Miami Head Coach and Player Quotes
Syracuse vs. Miami Post Game Quotes
Coach Shane Montgomery on coming into the game tonight:
“I felt like we were ready to play, we knew Syracuse would come in with a lot of confidence coming off their first win in twelve games last week, they got a big win on the road. They played really well defensively over the last year and a half so I know we had our work cut out for us offensively.”
Coach Montgomery on giving up two quick touchdowns:
“We were ready to play. I thought we did a good job in the first half after we gave them two quick scores of at least staying in it, with a chance to at least tie the score. I think we had at least three straight drives where we missed a field goal or had a field goal blocked. It felt pretty good going into the half even though we were down seven.”
Coach Montgomery on his offensive line:
“We were not very effective running the football tonight, they did a good job up front. We’ve been banged up on the offensive line, we still have two starters out of the O-line and they took advantage of that today because they were able to stop the run and they put a lot of pressure on us.”
Coach Montgomery on Miami’s inability to score:
“We had no balance. We knew it would be tough. We wanted to try to establish a run early, again having our two starters out still, they were able to stop the run. We threw the ball more than we probably wanted to in the first half but we felt like we weren’t getting a running game, felt like we were just wasting plays.”
Coach Montgomery on QB Mike Kokal:
“Mike did some good things. When we can’t run the football it puts a lot of pressure on him, especially when he has to drop back and throw the ball more than he wanted. He took some shots today, he hurt his ankle a little bit to start the third quarter and I took him out there late to try to help him.”
Coach Montgomery on his team after the half:
“That was really our big drive at the start of the second half, we talked about going out there and stopping them. They only got three points but they kept our offense on the sideline for about six minutes and when we got out there, we couldn’t get anything going.”
Coach Montgomery on the field goal unit:
“I don’t know. Without looking at the film, it looks like a low kick. That’s why we went to Trevor (Cook), he was going to kick the second half. We didn’t get anything until obviously until there was under a minute left.”
Miami QB Mike Kokal:
“We have to regear, this doesn’t hurt us conference wise, their (SU) a much improved football team.”
On having SU on its heels the last part of the first quarter and the second quarter and regaining the momentum:
“We did the things we wanted to do, we protected pretty well, we just didn’t make the plays we wanted to.”
“Nobody could hear anything at the start, and we just couldn’t get any rhythm to get anything going. We had some third and shorts and couldn’t get first downs. We just couldn’t get our running game going at all. Give credit to their linebackers for really stepping up in the hole.”
On the sacks:
“They brought good pressures from the ends. It was nothing surprising or nothing new that we hadn’t expected. They just really beat us.”
DE Craig Mester:
“They started blocking better in the second half and some of those runs really took the wind out of our sails. In the first half, we had kind of shut them down, but they made adjustments and came out in the second half. Their backs made some good cuts, and a couple of times kind of lulled us to sleep by going one way and cutting back.”
WR Ryne Robinson:
“We just wore down in the second half, especially on offense. When they figured out we weren’t running, they backed off into pass protection.”
