Top 12 Quotes From Tom Matukewicz's First Year

"Some of you guys in the back, you may want to grab a seat, because I'm going to enjoy this process." - Tom Matukewicz at his introductory news conference

"I'm going to recruit the janitor. I'm going to recruit the science teacher. I'm going to recruit a donor in St. Louis. Like I'm recruiting every day -- not just better football players. But really that's how I see my role on a daily basis is lead, teach and recruit. I will be involved schematically, but just how much, I'm not sure. Right now I don't feel like I have any energy to, like I'm wore out. I speak all the time and I'm going, going, going, so hopefully this thing slows down and I can actually be a football coach here soon." - Tom Matukewicz on his role prior to the start of spring practices.

"What it is is getting them to understand that the decisions you make just don't affect you. Your decisions affect everyone around you and the image of one is the image of all. You go down to McDonald's and act like a turd, we're all turds." - Tom Matukewicz at Southeast football media day

"Everything you do is a statement of who you are. Whatever it is that you decide to do, make sure that you put your name or you sign off on your rep, your work, your paper, your presentation -- whatever you're doing, sign off on it." - Tom Matukewicz

"Ryan McCrum -- how about this guy? This guy must've found some girlfriend or something. I mean, he can walk around with his shirt off. He feels like the best thing to ever. ... You know, touchback, like no one thinks that's a big deal, but I'm telling you there's going to be some people that we don't want to touch the ball. That's a huge deal. That's a weapon. That's field position and those type of things. He really did a good job." - Tom Matukewicz on sophomore kicker Ryan McCrum after he made seven PATs in a season-opening win. McCrum had only made eight of 11 PATs as a freshman.

"I was hoping at the end of the game the student section would go rip down the goal post and throw it in the Mississippi, but that didn't happen, so I'm going to have to educate the fans. What a victory. The list is way too long to start thanking people or start mentioning about who played well because it's just as big a team win as you can have." - Tom Matukewicz on defeating then-No. 3 Southeastern Louisiana

"Man, I could french kiss Peter Lloyd right now. I am so, so proud of him. And this didn't just happen overnight. He has worked really, really hard and that's what happens when preparation meets opportunity -- you kill it. He's been a good player the whole time, he just got that opportunity finally." - Tom Matukewicz after junior receiver Peter Lloyd had 170 yards receiving and two touchdowns in a win over UT-Martin

"It felt like we were throwing water ballons at a battleship. ... They're a lot better O-line than anybody we've played and just hats off to them. They're just better. Then we started bringing some safeties and some things like that to just all-out try to get there, and we finally were able to." - Tom Matukewicz on the UT-Martin offensive line

"If you don't have discipline, you have nothing. Just watch the game. We have all kinds of things we can do on offense and good players on defense, but at the end of the day, if you don't have discipline, you have nothing. You give a guy a million dollars and he lives an undisciplined lifestyle, in a year he's got a bunch of problems. We have to do a better job with discipline. That's not something I can sprinkle fairy dust on and watch it get better. We've got to go put them in those critical situations, turn the heat up and make them execute under pressure." - Tom Matukewicz following a loss to Southern Illinois

"What we're going to do is we're going to make a brick of every Top 25 victory and bury it in our practice field because that's what happens -- their dreams come to die here at Houck." Tom Matukewicz on creating a "brickyard" of ranked teams the Redhawks defeat following Southeast's win against then-No. 20 Tennessee State.

"They're going to throw it a lot and they're going to see how many plays they can get. They had 66 [plays] in the first half last week. I don't even know how you do that. I know that if I do that somebody needs to shoot me because an alien's taken over my body. It's just that I'm not used to that and that's not how I've learned how to do things. The defense has a challenge." - Tom Matukewicz on the Murray State offense

"This is a marathon. It isn't a race. You've never arrived, but it's never over either. It's how you handle the process and not make excuses -- accept the things that we can control and get better at and go to work on getting it better." - Tom Matukewicz after a 44-41 double-overtime loss to Murray State