Post Game Quotes

Transcription

1 HEAD COACH MARK RICHT Opening Statement You guys must have been inside. Because if you were outside, you might have been gone by now [laughter]. When the games are over and we win, I m mostly just thankful. I don t get too jacked up one way or the other. Every once in a while, the juices will pump on a victory, but I m more thankful that we got the victory. I m thankful the guys played well, overall. I m thankful that most everybody came out of there without any kind of injury that I think would cost them playing time, or cost them the season, or even worse. So I m thankful for that. I thought our defense played spectacular, very obvious how great they played. They would not let it get interesting at all, with the way they played. Hats off to Coach Diaz and the rest of the defensive staff, and the players just a beautiful job. Offensively, not pretty by any stretch. We were off in our timing throwing and catching a little bit. We had some opportunities, but just couldn t cash in on them. We have to get better there. Then we just began to run the ball and have what people call RPOs just run-pass option stuff, simple zone plays with the little bubble screens to the receivers. That kind of settled us down and we started moving the ball on a consistent basis, and we executed well. You still have to execute those, but we simplified everything and just made it to the point where we could just line up and know for sure what we were going to run, not have a bunch of combos. Early on we checked to a pass and ended up throwing a pick. It was very good by their defense, they did a good job of showing pressure and they came out of it. We ended up throwing the ball into the linebacker s hand got to give them props as a coaching staff and as players executing that well. Brad [Kaaya s] second pick, he got hit as he was throwing. I think, overall, it was a good, solid victory - no doubt about that. It was good to finish the game the way we did, just get into a two-tight set. I had the itch to launch one, because they were selling out completely to the run, and we probably could have got another deep ball. But at that point, it s time to finish the game and not get stupid. You drop back, get hit and the ball pops in the air and when there s a fumble, scoop-and-score, and all of a sudden the game changes with just four minutes to go. So just line up in two tight [ends] and finished it out. That s about how it went. One more thing - the roughing the kicker, we can t do that. Especially playing that good defense early in the game like that, and they have to go back out and play D again we either have to get better at that technique or just not come after it. On no Miami team scoring more points in its first two games than the 2016 Hurricanes I don t know. I don t get too worked up about that. I just want to score enough to win, truthfully. I like it when there s not a whole lot of drama at the end. I like it when we can finish a game without everybody having a heart attack out there. It s good to score points. The defense set up a bunch of them, the offense did their share. I guess we ran for close to 300 yards again, that was good. We had a couple of backs over 100 [yards], which is nice. Good, solid running backs, good blocking. A couple of times they just used their athleticism to break a big run. A lot of times we blocked it so-so, maybe got a stalemate, and they bounced it or made one guy miss and got a long run out of it. I like winning more than I worry about points. On the inconsistency of the down-field passing early in the game We had the deep ball to [David] Njoku we thought that play was going to be there, and it ended up being exactly the way we thought it would be. I don t remember exactly the throw I think, again, if we hit him on the dead run, maybe he scores. That s my guess. And Brad [Kaaya] will tell you, he missed a couple opportunities in this ballgame. There were a couple that might have hit our hands that we could have made a catch on, too. The throwing and catching tonight was really what stagnated us a little bit, so we said, Alright, if we re not going to throw and catch, let s hook it up and run the zone and throw some bubbles out there and see what happens. It really settled the game down for us. On explaining the early struggles of the offense I don t know. I think part of it is not being 100-percent sure what they were going to do. They made some changes. They didn t play it exactly the way they had played it, played more one-high stuff, a little more getting the numbers right to stop the run, which I thought they might. We ran the ball well last week, and I m sure they wanted to hold up against the run without being in kind of a two-deep type of look, which they do quite often. They played a little bit more one-high stuff, which wasn t shocking, but when you practice something all week and it comes up a little bit different, it just takes a little while to get comfortable with it. I think we ll look at that film and say - I can t even imagine how many - but either the ball or the protection or, there will be something in the pass game that kept us really being sharp and having some big numbers. On the performance of running back Mark Walton, who had four rushing touchdowns He ran the ball extremely well. He s very physical. I guess somebody told me he had four touchdowns, that s a bunch. 9.2 yards per carry, that s pretty good. He did a nice job. [Joe] Yearby did, too. Yearby does a super job of making people miss and breaking tackles. They re both really tough, physical runners, and Gus [Edwards] is too. We just didn t get him in the game as much as we normally would. But the top two guys did a great job. On the play of the team s trio of freshman linebackers I didn t see much tonight because I was, again, trying to do my job in between plays and trying to get a good plan for the offensive schemes. I was watching in general - the defense playing fast, penetrating, getting some tackles behind the line of scrimmage. You can talk about those linebackers all day, because how often do you have three true freshmen show up and start playing good ball for you like that? Again, props to the last staff for recruiting them and getting them here in January. I think that was huge. If they didn t show up until first or second summer session, it would have bene a lot tighter race to get them ready, and not as much comfort level as we had because they went through spring. On the team s nine penalties Very disappointing on the penalties. Some of them, there s no excuse whatsoever. We have to get better. I don t want this to be a recurring theme, but just not enough discipline, and I m not doing a good enough of sending the message I guess.

2 Charlie Partridge, Head Coach, FAU Opening Statement I want to give all the credit in the world to Miami for what they did tonight to win the game and there are things we did at times that made us look like a program that s continuing to go the direction we want it to go, but we re clearly not there yet. I m proud of Kalib Woods having 120 plus yards, proud of our kickoff return team, Schomp again had a very good night. There were flashes at times with our offense, but again I want to give all the credit in the world to Miami, they did a nice job and ended up pulling away in the end. On the explanation of the forced fumble It was ruled a fumble, but when we recovered it, we were out of bounds. So technically it goes back to where it was fumbled from, which was an accurate interpretation of the rule. On why they had 85 total yards in the first half I ll go back to what I said at the beginning there were a couple of opportunities. We had to make a catch coming out from where we were moving the pocket, getting Jason moving, getting to move the chains. A couple times we did get gains that you don t see because we brought them back for a presnap penalty, which was disappointing.

3 Defensive Coordinator Manny Diaz Opening Statement Challenged our guys before the game to walk in the stadium as if they were in total control of the outcome, and I was really proud of the way they played. I thought from start to finish, with a few exceptions, we played as if we were always under control even if adversity was striking us. That s what you were looking for tonight - you felt like you d get adversity, I thought Florida Atlantic played a great game, they really physically got after us on both sides of the ball, and to see our guys stand up to that challenge, put out the fires on some sudden change situations early in the game, those are the type of the things you can really take confidence from that going forward. When you get into some backs against the wall-type situations, that you can respond positively to help out the football team. On the run defense It s who we are, the first tenant of our defense is stop the run, in college football, in any football, it has never changed in the history of the game. It s just easier to hand the ball off than it is to throw it, more bad things can happen when a guy has to throw the ball. For the first two games our run defense has been outstanding. We know that every week the challenge will be greater with the teams we have, but it s nice to put 120 minutes of football (out there), of pretty stout run defense, to start the season. On Darrion Owens return That, to me, is the greatest thing from this game, to have Darrion Owens, one year after a very severe injury, to go in there and take snaps. Forget in terms of our need, which we do have a need for him to come back, but just for him and the work he s put through and all the challenges of going through rehab. I was just so pleased that he was able to go in there take snaps, make plays, get into the mix, and the fact that it happened, one year ago against the same team, that is a big time story and one of the greatest things about this evening that he will never forget.

4 Student Athlete Mark Walton and Joe Yearby Sophomore RB Mark Walton On recording a four-touchdown game It feels great. I m trusting my o-line. They did a great job tonight. Without them, I wouldn t have had four touchdowns. Believing in them, trusting them, trusting my reads, hitting my holes well and just running. On feeling any pressure I wasn t trying to put too much pressure on [myself]. I just wanted to be the guy who sparked the team tonight, and that s what I did. I was just trying to play my game and be relaxed. On having the trust of the coaching staff It s special for [Coach Richt] to call our number in certain situations, for him to be able to trust me, Joe [Yearby], all the running backs. No matter what the situation is, we go out there and run the ball hard and just do what we do in practice. On his favorite of the four touchdowns The win. I don t have a favorite. I m just thankful to get the win tonight. I don t have a favorite touchdown. Junior RB Joe Yearby On the way he and Mark Walton are running The way we are running the ball is extremely awesome. We compliment each other every time we make good runs. We tell each other what we see on the field, so the other one can go in there and pick up the slack. On the struggles of the passing game early in the night We told the quarterback and the offensive linemen that we can put it on our back and let us take the show. On the offensive line The first half they had a slow start. But once the coaches started talking to them, they started playing better and focusing more. On FAU as an opponent We knew it was going to be a tough game, they weren t going to come down and lay down. FAU is a good team, a pretty tough team. We had the mindset coming in that it was going to be a dogfight.

5 Junior QB Brad Kaaya On having a running attack that has averaged over 300 yards in the first two weeks That s awesome. If those guys Mark [Walton], Joe [Yearby], Gus [Edwards] - can keep that up, I think it s going to be a great year for this offense. Being able to have that every single game is going to be huge for me and huge for everyone. On if he felt out of sync in the first half Yeah. They came out with some looks that I hadn t seen on film. On that first pick, I thought the MIKE [linebacker] was playing man on the running back. In film, they were usually in a Cover 1 look, but they kind of played a Cover 1 Robber look, which undercut that slant I threw. I didn t see him. Just two different looks that we adjusted to, and eventually in the second half they were playing five-man boxes. We threw some bubbles out, spread those guys out and just diced them up with our running backs. On the simpler passes settling the offense down Yeah. Honestly, bubbles are just a good way to spread that box out, just get those linebackers playing on the edge of the box and just allowing our run lanes to be wide open. It s an easy pass, easy 10 yards. We ll take it all the time. On Mark Walton playing with a chip on a shoulder. Definitely. He just plays with a lot of passion and heart. He has done it even since he got back in the summer. Just watching him work out, watching him practice he just shows up every day and gets after it. I would say he definitely has [a chip on his shoulder].

6 Greg Buddy Howell, RB, FAU On his mindset during the first half We just got to keep trusting it, do what we ve got to do. Don t get out of the ordinary. I m taught at practice: trust my reads, trust my routes; just trust it. On why it took time to get the running game going in today s game We just had to get certain [things] fixed. We recognized some of the stuff and made changes and we started moving towards the end. But basically, you ve got to come out hard every game. You ve got to come out with some fight, some pressure; we ve got to make a dent. We can t let the defense put a dent in us. We re going to keep working on it. We re going to go back. We re going to fix it. We ve got to come out strong. We got to pop off every time. On his touchdown run Basically just running hard. There s nothing to it. It s still, like I said, trusting my guys to make their blocks. When I go out there and I run hard and they trust their blocks and they keep running and don t look back, we can be very successful. It s just being physical and doing what I have to do and giving it all for my team. So, trust it and have faith, you ll have a good outcome. Keep working on it so we can have more runs like that. Kalib Woods, WR FAU On his performance in tonight s game At the point of a loss, it doesn t matter. It was just production on the field. Just nothing new that we don t do in practice. Just carry it over. Just running basic plays, dayone plays that we put in and they ll just work. On if the rain had anything to do with the fourth-down play in the fourth quarter No, just lack of concentration. That s all. Jason Driskel, QB, FAU On his performance in tonight s game Well, you can t make excuses. It s just lack of execution. Certainly, can t move the ball if the quarterback doesn t play well. I didn t play well today to win. On wide receiver Kalib Woods performance Well, honestly, he s one of our captains. He s a great playmaker outside. Anytime we can get a chance to get him the ball, we want to. On if he felt they left a lot on the field in the first half I feel like we left a lot out there for two halves. That s a good team right there, and a good defense but we left a lot out there. We re going to watch the tape tomorrow. It s going to come down to our execution and we didn t execute. Like I said, it starts with me. I didn t do enough today for us to win. Trey Hendrickson, RE, FAU On how he would describe the defense We re hungry. We had a taste for a win last week. I wouldn t say we were complacent. It wasn t like that but definitely ready to get this next week going. On what he would attribute the defense s performance over the last couple of weeks Lack of discipline and lack of execution. We have another week of practice and we look to clean those up and come at it the next week.

7 Freshman LB Michael Pinckney On the freshmen linebackers picking up the defense quickly We just got an opportunity, man. We came out, got our assignments and everything else is just what it is. On if it s as easy as the trio makes it look It s not easy, but we prepare. If you know what you re doing out there, then it s not too complicated. We practice all week. We got an opportunity, and we just did it. On being on the same wavelength with other linebackers We still have a lot of work to do. Coming in early was a big advantage for all three of us. We learned the defense, and just try to learn from the older guys. They set a great example. So I just try to come in and learn the best way I can. On if he feels ready for his first road game Me, personally? Yeah. I feel ready to go on the road. I know my assignment. If you know what you re doing out there, like I said, it s going to happen. Redshirt Senior S Rayshawn Jenkins On the standard of the defense this season It s really good to see that we ve made big improvements on defense. I feel like our seniors are playing like seniors, and our captains are playing like captains. We re getting those younger guys to step up, especially those young linebackers. On his interception I saw the post-wheel. I was going over there to pick it off if it was a high throw, he threw it low and Michael Jackson deflected it. It came off kind of awkward, so I had to put my body in a good position to grab it, and I did it. It was a great momentum shift in the game. On the defense swarming We re just playing to our standard. Our standard is to run to the ball as hard as we can and to tackle. I think we did that very well tonight. We had one long run, but that doesn t define our defense as whole. As an overall unit, we played very well, in my opinion.