University of Louisville Football Post-Game Quotes
November 15, 2008 | Football
Nov. 15, 2008
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Louisville Coach Steve Kragthorpe
(Opening statement) "I want everybody to know that I'm proud to be the coach of this team and I'm proud of these guys. I'm proud of the way they fought tonight. Obviously, we play to win and I'm pissed about that because we didn't win the football game. I thought our guys showed a lot of heart and showed a lot of character and played their asses off tonight and that's what you ask them to do as a coach. We're not wining football games right now and that's on me. I take full responsibility for that. We've got to win games and I'm paid to win games. We're not winning games right now, which means I'm not winning games, so don't blame that on the players, blame it on me."
(On losing some close games lately) "We've just got to find a way to win the games. We've got to make a play when we get a chance to make a play. We had some critical penalties tonight that took us out of rhythm offensively and called back some big plays in the game. We've got to continue to fight and continue to battle."
(On the players commits about self-inflicted mistakes) "Penalties and turnovers. We make a big play and we fumble the ball. We got out of rhythm a couple of times on the offensive side. We snapped it early on one play. Yeah, I think you're right and the players are right. We can't make errors like that when we're playing a BIG EAST opponent. This is a good league and Coach Kelly's got a very good football team at Cincinnati. Our margin for error is very, very small, and when you make those errors, it makes it tougher to win a football. Not impossible, but it makes it very difficult."
(On the Cards' six second half penalties after none in the first half) "I'd need to watch the film to see if they were penalties or were not penalties. You can't make those errors at any point and time in a game, whether it's the first quarter, second quarter, third quarter or fourth quarter, it doesn't matter. You can't have big plays like that called back. We had a couple of plays on third down where we give it to Doug (Beaumont), give one to Brock (Bolen) and we convert the third downs. We hit the big one to CV (Chris Vaughn) down the middle of the field with 5 ½ left. On the previous series, we're moving it again. You know, we had the running play to Brock and we're deep inside the red area there and we have penalties. I can't explain if they were penalties or they weren't penalties because from my vantage point, it's awfully hard to see."
(On the reversal of Brock Bolen's first down reception in the fourth quarter by the replay official) "I think it was big. But we've got to get a first down (on the following play). Even if it's fourth and inches, no matter what, we've got to get a first down. We've got to get a surge and get the first down in that situation. I didn't see a replay on the board and the official on my side said the play wasn't on his side, so he didn't see it."
(On keeping the team's struggles inside the team and not listening to outside criticism) "I'll take all of the blame for what has happened over the course of the last year and a half. I'll take the blame for what happened tonight. The players just have to stay positive and keep grinding. They've got to keep battling. I take full responsibility for what's happened, so don't blame the players, blame me."
(On whether the Cards need to win each of their last two games to earn a bowl bid) "I think so at this point and time and we're capable of doing that. We're just a whisker away from winning some of these games, so we've got to find a way to win them. Obviously, our goal at this point is to win both of our remaining games and get to a 13th game."
Louisville QB Hunter Cantwell
"Penalties hurt us - miscues here and there. There wasn't anything behind the scenes, it was the obvious things. You back yourselves up going third and 20. It is hard to keep a drive going. We have to correct this. Yeah, the rain had something to do with it. When it rains, the ball gets wet. You just got to keep playing and you can't think about it. We have to turn things around now and get ready beat West Virginia."
"We need to get going in the right direction. We gotta get ready to beat WVU and that is the only thought in our heads. We understand it is going to be a big week in terms of perseverance and guys going to class - being around people who are outside the family. We have to stick together. We can't listen to what people are saying and get ready to beat WVU. Some people are faithful all the way. Whether it is a win or a loss, it is great to see them during the week. That is the way it is. As a college player get your school paid for and get scholarship money. We can't whine about it."
(Need to win out for Bowl) "Yeah, looking at it, yes. We've got to worry about beating WVU first. We need to get ready and do this and that, the things we need, then not overlook an opponent and then we don't get ready like we need to which would hurt our plan long term."
(On the sneak) "We have had some success with that on QB sneak on the third and short and the fourth and short - on plays like that. I think I gotta get a little lower. I will look at tape and they may have been in the right defense. I don't know. I just got to get it and find a way."
"We came out and played well in first half. Penalties and turnovers, things like that stop drives. But we can't put ourselves in that position of third in long or second and long. You can't have that because you have to make them play and keep coverage it is really hard to convert like that. You can't turn the ball over."
(On second half) "They were blitzing a little bit more - the big thing was the holding call, we had a penalty called, had a delay of game, miscues on snaps and things like that . If you don't play the way you practice and the way that the coaches teach you to play or (else) it stops drives and hurts you long range. When it gets long like that, they were playing good passing coverage and things like that - (you) never second guess the coaches because you are looking at it eye level, we will have to look at films later. Every play the coaches call has a chance to be successful."
Louisville DT Adrian Grady
(On defense overall game play) "Well, there is always room for improvement. You never play as well as you think you did and it's never as bad as you thought it was. You just take a look at the tape and make the adjustments and go from there."
(On the second half) "No, I don't think they did anything different. They got a little momentum and momentum is like magic. They got rolling a little bit there and punched one in late. They didn't change the game plan or anything."
(On game plan) "There was lots of times when we shoot ourselves in the foot and we have to take a look at the film and see. There's times when we aren't as organized as we need to be. We just have to get everything together and get back as one. We scrambled around a little bit there and they popped one on us. I believe number 22 [37] ran an outside zone and we weren't ready for it. We were still trying to organize the play and get lined up and that's what got them rolling I think early in the fourth quarter."
(On any signs of discouragement of team) "We put too much pride and too much work into this and the only thing the fans see unfortunately is the game and there is a week of preparation, hours of film watching, practices, workouts, there's the grind of the week. We put more into than is seen in that 60 minutes. There's no way you can put in that amount of work and just give up or quit. That's not an option."
(On getting focused on the next two games) "Do what we've been doing. Come in and watch the film, make the adjustments, hope that we have a good week of practice and whatever the scheme is that we trying to do and focus up on that and listen to the coaching and play the game on Saturday. That's all we can do."
(On keeping it in the family) "No, not at all. It's different when you're a player you have more respect for it than someone just on the outside looking in. There's a lot of work put into this."
(On thoughts of postseason) "We are just taking this thing a day at a time. We're just worried about West Virginia and that's it. You can't do that right now. Right now we just need to come in and have a good week of practice and keep the team morale up and make sure people are staying positive and we'll go from there."
(On team feeling letdown) "Of course it is. It was by eight points."
Louisville RB Brock Bolen
(On Louisville's loss) "There was some mistakes made and a lot of penalties. You can't win games when you have all those mistakes and penalties."
(On Cincinnati's defense) "They brought a little bit more pressure in the second half but, we still had the stuff to pick them up so it didn't really make a difference."
(On injuries affecting Louisville's play) "Yeah we had a few guys get hurt, but we had a few step up and make some plays."
(On Louisville's current mood) "It's tough but you judge a man's character by how he reacts after he loses. Anybody can win football games, but how you react after you lose a game is how you judge a man's character. You've just got to step up and use the 24 hour rule; learn from our mistakes tomorrow and just worry about West Virginia after that."
(On Louisville's post season thoughts) "We just have to take it one game at a time. We can't look to the future. We just have to worry about West Virginia and that's all we need to worry about."
Cincinnati Coach Brian Kelly
(On overall game performance) "I think I said earlier in the week that this wasn't much of rivalry. We had not won any games against Louisville in quite some time. I think we all can officially say the rivalry is back on. I thought both teams played really hard, and there was a lot of emotion in the game tonight. And that is the fitting of teams that are in the same conference 90 miles away. It was good, hard, physical, football. I think I was most proud of our second half performance by my seniors. Once again we have to go back to the drawing board at the quarterback position, Tony Pike was injured, Dustin Grutza came out and limped his way to a huge drive, that set up the eventual score, it was kind of a magical situation for those that have followed in our trials and tribulations this year."
(On defense) "Defensively we finished for those who were down and watched us last week. We were defensively able to hold a solid offensive unit to three points in the second half."
Cincinnati WR Dominick Goodman
(On the meaning of tonight's win) "It means a lot to this program, especially with Louisville having the keg for so long. For us to come out here on there home place, and winning the keg back. It means a lot to us, to bring it back to Cincinnati. That was a great thing."
(On the Heaviness of the keg) "It was way lighter, I thought it was going to be heavier with the nails in it. Obviously its not, but it's a nice keg. We'd like to keep it for a long time."
(On getting the keg back in Cincinnati) "We were really hungry, especially with the Big East Title on the line and to come out here and play a tough Louisville team, knowing that they were going to bring out everything on us, because this is a rivalry game. We were hungry for this win."
Cincinnati RB John Goebel
(Talk about the near touch down run) "Yeah, the one where I almost fell, yea, we went off the tackle, behind Jeff Linkenbach, he made a great block. I think it might have been Dominick Goodman running the route, the DB was locked on, and basically it was an automatic touchdown. I tripped over the famous invisible man. But I'm happy we got in, on the play after that."
(Going into half with a deficient) "As a running back I felt pretty confident, because I saw Jake in the first half, doing really well running the ball. I felt confident in our offensive line, and I know we could step up, and we were only down by six points at the half. And its just one play away from us being up again. I wasn't worried at all."
