Opening Statement:
“It was a hard-nosed, tough football game. I felt like we had our chances there. We didn’t take advantage of all our opportunities to make some plays. I give Pitt credit, especially there in the fourth quarter when they got control of the game and did a lot of things. I thought they did good things. Their backs are good backs. When it gets into that kind of situation, I think their quickness and the way they hit holes is really to their advantage. As I look at and as I look at our team, we are a better team today than we were last Saturday. I believed we were going to be. I thought we were going to be good enough to win the football game. There were moments in that game that I thought we had our chances to win the football game. Now we go into a bye week to regroup and assess where we are.”
On not being good enough to finish the game:
“I’ll look at it and check it out on both sides of the ball. I don’t really know what the answer is, other than they made some plays we didn’t make and we have to assess why. I don’t get replays and all those other things. I don’t know where breakdowns are or what side of the ball they’re on or if it’s in the kicking game. That’s what we have to assess.”
On the loss being tougher because Syracuse had control of the game:
“It’s still a 60 minute game, so a loss is a loss to me. I think we had our chances. We had chances and didn’t capitalize enough in situations. We let them get to a point where they got a lead. When they get into that situation, they’re tough. They go to two tight ends and two backs. When those two backs start putting more blocks on you and it gets tough. We didn’t need to put ourselves in a situation where it got like that. In all phases, we have to work together. I think we’re going to find that in each phase, each group could’ve done something to make a difference.”
On putting true freshman running back Antwon Bailey in the game with the game tied:
“Doug Hogue hurt himself. He tweaked his ankle and we really didn’t have him at full speed. Antwon Bailey is a guy who has been very impressive to us. We’re playing to try and win the game and Curtis Brinkley needed a blow so we put him in. We were going to use Doug (Hogue) just because he’s such a fine blocker for third down situations.”
On if the team does not know how to close out a game:
“I’m not going to say that about them. I don’t think that’s fair to say. I think Pitt did a good job. They played better the last 10 minutes of the game than we did.”
On how important time of possession was in the second half:
“It’s important, really important. They got control of the ball. We had our chance to get control and we didn’t. It goes both ways. We have to control the ball so that they can’t control the ball. Sometimes time of possession looks like an offensive statistic, but it’s a football team statistic and it goes both ways. They got control in the fourth quarter.”
On not going for it on fourth-and-one in the first half:
“We had the lead. We had the lead right there. It was more than just a one, it was two. It was on the 45-yard line. That’s desperate in my mind. You play smart football, you punt it down there and you’re supposed to stop them.”
On whether it has anything to do with missed tackles:
“I’m going to look at the film but Pitt has made people miss before. We tackled well. We hit. We made a lot of good plays. Give Pitt some credit, too. They have two fine backs and they can make people miss. I don’t lose sleep over that kind of football. We were playing. We were giving it up and we were hitting.”
On true freshman wide receiver Van Chew’s touchdown catch:
“It was a fantastic catch. It was a great ball from Cam Dantely. He threw a great pass. Van just tracked that football. To get the body contorted the way he did, stay with it and then snag it with his hands, that’s really exceptional hand-eye coordination. Van is a guy who can make plays like that.”
On whether he wants to limit running back Curtis Brinkley’s carries:
“There is no limit. He was getting fatigued.”