USF Head Coach Skip Holtz

Opening Statement:

"Heck of a football game with two teams out their competing their tails off that went all the way down to the wire. I had said earlier in the week it's eerie how similar these two teams are when you look at the quarterbacks, the styles of play. There were so many things so similar in this game."

"Give Cincinnati an awful lot of credit. They made the plays they had to going down the stretch with the touchdown receptions to go up. I think Zach Collaros is a heck of a player. When I look at what they did to move the ball down the field, I give them an awful lot of credit."

"My heart breaks for our players. Our guys competed their tails off. There is no quit in this football team. They've gone out and worked extremely hard. They had a great week of practice last week. They came out and put it all out on the field. It certainly wasn't a perfect production when you look at some of the mistakes that were made."

"I was really proud of a lot of guys that had to step up with the injuries. We came into this game with Sterling as a sophomore, Deonte Welch is a redshirt freshman, Andre Davis is a true freshman and Reuben Gonzalezis a true freshman. We had three receivers out there playing as freshman and then we lost Sterling and we lost our experience, but I thought our guys really competed."

"I thought BJ was a champion today. I thought he competed his tail off. I thought a lot of guys played really well today. A lot of guys really competed."

"It's disheartening because I look at how hard they played and how hard they worked. I'm very grateful to everybody that came out to support this team today. I thought the crowd was great. I thought theyw ere making a difference at the end of the game. They were into it. I thought they were loud. It was a great atmosphere. It was a great environment."

On the missed opportunity to get back in the BIG EAST race...

"We had an opportunity to step back into the race with the two losses last night. Right now, I'm probably thinking a lot more about the missed opportunities today than the big picture. We had some opportunities on both sides of the ball that we couldn't capitalize on. I did not sell the team on the losses in the conference. We told the team to take it one play at a time and to go out there and compete for the guy on your left and the guy on your right."

On the opportunity at the end of the first half for a touchdown...

"At that point in the game, I wanted to get three points. We called a sprint out pass on second down and I started looking outside at the route and all of a sudden the ball carrier is in the middle of the field. I was not willing to roll the dice, call a timeout. And then with 15 seconds left, call a dropback pass and risk a sack and not end up getting the three points out of it. The thought of throwing it on second down was that if its incomplete, we can run it or throw it on third down and then use the timeout to run another play or kick a field goal. But, when we ran it on second down, the decision I made at that second was let's not get caught here without points."

On the penalties and botched field goal...

"That's why I said missed opportunities when we talked about it. I asked Brockhaus-Kann what happened on the hold, he said 'Coach it went through my hands.' What was I supposed to do? Scream at him? There's nothing we could do to bring the play back. It was a missed opportunity. I knew he felt as bad as anyone else did, but I needed him the rest of the day. That's definitely the story. We had them in 3rd and 20, we had them in 3rd and long, but we couldn't get off the field. We had a couple scoring opportunities, but we couldn't get it in the end zone. It certainly wasn't from a lack of effort or because they didn't care. I thought they went out there and competed their tails off."

What do you tell this team right now...

"I'm going to tell them that we need to get better. We're not where we need to be. I don't question this team's effort, I don't question their work habits, I don't question if they want to be good. We're playing hard, but playing hard and playing smart are two different things. Right now, we're making some costly mistakes. Nobobdy is pointintg fingers at anybody. Everybody in that locker room lost today."


USF Defensive Coordinator Mark Snyder

On Cincinnati's production...

"I loved the way our kids played out there. We wanted to make them beat us with the big plays and they did. There were a bunch of third and long situations where they're kids went up and made a play."

On the penalties...

"We had way too many roughing the passer penalties. We just need to get back to work and cut down on the mistakes."

Cincinnati Head Coach Butch Jones

On the Big East Conference...

“Great, great win obviously; It's very difficult to go on the road and win in the Big East Conference and to go into a great environment. It was a great football game. And South Florida is a great football team. But, the mark of good football team is they go on the road and find ways to win. I told Zach when there's a minute and twenty-seven seconds left; it's great quarterbacks that are defined in how they lead their team to victory in the two-minute drill on the road. He obviously made the plays down the road for us. Our receivers, our line, I just can't say enough about our team. I thought our defense played well. I thought we put them in some really adverse situations. BJ Daniels is a great quarterback and he can hurt you anytime; just the perseverance that it takes. Our kids handled it and I'm really proud of them.”

Deonte Welch, WR

On today's opportunity…

"It was opportunity for me to step up and make good plays because we had a couple good receivers out, so I played my role by stepping up."

On big game today…

"It was just the play-calls. We practice this everyday; we go out and work hard. It's just something that happened, it's all a team thing. It's not just about me, everybody works and because of the team I made some big plays."

On confidence growth…

"It just built my confidence level, bringing it back up. It's my first game starting as a red-shirt freshman, so it was just building more and more confidence."

BJ Daniels, QB

On referee/pile up at end of 2^nd quarter…

"They just wouldn't let me get up. That was the thing. There was a big pile, and I don't want to say they weren't getting them off of me, but I couldn't get up. It was running some seconds off the clock and that hurt."
On miscommunication at end of 2^nd quarter…

"I was in the mix between trying to figure out if we should call a timeout, being that we had one left, and being mad at the referee at the same time."

What do you say to your team as a leader…

"We are all men, we are playing for pride right now. We aren't going to duck our heads in the sand and just throw in the towel. Like I said before, we are all men, and if we get knocked down we got to get back up."

On emergence of backup receivers…

"They stepped up and contributed a lot. They made plays. They guys are young and have a bright future."

Jerrel Young, S

On the last drive…

I don't know, I haven't watched the film.

How much was on Cincinnati…

"They did what they had to do. I take my hat off to them. The came and they played and when they needed to make plays they did."

Is this hardest lost of season…

"I couldn't say that. A loss is a loss and they all hurt.  I got 5 games left. Ever."

What do you say to team now as leader…

"We got to keep digging.  We got to keep getting the rock and building. Nothing good was created over night, it was built over time, so we have to build the program to where it wants to go."

What are you playing for now…

"I'm still here for my teammates. We are 0-3 in the Big East but we still got to keep playing. It's still not over. We can still go to bowl games. Build the program for the underclassman going to next year. We got to keep building."

Sam Barrington, LB

On the loss…

"It was very frustrating that we didn't execute when it was time too. Cincinnati did some great things at the end of the game and they were fortunate enough to get in the end zone.  We got to do better in that situation. I feel like the coach put us in a great situation and we just got to do better."

Giving up 3 TDs in last quarter…

"It's very tough because you harp on being a great defense, and you harp on not letting things like that happen, so for those things to happen, it's very disappointing. But the beautiful thing about this team is that tomorrow, we will go back, find out what we made wrong, and fix it."

On defensive confidence…

"I think I am speaking for the whole team when I say we were very confident--very confident.  It's tough. It's very tough. It's very tough." 

Ryne Giddens, DE

On missed opportunities…

"As the offense scored, the defense had to come back.  We had so many missed opportunities. A lot of things went wrong and Cincinnati capitalized on the last substitute."