was bad. I got a lot of stuff to work on. It's just fundamental stuff, getting everything right….I feel pretty confident though.

Running back Kenny Turner
On what win means to team
It means a lot to the team. One-and-one in the conference, 3-3 — fresh start for the season. It means a lot.

On feeling at home at running back
That's what I was recruited to play. That's what I do.

On success Saturday night
Same thing every week. Hitting the holes hard. Since the spring I was in the slot. The first two games back at running back, it was kind of just hit the holes. Tonight, I was more reading the holes and hitting it when I see space.

How do you build off this game for next week
This is the first time in a long time that the Aggies own two-straight games. We feed off that. That's momentum. We just take that momentum to the next game. The things we do good, we do better and the things we're not doing good, we get better at now.

Aggie defensive back Donyae Coleman
On defensive performance
We just did what we had to do. We made up our minds, we set up a goal, and we did it. Coach showed us America's Game last night. We were watching the '85 Bears. And that defense was amazing. We went off that and we wanted to be like them. We made up our mind and just went out there and played ball.

More on performance
We rep this every day in practice. Our amazing offense, they win some, we win some. We were just geeked about it. We knew it was going to come down to us. Travaughn came in, we knew Matt was down and we knew we couldn't let them score no more. We have a freshman quarterback up in there, we had to protect him, make him feel at ease so he can ease into it. We just did what we had to do. Fourth-and-1, we were pretty geeked about it.

On the defense forcing four defensive turnovers
Every day in practice. On the kickoff, I just ran down there, I just kind of took it from him. On the interception, I was just doing what I was coached to do.

On how he's taken his game to the next level
A lot of prayer and work. I set out a goal this year to get interceptions. Believe it or not, this is the first time in my career to get interceptions in a game. I'm pretty excited about that. I'm just trying to keep that going.