Syracuse University Athletics

 

 

“What I’ll tell you is what I just told the team. I thought it was an outstanding effort by our offense. I thought for four quarters it was as big of an effort that I can remember since I’ve been here. We have had some games where we racked up some yards, but I thought they consistently ran the ball well and they threw the ball well at times. I thought that (running back) Curtis Brinkley was outstanding. It went beyond his effort. His true talents really began to show up. It’s a great example of perseverance. I felt the same way about (running back) Delone Carter. To see him doing what he was doing, he’s persevered and fought through so much, as we all know. The rest of the offense was working for them. I thought that (quarterback) Cam Dantley did an outstanding job. He threw three touchdown passes and ran the offense very well. He got us in and out of plays and did what he had to do. I was really proud of his effort. And then I talk about the other side of the ball. To me, it comes right down to coaching and right to me. I thought from the get-go, the first touchdown pass to double coverage, we let the guy get wide open. It was really downhill from there. There are no excuses for it. We like to think we were prepared, but obviously we weren’t. We have a lot of work ahead of us. We have Penn State rolling into town and the defense is going to have to regroup really quickly.”

 

“At the end of training camp I sat Andrew down and I sat Cam down. I told Andrew, ‘You haven’t been consistently playing the way you used to play all through camp.’ He was working hard and trying to do all the right things, but he really wasn’t as effective as he had been throwing the football. I told him, ‘Cam has had an excellent camp and I have to recognize that.’ He was quick to admit to that and say how proud he was to see Cam’s development. Then I sat Cam down and said, ‘Cam, you’ve had a great camp. Many days out here you’ve outplayed Andrew. But I feel like I owe it to Andrew for all that Andrew has been through, through all last season and how he fought through the adversity, that he deserves to go out in that first game and play.’ After the first game, I reviewed it and felt that Andrew really hadn’t improved. Andrew was still off and with that in mind, I felt it was the right thing to do to go to Cam. He fought through it and took his game to a level where I felt he deserved to be the starter this week. I was really proud of the way that he played.”

 

“If I knew that, I would’ve fixed it. I’m going to have to assess it right now and take a look. I thought that for two and a half quarters last week, we played good defense. It wasn’t perfect but there were a lot of good things in that defense. I felt like today it started from the get-go. It was a busted play. They hit us on the draw-play three different times on long yardage, which is really an embarrassment. That’s as much on me as it is on anybody. I give their (Akron’s) running back a lot of credit. He did a great job as well. I wish I could tell you what the answer is. We played shabby.”

 

“I thought we had a chance right there to beat that team. We needed to go out and get a defensive stop, get the ball back to the offense again, but we didn’t. They had a long drive.”

 

“I felt that way and I told you that I felt like the defense, when we had the lead 10-9 last week, needed to respond and make a play and we didn’t. We had a third and six and they got that screen on us. I’m disappointed because I thought that we had a chance right there. We’d gained some momentum and had things going in our direction but we let it get away from us.”

 

“The fans have every right to be upset and be disappointed. What can I say other than I’ve got to go and get these guys playing? That’s really what it comes down to. Like I said way back when, talking is over. It’s time to do it. Right now we have not done it. That was not a good showing today and everyone knows it. That’s the bottom line.”

 

“We’re a little banged up. We have Ryan Gillum out for a period of time. Chad Battles is out for a period of time. Nico Scott went down in the first quarter. That isn’t the reason. We just have to get better.”

 

“I don’t know that right now. There’s not an instant answer. It’s going to take some work to get things right. I give those defensive players credit, they were clawing and scratching. They didn’t play well all the time. I give that running back a lot of credit. All in all, I just think we have to get back at it. It’s all you can do. I just look at and say I don’t have an answer other than I’m going to look and see what went wrong. There were a couple of situations where it was third down and 15, we have them backed up and they get out on a draw play and make a first down by about four inches. All of a sudden they’re out. Those things proliferate. When you give up that play, all of a sudden it’s another one. It’s another third down draw-play. I thought we had a perfect call for a draw-play and we didn’t play it well. The players have to take accountability, as well, there’s no question. It’s those kinds of things that really put the dagger in you a little bit. You have a chance to stop it and you don’t. It starts to proliferate and it grows on you. The plays start to add up.”   

 

“We better find that out pretty quick. Time will tell. I can say a lot of things to you. Right now we’re 0-2. Until we do, there’s still a question.”

 

“I don’t know. I just came off the field. This was a tough loss, a very tough loss. We had an opportunity to win that game in the fourth quarter and we let it get away. It is a tough loss. We have to respond, that’s the bottom line.”