Head Coach Paul Pasqualoni and Player Quotes Prior to Temple Game
"We've been playing very hard on special teams. The fact that Clifton (Smith) got his hand on a field goal attempt and the fact that we probably had one of our better punt returns this year made it really good. We wish we could've tackled Antonio Bryant on his punt return. The one area we can still improve on is tackling in the open field. But I think we had one of our better performances."
On kicker Collin Barber's performance:
"As we ended preseason, Collin, from a consistency standpoint, was both behind Mike (Shafer) and Justin (Sujansky). But he was close enough in the race where, if the opportunity came, we would have to find out under game condititions how he would perform. Consequently, we felt that in fairness to the program, we would give Collin the opportunity so we could find out more about Collin. We just wanted to play Collin just to see where he was in a game setting, and so far so good. He hasn't had to kick a field goal yet, but he did have a long PAT. His timing and mechanics were good under game conditions so we'll go back with him this week."
On how rotation of defensive players helped wear down Pittsburgh:
"It probably helped wear down Pittsburgh. Obviously it helped us immensely to have fresh people in the third and fourth quarter of the game. We made the decision on Sunday night of last week and told the kids we would do it on Monday. We told them again on Thursday. When it was 80-something degrees on the field, we just said 'We're glad we made this decision to this because it's going to be a rough day'. I think it kept us fresh."
On whether defense got tired against Rutgers:
"The problem we've had on defense is that Christian Ferarra is playing 75 plays a game. That's an unbelievable amount of football. That's almost a season for some people when you add up the number of plays. We just didn't feel we could continue with he and Dwight (Freeney), and Josh (Thomas) and Clifton (Smith) and the linebackers to play that many plays every game. We just felt the time had come. We talked in the preseason about being able to play more people. After six games, if we were going to be able to do it, we had to do it then. I think it's worked out."
On play of defensive lineman Brian Hooper, Sheldon King and Julian Pollard:
"They all played within the scheme of the defense, nobody was running around doing their own thing which is something I'm always worried about when you put a first-year player in there. You're looking for them to be physical and you're looking for them to play within the scheme of the defense and they all tried to do that."
On play of JR Johnson:
"He's very fast. It's to the point where he has such a big role on special teams. My concern was, with Antonio Bryant returning punts, I didn't want to coming out of the game on special teams. If we were going to take him out and rest him, we were going to rest him out on defense, we're not going to rest him on special teams. He just too important of a player to rest on special teams. He made some plays."
On Syracuse's run defense against Pittsburgh compared to Rutgers:
"The biggest difference was just knowing what we were going to defend. The plays that Rutgers ran against us, the formations and plays, were not what we saw on film and practiced. When you're seeing things you're not accustomed to seeing, you're seeing those things, but in the back of your mind you're always worried about what we prepared for, thinking sooner or later they're going to get us with what they've been doing. Against Rutgers, they didn't do that. We played a little bit tentatively against Rutgers. We had a read good idea of what we were going to see (against Pittsburgh) the way we did against Auburn and Tennessee and Georgia Tech. It was clear cut."
On Syracuse's second-half performance against Pittsburgh:
"When you lose, it's never as bad as you think. When you win, it's never as great as you think. Somewhere in between is where it lies. We feel real good about the effort level of the team. We feel real good about the five take-aways. We feel great about the fact that we had good field position the entire second half. We watched the film, and if you sit down and talk to the kids and ask if this was our best performance of the year, I think the kids are going to to tell you no. We can do better. We can execute better. I'm really happy with the factors that led to the scoring in the second half, but we need to go out there today and go back to work."
On play of defensive back Willie Ford on Pittsburgh wide receiver Antonio Bryant:
"Willie Ford had an outstanding performance. He bumped him at the line of scrimmage, bumped him out of bounds sometimes. You don't see anybody they play doing that. The only problem we had with him was when we backed off, which was a calculated decision on our part. We did it once and that was the end of it."
On Temple:
"I see a very dangerous team. I don't think I've seen a team in recent years that has more players returning. This Temple team played Rutgers very tough on Saturday. They got a great win. We're going to have to work very hard on prepartion this week to play this team. Temple has had great wins over the years. They've beat some very good teams in this league despite not having a winning season. They've been able to knock off Virginia Tech, they've beaten Pittsburgh. We're going to have to tend to our knittin' and make sure we're focused on what we need to focus on. We're going to have to have a good week of practice. This win counts as much as any conference win and it will be as tough to get. It was tough game with them last year. We're not going to fool ourselves."
Player Quotes
Giovanni DeLoatch, Offensive Lineman
On Pittsburgh game:
"The Pittsburgh game was a great team win. Everybody had a part in it. Pittsburgh's always a quality opponent. For the first half they played toe-to-toe with us. I think once we scored the defense stepped it up big time with some real key plays."
On playing Temple:
"We had a tough time with Temple last year. They're always a quality opponent. You can never take any team lightly. You saw with Rutgers it was definitely a struggle, Temple will be the same way. They are a blue-collar team that will go the distance so you have to ready for that. I look forward to the challenge."
On Syracuse's five-game winning streak:
"We're on a pretty good winning streak right now. Personally, I don't want to jinx that winning streak. Today we came in and watched film. It (the Pittsburgh game) was a great win, we put up a lot of points, but we made a lot of mistakes so we have correct them and get ready for next week. I don't think you can ever prepare too well."
Louis Gaechlin, Defensive Lineman
On Temple game:
"Temple is a great team. I remember in 1998 when Virginia Tech was ranked high and they (Temple) came out and beat them. Everytime we play them, they put up a fist fight. We're going to prepare for them just like we did for Georgia Tech and Tennessee and every quality opponent that we face because Temple is that kind of team."
On how his play at Pittsburgh benefited from Dwight Freeney's presence:
"I guess the coaching scheme was to lock up the best player which was Dwight and it gave us (the defensive line) a lot of opportunities to get one-on-one blocks. Basically we just had to beat the man blocks. We worked really hard. There was nothing that was unexpected. I think that was the reason we're playing great defense is because Dwight is so dominant on the field. It leaves a lot of open plays for everybody else to make."
On Syracuse's five-game winning streak:
"It's very hard to stop momentum. We're not going to do anything different. Everybody is going to go practice and give 100 percent effort. And that's all we need to do. We find that if you work hard and play hard in practice, the game is easier. We're just going to go to practice and do what the coaches ask of us."
