University of Louisville Football Post-Game Quotes
January 02, 2006 | Football
Jan. 2, 2006
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Head Coach Bobby Petrino
"I'm very proud of our football team. We prepared the way you're supposed to prepare. We put a tremendous amount of effort into this game. We did a great job down here (in Jacksonville) taking care of themselves and conducting themselves the way you're supposed to. It's just too bad, because we put it all out on the field today."
"They're good. They're real physical up front. We were able to do some things early in the game and move the ball. They rotated a lot of guys in there. You can certainly see why they're the number one defense in the country."
"They blitzed a little more (than usual), but we thought they would do with our quarterback starting just the second game of his career. Sometimes we hit it and attacked it real well. Hunter made some great checks early in the game. Then they changed it up a bit."
"Hunter got hit hard. He's a very courageous young man. You can't say enough about what he left on the field. I'm sure he's never been hit that hard before, but he hung in there and tried to do the best he could do. He had us in a position where we could win the game. We just made some mistakes late."
"Our guys can play with anybody. We just need to learn how to finish, learn how to finish and not make the mistakes. I think the big difference in the game was the two third-and-ones we had in the third quarter that we did convert. That's on me that we didn't get it done."
(On the fake punt) "We wanted to run it before they did. We wanted to get them so they didn't come to try to block our punt. After we ran it, they were in "safe punt" the rest of the game."
"We had a great crowd today. Our players were excited when we took the field. Tom (Jurich) has been saying the last few weeks that our fans would be here. You could see our fans in all areas of the stadium. I hope everyone saw in the stands that we do what we say we're going to do."
Junior LB Nate Harris
"We came out with a lot of enthusiasm and played hard all the way through the fourth quarter. It came down to some big plays at the end and we had some bad penalties that hurt us. Overall, I thought we played hard as a group."
"Emotions got really high there at the end of the first half and the coaches told us all to calm down and just focus on playing football."
Sophomore TE Gary Barnidge
(On his touchdown reception) "The play wasn't drawn up for the tight end, but the Tech defense didn't cover me and Hunter (Cantwell) saw it and did a great job of getting me the ball."
Senior WR Joshua Tinch
"We had a couple of mistakes down the stretch and that cost us the game. Tech is a great team and they put a lot of pressure on an offense. We felt like we could move the ball and we were able to, but they made a few more plays than us at the end."
"They're a hard hitting football team and they're all about effort on defense. For a minute there, I think emotions may have gotten a little out of control, but they're just a hard nosed team. They remind of the Steelers because they will get after you out there."
Senior WR Montrell Jones
"Not having Brian Brohm and a player of his caliber is certainly going to have an impact on a game, but I had all of the confidence in the world in Hunter Cantwell and I thought he did a great job today. He was bleeding all over his mouthpiece and was really getting knocked around, but he stood in there and never gave in. In all my years of playing football, I've never seen that kind of thing."
