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University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota Postgame Quotes
9/1/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Opening statement:
“It was a tremendous effort in the second half that the team gave to win this game. I am bitterly disappointed that we lost. I was looking forward to going back and singing the Rouser in the locker room. These kids fought their guts out, and I give them a lot of credit for that.'
On the second half of the game:
“I really challenged the team, we needed to show heart and resolve. I was really proud of the way they responded. Obviously, I would have liked a better start, but once we settled down, I felt really good about how we played the rest of the way.'
On the
“This was an exciting environment. I hope our fans feel good about the way the team played and laid it all out on the line. There is a lot to build on, we're going to study what we did on offense, on defense, and in the kicking game. I feel we will make tremendous improvement before our second game. This is a long race, it's a marathon, not a sprint.'
On the team's character:
“There is one thing you can't coach, that's having character and heart. The way these guys played in the second half shows that they have it. We're going to build this team, game by game.'
On the defense:
“We didn't do a good job of keeping the ball in front of us in the first half. We missed some tackles, and that allowed them to make some big plays in the passing game. Obviously, we have a lot of work to do in that area.
Minnesota Players
Quarterback Adam Weber
On Minnnesota's comeback:
“I think we all settled down a little bit in the second half. Coming into the first half I was little overexcited and not really making good reads. Coming into halftime, we were able to talk to each other and realize that we needed to relax. We were down by 21 points, but realized we had a lot of time remaining in the second half. We knew we could come back.'
On some of the running plays he made throughout the game:
“In our offense the quarterback is going to have to move, and in third and short like that even when you get the right read or something you are going to have to take the ball and run it to get a few yards. It helped open up the run for Amir (Pinnix) and our other running backs. It was a physical game, but that's football.'
On emotion coming out of halftime:
“Obviously we did not come out the way wanted to and the scoreboard was not where we wanted it to be. We knew we had to come in relax and re-stabilize. We wanted to get back out there and get back in the game. We just learned from it, and brought a more intense effort in the second half and run the ball more and have them more their defensive linemen. It helped and we put on some points, but obviously we did not hang on in the end.
Defensive Tackle Eric Small
On what was different about second half:
“I don't know what happened in the first half, I think we just needed to get back to the lockerroom and settle down. It is not like we changed our game plan and did anything different in the second half. We just relaxed as a team and as a defense, and came out in the second half and played our style of football which we should have been doing the whole game.'
On mindset on the last play:
“I thought we were going stop them for sure, I was confident. We should have stopped, but it happens. We can't put ourselves in this kind of hole. We can't put our offense behind 21 points in the first half. It is as simple as that. We have a good offense, we have an explosive offense like you saw in the second half. As a defense we can't put them behind like we did in the first half.'
On defensive philososphy: Defensive Tackle Todd Meisel On the team's comeback: Wide Receive Eric Decker On: Beginning of the game “We started slow. We have a young offense and we did what we could, but we had penalties and turned the ball over. We did start to get some drives going, and the defense gave us a chance.' On: How to react to the loss “We need to learn, and see what we can do. We just need to come back next week.' On: Adam Weber “Adam did a good job. We gave him a tough start. We had penalties and turnovers that cost us. We did not get rolling right away, but you have to give credit to Wide Receive Harold Howell On: First Game “It went good. I had to think faster than in high school. I had to adjust and let the game come to me. It is a little different than high school because in high school it is not as loud.' “It is different than in high school because the hang time was different. I need to be louder and make my signals more clear. Overall, I felt comfortable for my first time out there.' Running Back Amir Pinnix On: Result of the game “It doesn't feel good. It doesn't matter how I do or if I play well. What matters is if we win.' On: How to react to the loss “We learned a lot. What matters is how you react, and we will learn from our mistakes. We need to look at the positives and negatives. We will learn and get better and come back next week.' On: Being a Senior “I just tried to step in more and be a leader. Adam played a great game, and we came up short, but we will be ok. It doesn't matter if I'm the feature,' what we need is wins.' On: Coaches “Coach Brewster did well. He motivated us. The whole coaching staff did a good job motivating us. They told us to relax. They did a good job doing that.' Bowling Green Players
“A lot of our defense is based on pressuring the quarterback, making him uncomfortable. In the second half we did a better job of that, but still it was not good enough. Obviously with the result, we need to do more. We did not turnover, which is unacceptable. We have a goal of three turnovers a game, and obviously we did not accomplish that.
“I am proud of the coaching staff and every single player on the team. We bounced back at halftime and were able to make it a game. I am just disappointed with how it ended. It is a great learning experience. It is better to have a game like this now early in the season then to lose a game like this in conference play. We will bounce back and make our corrections tomorrow, and get after it for next week's game and put this week behind us. “
WR Freddie Barnes
On coach calling for the two-point conversion and telling him the ball was going to him:
“Game over. We've run that play so many times, I just liked the fact that he had faith in us, right away a two-point conversion. He called it, and we gotta win, we gotta win the game. It's on my shoulders, I gotta do it.'
On how close the defender was to getting his fingers on the ball in the end zone during the two-point conversion:
“I saw a guy stretching his arm out, but I was focusing on the ball. I knew I had to make a play and get my feet in to get the two-point conversion and go home.'
On responding with the team's top receiver (Corey Partridge) being injured:
“If it's not Corey, it's supposed to give me an opportunity to go in. I know that I need to get open.'
On Tyler Sheehan's performance:
I'd give him an A-plus. I've played the position before, it's tough, your first start. You have to try to focus on everybody, your players, the defense, everybody.'
On the feeling in the huddle before the last play of the game:
“We gotta believe and we gotta score. Everything we harp on, we believe in.'
On how important it was to get a win like this:
It's very important, just because nobody wants to go home, and everyone wants to play hard. It was very, very important to get this victory.'
On allowing Minnesota to come back in the second half:
“I don't really have a comment for that, just because there are a lot of things going on. It's all about adjustments. I feel like they made more adjustments than we did.'
QB Tyler Sheehan
On the final drive to set up the game-tying field goal:
“I was just trying to show my leadership, execute plays efficiently, we've been working on that situation a lot. We worked on in three or four times this week. We knew we have a good kicker. We had faith in him to get the field goal.'
On the two-point conversion:
We actually run that play in practice a lot. Our defense knows it by heart, so it's kind of hard to run on our defense. When coach told us we were running a two-point conversion, I knew right away what play it was. We have a couple of other ones, but that's our main one. All I do is basically get a guy in the flat before they can get to him.'
On how close the defender was to tipping the pass on the two-point conversion:
“He was close, but not close enough I guess. Freddie (Barnes) is a playmaker.'
