Syracuse Player Quotes
September 4, 2005
vs. West Virginia
Junior punter Brendan Carney
Overall assessment of the first game…
“We were really excited. This was a hard and disappointing loss for all of us. It’s hard to swallow, but we are going to bounce back because that’s the type of coaching staff we have and that’s the type of guys we are.”
On Coach Robinson…
“He pretty much blamed himself for today’s loss. It’s tough. We have a new coaching staff, and the first game is always going to be tough obviously. But he is a positive guy, and he doesn’t let anyone become negative around him. I expect that we will all come back Tuesday and work hard like nothing happened this weekend.”
Senior cornerback Steve Gregory
On what the team needs to improve on…
“It’s hard to tell right now since it’s been a rough day. We’ll just have to go back a look at the film. I’m sure the stats sound pretty good. But there are probably some things we could go work on. We will improve on the areas we need to improve on, but overall I think we gave a great effort out there, and I think we showed some people that we can play.”
On what the defense needs to work on…
“Obviously we didn’t do enough. We needed one more maybe. That’s our goal, to come out and do whatever it takes to win the game, and we didn’t accomplish that. I’m sure there are things we can work on, and next week you will see a more improved and even better defense that you saw today.”
On today’s loss…
“It was really disappointing. We will move on though; it’s all you can do. It’s a long season ahead of us and this is only the first game. I think we have some things to work on. We have the talent, now we just have to go out and execute better.”
Senior defensive end James Wyche
On today’s game…
“We are going to go to practice on Monday and start working on whatever we need to work on. Defense came out really good. Offensively we thought we played a good game, but we need to work on it even more.”
On the hype before game…
“The intensity was there. The coaches revved us up. Freshman stepping up and encouraging the senior class. Seniors stepped up.”
Senior free safety Anthony Smith
Where does the defense go from here?
“We go up. We keep working hard and creating turnovers, which I thought we did a great job of today. Overall I think we did a good job today.”
Can defense stay a turnover machine until offense picks up?
“We can do that. Our defense is going to have to win some games. We could have won today, but we didn’t. We just have to keep working whether its offense or defense.”
On his role to connect offense and defense…
“We will encourage the offense, but that’s all I am going to say to them. We just worry about ourselves and what we do which is to concentrate on defense.”
Senior tailback Damien Rhodes
On the atmosphere…
“You can’t ask for a better atmosphere. We got everything we ever wanted. The bottom line is that we just didn’t get it done. It’s tough.”
On the play of the offense…
“We just knew we had to hang in there because we knew the score was low. But the game is 60 minutes so we all thought that we had a chance. Unfortunately it just didn’t go our way.”
Redshirt freshman tailback Kareem Jones
On his first game…
“When I first stepped out on the field I had some jitters. I was used to coming out in high school where there were 500 people there. But today, there were about 50,000 people, so it was a little nerve racking at times, but after that first play I was alright.”
On playing in front of more than 45,000 people…
“It was exciting. That’s really all I can say. It was disappointing that we had to go down the first game.”
Offensive bounce back…
“This week we will watch tape and go over the things we messed up on. Then from there, we will know how we will bounce back.”
On being the second tailback as a redshirt freshman…
“I was really excited. I worked really hard for it so I felt I deserved the back up position. I’m not done with the back up position, but it’s just not very comfortable for me either. I just want to keep playing hard and hopefully get more carries out there.”
Senior linebacker Kellen Pruitt
On the play of the defense…
“I think we played pretty well. We caused a number of turnovers. It’s just a shame we couldn’t capitalize on some of those turnovers. But great defenses need to find a way to win, so we did good but there are still things we need to improve on.”
On the first game…
“It’s the first game of the season. There are just a few things we need to work out in practice. We have Buffalo next week and we are going to work as hard as we can to try and get a victory at home. Any loss is disappointing. We just hope the fans stick with us. We still have things to come. We have two more home games that we can hopefully get two wins out of.”
On what the defense needs to improve on…
“It’s basically just minimizing the long ball and minimizing those big plays. We need to keep pushing and keep getting turnovers. We need to get better tackling. There were a couple of times that we hit them two or three times that we could have stopped them.”
On the atmosphere…
“I think the crowd really helped because West Virginia liked to play that hurry up offense. The crowd noise helped confuse them a lot and helped us work on defense.”
On the offense and defense…
“We are a team. If you have to win on defense, you have to win on defense. We have to pick each other up. There are things that we can build upon as a team. It’s not really frustrating to keep going back on the field because that’s our job. Every time we go in the game we need to get as many turnovers as possible. If the offense can’t capitalize we just have to keep going and keep pushing because that’s our job.”
