USF Football
Miami 6, USF 3
November 19, 2011
Raymond James Stadium – Tampa, Fla. 

Post-Game Quotes

USF Head Coach Skip Holtz

“That was a classic, hard-fought, hard-nosed, competitive football game by both teams. I give Miami an awful lot of credit tonight for making the plays they had to make going down the stretch and for winning the football game. But I couldn't be more proud of our football team with the way that they competed out there tonight. Like I said it was a 12-round, toe-to-toe, standing in the center of the ring with two great defenses battling each other. It was a hard-hitting game, it lived up to everything you talked about that an in-state rivalry game should live up to with two teams out there just competing their tails off. I felt like our defense played an outstanding football game tonight, even though we had a lot of opportunities where it seemed like five or six times we had potential sacks that Jacory (Harris) would scramble around back there, run for positive yards or find somebody and get out of trouble with it. I think he's a great athlete, I think he played like a senior quarterback should. He was impressive tonight, the accuracy that he threw the ball with, the way that he protected it, the way he moved around back there in the pocket. I thought our defense played a great game. Unfortunately offensively we weren't able to move the ball much in the second half when B.J. (Daniels) went out. Seemed like we just couldn't get any consistency rolling at that point, we couldn't get anything going. We had three one-yard situations we couldn't make. We had a second and one then a third and one that came back on the next series. All of them were about at midfield and we weren't able to get any consistency or get any kind of momentum going from an offensive standpoint. And like I said it's just unfortunate because our defense played a great football game. We said we were going to try not to turn the ball over, punt it away, make them drive 80 yards, play an old school, field position football game and I felt like we did that. I don't think we punted the ball very well, I think we lost about 10 yards every time we both punted in the field position battle. But I thought our players went out and competed their tails off. I can't be more proud of them.”

On status of B.J. Daniels…

“Right now he's out. I don't know, I have not had a chance to go in there and talk to the trainers. At this point I don't know. It is his right shoulder.”

On possibly going for it on fourth down and short calls…

“Yeah I did. I almost went for it even after they called one of the timeouts for having too many men on the field, I was going to go for it. But like I said we had three one yard situations we couldn't make and I thought our defense was playing too hard to look them in the eye and say sorry, I gave you a short field. Again, put them into the hole and play the field position game. That was what we planned coming in. Did I want to go for it? Yeah I wanted to go for it, but I felt like I had a play that I knew could get us a yard but I did not want to put our defense in a short field position when they played as well as they did in only giving up three points all night. I didn't want to give them a short field.”

On giving up long drives late in the fourth quarter and the other teams making the plays as opposed to USF…

“I don't know, I thought Zach Collaros did a good job moving the ball down the field in the Cincinnati game. I thought Jacory Harris made some great plays. There was one early where we had him backed up and I thought we were going to hit him from the blind side and sack him. I kept thinking turnover to flip the field and he turned and got out of it and ran around the end and ended up getting a first down. I think Jacory Harris made some great plays and made some great decisions and threw the ball extremely well. They executed and did what they had to do. I certainly don't think that our defense gave something up. I can't say that, I think its Jacory Harris and Zach Collaros when you talk about the two drives.”

On how the offense had to change with Bobby Eveld at quarterback compared to B.J. Daniels…

“We still tried to throw it a little bit. We put him in there early and threw a little play action pass. He went out there and we've got a little different running game with him because of the read stuff. With B.J. athleticism compared to Bobby's, but Bobby has got to make up for it by sitting in the pocket and make some decisions and throw the ball. Like I said we convert one first down then jump offside. We got another one which looks like it's a sure thing and we drop the ball. It's not just on Bobby, there are a lot of people that have the opportunity to pick up the slack and we weren't able to get it done.”

On how it becomes harder to become bowl eligible now with tough games left against top Big East teams in Louisville and West Virginia…

“Well I think Miami is a pretty good football team too. I think it was pretty difficult tonight, it will be pretty difficult with Louisville and it will be pretty difficult with West Virginia. I'm glad that we have the opportunity to play both of them at home. We'll take it one at a time. We're not playing just for bowl eligibility. Every time these guys go out on the field they're putting everything they have out on to that field from the sacrifice standpoint, from the bodies, their energy, everything they're putting out on the field. That's all I can ask of them and our job as a staff is to give them a better chance to win. On offense, defense and special teams.”

Offensive Coordinator Todd Fitch

“We had some drives in the first half we just couldn't finish them.  We couldn't covert.  It was a frustrating night.  There were some plays to be made and we didn't make them.  We didn't do a good enough job preparing our guys, and getting them in the right spots.  We got to do a better job.  It was a frustrating loss, but a lot of credit to Miami's defense, they did a very great job very physical, tackled well.”

On how the game plan changed when BJ Daniels went out…

“There was a little bit obviously with the different kind of quarterbacks that you have.  There were decent plays in the first half that went out the window.  It limits the running game, not so much in the passing game, but in the running game things changed at that point.”

On how much did BJ's interception in the first quarter took away from the momentum?

“Both defenses were playing well.  Just tried to calm him down, he was hurried after that.  We lost an opportunity to put points on the board.”

On the decision to go for it on fourth down and short down the stretch…
“We discussed it.  Field position was critical in the game, and unfortunately when we got it we couldn't capitalize.”

Defensive Coordinator Mark Snyder

On the defense's ability to get to Jacory Harris…
“I was proud of that.  We did not count on having any negative yardage plays because they are so big.  We were able to get to Jacory a little bit, which was good to see and it kept us in the game for a while.”

On how tough this game is to swallow…
“I'm proud of the team.  I have to give Miami a lot of credit.  Our job was to keep them out of field goal range and send this thing into overtime.  “

On Jacory's athleticism...
“He's a great athlete.  He was able to escape our rush a few times, and we rotated a lot of guys and we were able to stay fresh.  We started to bring a little bit more pressure and more people.”

USF Player Quotes

Patrick Hampton, DE

Thoughts on your performance?
“For us to come out with an effort like that, it's not unexpected. We came out and did what we needed to do today. Well, like I said, we've been coached to practice hard because what you do in practice shows up in the games.”

On the preparations for Miami…
“We knew these guys averaged out 6'4" 315…just to get under their pads with some leverage and keep fighting and keep working because it shows up on Saturdays. We just came out a little short out there today.”

On the difficulty of bringing down Jacory Harris…
“He is a shifty guy…he was frustrating to bring down but we just kept fighting. “

Victor Marc, WR

How are you feeling after a tough loss late in the game?
“Its tough…very frustrating at the end of the day but we know our mistakes and just have to go back out there. Our coaches depend on us day in and day out so we try to keep faith in our coaches and make plays for them.”

Bobby Eveld, QB

On your thoughts of the game…
“That one hurts a lot…Miami did a great job on defense and our guys did a heck of a job on defense holding them to six points, just wish we could've out on top.”

Did it feel like deja vu from last year when you were called out to fill in for an injured B.J. Daniels?
“It did feel like deja vu for a second there when B.J. went down but I felt prepared and I didn't get too nervous when I went out there so that was good.”

On your comfort level…
“ I did miss a couple of reads, but I don't think it had anything to do with being uncomfortable. It was just stuff I hadn't seen before, and that's going come with time and hard work in practice.”

On the team's morale went B.J. went down…
“That's always something that can hurt a team when your lead quarterback goes down and it may have made the team flinch for a little, because he is giving us great numbers this year…We were disappointed in the situation in general.”

Miami Head Coach Al Golden

On the past season and the win…

"Yeah we fought hard, and again I thought we executed down the stretch.  Our defense played really well and again you got to give South Florida a lot of credit.  I thought they played really hard, they did a great job, I thought both punters were excellent.”

On the last few games played…

"Look at our schedule, look at the teams we played, and how they have had success.  I thought we played a tough schedule, we've had as much adversity as anybody can possibly have and withstand in one year and our kids just hung together.  This was a team win, against a very good team, obviously an excellent defense we knew coming in they were excellent."

On the practice leading up to this game…

"It was a little different running attack and again you have to give them so much credit they have an excellent defense."

On B.J. Daniels injury…

"I am sure there was a difference, he's an excellent player.  I just think we made stops. It didn't look like we stopped them any different when Daniels came out in terms of the growth.  I think what we did though is we stopped them in a critical situation on third down."

Miami Player Quotes

Jake Wieclaw, Kicker

On the two timeouts USF called at the end of the game…
“Well I was expecting one. And then the second time they blew the whistle; I didn't know that was allowed, to try to ice someone twice.”

On if he felt nervous for the field goal at the end of the game…
“Not really. We kind of go over pressure situations every week in practice so it's something that I'm fairly used to.”

On if he knew the field goal was good…

“Yeah, right away. It's something most kickers do. As soon as they hit it they know if it's good or not.”