Syracuse Football Post-Game Quotes (September 16, 2006)
Syracuse at Illinois
Memorial Stadium – Champaign, Ill.
September 16, 2006
Syracuse Head Coach Greg Robinson Quotes
How does it feel to get this victory?
“I’m really, really happy for our team. It’s exciting. We needed it in the worst way and we found a way to pull it off. We made it hard on ourselves in the fourth quarter, but we’ll learn from that. We will learn how to finish a game the way you have to do it.”
What do you think it was that got the game going in your favor?
“I think it was the preparation. I think our players have been preparing to win and they’ve been getting closer and closer. No one thing is the key to it. At the end of the game, we let them off the hook a little bit, but it was a mindset that we were going to go out there and win. We made a mistake and a guy was hustling. It’s just amazing when you hustle around the football field how good things can happen to you.”
Talk about the touchdown pass play (from Perry Patterson to Taj Smith) and how that developed.
“It was just a double move right there. It was a great job by (quarterback) Perry Patterson of pumping it off and of (wide receiver) Taj Smith. They were working together to make another big play.”
Was Taj Smith your go-to guy?
“He was today. Taj has had two weeks now where he’s made two huge plays. I’d like to think that we have five of them (go to guys), but time will tell.”
The defensive touchdown ... talk about what that meant in the game.
“Well we had talked all week (about it). We had been getting turnovers but we hadn’t scored on defense since I’ve been here. And that was important. Our intent was to score this week on defense. And we did that with great penetration by knocking the ball out, and now our guys are hustling to get to the football. When you try for the football good things happen. We scoop it up, run it in and get a touchdown. I give the players credit for playing the game the way they’re supposed to play it.”
Are (quarterback) Perry (Patterson) and the team getting better every week?
“I think he did a lot of really good things today. I thought that the pass to (tight end) Tom Ferron was about as pretty as it could be. The guy was bearing in on him and he didn’t blink. He put it out there and it was on the money. It was a beautiful pass. He made several passes that were great. All-in-all, I really think that Perry is developing into a really good quarterback.”
Talk about the two long touchdown passes your defense allowed.
“Both of them were missed assignments. My point to our team was, when you have a team down, now to finish them off you have to do the right things. You have to do the right things, right. And we had good calls on, but we have to execute the defense and we didn’t. Thank goodness we were living for another day and we were able to survive it. We came back and responded and played better defense there to turn the fire up. But we let them off the hook in two situations that gave up big, huge plays. One of them was 60, the other was 70, I think. That didn’t need to be. One needed to be a sack and the other one needed to be just a short, little completion.”
Now that you have a win, you go home for three home games in a row. Was this the game that you really had to have to get your season turned around?
“The reason that this game was so important was that it was the last road game we had before the BIG EAST. And if we want to do what we want to do in the BIG EAST, then we have to win on the road in the BIG EAST. And that’s what this game was for us. As far as the next thing that’s important for us, it is Miami. It’s not about three games or four games or two games, or anything like that, it’s about Miami. That will be the focus.”
Do you feel any relief here? Does the team feel any relief here?
“I don’t know if relief is the right word. I think that excitement and happy are better. We’re excited and happy that we won. It’s not about relief to me. I’m fired up.”
Quarterback Perry Patterson
It’s been awhile since you won, Perry. How does it feel?
“It feels great. For this whole team I was happy to see the looks on their faces after a good win. The hard work had finally paid off.”
What do you think it was that enabled you to win the game today? What offensively have you done that maybe you hadn’t done before?
“I think it was a total team effort. Looking at the films of the last game, I saw the intensity we played with against a top 15 team and the caliber of play at that level. This week we came in and made sure we gave that kind of effort. And we just executed a little better. So we stayed consistent. The whole lot did a great job and Taj Smith was probably the player of the game today. Hats off to the whole team.”
Kind of walk us through the play, the fumble that Taj picked up. You have a first down and probably feel pretty good and the next thing you know the ball is out.
“The same thing happened last year at Florida State. I told myself coming into the season that I wasn’t going to make plays like that. I just found myself trying to do a little too much. I didn’t realize I had the first down but Taj did a great job of just playing. The coach is always stressing that he plays to the whistle so with all the effort that he put in today the ball bounced our way and we finally got a break.”
What happened with your confidence with the long ball for the touchdown?
“It was good. We just executed the play. The corner bit on the run action and Taj (Smith) was wide open so I just made sure I didn’t miss him. Taj did a great job getting under the ball and he ran it in. This was a great play overall with the team.”
That was the second touchdown in the first half. Touchdowns have been so hard for this offense to come by. Did you feel like that was the one that kicked the offense in a little bit to help things out?
“I still feel that we’re a little inexperienced. This is only the third game with this group, with the coaching staff, with all the new offensive coordinators and the new quarterback coach. You see the progress from game to game. As long as we keep getting better and keep holding ourselves accountable for the things that we need to improve and really be critical about this last game. There were a lot of things that, especially toward the end of the game, we were kind of shooting ourselves in the foot about, so we have to find a way to stay mature throughout the whole game and finish things off.”
And then you get a touchdown with (tight end) Tom Ferron. That might have been your favorite to sit in the pocket like that and deliver it in the back end zone?
“It’s just all the coaching the coaches did earlier. The offensive line did a great job protecting me. Tom ran a great route so I just wanted to put the ball in vicinity where he could go up there and get it. He did a great job with catching the ball. It’s all the coaching, it’s something that I really think I needed in my career and I’m finally getting it. It’s starting to pay off for me.”
How do you account for such a blowout? For a team that had been struggling so much because you lost so many in a row and so on.
“If you look at the teams we played and look at our games and really study them, we never really gave up in any of the games. The scores have always been close and we’ve always been in a lot of games. We just play hard. We’re a good team. We’re not playing this powerful without good players. We’re a good team. So it’s not really a surprise, we just needed to get that win under our belt.”
What was it like in there when you finally break into the feeling in the locker room after?
“It felt good. Everybody had a smile on their face. Everybody is on a mission and we just won. We just can’t wait to get to next week and play another game.”
Can you talk about how the defense played today with all of the turnovers it forced?
“We have a special defense. Coach Robinson is a good coach. He knows what he’s talking about and he knows what he’s doing. He could do it on the fly. He knows his stuff and he’s been doing it for years. That’s not really a surprise, once again. We have a great defensive line so you should expect that out of us.”
Can you talk about the play of (wide receiver) Taj Smith?
“I told people a couple of days ago that Taj Smith is a great player. You’re going to be hearing his name a lot more. I have respect for that guy. So does Mike Williams, so does Rice Moss. Taj Smith is really going to break through. He’s a great athlete.”
Offensive center Justin Outten
In just one week’s time, what does it feel like to have such a turnaround?
“Our confidence has always been there but it’s just the chirps outside that we were trying not to get to us. Basically we just put our minds to it this week and it wasn’t a high-powered defense like Iowa was but it was something where we could get our technique going and get our offensive flow going.”
You said chirps?
“Everybody has an opinion, which really doesn’t bother us but it’s just out there. This win was more important for the community, as well, because everybody wants us to win, and they want so badly for us to win. And hopefully this is a stepping stone for more to come.”
What do you think the chirps will be saying now?
“Less chirping, hopefully. (Laughs).”
