Opening Statement…
“Congratulations to Miami, they played a very good game. They did things they had to do and took advantage of some opportunities in the game. I thought in the game, we started off very good. We got a blocked punt, got a score, got up in the game. We got a muffed punt. We were doing a great job on special teams. The score was 17-7 and then they got a score. Right before half, we had a chance drove down there, a two-minute drive, got down there and missed a field goal. We could’ve got up 20-14 and we had the ball coming out in the second half. In turn, we gave up a drive and then got down 21-17. The guys played really hard and made adjustments at halftime. We came out and had a great drive, a six- or seven-minute drive and had fourth-and-one and we jumped a little bit on the play and we kick it. And then they hit a kickoff return. They got ahead once they got the kickoff return and got ahead, they got going. Then, the next route, we were going and 15 throws a great ball and we just slip; the receiver just slipped and fell down on the play. It was nobody’s fault. The ground just came out from under him and they got a pick. And then we dropped back down and scored again to make it 31-26. And then we’re driving back again and we fumbled a 3-and-1. We got a 3-and-1 and we were driving to take it and get a fumble right there. Then they go in and get a pick and then it goes back-and-forth a couple times, but the guys played their tails off. [Conner Weigman] played his heart out. I thought he played really good in the game to give us a chance to win. He almost got us back to where we could onside kick it. The receivers made some plays. We made plays in all three phases but we gave plays up in all three phases. We gave up some deep balls. I thought we played the run really well. We gave up some deep ball passes. They got down the field. I thought on offense we moved the ball. I thought the quarterback played pretty well in the game. They had some pressure and brought some heat on him and he stood in there and fought and did a pretty good job. We ran the ball when didn’t have to keep throwing it at the end. Special teams got blocked punt and got a critical turnover to set up points, but we gave up one in that we had a missed field goal. Too many didn’t find the plays at the right time, so give them credit. We have to fix those things and move on.”
On Miami’s yards after the catch…
“We didn’t tackle well. We had guys we could’ve tackled and we tackled poor in space. That is one thing we did last weekend. They had yards after catch and we had some guys with arms around them but we just didn’t make the plays and get them on the ground. They did a really good job of running with the football and we didn’t tackle well in space afterwards.”
On the progress from last year to this year…
“Our guys fought their tails off. I mean, we kept coming back, [Conner Weigman] brought us back and played his tail off. I thought he did a great job of keeping the game alive and making some drives to get us the ball and do things.”
On the lack of pressure on the quarterback…
“We need to find some different blitzes and get some guys on the edge to create some matchups…we need to affect the quarterback a little more.”
