I, Kia - Week 5

Micah Kia is out for the season with a torn right ACL.
But his mind still works and is mouth is still firing.
Hopefully, we can run this I, Kia feature every Tuesday, if things work out.
Here's what he has to say before Week 5:

The Stanford loss is disappointing, needless to say. We have to bounce back. Stanford was a really good team, well--rounded, they capitalized on our missed opportunities. One thing you can do is use it as fuel for this next week.

Today's practice is really important. Really just letting the loss go. Well, don't forget it - I know a lot of coaches say hold onto that feeling misery. The older guys know we don't want to slip down into that rut we were in.

All of our weapons are more than capable of getting the job done. I like the fact that we utilize as many weapons as we can. But I'd like to see the team come out with a little more fire in the first half, a little more explosion. We got that momentum going on in the second half, a little too late. It can't be a building up during the game. It has to be right away. That energy has to be there from the start.

It's something that clicks. It's not something that everybody has. There's something, an x-factor, that will come along, that will spark the team as a unit. It's hard to get that feeling. It's hard to just create that. If it's not real, nobody respects it. But once you experience the feeling, then you know, then you become familiar with it and you can return to it. That X-factor is hard to find, and it's something the boys need to bring out of each other.

Kevin Prince, as far as a young quarterback goes, I see a lot of potential. I see a lot of great leadership qualities. Comparing him to my favorite QB, Pat Cowan, is that ability to control the huddle. The quarterback could be completely wrong, but if he puts his hand in your facemask and says, 'No, I'm right, we're doing this,' then that's how it is. That's the kind of person Pat was, and I see that little spark in Prince. He's got a long way to go, but he's got the qualities in him, the fire in him, the patience to deal with everything that goes with being a QB.

As far as defense goes, I have the utmost faith in them. I believe they'll make the corrections. I've never worried about the defense, and I feel I still don't have to. The leadership on the defense will come out. They saw the mistakes they made, and they'll be able to move on without a problem.

This is one thing that us as players know, is to stay away from all the talk. All the guys on the chat boards, that's what they do, they chat. They talk. They get these big ideas. That's fine - they see it from an outside perspective. But in order to keep moving forward, something like a loss this early in the season should not matter at all to the players. You embrace the feeling of pain, and you use it as fuel, but the outside perspective? The players shouldn't care less.