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University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota-South Dakota Game Quotes
9/11/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Minnesota Quotes
Minnesota Head Coach Tim Brewster
Opening Statement:
"As I just told the team, the depth of my disappointment right now, you cannot measure it. I do not want to discredit South Dakota in any way. I want to make sure we give them the proper credit but it certainly is an unacceptable loss on our part by our team. We make no excuses. We point no fingers. I just did not get the job done with our team and having them prepared to go into the game today against South Dakota. Again it is a great disappointment. Obviously we did not play well on the defensive side of the ball and we had opportunities to score a lot more points on the offensive side of the ball and should have. We can talk about the fact we have young guys on the defensive side and we have inexperienced guys but there is no excuse to have a defensive performance like we had today. I feel good about the way we competed back, particularly on the offensive side in the second half. What we cannot do is let this one game define us and define our season. We certainly will not allow that to happen. We will give credit where credit is due and we will come back to work."
On the mistakes made on defense...
"There were missed tackles last week in the Middle Tennessee game and there were missed tackles today. Again you want to say it is youth and inexperience but tackling is tackling. Tackling is something you have done since the first time you put pads on and we need to do a better job of tackling. And we did not do a good job of containing the quarterback today. There were too many times where we did not do a good job of setting edges effectively and that is something we will work extremely hard to do.
On the absence of Kim Royston and Kyle Theret...
"Certainly we miss their veteran leadership and their veteran experience. But again there are no excuses. James Manuel has to play better and Christyn Lewis has to play better and I have to coach them better to help them more. That is the way I look at it is our coaching staff has got to do a better job of helping these young guys perform better. We obviously did not do our job today."
On the plan for what to do next...
"What we have to do is really study the tape. Study where the mistakes were made, who made the mistakes and are they correctable mistakes. What can we do from a scheme standpoint that is going to allow our guys to execute and perform better. That is what I have to do as the head coach. I have got to really study what it is we are asking them to do because they obviously did not play very well today and there is a reason for that."
QB Adam Weber
On the tough loss...
"This one hurts. Being a senior when you picture your last season you want to go out at home this season and we didn't live up to our expectations. We'll dwell on this one tonight, but starting tomorrow it's onto USC."
On whether the 4th quarter fumble was an extra effort to get a first down...
"No. I guess that's how I know how to play football. That will be a big emphasis for me for the rest of the season to be smart in critical situations but hang on to the football."
On acting captain for picking up the defense...
"It's a team game. It's not offense and defense, it's 110 guys out there trying to win a football game. They played their hearts out and what we try to do after a scoring drive...you let them know we're going to keep our heads up...This one hurts, but starting tomorrow it's got to be all positive."
On maintaining the confidence for the USC game...
"I can guarantee we're not going to go in there scared. It's a home game and another opportunity to go out in front of our fans and play football. Anytime you go into something and you're timid or scared, you've already lost the game. We're going to go in there 110% and give them the best we've got."
On struggling to get going early in the game and if South Dakota did anything special...
"No, they didn't do anything special. We did everything in practice that we saw them do against the previous team. The biggest thing is that early on I personally felt that I was in a funk, trying to do too much and not making quick decisions. We preach everyday to be accountable for what you do so I took it upon myself and as the game went on I reached out to the offense that I'm ready to regain the swagger and regain the confidence that we had coming into the game and to pay attention to my reads and take what the defense gave us."
On playing USC and being on national television...
"We could be playing them on basic television and we feel like we just need to come out and play our game. It's not about who we are playing, it's about what we have on our team and focus on the task and hand. After what we learned today we are going to take them seriously and get mentally and physically prepared because we know USC is a great team, and they are doing to come out and play. Just like South Dakota we know they are going to come out with their best shot because the sky is the limit, and the biggest thing for us is to see how we come out and respond. It starts tomorrow when we come in and do the film corrections. We are going to take it week by week and go in like any other week prepared, day in and day out to make sure we are ready for Saturday."
On scoring a field goal on the first drive...
"For us and the offense and the mentality that we preach, it was a little demoralizing. We always talk about when we have the opportunity we have to put points on the board. Granted that 3 points is better than none, we have got to capitalize anytime we get the ball inside the 40-yard line and go punch it in."
On getting comfortable at wide receiver...
"I get very comfortable going in and out, switching reps with Troy. I was very happy with all the reps I got, it was much better than last season and I look forward to more next week."
On how stunned you were about the loss...
"Very stunned, we knew we were going to get their best shot, but we didn't play all four quarters like they did. We came out in the second half to try and get back on track, unfortunately it wasn't enough."
On the chance to play USC...
"(Coach Brewster) tells us that we got one of the toughest schedules in the country and, as you can see, we really do, but we just look at is as another team, and another week to go out and get better. It doesn't matter who we play we just have got to go out and play all four quarters. "
South Dakota Quotes
Head Coach Ed Meierkort
Opening Statement...
"First, I'd like to thank the University of Minnesota for being gracious enough and hosting us. It was big for our university just to be in this Big Ten country, and there's a first-class operation, and I wish them nothing but the best."
On his team's ability to answer every time Minnesota scored...
"We thought we'd have a chance to throw the ball. We didn't know how successful because of the pressure, but once we were able to keep (quarterback Dante Warren) out of their grasp, that really helped us a ton and allowed us to call a more free-spirited game. If we would have played this too close to the vest, we'd have lost this game, because they were stacking our run game. It was tough sledding. That's what you get when you play a Big Ten defense; they're going to stop that run."
On the importance of quarterback Dante Warren's run game...
"We always say I can get Dante into trouble, he needs to get us out of it. That's the kind of quarterbacks this offense recruits-somebody who can ad lib a little bit. I'm an old defensive guy. It puts a lot of pressure on defenses, just like when (Minnesota quarterback Adam) Weber did some great jobs of scrambling. The thing I was most impressed in the last two games with Dante Warren is his poise under pressure in an environment that none of us have ever been in-none of us except one coach, Jake Sprague who played at Wisconsin. Everybody else came from the smaller levels and worked their way up, so this is truly a Super Bowl for our kids."
QB Dante Warren
On what it feels like to come away with the win…
“Just a surreal feeling. You go into the game hoping everything goes right and today it did for us. Receivers were catching the ball, and the defense really gave us confidence with the stops they were getting. We just pushed through until the end.
On how the team was able to respond each time the Gophers scored…
“Every time we were down we stepped up to the challenge and came through. Coach put us in those situations in practice all the time. We practice the same thing we did today. “
On if it helped to have a lead in the game…
“Definitely, it calmed us down, and we realized that we could score when we wanted.
On what he learned last week from the team’s loss…
“Last week, I was learning as I went. Playing against UCF got me caught up to game speed. Everything today felt natural, and I credit that to last week.
WR Will Powell
On what he thought of Dante Warren...
“Dante played outstanding; I was very impressed with everything he did. He made all the right decisions and made the big plays.”
DB Shane Potter
On what it feels like to win the game...
“It’s unbelievable. I’ve been looking up to this game for a long time. I knew we had a chance when nobody else did and we came out and played a great game.”
