University of Louisville Football Post-Game Quotes
November 04, 2005 | Football
Nov. 3, 2005
Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery
Louisville Head Coach Bobby Petrino
"I'm so happy we won with those (black) uniforms. Our kids enjoy them and it's good to get the first victory in them. I'm proud of the team with the way they practiced and I thought we improved with the extra week. I told them last night that I thought we had improved as a group in the two weeks. It's not a lot of fun to have a bye, but we needed it and it's a credit to our seniors that we handled it the way we did."
"We'd like to get more points on the board early. When a fake (field goal) doesn't work, then you're stupid. I thought we also left one out there on Montrell's fumble and that makes you nervous. Our offense stayed poised and it was big to score there before the end of the first half. The defense did a great job of holding them without scoring in the second half and to have an offensive drive of eight minutes on 16 plays and to score the touchdown is good."
"We tackled better tonight and we ran full speed to the ball. We didn't get a lot of sacks tonight but we did a good job pressuring (Pitt QB) Palko. I thought we also did a nice job in our zone blitzes and some of our coverages."
(On the injury to Michael Bush) "Michael is alright. After the game, he said he'd be ready for next week. The x-ray showed no break, so now it's just a matter of getting him ready for next week."
(On the start of the game) "That was unbelievable. I don't even know who recovered (the fumble on the kickoff), but for us to kick it off after we scored and them to run it back for a score is unbelievable. We had some missed tackles on that, but he had a nice run too. The main thing was that our offense showed some poise by taking the next kick and scoring a touchdown. Our coaches did a good job of stressing the importance of opening the game and the second half with scores and we were able to do that tonight."
(On the field goal kicking by Art Carmody) "Those kicks (by Carmody) were huge and even though we had the wind behind us, he hit it really well. He's been doing that for a couple of weeks in practice. Harry Douglas (holder) also did a nice job of getting a couple high snaps down for the kicks and it was good for us to see Art do that."
(On what led U of L to wear the black uniforms) "The game was on national television on a Thursday night and adidas did a nice job with them. The only thing that made me nervous was losing because if we had lost then you would've said the uniforms were a jinx."
Louisville senior WR Montrell Jones
(On the team responding to the Pittsburgh comeback in the second quarter) Things like that happen and you have to prepared for everything. Today was a good team effort and everybody stayed composed. We had a lot of guys make plays and it paid off on both sides of the ball and in special teams. Arthur Carmody played well and that was good for us. That was the best thing I saw tonight. He made some long kicks and that is big for us."
"Football is football, but it does feel good to play under the lights. Next Friday, we've got another one under the lights and we've got another chance to come out and show what kind of team we have and what kind of character we have."
"I've know Michael (Bush) a long time and I know what kind of competitor he is. He'll bounce back (from the injury). It's good though that we have guys like Kolby (Smith) and George (Stripling) to run the ball."
Louisville junior RB Michael Bush
(on his effort tonight) "I thought I played pretty well. Coach did a nice job of calling the plays that we wanted to run and be effective tonight. I have to give a lot of credit to our offensive line, who have been doing a great job for us all season."
(on his injury) "I feel fine. It's just one incident. I don't feel like I'm out of the game plan (for next week). I just came up a little sore but I'll be okay. I should be back for Rutgers."
(on Kolby Smith's return) "We're glad to have him back on the field. He takes some of the pressure off of me. He's really a good back."
Pittsburgh Coach Dave Wannstedt
"We knew coming in here tonight that we were facing a good football team. We knew that if the opportunity was given to us, we would have to take advantage of it. I thought the first half, we did everything possible we could defensively against a good football team for the most part. Our field position was horrendous. You can't score 13 points on offense against these guys and expect to win. We knew we had to control the clock and shorten the game. We had to score at least 24 points. That didn't happen, along with the penalties at the end. Our field position with our punting game gave us no chance. We had some chances to make some plays tonight and didn't.
"Their quarterback is an excellent player and very accurate. We had guys covered and he went to the second or third guys. Their backs ran hard."
Pitt QB Tyler Palko
"You can't come out and play like that against a good team like Louisville. My hat's off to our defense. They kept us in it. Those guys are averaging a lot of points and we gave them a lot of chances to score, then we held them to field goals. We spotted offensively. You can't come out and make mistakes against a team like this. That's not what I came here for, to be sub-par, to be mediocre.
(on the drops by receivers) "It's part of the game. Getting mad about it's not going to do anything. It's about being with your teammates, overcoming obstacles and learning. Right now we're learning about ourselves."
