Temple University Athletics
Postgame Quotes
11.22.08 | Football
Nov. 22, 2008
Al Golden, Temple head coach
On aerial assault:
I didn't know it was going to be that, but I knew it was going to be something. They had a month, like getting ready for a bowl game. That's like preseason camp, and I've never in 16 years had that type of team advantage and 21 days is forever, so it was tough, but the kids hung in there, and they fought. The offense is starting to score now. I think we scored 55 points and that was about the first five games, total. The last three weeks we've been averaging probably around 35 points a game. So that's good. Could've played a little better defense and a little better special teams finish up well but no, I had no idea they would do what they did.
On the weather:
I think it was cold, but the wind wasn't as big a factor as I thought. There were some throws that I thought the wind knocked down and had a factor but, in general, both teams started with pretty good field positions, and you can air it out, be a little more aggressive, a little more comfortable, so I think that may have had something to do with it. We started at midfield every exchange, so I was surprised. When I first walked on the field, I thought it was going to be really bad with the cold and the wind, but it wasn't.
On staying aggressive:
I think the biggest difference now is that our guys on offense are stepping up and want the ball at the end of the game, and we feel comfortable. The last two games, Harper did better out there, so we just felt like this is a situation where we had to stay aggressive. I think it was 2nd and 10, so we just tried to put the nail in the coffin, and they came back again...I think they protected well obviously Adam (DiMichele) threw the ball well. It was just one of those deals where we were in a shoot out. We don't want to be in one of those games, that's two weeks in a row that we've played this type of game we need to straighten out some things on defense we're not playing the way we're capable of playing on defense. We have to get that straightened out before next week, because there are some very talented players coming in Akron.
There are two schools of thought, and one is you drop eight guys and rush three or to bring six or more. Or take five, which is sometimes more difficult because of an open zone underneath. So it's really either rush three or bring six and play a little more man. I think the thing that hurt us is we didn't get a lot of negatives. When you have that many passes you have to get some sacks, we didn't get as many sacks. Every deflected ball either went to the ground or went to them which was unfortunate. I don't think we really broke on the ball underneath. We weren't as physical as we needed to be. But we have to get healed up on defense. I know this is not the way we want to finish the season on defense.
On wins:
In terms of taking the next step, we still have a game to go, but we've been in every game, and we've had a chance to win. That is very significant in terms of this program and building a program, because we have six seniors that are starting for us. We have a chance to have a team that knows how to compete. The next step for our guys is to win more of these games.
Jeff Genyk, Eastern Michigan head coach
Overall impression of his team's performance:
I thought coming out after a 21-day layoff, which is one of the longest layoffs in college football history, that we played a little better than I thought we would offensively and on special teams. I think it was definitely evident in our tackling that we struggled.
We felt that Temple's defense was hard to run the football on, so therefore we felt like with our quarterback finally being able to practice, he hasn't been able to for six weeks, it really helped knowing he's a good player. I feel very good about what happened offensively but unfortunately we couldn't make a play on defense to actually turn the tide and get off that 10-, 3-point deficit.
