Head Coach Doug Marrone Postgame Quotes (Sept. 19, 2009)
Head Coach Doug Marrone Postgame Press Conference
Syracuse vs. Northwestern
September 19, 2009
Opening Statement:
“The first thing I want to say is thank you to the fans. In the locker room after the game one of the first things after we say our prayers is to thank the fans for what they’ve given us through some tough times as far as the first two games then coming back here. I thought they did a tremendous job. They were an influence in the game. I think they helped our players. I told our players in the locker room I give this game ball to the Chamber of Commerce. It represents a game ball for all our fans.
“It is important to say that our players have fought well. Going into half time – and we left a play out on the field that we should have made when we threw an interception late – we went in with the lead. It’s the second time at home we’ve gone in with the lead at half time. We talked to our players about the mentality of making sure that we’re going to go out there and make plays and get this monkey off our back of, ‘Here we go, something might happen’. There is going to be a lot of adversity in the second half. Northwestern is a heck of a team. They score a lot of points. To go out there and go down, then come back, then have someone make a play – we talk about that all the time – is tremendous.
“There are a lot of statistical things that we look at and people have played well. In the same sense, there’s a lot that we left on the football field and there’s a lot more that we can improve on. I’m happy to get it. I want the players to enjoy it. I want the fans to enjoy it. Starting tomorrow, we’ll get back to work and get ready for a Maine team to come in here. That’s the one thing about football, it’s so funny when you’re a coach, you really can never enjoy the wins for a long period of time. We’ll enjoy it tonight, then the first thing tomorrow it’s going to be, ‘Oh no, we better get this corrected or else it’s going to kick us in the butt.’
“I’m excited for the people of Syracuse. I’m excited for our players and for everyone who is associated with Syracuse University. They really have worked hard. There are some areas out there on the field that we’ll clean up and I was happy to see them have success. They’re excited right now.”
On how important it is for the players to know they can win games:
“I really think it’s important to just go out there and win. When it’s a game like this, from the standpoint of knowing they’re able to kick the last minute field goal to make sure there’s not any time left on the clock when we do it, it’s important to win. It’s something we talk to our players about all the time. We haven’t won a lot in the past couple of years. I think that kinds of weighs on our people. To come in here and win a game like this, I think it helps chip away something that you may have, maybe that monkey on your back or that chip on your shoulder of winners compared to losers. I think we’re chipping away at it. We’ve worked very hard to put ourselves in that position and we made a play and won the game.”
On what he takes from graduate student quarterback Greg Paulus:
“I think Greg had a tremendous game. Statistically, he had 346 yards, 24-of-35, and the interception. It’s always amazing to me and I think we take it for granted because he was such a tremendous high school player and a tremendous basketball player, that here’s a player who’s only been playing football for seven or eight weeks now, and he can go out in a Division I football game against a team that returned eight out of 11 starters and won nine games last year, granted, they had some people who were injured today, and throw for more than 300 yards is really tremendous. And I think Greg would be the first to tell you that he left a lot out there, too. (Wide receivers) Mike (Williams) and Donte Davis stepped up. The receivers had a good week of practice. I felt good, I told them whatever the receivers wanted to put in the game (plan), they could put in. They really had a good week of practice. There were still some critical drops, but they had a lot of good plays.”
On having his first win as Syracuse head coach:
“It means a lot as far as being here at this University and everything that I’ve said before that, but its’ never been about me. It’s really been about the players. I really wanted to win for the players, especially the seniors. I made a commitment to them when I took the job that I wasn’t going to go in and look to rebuild. I owe it to them to try to win now. When I talk to the team, I keep going back to, ‘I want to do this for you.’ I’m going to win. The future of this program is bright. I feel very confident in the direction that we’re going. I want to win now for those players that have been here, and those seniors that have really done a good job.
“The goal when I went out on the field, in my mind I was thinking ‘Let’s take a time out here, let’s get everyone on the sideline, let’s talk to the players, let’s calm everyone down.’ We were trying to get everything done. We work on this stuff on Fridays, so I guess from a standpoint of coaching what you feel good about is you work on something with the players, you preach it, and you work on it on Friday. It comes up during a game, then you go out – Ryan (Lichtenstein) walks out there as a freshman and kicks the game-winning field goal and there’s no time left on the clock.”
On junior strong safety Max Suter’s interception in the fourth quarter:
“We have them third-and-long. I thought the defensive line did a tremendous job all day. I believe they had five sacks for the game, but earlier in the game, we were getting to (Mike) Kafka, who is a very good quarterback. We were getting to him well, we were forced in a little bit to sprint out, and they caught us quite a bit from a standpoint of our operations. Coach Shafer will tell you, we kept talking about getting your eyes to the sideline, just working operations, calm the kids down, we’re in good shape, we’ve worked on this. At the end of the day, we get them at third-and-long and we’ve been running some of the same routes and Max had a good jump on the ball and made a play.”
On the benefits of playing three Big Ten Conference opponents:
“To say that you’re going to start the season and not be ready is ridiculous. When you start against three Big Ten teams, you better be ready to go right off the bat. We’ve worked on our conditioning, we’ve worked on our strength levels, and we’re quite healthy. We know a lot about our team. A win like this will create some confidence for our football team and knowing that there are so many things we need to correct that we can play so much better. It helps our football team. Syracuse University has never been a football program that shies away from playing big schools, even in my era with the Nebraskas, and the Floridas, and the Big Tens.”
On how he feels about the people who doubted quarterback Greg Paulus:
“I’m not like that. I think there are some people who doubted Greg who have never met him. I said it from the beginning, and I really believe that. I’m not one of those who say, ‘I told you so.’ I’m not like that. I’m just happy that our players were able to go out there to win a game and we have to continue to improve.”
On the importance of Northwestern’s missed extra point:
“I was big. We thought they were going to make that, and then we were thinking that we had to go and score a score and go for two to tie the game. We were getting close. Coach Casullo told me earlier today that we were going to block it. He felt we were really getting close. I give Coach Casullo a lot of credit, I give our players credit. It’s funny, when I used to watch special teams, I used to always watch field goals and watch the rush of field goal PAT. Some teams are taking it off, but our guys have been full-go on every field goal PAT field goal. Every snap on that field means something to our football team.”
On freshman free safety Shamarko Thomas:
“I think all of our young players are playing well. There are some rookie mistakes that you would say are some freshmen mistakes, but overall we have a lot of freshmen who are playing roles for us and that may continue to increase as we go on and push to make a start. Not to say that our starters are in trouble at all, but I think it’s important that our young players are going out there and getting some success.”
