Quotes From Monday's Football Press Conference
October 18, 2004 | Football
Oct. 18, 2004
Audio Clips
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Head coach Bobby Petrino and selected players made themselves available to the media for the weekly football press conference on Monday at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium. They discussed U of L's 41-38 loss at Miami last Thursday and the 15th-ranked Cards' upcoming home game against Conference USA foe South Florida. Kick off between the Cardinals and Bulls is set for 8 p.m. ET at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium and the game will be televised by ESPN.
Following the USF game, the Cardinals will take to the road to meet C-USA rival Memphis on Thursday, Nov. 4 at 7:30 p.m. ET in the Liberty Bowl in the third of four straight U of L games on the ESPN networks.
NOTE: The Cardinals (4-1) debuted at No. 17 in the first 2004 Bowl Championship Series Standings released at Noon ET on Monday. U of L is ranked 15th in this week's Associated Press Top 25 Poll and 18th in the ESPN/USAToday Coaches Poll.
On his opinion of the team's movement in the polls:
"I kind of thought we would go up. I agreed with the writers. I think it was a heck of a football game and I thought we showed that we belonged there."
"I'm pleased about it (his team's movement in the polls). I think it says a lot for what people think of our football team. I think it says a lot for the way our players came out and performed in that game...it's helped a lot in our recruiting too."
On the players psyche following the game:
"They're disappointed in the outcome of the game, but they are excited at what we have in front of us. If we go and just win one game at a time, we have an excellent chance of being a very highly ranked team. Of course we've got to get ready for this game against South Florida."
On this week's game against South Florida:
"It concerns me because you see the outcome of the Army game and really the entire first half South Florida was in complete control of the game. They have a very good defensive front. They are very active. They're defensive front gave us some problems last year because they are so active. They try to take away the run by putting eight or nine guys in the box. They didn't do that real well in the second half of the Army game because they broke some big runs on them. They did a lot of toss plays...they're not as experienced in the secondary as they were a year ago..."
"They run a spread offense, which we haven't seen very much...they run the option read game out of that with they're quarterback and they half a quick passing game. We haven't seen a lot that this year. We knew it was coming, it was just a matter of when and this is when."
On whether he believes his team may suffer an emotional letdown following the tough loss:
"Yeah, you do have some concerns about it. I think that's natural...I think what we need to do is go out and practice hard. We're cutting practice back a little bit, not a whole lot. Today's routine is pretty much the same...we are going out in full pads and we are going to practice hard and get ready for South Florida. I really think we have a senior class that's very close and very excited about what's in front of us and I think they'll do a really good job of leading them."
On any second-guessing he's done of himself following the loss against Miami:
"Certainly, you evaluate every play and everything that you do. You do that in every game...but yeah from the first play, and we jumped offsides on the very first play...but yeah you certainly do."
On whether he is concerned with the polls:
"I don't really get too concerned with it. We really don't have time to. I think that the benefit of being ranked is the excitement that our players will have to go to practice. They like it. They want to see themselves ranked. They take pride in it. I think it benefits our recruiting. The coaching staff really gets in here early and goes right to the next opponent. Most of the time someone's telling us (what goes on with the polls, etc.)"
On what he told his team following the loss to Miami:
"First of all I told them they did a great job of competing in the game, and that is what a competitor does. They prepare well for it, and go out and do the best they can, and I thought our players did that. I wanted them to make sure they had their chest out and chin up when they walked out of the locker room after the game. They're certainly disappointed and down, but part of this coaching profession is to teach young men how to come back when they are down, so the best way to do that is to go back to hard work and learn from it and I think we will learn from it. I think there are a lot of lessons that we can learn from that game that will help us in the future."
On the play of the offensive line against Miami:
"...I'm not sure we were as physical in the running game. We're going to work extremely hard on improving how we come off the ball together. They probably did a better job working together in the pass game than they did in the run game...they were pretty physical and their linebackers were plugging the holes really fast. But I thought the running backs hit the holes hard...we had a lot of plays where we had four and five yard gains...we've got to continue to run the ball well so the big plays start coming in the third and fourth quarter."
On the play of the defense:
"...our defense hadn't been in that kind of situation before. We played North Carolina and they were on the field for 46 plays or something. I was seriously thinking about how we could condition our defense more than our offense more the next day when we come back and run."
On South Florida as a team:
"He (the quarterback) has a very live arm, and he's very athletic...they've got a running back that's run the ball well. They're offensive line looks good to me. They're very athletic and they're very well-coached. They have the ability, but they've been making some `young' mistakes offensively. Defensively, they concern me because of how active their front is and how fast their linebackers run and that they like to load the box and try to take the run away from you and make you throw the ball."
On the effect the Miami loss has had on recruiting:
"We try to use it to our advantage. We've been on the phones a lot...and we will be again tonight. But people are impressed. They see the young guys we had playing and saw the way our guys competed...I think they liked what they saw."
On his team having to play a game on a Friday night:
"...we're in a situation in Conference USA where if ESPN wants you to play on Friday night, then you play on Friday night. There's not a whole lot you can do about that. To me, Friday night football is for high schools...we try to do everything we can to help the high schools out. It's unfortunate for us that we play on a Friday night."
