Opening Statement
“I’m very disappointed. I expected to see a closer margin than what it turned out to be. It’s frustrating and I think it’s a real challenge for us right now. We have to dig deep right now and find a way to fight back.”
On his thought process on the fake field goal:
“From what we studied, I thought there was an opportunity for that. I wanted to try and get seven points. I felt like touchdowns were the way to get it going early in the ball game and it didn’t work.”
On West Virginia’s offensive weapons:
“It was early in the ball game and we had some young players in there – as you might know. We didn’t play that first play, but we played that play well and really from that point it really wasn’t a major issue when they pitched it to big 35 (Owen Schmitt). Quite frankly, I know Pat White had a run on a third and short and we had him stuffed. Quite frankly another young kid over-did it – tried a little two hard to knock two guys off and that’s their big play. The problem was as the day went on they were in a position of strength; they had the lead. When they had the lead they got to us a little bit. Now they could live with it – they can run, they can throw and we had to play it all. Quite frankly, I thought the defensive kids fought. They fought and I told them that it reminded me of a couple of years ago. That was the first time I really felt that this year. Now we have to play better. We give up a big pass there at the end and that was a young kid’s mistake and a coverage I shouldn’t have put him in because he hadn’t done it enough – when we gave up the pass from (quarterback Jarrett) Brown. There were a lot of things that the people out there crawling and scratching – they can walk out of here with their heads up. They played these guys tooth-and-nail. They battled, but it wasn’t good enough. I look at the offense and I say, son of a gun, we’re pounding that ball and we looked like a team that could run the football, but you have to be able to maintain it and keep it going. That’s when those turnovers hurt you because they scored on all the turnovers. Now it is a pretty darn good football game that’s all of a sudden out of reach – this is just a perspective. I haven’t watched film, but that’s just what I felt; I even told them at half time. I said, ‘You know something, you are going to watch the first half of this game and you’re going to be disappointed because you’re going to see offensively, defensively and special teams there were good things going on.’”
On the offense not sustaining drives:
“Again the turnovers. To me that’s what got it going right there. It’s that sudden the change of perspective of the whole thing. Even though they scored, we came back and scored, you could see this could be interesting. But turnovers can kill you.”
On the new defensive set of Jameel McClain, Max Suter and Mike Holmes:
“We made some changes for this style of offense. I felt that’s what we needed to do was to play the players we used. We had Homes in there, we had Suter in there and we had Jameel playing linebacker. He is active and I didn’t want him to be limited to just on the end. In a game like this you have to be sideline to sideline.”
On whether or not the inexperience was a factor:
“Not really. The pass to big 35 (Owen Schmitt) in the flat – I think that might have been their longest pass until they hit that one – that was inexperience right there. You know what, you have to give to get.”
On what to say to the team:
“Today isn’t the day to give up. Today is to internalize what we just went through and today is not the day to talk about next week. Today is to talk about today and that’s really what we did and I don’t mean that in any disrespect to you. I’m just telling you, that is my feeling – it’s about now. We have to feel it for 24 hours. We need to feel it – the pain of it. That was painful because I’m telling you we could have played that team. If we just click a little bit, all of a sudden it could have been a real interesting football game.”
On whether or not (quarterback) Andrew Robinson made poor decisions in the first half:
“What were his interceptions? One was a tip, I don’t know you guys (the media) see those things. I know it was quick and I want to say somebody jinxed him when one of you guys asked me on Tuesday about him not throwing an interception in 197 passes or whatever it was (104). I didn’t have any clue and I hated that I heard that. I’m not trying to be funny – I’m not. It did click in my head.”
On West Virginia’s talent:
“This team (WVU) won a ton of football games last year and you were all at media day at the BIG EAST and you were all talking about how good they were. Why would you ask me? You know what you think. You think (Steve) Slaton is a heck of a player. You think (Patrick) White is a heck of a player. The full back had broken 67 facemasks – I heard about it. Let me tell you something, they are a good team – of course they’re good. But we’re going to be good. I liked what I saw today and we have something to build on. You guys might think I’m nuts but I could see some fight. I could see come confidence starting to develop. I saw guys flying around. When I see them in the fourth quarter still going to the ball they way they did. They (WVU) played that pitch number 35 (Schmitt) and we knocked him for a no gain. They were progressing and getting better.”
On what the difference has been since Louisville:
“They were doing well early in the game. We hit a ball, threw a pass and there was some good running going on - some hard-nosed running. We got that touchdown right over the off tackle. It was good, but we didn’t sustain it. I think the turnovers put us behind and then all of a sudden all hell breaks loose. All of a sudden the score is up there.”
On (cornerback) Dowayne Davis’ status:
“Middle of the fourth quarter he had cramps and had to come off and get an IV. He went back in and I didn’t think at that time we could put him back out there. He’s doing fine and he’ll be alright.”
On if this was the most painful loss while at Syracuse:
“I don’t know that. I know this, a game like this is an important game and it hurts to lose and it hurts a lot. That’s all I’m saying, I don’t know which one.”