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University of Minnesota Athletics
Post-Game Minnesota/Temple Quotes
9/16/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
POST-GAME QUOTES
Minnesota 62 (2-1), Temple 0 (0-3)
Sept. 16, 2006
Attendance: 45,612
Head Coach Glen Mason
Opening Statement:
“I don’t know exactly what to say. We knew, on some regards, that Temple would be outmanned. When you get into a game like this and that’s the case, and you don’t make mistakes and they do and you capitalize on them, it tends to get away from you. It tends to get away from both teams. I guess the best thing to say about today is that we were able to play a lot of players. That was our intention going in at halftime. We made that decision and we did play a lot of guys. We limited what we did from a strategic standpoint, but at the same time, you expect those kids when they get an opportunity to play to play as hard as they possibly can. Sometimes that adds to the problem because the other team starts to get worn out.”
On the team’s overall performance:
“We talked to the team about the same things we talked to you guys about in the press conference. Not too long ago a Big Ten team lost to a Division I-AA team. Everybody watched on Monday night when Florida State played Miami and then struggled against Troy. I don’t know anything about Troy, but it’s kind of surprising. We didn’t play very well, in my estimation, last weekend against Cal, which is a really talented football team. So we took a step back and looked at ourselves, keeping things in perspective, because we are a young football team. We have some deficiencies and we are just trying to work as hard as we can to improve as a football team.”
On the kicking game:
“I think that we have witnessed great improvement in our kicking game, especially from the guys that are punting and kicking, even from last year. Joel Monroe is doing a great job kicking off - some are sailing out of the ends zone and the ones that don’t are very high. Justin Kucek really punted well today and Gianinni is kicking the ball well.
“We are making things happen in the kicking game. Every time they punt the ball, everyone is waiting to see what Dominic Jones does, and Jay Thomas had nice return today.”
On the crowd support:
“Our student turn-out was great today. I don’t know how many were there, but it seemed like a lot of them and they were there early and they were enthusiastic.”
On the play of Logan Payne:
“Logan [Payne] is a seasoned player. He is a senior and you expect him, when he has the opportunities to make the best of them. He is doing a good job.”
POST-GAME QUOTES
Minnesota Players
Running back Amir Pinnix
On getting back on track:
“After the loss to Cal, you kind of want to get back on track and you want to focus on the fundamentals. We came out today and just tried to focus on finishing things.”
On starting the game quickly:
“In the first half, we did some pretty good things up front. The offensive line did a great job of opening some holes for the backs.
“Coach always preaches to us that we need to come out and start fast. We try to put an emphasis on playing hard right from the start.”
On being ready for the Big Ten season:
“We’re ready. We just have to go in tomorrow and watch the film, and starting tomorrow we have to focus on Purdue. Purdue is a great team and they play hard. We look forward to playing them.”
Running back Alex Daniels
On being ready for the Big Ten season:
“All eyes are on us to see what we can do. We better be ready because it’s here next week. We’re ready for all challenges. We’re going to keep practicing hard and playing hard, and we just have to take it one game.”
Quarterback Bryan Cupito
On the team’s play today:
“It was a good game for us and we got a big win. After last week, it was good to get back to playing well on both sides of the ball. Now we have to take it into next week at Purdue.”
On what allowed Logan Payne to have such a big game:
“I’m not sure why he was so open. The first one he just made a great play on a simple hitch pass. That’s what he does well is just makes plays. Today he did a great job and had a few touchdowns.”
On the team’s improvement over the past week:
“Last week we couldn’t have played any worse and the offense made a lot of mistakes. We played better today. We worked on the simple things all week. We simplified some plays that we weren’t doing so well and it worked well for us today. Hopefully last week never happens again and we’ll just continue to just go from here.
On the non-conference schedule:
“Cal was a big game for us. I think a lot of our mistakes came out last week and it’s better last week than in the Big Ten games. I’m glad we had the schedule we did and hopefully we’re good to go for next week.”
On starting the game strong:
“We didn’t want to come out here and have a slow start against a team we should beat. We came out and played well early on and put the game away. Everyone got a chance to play, so it was nice.”
Defensive end Steve Davis
On coming ready to play today:
“The last couple games we haven't been playing that well. Our coaches told us we had to pick it up a notch. We wanted to get our defense ready for the Big Ten season. Our defense came out fired up and tried and make plays. We wanted to make sure we went three and out so we could get our offense on the field. We just tried to play hard.”
On taking away Temple's confidence:
“We saw they were getting down on each other, but I thought they still fought hard throughout the whole game even though sometimes things didn't go right for them. I think it was more of what we were doing out there. We were out there making plays for our team, trying to get the ball back to the offense so we could sit down and rest. It seemed like the offense scored so quickly that we were right back on the field.”
On what the team can take out of the game:
“It was a hard-fought game, but you can't really judge anything off of this type of game. Next week we have the Big Ten schedule coming up and we're trying to get things prepared for that and just play hard. This is a game where we have to look at the film and see how technical we are right now and if we were making too many mistakes. This game was basically just to see how well we can play and get ready for the Big Ten.”
On the team's attitude after the Cal game:
“We were out there making a lot of mistakes and missing some tackles, which we shouldn't be doing. We look at that game and we were kind of upset by the way we played because it seemed like they just whipped us. Coming into the next practice we were telling each other we had to put more emphasis on finishing tackles and concentrate more on technique and not making mistakes.”
Wide receiver Logan Payne
On the team’s play today:
“It went well today. We finally got some opportunities and there were big plays to be made in the passing game. We made them today.
On his expectations before the game:
“You never know what to expect. We watch teams on film, but you never really know how they'll line up against us. We came out and they started stacking the box and we had some opportunities in the passing game.”
On how this game helps the team’s confidence:
“We were down a little bit after Cal, obviously. We thought we could have played better. We came out here tonight and approached this game like any other and came out and played hard and are on our way going into the Big Ten season.”
On what to take from game:
“In a game like this you have to be hard on yourself. When you look at the film you have to critique yourself. Just because of the score, we still have to be hard on ourselves and fix the mistakes we made like any other game.”
On the challenges of the Big Ten season:
“We're excited. The preseason is over now. We're going to try to approach it like we've approached the rest of the season by coming to play. We just have to be ready to go.”
POSTGAME QUOTES
Temple Head Coach Al Golden
Opening Statement:
Well, they were just too much for us, too much in all three phases. Coach Mason and his staff are established. They have a specific style, which I really think is evident in the way they play. What they do, they know who they are - we don’t know who we are, and we aren’t in their league. But, they know who they are, they run the ball hard, they are a physical team, they take the ball away and they don’t give up the big play, and that’s how they’re successful in the Big Ten and obviously why he (Mason) has gone to six bowl games in the last seven years. He does a wonderful job and we didn’t execute, we didn’t do anything today.
On approaching the game differently then last week:
We approached this game differently, each game is its own entity, so to speak. I don’t know the final tallies, but we must have played 22 or 23 freshman and 42 guys that have at least two years remaining after this year. We are an awfully young team, only two juniors were out on the field today.
As I’ve said many times I’m disappointed in the outcome, I’m not used to losing. I’ve never been used to losing, but I’m not going to get discouraged, this is a young team, a tough schedule, it’s a treacherous schedule, the only word I could come up is treacherous. But that’s the luck of the draw, we have a plan, we have a model, and we are going to stick to that, we’re not going to wait.
On what to tell the team:
What do you do? They aren’t dumb, they saw what happened, and they know what happened. It’s our job to identify what we can do and how we can come back. We have five MAC games left this year, and we have some other games that are like this. The hope is that eventually we will give ourselves a chance to play and compete in games like this. We still have Clemson and Penn State and Vanderbilt down there. So we still have some of these games that we have to get ready for.
On Quarterbacks:
I am still very encouraged by both kids. One hasn’t played football for three years and the other is an 18 year-old freshman. We’re playing that, and going to live and die with them right now. The whole offense in general, obviously, is not executing right now, that’s the issue.
On how the QB is trying to make things happen on the field:
The one thing that I was pleased with before the game was that we did not look rattled, like we did last week. Against Louisville we were a mess just from the pre-game, right after the first snap of the game. We didn’t have that look, but obviously we are down in that end zone with the student section and the band, the wheels are falling off, with two or three drives in a row. You can’t do that against Big Ten opponents, like a team as veteran as this team is.
On the second half:
We had a little different game plan, we were going to move a little bit more, and get the QB involved a little bit. Obviously he didn’t execute the way we wanted to.
POSTGAME QUOTES
QB Adam DiMichele
On the loss:
Disappointing, we go in every game with a new attitude. I personally was more confident and really excited about this game. I knew about Minnesota. After the same thing that happened last week, I thought the guys would come out and play better. Early on I made a mistake with the interception that really put us behind. Then the next drive was a fumble, so I made two mistakes early. We are not going to forget this loss, but we are looking forward to next week and hopefully turn things around.
On interception:
It was a bad play and I made it worse. That is something as a quarterback that I cannot do. I got flushed out of the pocket. I was getting ready to take off and saw him break open. I threw it and got hit at the same time. It was just me making a play when I should not have.
On the game plan:
We did a lot of different things. I think the one drive that we really moved the ball, we showed a little of those things, with some draws and different option plays. I thought our game plan was solid. We had a couple of trick plays that we did not get to call because of the score.
On what can learn from this game:
When we shook hands, coach said “those players on their team are people just like us. They are no different.” We know we have the talent and skill to do it. It is a matter of competing out there and making plays when we need to.
