USF Head Coach Skip Holtz

Opening Statement

“It's really frustrating to be as close as we've been so many times this season. You come in at halftime and have a lead and to not be able to hold on to it in the second half is very frustrating. And I give Louisville a lot of credit today, I think Teddy Bridgewater played an excellent game. At the same point in time I thought defensively we were poor. You shouldn't leave that many guys as uncontested and wide open in the backend. And it's not like it looked like we were playing man coverage and we forgot to cover somebody, but we would be in three deep and threw the post under the goal post and there was nobody within 10 yards of him when he catches it. Were in three deep and they throw two corner routes, nobody is anywhere around the guy when he catches it and we just did not play very smart today as a football team. We had opportunities in special teams, we dropped a punt early, we had a kickoff return on a squib where we're just trying to get out of the half and mess up their timing. We miss a couple tackles and they run it all the way down to the 30 and that was the one where they throw the post on it. We have an 80-yard kick by (Maikon) Bonani, who did an unbelievable job, and we have a guy hit another guy in the back just running down the field, just a foolish mistake that takes away about 40 yards of field position in a football game. The first half we came out and tried to take the quarterback out of it a little bit, the second half with what they did and some of the adjustments they made where they loaded the box and said we're going to ask this young quarterback to throw it a little bit to move the ball and we weren't able to protect him very well and we weren't able to throw it and catch it very well. We had three turnovers today to their one and we just made too many mistakes to win today. I still don't second guess or question how hard they play, they came out and played with passion and effort. It was a hard hitting game in a lot of respects but we certainly didn't play one of our better games of the season this year.”

On poor special teams play…
“17 points. Take 17 points off the board and ask how big the special teams were in this game. I think it was absolutely huge and I thought our special teams were poor. That's a reflection on us as coaches. Victor Marc drops a punt, we didn't even set up a return all day. We said fair catch the ball. Fair catch the ball, secure it, their punter is averaging about what ours was, about 35 yards a punt. We said we'll play the field position game and just cover the punt. Victor Marc tries to catch it early and return it and drops it and we gave up three on that one. We ended up giving up seven on the long kickoff return and we took a bunch of field position away. We are just making some foolish blunders that you can't make and win.”

On poor defensive play today after some solid performances in past games…
“Like I said, defensively we couldn't get off the field on third down and we were awful in the red zone. Some of that is when Teddy Bridgewater scrambles out and somebody comes up to stop the run and he lays it up, but others are just inexcusable for us to play zone coverage and them throw the ball 20, 15 yards into the endzone and have nobody anywhere around them. It is inexcusable. You got a young corner in there. Kayvon Webster wasn't able to go, he practiced yesterday but wasn't able to go, he had a concussion. George Baker played more reps than he has all year today, certainly not throwing him under the bus, but a young and inexperienced guy plays three deep and he jumps up on the out cut and leaves the corner route wide open behind him. They weren't hard reads, I promise you. I thought we made it easy, we made it easier than it should be. It certainly wasn't one of our better efforts as far as being where were supposed to be. We didn't feel like we could pressure him as much because of the way that he eludes rushers and his athleticism, so we said we were going to play zone coverage and keep the ball in front of us. We didn't execute that game plan very well.”

On how much he takes this personally…
“I take a lot of it. I'm the head coach, that's where it starts and that's where it stops. I take responsibility for it, I've got to do a better job holding the staff to a higher standard and our staff has to do a better job of holding our players to a higher standard. I take a lot of it, I take it personal. I think that's why you get into coaching, because you think you make a difference and I think it is too easy to point a finger at a player and say he didn't make a play and he didn't do this or do that. When I keep saying we're four plays away from sitting here 9-1, I'm not pointing at the players saying they're four plays from catching a ball or dropping a ball or something like that. I'm saying as much as anything, I'm four plays as a head coach from doing a better job. Our defensive staff, our offensive staff, is four plays away from us sitting here. We've got to do a better job as a staff. I think we all have to accept responsibility and accountability and it starts with me. I'm the head coach and that's where starts and I've got to do a better job of getting everyone on the same page and it's obvious that I haven't taught this football team that turnovers will get you beat. We don't take care of the ball the way we need to, it's on the ground to much, it's pretty obvious by the number of big plays that we gave up today that special teams isn't very important in winning when you watch that game today.”


Offensive Coordinator Todd Fitch

On offense not producing in the second half…
“We had a little bit of consistency in the first half.  Second half they played more man, a bit more aggressive.  They choked us down a little bit on those first two possessions to start the second half.”

On going for fourth downs…
“The first half one was good field position.  It was a close game at that point and the defense had been pretty playing well.  We felt that we had a chance to get it, and obviously it paid off for us.  You have to take some risk.  You know where we are at with the quarterback situation and some of those injuries.  You have to gamble a little bit with the field position.”

On Bobby Eveld starting…
“Bobby had gotten most of the reps all week.  BJ wasn't ready to go so we had a gut feeling that was going to happen.  We gave him a chance to come out and warm up today.”

On Bobby Eveld playing…
“I thought he showed some great toughness.  He showed early in the game some good vision.  There were some things we would like to have back, but we will have to watch the tape.  I thought he was very tough, very competitive but we have a couple of things we would like to do a little bit better like all of us would.”

On Andre Davis' fumble…
“It was a back and forth game at that point.  We were trying to protect Bobby.  It was a first down and it puts your defense back in a bad situation of a real short field.  That kind of finished the game.  That was a critical turnover.  No turnovers are good, but at that point when you have to put points on the board it's tough a one.

On injuries taking a toll…
Yeah, it's part of the game.  You know you are going to have them.  Unfortunately, they all conglomerated to the receivers spot so you have a lot of young guys out there.  There is no excuse.  The next guy has to step up and play.  You want your starters.  You want all of your veteran guys, but that's just the way football is.  We have to play those guys they're competing.  We're just not producing enough right now.”

Defensive Coordinator Mark Snyder

On third down problems…
“Credit Louisville they did a good job.  That was a concern coming into the game, getting off the field on third down.  With his (Teddy Bridgewater) arm and his escapability we knew it was going to be an issue.  Credit the kid (Bridgewater) he came out and got done what he needed to get done on third down.  We had him in our grasp a couple of times and he got away from the rush.  Not only did he get away from the rush, but he made big plays once he got away from the rush.”

On Kayvon Webster's status…
“We knew before the game, we prepared not to have him.”

On receivers being wide open behind the defenders…
“He scrambled and we got splatter, scramble rolls.   The guy snuck behind us on two occasions.”

On fourth quarter touchdowns given up by the defense…
“Bottom line is we got to keep them out of the end zone.  Credit to Louisville got done what they needed to do.”

On giving up seven points at the end of the half…
“It was huge.  It took away a lot of momentum going into halftime.  We were playing with a lot of confidence, felt like we had the mojo on our side.  Lets hold the to three there, don't give up the seven.”

On offense not helping to keep the defense off the field…
“Our job is to keep them out of the end zone, and we didn't get that done.  No matter what happens in a game.  We have to keep them out of the end zone.  Make them kick field goals.  I'm okay with field goals.  We have to keep them out of the end zone, and we didn't do that.”


Junior Linebacker Sam Barrington

On the amount of time the defense was on the field and how that affected them…
“The amount of time that we've been on the field, I don't feel like that's the excuse. We have to play better defense in times like that and like I said last week, our job is to hold the opposing team to fewer points than our offense scores. However long we are on the field is no excuse, we just have to play better football.”

On why there were so many missed assignments…
“I can tell you what causes it. Lack of execution, lack of concentration, I don't know exactly why those things happen but that's what causes it. Louisville was doing some good things on offense but it's nothing that we haven't seen in practice and there is no reason it should happen.”

On impact of giving up a late first half touchdown…
“I feel like that did give Louisville a bit of momentum, but it's nothing can't be overcome with our offense getting the ball back. In the course of a game tables turn.”

On importance of West Virginia game…
“I can honestly say we can't be mad right now. It is a very huge disappointment and West Virginia is on the clock. There is no use to sit down and melt about how we lost to Louisville today. As soon as that clock hit zero, West Virginia was on the clock so that's were our focus is right now.”

Louisville Head Coach Charlie Strong
 
Your 7-5…sounds a lot better than 6-6…doesn't it?
“It does. Just look where we've come from. We were 2-4 two weeks ago and this team has battled back and we go 5-1. We go on the road and win at Connecticut, at West Virginia and now we come to South Florida and get another road win. This is a team that has had adversity all year and they've been able to handle it.”
 
Game had many twists and turns and one of them was Seniorise Perry's kick return late in the half…set you all up for a touch down…That maybe changed things for your team. Right?
“South Florida had just scored and were up 17-3. Senorise makes a great couple cuts and then Teddy makes a great throw in the endzone to DeVonte Parker so instead of being down 14, we are down 7.”
 
What did you say at halftime?
“I was so upset because we weren't playing well defensively and in the kicking game as well. The message at half was just that we are beating ourselves.”
 

Freshman Quarterback Terry Bridgewater

Tell us about the touchdown passes to DeVonte Parker…
“All week in practice he earned the name ball-fetcher so you just throw the ball up and he's gonna get the ball for you. Coach just tells me to throw the ball in the up-right so that he can go get it.”
 
How big of a thing was it to have Perry get that kick return after it was 17-3?
“It was huge because we were killing ourselves early in the game, penalties and just not finishing. For him to just get a return like that…I was actually standing on the sidelines and I said this is going to be a big return and he just broke it loose.”
 
Did you imagine the opportunity of possibly playing in the Orange Bowl?
“That's the reason I came to University of Lousiville… to win championships and I mean the people outside the university may have counted us out when we were 2-4 but right now it's all about finishing.”