Temple University Athletics
TEMPLE FOOTBALL POSTGAME QUOTES: WEST VIRGINIA AT TEMPLE
11.2.02 | Football
"I'm really disappointed and embarrassed at the job I did preparing our team to play in the ballgame. I don't know if I've ever seen a worse first quarter. I have to take all the blame. It wasn't one thing -- it was everything. In their first drive, they had a lot of third-down conversions. We had opportunities to stop them. We didn't. They did a good job. Then we fumbled the ball on the first play and they scored again. Then we throw an interception and they score. It was a very poor performance. The only bright spot I saw in the whole game was that in the second half we played hard. We limited them to not much offense and we scored a few touchdowns."
"As I told the players, we can't let this game beat us twice. We've got to get ready to play Pittsburgh. I'll take complete credit for the lack of performance and hopefully get excited about getting ready this week to go play Pittsburgh."
On the running game:
"I want to say that West Virginia did a very good job defensively of stopping the run. It's very tough to run on them. They played extremely hard. Offensively, they have a great running attack. The quarterback hurt us. I knew that would probably be the difference. I think we did a good job on their backs... The quarterback really made a difference running the football."
"Like I said, the way they play their defense, we have to be able to throw the football. It was very important. Of course, Tanardo (Sharps) is kind of the key to our offense, getting him going and then throwing the football. We felt like this game, we would have to throw the ball to get him going, the way they play with a number of people around the box. We didn't do a very good job throwing and catching early in the game. It really backfired on us and hurt us. Them stopping Tanardo was definitely a key to the game."
On substituting Mike Frost for Mike McGann:
"I thought it might be good to just let (McGann) sit on the sideline and let him watch for a series or two... let Mike (Frost) go out and see if he could spark us. It backfired on us. It was my fault. We prepare in practice and I need to be playing the guys that play the best in practice. That's the way it needs to continue, and I got away from that. That was my fault."
On the rest of the season:
"For us to go 6-6, we've got to win the last three. You can't worry about the last two (losses). You've got to worry about Pittsburgh. You fight until you die. This is not over. I told the players I've got to take the blame. We were not a bad team in the second half. We didn't do a lot of things great, but we weren't bad. We were a bad team in the first half for the first time all year. It was disappointing, but we're not going to sit around and cry about it. We've got to get ready for Pittsburgh. Hopefully we'll correct our mistakes and I'll do a better job this week."
On the disappointment following the game:
"I can't tell you how disappointing it is. I can't understate that. I'm very upset with the job that I did. The good thing about it is tomorrow we get ready to go to Pittsburgh. I can't say anymore. I'm not going to keep harping on it because I don't want our kids to harp on it."
"I don't want to be disrespectful to West Virginia. They are a much improved football team -- one of the most improved football teams from one year to the next that I've ever seen. But I also know how we can play, and we didn't play that way."
West Virginia Head Coach Rich Rodriguez
"We're obviously very happy to get the win. I'm really proud our guys came out and focused well at the beginning of the game. I was really worried coming in because of the environment and things of that nature, but our guys mentally were prepared to play and played well in the first half. In the second half, we really played poorly. I think we just kind of put our jackets on and put it in cruise control. It was a good lesson not to relax. Hopefully we learn from that. But nonetheless, it was a good win. Nowadays, when Temple is playing people tough and with the upsets in college football, if you can come up here in this environment and get a nice win, then we'll take it. I think our guys are a little mentally and physically drained right now. I could tell we're a little banged up. Mentally, they probably need a little rest from football, but unfortunately we don't have another open week coming up. We've got a big game. We're going to try to get them back and recovered and get ready for our seniors' last game at Mountaineer Field this weekend."
On the improvement from last season to this year:
"I think the attitude of the team changed almost immediately after last year's last game against Pitt. I could tell the next week when the kids came in and said, 'When does the offseason program start?' that we had a chance. Through the winter program, through their summer workouts they did with the strength coach and through two-a-days, I really felt that these young men felt that they had something to prove and felt we could be getting better. You want to get better every year as a program, and obviously I think we're doing that. We've still got a long ways to go, but nonetheless, to flip (the win total) from three to six is rather pleasing."
"I like to compare with where we were last year to this year and where we were two years ago to this year. We've struggled with Temple for three years in a row now. We came up here a little banged up... coming off an emotional game, and they're playing their best football with a senior-laden team. We jumped on them pretty good. I think we're getting better. We're nowhere near where we need to be. Until we beat top 25 teams on a consistent basis, we can't call ourselves a top 25 program. That's the goal... hopefully we'll get there sooner rather than later."
On his offensive strategy:
"I think offensively, it's just a matter of taking care of the ball and being smart with it. We're not throwing the ball much, but we're not turning it over, either. We played it conservative... after we got the lead and just tried to run it out."
On the defensive success:
"Defensively, we're getting people around the ball and maybe causing a little confusion. When you cause a little confusion and get people around the ball, a lot of times good things will happen for you defensively."
