Temple University Athletics
Postgame Quotes
9.29.07 | Football
Sept. 29, 2007
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Head Coach Al Golden
Thoughts on the game:
"I just got done telling the team, when you turn the ball over, you have penalties that take points off the board and you play like [garbage] on special teams you're going to lose. That is compounded when you're on the road. It's not a real good effort. We're going to look at the film, and I know there is going to be a lot of positive things. I think the defense was in a lot of jams and they showed a lot of fight, but not a winning performance obviously."
Do you think the penalties and turnovers took points away from your team?
"How could you not. Obviously we had a holding penalty that took six points off. I think that is correct. I think we had an interception for a touchdown. We fumbled at least three times. From that standpoint, it's just a disaster."
On Army's two kick return touchdowns:
"We were in a mess right away on that opening kickoff. Our contain element on that side of the field broke down. The kid (Corey Anderson) fumbled it and it looked like we were going to be in good shape but he ended up scoring, so that was a disaster. The punt return, there is just no excuse for that. We allowed him (Jeremy Trimble) to catch it on the run. We did 30 minutes a day on special teams this week. That's an extraordinary amount of time on special teams, and for that to be the result, we have to get it straightened out."
On Army's special teams play:
"Obviously their kicking game was tremendous today. Their kicker (Owen Tolson) is excellent."
On Jeremy Trimble's performance:
"He did it all. I mean, he must have had 250 yards of total offense. He's a good kid. We're glad he's graduating."
On the effort put forth by Temple today:
"I think you saw the effort. I mean, our defense was keeping us in the game. I think you saw the effort and then it gets away. It got away from us a little bit with the interception and the return. You have to give them credit but I thought our defense really hung in there on the short field. We're not doing a good enough job on offense. I thought we would do so much better on offense today. It looked like we were going to play well on offense and then the fumbles occurred and that's just discouraging. Quite frankly I'm shocked at those plays."
Has the offensive line improved?
"From last week, was it an improvement? Yeah. Obviously the couple penalties we had were awful and came at really bad times but it's going to be really hard to evaluate those guys because we didn't get a chance to finish three drives. We'll evaluate them on plays but in terms of the whole unit, we didn't get a chance to finish three drives because of fumbles, the interception and the kick returns."
On the defensive performance:
"That's two weeks in a row and 42 points on the board that the defense really didn't let up."
On Terrance Knighton's performance:
"Maybe he grew up today. He had a tremendous look in his eyes all day. He was a leader on the field. He seemed to have some fire and maybe he grew up. It's always a challenge right now to see if these guys can do it two weeks in a row. We still have too much inconsistency around the line though."
How do you keep from getting discouraged?
"I don't listen to what the kids hear. All I know is that I go into each game thinking we're going to win. Last year was a little different. We played some guys we shouldn't even have been on the field with but as you can see from the scores and the even flows of these games, we belong on the field. Are we going to grow into a team? That's it right there. Right now we're still a collection of individuals."
On Army's defensive performance:
"That was a team over there. That was a team over there on defense. They didn't make any mistakes. They have nine seniors over there on defense. They didn't crack. They didn't give up big plays. That was a team."
On the outlook for the future:
"Am I disappointed? Yea, but I'm not going to get discouraged. I just left a locker room with every guy coming back next year. We're going to come up here next year with every guy that was in that locker room. How can I get discouraged? There are two seniors that made the trip. I think we played 20 freshmen today. If you want me to get discouraged, it isn't going to happen."
On Temple's play thus far in 2007 and looking ahead:
"We have not played a complete game yet. We just have not done that. We have not finished a game for four quarters and those are all challenges. We're going to take a lot of positives out of this game and we're going to try to correct the negatives and keep moving forward but I'm not concerned about our talent pool and we're just going to add to it with 25 more recruits. We just have to keep growing up and move forward."
Punter/Kicker Jeff Wathne
On the opening kickoff:
"It was supposed to go left and I just miss-hit it. It's so frustrating too because he caught the ball and he fell down so I thought we were going to get him. Regardless, he just ran around and got by everybody."
Is there anything you could have done to stop Anderson on that kick return?
"At that point, when he's got that full momentum and I'm still back pedaling, it's not impossible but it's very hard to stop, especially an athlete like that."
On Jeremy Trimble's punt return TD:
"It was a plus territory punt trying to down them inside the 20. I hit it right where coach wanted it right on the numbers. I guess the coverage was a little slow getting down there."
QB Adam DiMichele
On the offensive performance coming out of halftime:
"It's obviously frustrating. The same exact thing happened last week. Our first series this time around, it wasn't bad but we just came up a little short. We had a three and out, and another three and out, and then the turnover. We shot ourselves in the foot continually turning the ball over and put our defense in a bad position. I think Army had the ball inside the 30 to start a drive and they held them to a field goal. We put our defense in a predicament that is hard to handle, and I thought they played really well. We just didn't help them much on offense."
How do you get passed the mistakes as a team?
"It comes from within. We've been taught how to fight through adversity. It's adversity that we're putting ourselves through though. It's nothing they are doing or the referees are doing. We put ourselves in those predicaments. We're the ones holding, I'm the one throwing the interception, we're fumbling on the 14 yard line. We continue to hurt ourselves on offense and it comes from within to get passed that and I think the coaches have really taught us how to get passed that."
I thought that we ran the ball early in the first half well. We opened it up with some pass plays and some play action. The second half we went to the two minute drill pretty early when they went up two touchdowns. I got hit a couple times but they're progressing and we're all progressing as a team.
The first one was a screen play, a slip screen. Every other team we played, the end has rushed up the field but he (Thompson) sort of sat and if I would have waited another second we would have completed it. The second one, their kid just made a play.
RB Jason Harper
On fumbles in the open field:
"Every time I'm in the open field I have the tendency to get the ball away from my body which I'm going to be correcting this week. We practice everyday about making open field moves and keeping the ball high and tight and not letting it get away from your body but obviously I didn't do that today."
What happened on the fumble that went for the touchdown?
"I thought I had the ball away but his helmet landed right on the ball and the ball popped right up in the air."
On Army's defense:
"Army has a good defense. They're not as fast as everybody else but they're tough and they'll run to the ball and that's what makes their defense a good defense."
Could you see 0-5 at the start of the season?
"No. Never, but we have to bounce back. We have seven games left and we just have to do what we have to do to win."
DT Terrance Knighton
Reflections on the game:
"They out-executed us and they made plays on special teams. Coach is always preaching how special teams is very important in the game and obviously a couple guys didn't believe it and it didn't go our way."
On the effect of penalties and turnovers:
"It was very frustrating. We always talk about playing a complete game and until we do that, we won't win."
On the blocked field goal attempt:
"Coach made a call. We ganged up on the guard and I got through. They (the coaches) always put us in position to make plays and that's what I did. We practice special teams a lot, probably more than anybody. Coach is always stressing the importance of special teams. Our field goal unit believed we could block a kick this week and that's what we did."
How is the defense developing?
"I just think that we're practicing better and our coach is putting us in good position to make plays. We study a lot, watch a lot more film as a defense and its showing on the field. We're finishing and we're in good shape. Our defensive ends get a lot of pressure and that's how the inside guys get our sacks. Our D-line works real hard."
