I just think the overall group has come together. The attitude was terrific fighting through adversity. We have great senior leadership, certainly with the five senior captains. They stayed patient and allowed these young guys to come along.

We've been fighting through adversity all year. We're accustomed to fighting adversity.

This is why you play the games, to have a chance to win championships. This senior group has won two conference titles (in 2003 and 2004). They?re going to get after it and see if they can get their third.

The schedule is the toughest we've had in years. The staff and players are excited about having six night games, as well as a number of great teams on the schedule. Each week will be demanding and our guys must be focused and prepared for each opponent.

Every time we play Butler it rains, so that's not something new for us.

The defense played a solid game without being tested much throughout, except in man-down situations in which we were 7 of 7.