USF vs. Connecticut
Raymond James Stadium
December 4, 2010
USF head coach Skip
Holtz
“Well, this one hurts. Everyone already talked about how
there was nothing really riding on it for us, and we're not trying to play the
spoiler role or anything else, but we just wanted to turn and send these
seniors out the right way for the foundation they have laid, everything that
they've done for this program, and just the attitude that they've had. It hurts
to lose a game like this, especially as hard fought as it was. I'm really proud of this football team for
the effort, the energy, the commitment that they've made to this program, to
what they did this week, the way that they worked, the physical nature that
they played with. I'm really proud of these guys. We had our opportunities
tonight. I will give Connecticut an awful lot of credit. They did what they had
to do in order to win this game. 52 and 50 yard field goals—it hurts to lose a
close scoring game like that, but when you make some of the mistakes that we
did—we threw three interceptions in this game, one of them went for six points.
We outgained them by 100 yards with a young quarterback who stepped in there
and did some really good things. We just couldn't get it done. I blame,
everyone is quick to point everywhere else, I look at myself first. I'd love to
go back and redo the final two minutes of that game, or minute and a half. We
ran the ball on first down and got no yards. We turned it loose in the
backfield and gained no gain. We tried to say “you know what? There's
one-on-one coverage, they're loading the box, let's lay it up and give Bogan a
chance to make a play. He's made so many for us this year. In hindsight,
putting that on a freshman, I should've run the ball even if we didn't gain any
yards. I should've run the ball and ate up the clock and not have given them an
opportunity to turn, go back down, and kick the field goal. We'll have to look
at some things—as coaches, as players—we'll often look back in a game like this
and in a one play, a game like this, you beat yourself up over one play or
another. But, I'm just really proud of these players and the effort that they
put forth. I'm really proud of the way that they worked and the way that they
played this year. We're looking forward to a bowl game. Hopefully we'll find
out what bowl game we're going to sometime tomorrow morning. We'll have a
better idea of what type of schedule we get a chance to put together. We can
get back to the practice field, get some things done and get ready for a bowl
game.”
On throwing the ball
41 times with QB Bobby Eveld…
“A lot of those were ball control things early with what
they were trying to do. A lot of bubble screens and things like that. Ball
control, underneath, I wasn't asking him to throw the ball all the way down the
field. As the game went on, we opened it up a little bit more. To be honest, we
probably protected as a whole worse than we turned and read coverages and threw
it down the field. We had a lot of pressure on our quarterback, but I thought
Bobby played an excellent football game. I thought he was dialed in, he was
focused. He missed the one slant inside, which I absolutely hate that it got
intercepted. The other one that went for a pick-six got batted at the line. I
thought he made a good read, it was going to the right guy. But I thought Bobby
stepped in there, competed and played extremely hard. He made a couple of
mistakes and missed a couple of reads, but for the most part, for a true
freshman walking into his first start, I thought he did a heck of a job. He
turned 19 years old today. He was out there in his first start, and I just
thought he competed his tail off.”
On the defense's play
not being enough to win…
“No it wasn't. You give up an interception for a pick-six,
give them short field. I thought our defense played well, but they've played
well all year. When you've got to turn and play a true freshman quarterback,
everybody has to pick their game up. The defense has to pick their game up. You
can't ask a true freshman to walk in and carry the torch. You've got to be able
to spread that out. I thought they answered the challenge. I thought they did a
great job. I really thought the defense played well tonight. That's why your
heart breaks. There were a lot of guys who put up some great individual
efforts. Bogan played a great individual effort game. I hurt for him, too. And
for Sampson and for every member of the defense, and for so many of these guys
that played their last home game in that stadium.”
On the tipped
interception thrown by QB Bobby Eveld…
“We got the interception and then all of a sudden it's like
'Here we go. We're at midfield, there's two minutes.' That one I can't blame on
Eveld. He didn't try to force anything, it just got tipped. We tipped a couple
of theirs, and it went up in the air, and fell on green grass with a couple of
guys diving at it. Unfortunately, ours got tipped and went up in the air and
they ran after it. It's unfortunate when you have taller defensive lineman and
that's what they're going to do. They're going to press and when they can't get
there, they're going to raise their hands to try and create a picket fence, and
they did that. They had two balls tipped. I think we tipped a couple at the
line, they just didn't result in interceptions.”
On the lack of
offensive production in the first half…
“We threw the interception and had a number of penalties. We
get called for tripping, and all of a sudden you're looking at a 15 yard
penalty. We jumped offsides twice in the first half. We made some foolish
mistakes and I said 'we just shot ourselves in the foot. We're making it too
hard.' And we're not good enough to overcome some of those mistakes that we're
making. I look at it and go 'they had three, too.' So why do you put a freshman
in and try and open it up and ask him to do more in that situation? I was
content with a tie ballgame.”
On the attitude of
where the team is heading into a bowl game…
“I'll get a better feel for that when we have the team
meeting tomorrow. They'll be excited to play in the bowl game. But right now,
when you put that much into it, play that hard and work that hard, losing
hurts.”
USF Players Quotes
Safety Jon Leijiste
What did UConn do in the last two minutes of the game?
"Air it out, they needed to make the catches they
needed to. The kicker made a really good field goal, you know? 50 something
yards. Things just went their way."
Two years in a row they have gotten you in the same way...
"Yep, last year they won by a last second field goal,
same thing this year. Can't really do anything about it."
LB Jacquain Williams
How did you feel at the end of the game?
"Pretty sad. It
was hard to watch them on the sideline, celebrate on our field."
Defensively, did you think you guys played good enough to
win?
“We didn't [create] enough turnovers, but we did what we
needed to do."
Runningback Moise Plancher
Were you frustrated to lose the game?
"Yeah, but I am proud of those guys for playing their
heart out, unfortunately UConn had more successful plays than we did."
Does it hurt knowing that this is the second year that UConn
has beat you?
"Yeah it hurt, but we played hard. We wanted to come
out with a win, but UConn did a great job."
Quarterback Bobby Eveld
What was going on during the 4 downs?
"Well the first play was one-on-one with Bogan, so we
were just going to give him a chance. The second one was a little
miss-communication on my part. The second one wasn't a very good pass anyways.
We felt like we had a one-on-one match up."
What about the interceptions?
"Interceptions are obviously something that you don't
want to do. I am going to be a little bit hard on myself because I feel like I
did a poor job taking care of the football."
Were you confident out there?
"During the game people keep coming up to me and saying
'we still need you' and 'we're still in this' so that helped my
confidence."
Connecticut coach Randy Edsall
On the win...
"Well, just another typical day you know for the UConn
huskies on a Saturday afternoon, Saturday evening. Just so proud of these young
men and the assistant coaches for the job that they did here tonight. It was
one of those things that we never stopped believing, never stopped fighting. It
wasn't pretty but all that counts is how many points you have to the opponent
and we had more than they did so, again, to be heading to a BCS game and to win
the Big East championship within 7 years of being in this league and really the
short time we've been a Division1-A program says a lot about the character, the
resolve and the work ethic of all these people that are in the program now but
even the guys that came before and the former players from when this program
started. So I couldn't be happier for everybody and the people in the state,
most especially John Roland and Lou Perkins and Tom Ritter and Phil Austin, Lew
Rome, for having the foresight to go and do this and the decision that they
made and the opportunity that Lew gave me and I'm proud that I've had this
opportunity to be able to get this done with this group of kids."
On focus as head coach after first two losses...
"Well it's more the team than it is me. It's on the team and
those guys just believed in what I told them, and they believed in themselves,
and understood that it's not where you start, it's where you finish. And we
never lost sight of the fact that we still had the goals within reach. Once we
were 0-2 in the league, we still had all the goals in front of us that we
needed to accomplish and if you just go and battle everyday and don't worry
about what happened yesterday or what's going to happen tomorrow and you just
win today, which was our mantra this year--win today,and we finally got that
concept down after the Louisville game and here we are."
On comfortable field goal range...
"Well I thought he was probably good up to 58. He's really
been kicking the ball well during practice. He made a 60 yarder the other day
and he made a couple 60 yarders out here today in the pregame and the 50 yarder
he just got under just a little bit, so he had plenty of leg and I saw what the
deal was and I just said if we came here to win, there's no way I was going to
try to punt the ball or say 'okay lets wait till overtime.' We were going to
kick the ball and I had confidence in him and like I said he's been kicking the
ball very well in the last five weeks."
On the game-winning field goal...
"Didn't surprise me. I don't know if I had much emotion or
anything. I expected him to make it to tell you the truth. I had that much
confidence in him."
About lack of offensive touchdowns...
"Football is not about style points; it's about winning and
losing. And we do what we have to do in order to win. I mean, that's where, to
me, Vince Lombardi would've been proud of this game today. You use all 3
phases--special teams. Offense we did enough, give South Florida credit. And,
defensively, we hung in there and bent a little bit and made it a little close
there at the end, but this is who we are. You try to play to your strengths in
terms of what you have and we left a lot of plays out there offensively. There
were some balls that some guys were open. I thought Zach didn't have his better
game, but he made enough plays for us and made some good scrambles. But the
bottom line is we won the game and nobody is going to take anything away from
us. We played by the rules, we won the Big East, and so we get the BCS, that's
what the rules are. So, we are going and couldn't be more happy for these kids
and coaches."
On Wilson and his picks...
"That was a big turning point for us there in terms of
getting that pick. I just wish he would have played a little deeper in some of
the pass coverages on 3rd down there. But no, Laurence has come up
huge. Laurence was a nobody coming out of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and came here
and has had a great career for himself and has one more in the Huskie uniform
and I'm sure he's going to have more playing for somebody in another uniform
after he's done playing January 1st or January 3rd."
On locker room motivation...
"You always think of different things, but really when you
come in there you just say what's in your heart. That's who I am; I'll say
what's in my heart. You know you might
prepare something but then all of a sudden you get in there and you stand in
front of them, look 'em in the eyes, and there's nothing more than just
'congratulations'. They did what we asked them to do; they were physically
tough today, they were mentally tough, they let it fly, and they were having
fun out there. And you know, like I said, it didn't matter to me if we won by
1, or 10, or whatever it was, as long as we won. And again, when they put as
much into it in adversity that this team has had the last 2 years and what they've
had to overcome, its just remarkable. I mean I'm just happy that we got a
chance to maybe go to Miami and play back in Jazz's hometown, knowing that he
would be a senior, and you know there's a lot of emotions running through me
right now but like I said it's more joy and happiness for those kids in there."
On ending the past two seasons with close victories over
USF...
"No, I'd rather be able to win by more than what we did. But
South Florida is a good football team. Skip's doing a good job here and we were
fortunate to make enough plays to win the ballgame. But that's a good football
team that we beat. Again, going on the road, I mean we had to come on the road
and get another win on the road, which hasn't been one of our success stories
in the time that we've been there. But like I said, we came, we persevered. I
got a quote from Tom Coughlin this week and he told me “persevere until victory
is yours.” Guess what, we persevered until victory was ours today. Thank
goodness—we persevered."
Connecitcut Kicker Dave Teggart
On how it felt to make the two fifty yard kicks…
“I felt as though hitting the fifty [yarder] in the fourth
quarter gave me a lot of confidence.
Warming up for the rest of the quarter, I knew I had the distance. When
I was lining up for the fifty yarder, the first hit was not so great so, I just
knew with a good snap it would give us a good distance.”
On his approach…
“I just try to keep every kick the same as an extra point. After
every kick, I either miss or make, I say to myself, the next one you kick, you
have to make the next one.”
On if he has dreamt of hitting a kick like that…
“I mean absolutely, just kickers in general. We don't get on
the field that often, so that's part of the job. If you're going to get chances
like that then I'm happy to capitalize on it.”
On how he feels about making history…
“I don't even know. It hasn't hit me yet. It is just a great
team win honestly. With a great return
by Robbie, and the offense of course had the position to do it. I'm happy I had
the opportunity to do it.”
On if Coach Edsall gave him a number for how far the kick
would be…
“No, it was probably because we were a little bit into the
wind that it was probably 55 or maybe a little more. But in a situation like that, I had some
adrenaline pumping and I knew it wasn't going to come short no matter whether
it goes straight or not.”
On the scene in the locker room after the win…
“It's still pandemonium in there, everybody's still jumping
around, singing and dancing, it's definitely a great moment and I was
happy our team could do this.”
On what was going through his mind after he kicked the ball…
“I knew when I lined up, like I said earlier I knew I had
the distance for the fifty yarder, and it gave me a little confidence going
into it, I knew I had some adrenaline, lining up. I knew I wasn't going to be
short, it was just a matter of was it going to be straight or not.”
