Miami GoDaddy.com Bowl Postgame Quotes
1/7/2011 12:00:00 AM | Football
Jan. 7, 2011
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2011 GoDaddy.com Bowl
Miami Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Lance Guidry
Opening statement:
"I thought that we played hard. I thought that we played really hard for four quarters. We didn't play perfect by any means. We've played better before, but the kids were just so tough. They've been on a roller coaster ride and it's a blessing that we were able to come out on top. Hats off to the coaches that hung in there. They don't know where their next check's going to come from, but they did a great job preparing the kids. It's a lot right now. It's been a great deal in Mobile and I've had fun. That's the main thing. I said I was going to have fun doing this and I did. I even had my own cooking show. So, I've got that going. Just hats off to the kids for hanging in there."
On Boucher's performance:
"I thought he played like he always had. He competed. He's a competitor. He's a winner. We didn't know that until he got a chance to actually start and play. Out of high school, we thought he was a really good player, but until you get live bullets, you really don't know. But he's done a great job. I kind of did the job he's been doing. He's taken over for Zac Dysert, filling in and rising to the occasion and I had to do that on the coaching side. So we've kind of got a little thing going."
On adjustments at halftime to contain Dasher:
"We kind of settled in to what we were going to do on defense. We sampled a lot of different things [in the first half]. We really didn't know what they were going to do because they were a little different. But [Dasher] is so athletic and the film didn't really give him as much credit as what we saw tonight. Tonight he looked like the old Dasher from last year. He was hard to tackle and I think he just got tired. I really do, from scrambling and running so much. We played a lot more base coverage in the second half and the kids kind of settled in and got some confidence."
On the up and down pace of the game:
"It was up and down the whole game. We'd go down and make a play and then they'd come down and make a play. And it really wasn't until the fourth quarter that we separated ourselves from them. We were just matching each other's blows up until that point and both messing up a little bit and the other taking advantage of it. Hats off to them. They've got a really good football team and they challenged us big-time tonight.
On his pregame speech to the team:
"I've always given pregame speeches like that. When I was in high school, I always usually did a pretty good job at pregame speeches. I thought about a lot of things going into the game and a lot of things that I could use to motivate them. I came up with a really good idea of bringing back certain things on the helmet - the number on the helmet, the `M' on the side without the black trim and the stripes down the middle of it - so it was a combination of three eras. I told them that nobody's ever worn all three, so tonight was the first and last time they would ever be worn like that. I told them, `We're going to make history tonight,' so of course they got all pumped up."
On defensive backs:
"They played well all year. [D.J.] Brown's just a sophomore. He played the nickel. This year Dayonne Nunley moved in. He's a true freshman and he played the nickel. And then Brandon Stephens is a senior and he had really played well down the stretch. He's had his ups and downs, but down the stretch he really played well. And then our safetys played really well tonight and tackled really well, so that was all really good things. And then [Pat] Hinkel had an interception. So hats off to those defensive backs because I'm really hard on them and this week and the last couple weeks I haven't been coaching them as much - our GA has been coaching them and I think he's done a better job than me."
Austin Boucher - QB
On his performance tonight:
"It's been fun. I think, as a team, we've been in this position before playing in a MAC Championship game. Coming into this game, we were very well prepared. At the Beginning we had a lot of penalties, a lot of mistakes, some blown assignments and you could tell we were a little rusty, but we shook off the dust and we just got back to playing our game. We made some plays when the plays needed to be made. We overcame some turnovers and some obstacles with the penalties and we came up with a win. It feels awesome.
On accomplishing what no other Division I program has (going from ten losses to ten wins):
"We've been very blessed. Even being in the MAC Championship game we had to have some other things go our way for any records to even be a possibility. That was just bonus for us persevering through the adversity and putting ourselves in position for that. I don't even think anyone knew it was that big of a deal until the coaches stressed it. From being a double digit to a double digit win, that was the main motivation for us."
On the missed opportunities:
"I think that comes from as much time as you have to prepare you also haven't played a game in a month. Everyone was either a step slow here or there or just a little bit rusty. We did make some mistakes, but that's why there's four quarters to be played. The defense had the offense's back and the offense had the defense's back. Even after a mistake you have to be able to overcome the adversity and overcome the obstacles and I think that's exactly what we did. Even though we had some missed opportunities we made the plays that needed to be played."
DeMarco Paine - WR
On the motivation for this game:
"I would have to say coach Guidry's halftime speech. He talked about how we can't come out and play two quarters of football. We have to play all four quarters. That's why we came out and played our hearts out. We just gave it all we had."
Thomas Merriweather - RB
On the team's chemistry:
"I think our mindset kind of changed this year. Last year we were kind of an up and down team. If we were up we were going to play up and if we were down we were just going to play down. This year it changed for us. We play dangerous through all four quarters and it helped us out a lot during tough games this year.
Dayonne Nunley - DB
On his interception return:
"I'm not supposed to be that far back, but he scrambled so I just got as far back as I could to help cover it. He throws it and I catch it and I almost dropped it so I had to catch it again."
