USF-Syracuse Post Game Quotes
Syracuse 13, USF 9
Oct. 9, 2010
Raymond James Stadium - Tampa, Fla.

USF Head Coach Skip Holtz

"It is certainly disappointing to lose an opening conference game with how hard this football team has worked and some of the things we are trying to do in this program. I told the team that this is a journey, not a destination where we're trying to go. We definitely had plenty of opportunities today. We had some opportunities on offense. We definitely had some opportunities in the first half, especially with the positive field position that we had. We just really struggled getting anything going. We couldn't get any consistency in the passing game, we couldn't get any consistency in the running game, and it's very hard to put some drives together. There weren't a whole bunch of big plays in this game as far as big scoring plays. It's really frustrating. This is a down locker room right now. I know that this is something we're going to have to turn around. We've got a quick turnaround this week. We've got West Virginia on Thursday night, so we're really two days short in preparation. We don't have time to feel sorry for ourselves. We've got to pick ourselves up, look at the film, make some corrections, and we've got to get better as an offensive football team. I thought the special teams, outside of the missed field goal and blocked extra point, gave us a spark in the second half with the kickoff return. I thought that the defense played really well in this football game today. They did an awful lot of good things, kept the ball in front of them, gave up a couple of plays, but kept the ball in front of them for the most part, but offensively you can't score three points in a conference game and expect to win. Especially with some of the positive field position that was created by the defense and special teams today. We've got to go back, look for what we've got to do a better job of, look for what we can do as an offensive football team-and not just what we can do every once and a while, but what we can do from a consistency standpoint to turn and develop some sort of productivity as an offensive football team."

On fitting B.J. Daniels into the offense...

"It's not so much fitting him into the offense. We're really trying to give B.J. something he can do. We're trying to build this offense around him, not trying to fit him into it. They brought in some pressure and he got a little bit rattled at one point. He went under center, tried to calm things down, hand the ball off, make a couple of play actions, make a couple of good throws...we're trying to build this around BJ. Right now, we're not having a lot of success with what we're doing. It's not trying to put a square peg in a round hole. With what they did in their defensive gameplan, they were going to pressure you, try to outnumber you in the running game, bring the safeties downhill, and at some point in time you're going to have to be able to throw the ball in Division I college football if you want to win. People can scheme you if all you do is run the ball."

On Syracuse's 98 yard scoring drive...

"It was disappointing. They were averaging around five yards per play, running it between the tackles. We were trying to strip the ball. I'll have to look at the film of it all. I'll certainly give Syracuse an awful lot of credit. I've said before, I think this is a very good football team. They did not turn the ball over on offense today. They protected the ball, were content to punt it away, throw it away, and say 'we're going to make you beat us.' We couldn't do it today. We got down in there twice, threw two interceptions down in the scoring zone, and it's just unfortunate because I thought one was six and the other was a first down. It's just unfortunate we didn't capitalize on some of the opportunities that we had."

On the momentum they could have gained for the upcoming road games with a win vs. Syracuse...
"It could have been huge. Now, you have to play on the road. We've got our schedule now, playing Thursday-Friday-Wednesday. It's going to be a little bit of a different schedule with a short turnaround. It would have been really nice to be sitting here 4-1. Unfortunately, we're not. It would have been great to have momentum but right now we've got to pick ourselves up, brush ourselves off, sit down and look at the film, come back with more resolve and determination and try and get some of the things fixed in order to become a better football team."

On Lindsey Lamar's kickoff return TD being a possible turning point in the game...

"Well, it certainly felt like it at the time, didn't it? Then the defense came back, got a couple of sacks and momentum, got them backed up, got the ball, and then I believe that was the series where we threw the interception. It was unfortunate because we did, but it seems like a lot of times a play like that will boost a team and it's like 'Alright, now we got it. Here we go, now we're clicking. Now we've got momentum going our way. Fit in a couple of passes, make a couple first downs, turn and kick the ball in the end zone...you've got a great chance,' but I thought the kick return team did some good things today. We had the one big return for the touchdown. Lindsey has got great speed, that's one of the reasons we put him and Terrence back there. Those guys have done some good things to create some sparks for us as a football team. It's just unfortunate we couldn't capitalize on some of the opportunities that the defense and the special teams created for us today."

On if he saw anything out of the ordinary from Syracuse on defense...

"The only thing they did that was a little bit different was that they brought a little bit more corner fire today. Without getting technical about it all, they brought a couple of pressures they had not shown and had not brought. I thought we came back and adjusted to it pretty well, but they're bringing that pressure to get you behind the chains and bring the safeties downhill, but we couldn't capitalize on them. Like I said, we had our opportunities, we just didn't hit it. Evan Landi came hitting wide open on the first drive of the game, down the open field, we just couldn't capitalize on it. We came back and ran a protection to pick up the corner fire later in the series, they blew their coverage, and Bogan was running right down the field. We didn't capitalize on it. We had our chances, we just couldn't capitalize on some of the opportunities we had today. This will be a film that is going to be sick to watch because we had so many opportunities. It's one thing if you can never really get it going, but we had so many opportunities we just couldn't capitalize on. Some days you have that. You know what? This is one of those days. Defensively, this is a game where I would have loved to see us stand up on defense and not take the 98 yard drive, turn and hold them and win the game 9-6. That would have been a great thing, but it didn't happen that way. We had our opportunities on both sides of the ball."

On Bass and Griffin not playing...

"Bass and Griffin were both there. The way I thought Bogan was playing, we didn't try to play Griffin. I thought he did some really good things today. Bass turns his ankle, was an unknown coming into it, he got hurt and didn't practice a lot as I've talked about before. Sometimes when a guy didn't practice all week it's hard to turn and put him in there and expect him to play really well. Mark got most of the reps at the left tackle position and I thought he did a pretty good job. Obviously, your backups aren't as good as your starters but we have to keep developing depth on this football team. Just like I said, this all boils down to we didn't take advantage of the opportunities we had as a football team on offense, defense and special teams."

 

B.J. Daniels
On the offense not clicking...
"Just missed some opportunities, missed opportunities and penalties will hurt your offense."

On missing open receivers...
"I really just want to stay with my keys and my reads. Sometimes guys will just be on the backside and those will be the last people I look at. It's not like I can just sit back there all day and just pick apart and just look everywhere. There are some times that guys will be open that will be in your read, sometimes you'll hit it, and sometimes you'll miss it."

On the ability to turn around and play West Virginia in five days...|
"It will be difficult, but you've got to put it behind you to move on, at least to give yourself a fighting chance next week."

Lindsey Lamar

On his kickoff return for a touchdown...
"It was a good experience. It was like a dream at the time. One of my buddies on the team, Claude Davis, was talking about it all week, him and Victor Marc and the whole team just opened it up. Richard Kelly was right there with me and it just opened it up and we were all just running down the sideline together."

On the disappointment of not being able to keep the momentum going after the touchdown...
"It was extremely disappointing because it was like it didn't even matter because we lost."

About the kick return going forward and what they want to achieve...
"I feel extremely comfortable out there. I feel that our team can do good things now. With all the people on the kick return that we have I feel that we can excel."

On wiping the slate clean and getting ready for West Virginia in just five days...

"We just have to put it behind us and go to work tomorrow."

 

Sam Barrington
On the team's performance in the loss...
"We didn't play our part. We didn't lose but we got beat. We have to make sure we forget about this loss and go into next week, West Virginia, one of the more prominent teams in the Big East and handle our business. You can't sulk on just one loss, but they did their job and they came out successful."

On how tough it is to prepare for a big game with a short turnaround...
"It fluctuates from week to week. Some losses might be harder to come off of than others. I won't comment on how hard this loss is to come off of, but you know that's the epitome of a team, we have to do our job and get to the next game."

How tough the 98-yard drive was after playing well all game...
"It's definitely tough. You can woulda, coulda, shoulda, until your dead, you just go back and look at things that could have happened but you got to do what you got to do. You got to make those stops when you got to make those stops, bottom line."

On what they can improve on in regards to defense...
"Just overall a better defense. Hold them to zero. That's the only thing I would change, hold them to zero."

Craig Marshall
On how hard it was to see them move down the field on the 98-yard scoring drive...
"You aren't letting anybody drive on you, rather its 50 yards, 20 yards, whatever drive it is. The ones where they drive the length of the field are the ones that hurt. You practice this every day, day in and day out and for them to be able to do that is demoralizing for the defense. We have to go back and try and correct it."

On having three sacks and getting the pressure they were able to get on Syracuse QB Ryan Nassib...
"It feels good to get the pressure, but you know even with all the pressure and sacks that we came up with, the loss is the main thing. We just have to try and work on that and get better."

On forgetting about this game and focusing on West Virginia...
"It's behind is now. We just have to forget about it and move on to the next game starting tomorrow."

On what happened during the last drive...
"It seems like they wanted it more. They did what they had to do to come away with the victory. That's all we can say about it, you know we weren't executing and getting the ball back for our offense. They just executed better than we did."

On having Syracuse come back after being able to contain them all day...
"Like I said they just executed on us. We weren't doing what we have been coaching up all week. The game plan that we had, it worked at times, it didn't work at times, but that's the game of football, you have to be able to adjust to what the offense is doing, and we didn't adjust well at all."

On losing an opportunity before going into two tough road games...
"Not at all. We are going to West Virginia and Cincinnati the next couple weeks, but this is the Big East. Anyone can win on any given week. We still have a couple more games left so we're just going to try and bounce back from this one starting tomorrow."

 

Syracuse Head Coach Doug Marrone
"I'm just happy that we were able to come down here and win a football game. That was the objective all week long, against a team we don't have very good history against. I give a lot of credit to the players and the coaches, they hung in there. There was adversity in the beginning but then we came out on top against a team that is a very good football team. We get to enjoy the win now and then go back to work tomorrow and start preparing for the next one, that is going to be how its going to be for this football team, we are going to fight and scratch for each game."

On the adversity his team faced...

"I give a lot of credit to the defense. We had a three and out and they kept coming out there. Then, we had a roughing the punter. Then, we gave up the possession when the ball hit one of our return men, so, defense, I give them a lot of credit. Some people brought up the heat, I give credit  to the players who work extremely hard and heat wasn't a factor for us. I believe we got stronger as the game went on."

On the offense...

"We were only able to get some of the things we wanted to from an offensive stand point. We opened it up a little bit, ran it better. We had a tempo, in and out of the game, where we ran the ball well, then some critical points we weren't able to get the yardage we needed. I think what you can see is we played more physical today. Protection wise we did a nice job at times, and other times we need to get better."

On getting pressure on Daniels...

"We tried to for the most part. He's a tough quarterback and he made some nice plays on the ball but defensively we stepped up. I thought all of our guys played hard. The challenge for the front seven, I thought the secondary did a nice job because really no one got behind us and that was a big thing. That's been an issue with us before but those kids are playing from a good perspective."

On his quarterback's decision making...

"He's a young quarterback. He's getting better as he goes along. He through a nice ball that was right in there for a touchdown and good time management down the field. He's just going to get better every week. Does he make mistakes? Yes. We will just continue to keep working with him.

On the difference in the last drive...

"I thought we were getting stronger. You watch the line of scrimmage, you get two yards and three yards, then all of the sudden you start to get a little bit more push. They come to the sideline and you say you know you need to give a little bit more effort on this play, you gotta drive this way, and it will open up a little bit more. I thought we started to get a little bit stronger as the game went on. It's a good sign and a credit to the players."

On the significance of the game...

"I think its one of those games you look at after the season and say hey that was really big to do. It all depends on how we do from here on out, as to how we will look at this game. It's a big game for this team, I think its important to go on the road and just battle an opponent and win and the players proved that today, that they are capable of doing that."

On what he told his team...

"I just congratulated them. I told them let's get back up to Syracuse quickly and enjoy this victory and get back to work tomorrow. Those kids are happy and they deserve to be, they've worked hard."

Wide Receiver Marcus Sales

On his first catch of the season...

"It felt real good, you know when your number is called you just have to make a play. It was supposed to be a sticker but I just turned around and ran up the side, he jumped the route so I turned up field and ran with it.

On blocking for Wide Receiver Van Chew...

Whatever I can do to help the team, that's what my job is.

On the frustration with his position on the depth chart before today's block and touchdown...

It wasn't really frustration. I just took it as a positive thing. My number was called today and I made a play.

On being 1-0 in the Big East...

It feels really good. We just have to come out and hopefully we made a statement today.

Defensive Back Jeremi Wilkes

On making a big play in front of the hometown crowd...             

It went great. It happened to be a pick in front of my parents, so it was definitely big. I was just happy I got the opportunity to get out there to do that.

On the defense...

All week, actually two weeks, we've been talking about family and brotherhood, and we came out here and expressed that on the field. Halftime and before the game we just told each other, 'ya'll are my brothers, we just have to go out there and fight, it's going to be a battle.'"