Opening statement…

Louisville's a good football team. They had a heck of a game with Syracuse. That was a big win for them. They've won some awfully big games and they've been very close in some others. It's always usually a pretty good football game. We've got to get ourselves back to playing good football, that's the main thing, to give us a shot.

On the Rutgers game…

Defensively I thought we did some real good things. The opening drive – they got the drive, which was not great, and then they gave up two field goals, both on very difficult situations. The defense, in fact, was extraordinary in the first half. That might have been some of the best defense we've played other than that first drive, because it could have been really ugly at halftime.

On the defense getting pinned back to start drives…

Special teams, we had a punt blocked, and the defense held them to three. They had a number of turnovers and the defense held them out. I thought our defense – when I went into halftime and I thought 'Lord, if our defense hadn't played like that, that could have been ugly.' Now in the second half, after a while, you get so old, for a defense, it's tough, you can't keep them out there all day. But they did give up two explosive plays, a long run and a pass play.

The effort out of a number of our defensive players I thought was very good. Did we play good enough to win the game? No, not for the game we didn't. But defensively, I wouldn't say the same thing. Now offensively we couldn't do a thing.

On looking for a total team effort…

Now let's go back again about defense. If our defense played for that kind of effort and that kind of purpose, I think that'd be pretty good. I mean, Kion Wilson got 18 tackles. It's hard to get 18 tackles. Murphy had the personal foul, which is bad, that's why I yanked him for the rest of the drive. But he got a real nice interception and played pretty well after that.

I thought Pierre-Paul had an outstanding game. I thought he played off the charts. I thought George Selvie did some pretty good things in the game. I was really happy with Sam Barrington. Chris Robinson got hurt early, so Sam had to come in. Sabbath had probably one play that was a breakdown, but other than that I thought he did some really good things. Nate I thought played well. I thought Quenton had one play that was a missed tackle, but other than that he played well.

Now, if you want to go to offense, yeah, we need to play much better offense. We didn't play worth a lick offensively. Special teams we need to play a lot better. We need to catch balls, we need to not get a punt blocked. In those two areas in this game we need to, but defensively, that's why I cut you short, because if the defensive guys are playing with that kind of effort, I don't want to say they didn't. I was proud of some of the things the defense did.

Quarterback B.J. Daniels

On the importance of the entire team needing to play better Saturday…

Saturday it's really big. It keeps our bowl game alive. It'll be an uplifting game for us to come out with a win, get back on the winning track again. Really, it'll set a tone for the end of the season.

On the motivation of getting to a bowl game…

It's a real big motivation for our team. Obviously we want to do well and go to a bowl game. This is a first step. Winning this one, we want to continue to win to get to an even better bowl. So this weekend is very important.

On what he learned from the Rutgers game…

There's a lot of things offensively we can get better at. The defense did a real good job holding them out in the first half. We really just didn't help out our defense at all.

On if Rutgers was the best defensive team they've seen all season…

Well, we didn't score, so I guess so.

On making sure everyone is on the same page and if that helps everyone get refocused…

It's important for all of us to be on the same page, to make sure we all understand what we see and trust in the schemes and our ability in what we do. It is key.

On if that was the most frustrating game for him…

I wouldn't say I was frustrated. I was able to, even after getting hit a couple times and things like, still be able to go to the sideline and have a conversation with receivers and Blackwell and trying to talk with them individually and see what goes on, versus sitting on the bench and having a whole bunch of guys around me trying to tell me different things that they see. It's obviously different from my point of view as well as theirs. I thought definitely pulling them off to the side was good help. I definitely tried to understand what they saw, to make sure we were on the same page. The things we were doing out there I guess weren't really working too well.