Quotes Following Football's 41-23 Homecoming Loss To Army
Oct 9, 2010 | Football
Oct. 9, 2010
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Army 41, Tulane 23
Tulane Game 5
Louisiana Superdome
New Orleans, La.
TULANE QUOTES
HEAD COACH Bob Toledo
Opening Statement
"Needless to say, we've got a disappointed locker room right now and rightfully so. You've got to give credit to Army, they're a very good football team. They made one mistake; they fumbled the ball and we capitalized on it but we turned the ball over 3 times in about a 7 minute stretch, and that was basically the game. We gave them too many opportunities and then there's the kicking game. We fumbled 2 kick-offs. So, we kicked off, they run it to the 50, we on-side kick, they run it to the 6. We didn't perform well in the kicking game, we didn't run the ball very well. They had the ball almost 36 minutes, but snap wise, we had 64 snaps to their 67. So, we had enough opportunities. We threw the ball well, we didn't run the ball well at all, and the turn-overs were the name of the game today."
On the Fatigue of the Defense Against the Rush
"Oscar Ponce de Leon obviously didn't play tonight, with a sprained ankle, and Cedric Wilson sprained his ankle, he was out, so we didn't have many defensive tackles left. We just didn't defend the option very well. When you defend it, you have to start inside out, it starts with the fullback. Our defensive line obviously didn't hold up as well, and our linebackers, Steve was constantly yelling at them to stay in there and tackle the fullback, they were running out of there too fast. We needed to stop the fullback all night. He's obviously the one that won them the football game."
On Losing Momentum in the Season Due to Series of Mistakes
"You make or break yourself, and we broke ourselves tonight. We had no one to blame but ourselves. Again, we've got to stop from losing before we can win a football game and we obviously lost it because we gave them the ball."
On Stopping the Army Offense Last Year
"Oscar Ponce de Leon played last year and really did a great job keeping them at bay, but they also had a smaller fullback last year. This guy was a bigger guy and he ran really hard, and he ran a couple plays, a couple traps and things that they hadn't done."
On Ryan Griffin's Performance
"Well, part of it is the line, part of it is our tight-ends missing blocks on 44. We were doubling it at times. We were actually maximum protect most of the night. You saw that we kept the tight-end and 2 backs in a lot of the time and we were trying to protect. For the most part we did a good job. They had three sacks, and 44 is a good player. It's one of those things where the turn-overs in the second quarter really did us in. We kicked off the third quarter, they took it right down the field, and scored. We thought they fumbled and then we got the ball, we went 18 plays and we scored. So we did some good things, we just didn't do enough good things."
On the Fake Punt Attempt
"It was one of those things where it was fourth down and we thought we could maybe get a fake. Our special teams coach thought it was possible there and we tried to get an element of surprise, if nothing else. Obviously it didn't work, so it wasn't a good play."
On Preparing for the Running Game
"Well, you never see it, that's that thing. It's their defense too, you don't see it either. So you've got about four games to get prepared for it and it's a physical thing. They're in stances, they're coming downhill at you, and they're not just running the option, they ran a few option plays, they're running Wing-T football too. They're running some Wing-T misdirection football. It's difficult to defend and we just didn't do a very good job of it tonight."
On the Quarterback Situation
"Ryan is the quarterback, he threw for 211 yards and 3 touchdowns. We've got to keep from getting sacked, that's not all the quarterback's fault, especially tonight. He's our quarterback, we don't really have anyone else to go to at this point, no one would play better than him."
On Using Orleans Darkwa
"He did have bad elbow, and he did get banged up a little bit. He was out there, they actually pulled him a couple times, he was hurt a little bit. They said he was out. They tell me when he's out and they tell me when he's back in, and he was out for a while. Things are going so fast, you don't quite know what it is, but they said he was out for a while, but then they said he was back in. That's what the trainers do with me."
On Time Slipping Away in the Third Quarter
"We kicked off to them, and then they had the ball for eight minutes. I looked at the clock, and there was 8 minutes left. That's what they do, they keep the ball away from you, make it very frustrating for you, you have got to press a little bit, because you know you have to score points. You know you're not going to get the ball very much, that's why we went for two a couple times, we had to try to score more points. That's one of those things, why we faked the punt as opposed to going for it. We thought hopefully we can get them off-guard, hopefully it was there, and we tripped and fell and we didn't make the first down either."
On The Two Kick-Off Fumbles in a Row
"I don't think I've ever seen that before. There's been very few times I've seen catch a ball, fumble it, kick-off, fumble it. Like I said, within a seven or eight minute span we fumbled the ball 3 times, and they scored."
On Looking Ahead for the Rest of The Season
"We try to remain positive, that's all we can do. We have got to regroup and we're not going to face this kind of offense anymore but we've got to stop the run game when people run at us. That's one of our goals: we've got to stop the run game, regardless of who we play. We've just got to remain positive and get healthy, hopefully play better, and not beat ourselves. We're not scoring a lot of points right now. We're struggling. We don't have a lot of guys who are playmakers for us, with the exception of maybe Robottom, we don't have anybody who's coming up and making plays right now. That's what we need, we need someone to step to the forefront and make some plays for us."
SOPHOMORE QUARTERBACK Ryan Griffin
About the inability to find the big play
"We tried to find some big plays and they just weren't there. (Army) did a good job of taking care of their responsibilities and being where they needed to be on play action. They played a little zone, which we were not expecting, but we made the adjustments. (The big plays) just weren't there today."
On Army's Defensive Pressure
"It's Army. You know what you are going to get when you play Army. They gave us exactly what we expected, but we just shot ourselves in the foot with turnovers. It would have been a completely different game (without the turnovers). I kind of felt helpless not being on the field as much as I would have liked to be."
About getting back into Conference USA play
"We have to go on a little streak here and win some games. It is going to be tough now in conference. There are some good teams and conference play is what matters now. We started off 0-1, with a loss to Houston, so now we have to kick it in to gear."
JUNIOR WIDE RECEIVER Joe Kemp
About playing a few different positions versus Army
"It was something that we practiced all week, so it really felt good. I expect myself to make a little more out of the opportunities that are given to me. I plan on doing that from here on out."
On playing a full 60-minutes against Army
"This is the second year in a row that we have had a pretty good game plan coming in after watching previous weeks of film and they came out and did something completely different. I think we were able to make necessary changes at half time and we came out in the second half and drove the ball a couple times and scored. It's a tough loss, but we are moving on to Tulsa now."
About getting back into Conference USA play
"We know we can (win games). We just beat one of the best teams in the BIG EAST on the road, so we know we can do it. Conference play picks up again next week and that is a must win game for us."
SOPHOMORE LINEBACKER Trent Mackey
About stopping Army's offense
"We just needed to be disciplined tonight. We knew they were going to run the ball. They don't pass a lot, so we just needed to be disciplined and make tackles and we didn't. We needed to stop the fullback, which was our main goal, but they did a few things that we hadn't seen. We just have to regroup and be ready to play ball next week."
On preparing for Army's running attack
"It is very mental. You have to prepare yourself mentally for the changes in the schedule. When you face an opponent that does something different you need to focus and really play your game."
On the non-conference loss
"It's tough to take a loss outside of conference, that's one strike on us. Our goal, though, is to win the conference and we still have a chance to do that. We just have to be ready for the upcoming games."
ARMY QUOTES
HEAD COACH RICH ELLERSON
On Army's success on the road
"I don't think that the road has a lot to do with it. I think that our guys are playing a little bit better in different phases each week. We are doing a great job on the turnover battle. When you do that, you've got a great chance to win. When we won the turnover battle, It's hard to overcome something like four to one. That's hard to overcome. We are running the ball well and we are being opportunistic. Defensively, we can finish a lot cleaner than that. We need to. We need to continue to grow there. That was progress."
On the turnovers
"I know that you will see that we have guys attacking the football. We make a big deal out of that. Offensively, I am a little disappointed because we had the ball on the ground way too much. It was way too close. That's not something we do. There was a little bit of a virus out there tonight. Both teams had it. I do applaud our defense and special teams. They do a great job of attacking the football. They are ball-aware. The fact that we share the practice center with one-another gives us a great chance, offensively, to stay really sound with the football"
FULLBACK JARED HASSIN
Opening Statement
"It was an exciting game for us. We get the chance to come to the Superdome against a great opponent in Tulane. It was a great experience. We are happy to be out here and happy to be a part of it."
QUARTERBACK TRENT STEELMAN
Opening Statement
"It started off a little shaky. This just shows how this team can overcome adversity and the character. Just being able to fight through those things, and that's what you have to do to be a good team. Tulane, they are a great defense. We saw on film that they could run and that they were going to be able to run. They are big up front. We just came in and tried to take care of business. That's what we did."
