Louisville-UK Postgame Quotes
September 02, 2012 | Football
Sept. 2, 2012
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Louisville Head Coach Charlie Strong
(Opening Statement)
“We were able to take the ball in the first four possessions and score three touchdowns. It was just amazing to see how we just clicked on offense today. Teddy Bridgewater had an unbelievable day. We also had two running backs to rush for over 100 yards. I told our team that I have to give credit to our offensive line because they did a great job of blocking up front. They don't get enough credit. If you look at Jeremy Wright and Senorise Perry are two different styles and still able to get 100 yards each. And then Teddy getting the completion record, which I think Rocco (Gasparo) said was a school record the way he threw the ball today. I do not know if I expected the offense to perform as well as they did because a lot of the time you just do not know how well the guys will play together and get in sync. They were able to get in sync, stay in sync and move the ball up and down the field.”
(On the defense)
“Defensively we held them (Kentucky) to seven points but we never felt like we had control. They were able to take the ball up and down the field. We were not able to get pressure. Kentucky was smart, they were able to come with the three-step game and get the ball out of the quarterback's hands quickly. We came with pressure, but we were just never able to get pressure. They were winning the one-to-one battles when we did rush the passer. That being said we were able to hold them under one hundred yards rushing. It all goes back to running the football and we were able to do that today. If you can run that football you have a chance to go win a lot of football games.”
(On Special teams)
“Special teams wise it was good to see (John) Wallace step up and hit a field goal and good to watch (Josh) Appleby punt the football. We noticed that we have a long way to go, but it is good to get that first game out of the way. We can sit down tomorrow and go through the corrections and make sure on the next game we will not make the same mistakes.”
(Regarding winning a rivalry game)
“Anytime you play a rival game you want to go win the football game and that is what our focus was; not only that game but we want to win them all if we possibly can. That was a big win for us.”
(Regarding pulling Teddy Bridgewater in the second half)
“A year ago at this time (Will) Stein was the starter and Stein deserves to play. We got ahead there and I said I wanted Stein to go out there and direct the offense. Teddy was not injured, I just wanted Stein to play.”
(Regarding a decisive win vs. an SEC opponent)
“I will just say this, we still have a lot of to learn and to improve upon. But, just seeing a BIG EAST team beat an SEC opponent speaks volumes.”
(On Perry and Wright splitting time at running back)
“We went into the game knowing we were going to start Jeremy and we knew Senorise was going to play a lot. Because you need two running backs. If you watch the way we ran the football today, they are going to get run down. Even at the end I told them to put Jeremy back in because I knew Senorise was getting tired because we didn't have Dominique today. So I said, just keep running those backs and lets just pound them, lets pound them. That's where you are going to win football games. You have to be able to move people everywhere around the football.”
(On Teddy and his progression from last year)
“You watch him in the pocket and he has such good pocket presence and he is so poised. He can just release the football. Then he can find the open receivers. Even on the one where they got the pressure and they took the ball. Eli Rogers was running down the field wide open and he saw him late. If he throws it to him it's a score there. One thing about Ted is that he studies the game, so he is able to get us in the right spots and make the throws. A year ago I don't know if he was really locked in. He wanted to be the quarterback but it was almost like he didn't want to study the game and go be the quarterback. Now it's just a totally different ball game, he studies and he is into it. He is telling receivers where to line up. He is so locked in. When he is locked in all of the receivers are then locked in.”
Sophomore Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater
(On the 99 yard opening drive)
“That's what we pride ourselves on, that's why we work hard. We practice game like situations, so today was just like practice.”
(On the run game and the play of Jeremy Wright)
“The run game all started back in the spring. Those guys run behind our offensive line and they put the team on their backs.”
(How was the feeling after getting the win)
“Earning the win felt really good. The offensive line did a great job of protecting me, they allowed me to stand back there avoid sacks and deliver the ball.”
(What does this win mean to the team)
“It means a lot, we trained hard all spring and it feels good to see our hard work pay off.”
(On the diving catch by Damian Copeland on third down (99 yard drive)
“I was just trying to get a completion to help our punter to get more space so he could change the field position. Once the corner walked up to press Damien Copland, we just took advantage of the defense adjustment.”
Junior Running Back Jeremy Wright
(On if Kentucky did anything today that the team wasn't ready for?)
“No, our coaches had us well prepared and we executed.”
(On the depth of the running backs)
“It's great to have somebody out there to push you in practice. Coach Carter emphasized that a lot and it really helped.”
(On outrushing UK's whole team by himself)
“It was a team effort and everybody pushed each other in practice, and we got it done today because of execution.”
(On receiving the most carries of all our backs)
“Coaches really pushed us, and each back sharpened each other in practice to get the best out of each of us.”
Senorise Perry
(About 47 yard run)
“It felt good. We broke it a lot in practice, so I knew it was going to happen today. There was a lot of chaos inside, so I bounced it outside because that is where the read was. I knew I could outrun them so I just took off.”
(About holes in defense)
“The holes were huge. I was excited to run through them because I didn't expect them to be that big.”
(About Wright and Perry both getting 100 yards)
“We expect a lot out of our offense and if it happens it happens. We both ran hard today and got to 100. And when we run hard, we expect to get to 100.”
(About ease of offense)
“We practiced it and we executed it, so it felt easy to us.”
(About the Stay Hungry Shirt)
“We have to stay hungry. Our coach tells us all the time to stay hungry and to stay humble.
Will Stein
(About fake extra point)
“We have been working on it since fall camp. They gave us the look that we expected, so we called it, threw it for the two point conversion.”
(About how it feels to beat UK two years in a row)
“It means a lot to me just to be a part of this team. To go out two years in a row and win the Governor's Cup against UK is huge for this program. We have been down in the dumps for the last few years. But coach Strong has the program back on the top of the state. It is huge for us guys.”
(About the statement made by beating UK)
“We knew the game was all about us. If we did what we were taught to do and played as hard as we could, we knew we couldn't be stopped. It was a statement to the state and hopefully the nation: that U of L is back. I know it is just one game, but I hope we proved to a lot of people that we have the ability to go far this year.”
(About Teddy Bridgewater)
“He has become a game manager instead of just an athlete playing quarterback. He knows the defense inside and out. He is a student of the game and it showed out there. He made all the correct reads, hitting receivers perfectly in stride. He played a great game today.”
(About the defense)
“They took a lot of pressure off of us for the last year, the offense struggled a little bit and the defense had to hold it down. Now we have an explosive offense and that kind of surprised us. But the offense came out and put up points that have been lacking the last few years.”
(About having the Governor's Cup)
“It feels good. We are showing the world what we can do and that we are not a pushover.”
(About the 99 yard drive)
“We were real excited. The defense was ready to go. Now that we have an explosive offense, we were locked and loaded and ready to go.
(About UK offense and not getting pressure)
“It was frustrating. We were hoping they would go deep a few more times. The way we ran our defense, we weren't expecting too many quick routes. Once they started throwing the quick routes, the defense had to adjust. The defensive line couldn't hit home because of the quick throws.”
(Improvement needed for next week)
“We got to get settled in. We were a little rattled because of the no-huddle. We have to focus more. We practiced against the hurry-up but we didn't really expect them to come out like that.”
Kentucky Head Coach Joker Phillips
(Opening Statement)
“Injury report, Max has a banged up elbow, he should be fine. Josh Forrest has a hip flexure. Miles Simpson has a bar contusion. We came out of it pretty good health wise. We always talk about how the team that runs the ball is usually the team that comes out with the victory. They had 26 rushes with over 200 yards. We had 19 rushes under 100 yards. We missed opportunities. On offense we can't be 2 for 6. When we get the ball within the 25, that's the red zone for us. We can't be 2 for 6 with missed field goals, turnovers, those are missed opportunities. We're better than that. We're better than that offensively. Defensively, we can't have 4 drives over 76 yards. That's the thing that we have been talking about. You can't give up 76 yards on four plus drives. You can't do that and we are better than that on defense. Special forces there were some good things. We got a couple of returns. We have to execute on our fakes. We can't be one for two. We can't be. We're better than that. You can't be that way and win big games. You have to be two for two on fakes. We got some things to work on, but we're better than that. We have to make Kentucky better before we think about Kent State. “
(On defensive issues)
“We need to anchor down. We need to do more attacking up front.”
(What he's most disappointed in)
“Turnovers. We got lined up exactly the way we thought they would line up in our second fake for special team. They lined up exactly the way we thought they would on kickoff and we executed it. Just the mistakes and turnovers were the biggest disappointments.
(Observations on Louisville's level of talent today compared to two years ago)
“We're not that far away, we have receivers that have a chance to be really good and they're young. Everybody talks about how young they are. There are a lot of young guys that didn't play, Daryl Collins played like a veteran, Max is a young quarterback and he didn't get eight to nine starts last year. He is a young true sophomore who didn't get those starts, so I like our talent level.”
(If he was surprised when Will Stein came into the game)
“No I just felt Teddy was cramping up because he ran up and down the field on us.”
(Impression of Louisville)
“They're a good football team. They're a good football team and didn't turn the ball over. A good football team runs the football, a good football team tackles, good football team get themselves off the field on third down”
(On the offensive line)
“I think those guys held up well, we had a couple sacks. There were a couple of times where we needed to get the ball out of our hands. We've just got to have more opportunities. Opportunities get taken away from you when you turn the ball over. We turned the ball over on the two yard line, three yard line at least two more snaps. We turned the ball over going down at about the 25 yard line that's at least five or six more opportunities. We have to run a lot of plays in this offense that's what we want to do.”
