Syracuse Post-Game Student-Athlete Quotes (Nov. 15, 2008)
Syracuse University Football
Syracuse vs. Connecticut
November 15, 2008
Carrier Dome – Syracuse, N.Y.
Nick Santiago, Sr., DT
On the outcome
“It wasn’t our type of game. Personally, the way I feel is that we made Connecticut look better than they really are. It all comes down to winning the game, they won the game but we let it get out of hand. Defensively we tried our best to hold them as much as we can but we can only do so much, it was just one of those days where you really don’t want it to happen. Things didn’t go our way, I give UConn credit for winning, but we made them look way better than they should have and that is on us. We didn’t take advantage of the situations we had. We made a couple stops but we needed to get back in our rhythm and never did. It is just unfortunate. I feel really bad for my teammates, my senior teammates, because we tried hard, everyone busted their tails today. We just let it get away from us, we didn’t take advantage of the situations we were in. That’s it. They won and we have to move onto the next game.”
On the defense against the running game
“We talked about it all week, we said we could stop this team. We knew they were going to run the ball. It was no secret about what their offense does. Their running back is good, they just had two plays really fast. That one big play where he broke off for a touchdown and a couple 30-yard runs, we stop those or we get the right stop at the right time and everything is shut down. Unfortunately we didn’t and that is our mistake on defense. We’ll look at it tomorrow and see what really happened on that long touchdown run. These things happen and we just have to take advantage of getting whatever we could out of it as far as the good things and move on to Notre Dame and try to upset them and go to Cincinnati, win there and end their parade of trying to win a BIG EAST Championship.”
On how the team will move forward
“One of the things about Coach Robinson is that he is going to keep fighting. I just know I’m going to keep fighting along with him no matter what happens.”
Jake Flaherty, Sr., LB
On the game
“I would feel differently if this was my last game ever, but we’re obviously keeping in mind that we have to go out to Notre Dame next week – which is a great opportunity – and we get to finish off with Cincinnati, which is another great opportunity.”
On his last game in the Carrier Dome
“I appreciate my teammates and the guys I was out there with. I know they battled their butts off, they’re my best friends and I’m going to miss them a lot. I’m going to miss going to war with them in the Dome for sure.”
On his father playing at Syracuse
“It is a huge deal, but my father and I will continue to come to games here and it will be different, because I’m not suiting up, obviously, but we’ll still come and embrace the program and someday I might have a son who plays here, too. Both my parents came to every home and away game. They’re just totally devoted people who are unconditionally supportive of my brother and me.”
On what went wrong on defense
“I’m not sure. They hit some plays on us. Their special teams did a pretty good job with execution and things just didn’t fall in our favor.”
On the fans
“I think a loyal fan is somebody who sticks by you in tumultuous times and in good times. There are a lot of people who stayed and we appreciate them being here.”
On the outcome
“It is very disappointing but we played a very good football team and we have two more opportunities to play, one being Notre Dame which is an awesome opportunity, that is a place you dream about playing since you were a kid. We just have to take advantage of it and step up to the plate. As long as you have something inside of you, you can still play. There are two ways to go in life, you can give up or you can keep going. That is how it is.”
Andrew Robinson, Jr., QB
On the outcome
“It is a disheartening loss to know that we lost the way that we did and know that we never really put together anything except for a drive here or a drive there. It is a tough loss, no doubt about it.”
On splitting time at quarterback
“I think every quarterback in the country wants to be the starter, but some teams have a two quarterback system and that is what we have right now and that is what we have to work with.”
On his playing time
“The way I played didn’t even warrant any playing time so I’ll take what I can get right now. It is a tough situation to be in with a two quarterback system. No doubt about it. If you played as that way throughout Pop Warner and high school and when you get to college you’re in another two quarterback system that’s one thing, but it is a tough situation. At the same time, I could play better to warrant any kind of playing time right now.”
On what giving up big plays does to the teams mentality
“When you have some time left in the game it doesn’t affect you too much but when you’re running out of time and the clock is slowly ticking down and they keep scoring like they were it is pretty tough. We just have to keep going out there and keep battling and that is all we can really do.”
Rob Long, So., P
On the game:
“It was wild. It was just frustrating especially for the seniors. We wanted to make it better for them.”
On the safety:
“The safety happened so fast. The ball was snapped a little low and I picked up to handle it and I had a guy in my face and when I went to punt it, I knew it was going to get blocked. I figured I would try to hold onto it to try to give them two instead of seven. The last one was the same thing. I just got lucky, basically, and went up the sideline and just tried to keep going and run the ball out of bounds after the first down.”
“The safety happened so fast. The ball was snapped a little low and I picked up to handle it and I had a guy in my face and when I went to punt it, I knew it was going to get blocked. I figured I would try to hold onto it to try to give them two instead of seven. The last one was the same thing. I just got lucky, basically, and went up the sideline and just tried to keep going and run the ball out of bounds after the first down.”
Bruce Williams, Sr., FS
On his injury:
“I kind of got nicked in the Rutgers game and re-nicked at practice Thursday. It swelled up and they tried to do everything to get me to play, but it swelled back up on me.”
On the loss:
“It stinks because all of the seniors wanted to go out with at least a win under our belts for the last game in the Dome, but it isn’t happening. They came out and had a couple of guys run on us that we haven’t seen and it worked to their advantage. Things fell apart and we have to get that fixed for Notre Dame.”
On his last game in the Dome:
“It hurt me to know that I couldn’t play and to know that we lost, but at the same time, I was more concerned about our team so I didn’t try to push it and have it hurt our team worse than what happened. So I just came out and let everyone else get their chance.”
On whether he will play at Notre Dame:
“I hope. I can’t tell you. I can walk on it, but they don’t really want me to. I just have to get going the next couple of days and get treatment and see how much I can do this week.”
Curtis Brinkley, Sr., RB
On the last four years:
“It’s been rough these four years that I’ve been here. But what am I going to do? I can’t cry about it, I just have to keep going. I’m going to do the same thing I’ve done after previous games. I’m going to fight. I’m going to give 110 percent.”
On his career rushing yardage:
“It’s a good accomplishment, but it’s tough on a night like this with the score being what it was. I honestly don’t think UConn was that much better than us, but it was what it was and we lost.”
Cameron Dantley, Sr., QB
On the offense regressing:
“We didn’t want that to happen. We were doing so good going through the season, improving offensively. We ran into Rutgers last week and that didn’t really help us and we ran into that again today on offense. It’s just about staying focused and executing plays and we just haven’t done that in the past two weeks. Hopefully we can finish out strong these last two games.”
Max Suter, So., S
On the blocked punt:
“Our coaches just put together and a plan and it panned out well just like we thought it was going to. It wasn’t touched and it got right through and I was lucky enough to get it.”
