Temple University Athletics
Postgame Quotes
9.6.08 | Football
Sept. 6, 2008
Recap | Box Score | Notes
Temple Head Coach Al Golden
On overtime penalty and end of the game>:
"Should have been 1st and 4 and it was 1st and 10. When you are 1st and 4, you guys that go to AC know, you know that you are playing with house money. They said it wrong. They ruled it wrong on the field. And they apologized after the game. First and four you are taking shots at the end zone. First and four is a lot different, you are ahead of schedule on second down. How they can do that I don't know? End of story."
"There is no conspiracy. All I'm saying is that was a bad deal. Not only do we get a flag that takes a play away, but they set the ball wrong. That's bad."
On UConn's run game:
"Got give them credit. Their game plan was to run. Our defense fought, we really did a good job in the red zone again. That is kind of who we are now. We got the fundamentals. We got the foundation. We got the toughness and competiveness and we can stop worrying if we are going to turn the ball over. I'm really proud of the guys for that. Connecticut was just better than us today."
"I mean we are talking about the reigning Big East champs and the number 13 defense in the country. So we knew what kind of game it was going to be. You got to give them a lot of credit. They are tough, hard-nosed team and that's the way they conduct the game right now."
On going for it on 4th and 1 from own 35 in the fourth quarter:
"It speaks to everything we are trying to do here. What I mean by that is, it's easy to punt the ball. Anybody can punt the ball. It' s conventional wisdom. But you know what, we are trying to change 30 years of this crap, and I want to show them that we are going to go for it and make it right here. There is going to be a day, I pray it's sooner rather than later, that we are going to make that yard."
On explaining the loss to team:
"We didn't tackle, we dropped big plays. I mean Matt had the guts to call a big play in a sideways rain, we had it, and we dropped it. We had interceptions. We didn't tackle well. Our punt coverage wasn't very good, so that's it. We did a enough to lose this game. We should have won, Ok, but how we can make a mistake like that, in overtime, is beyond me."
Temple WR Travis Shelton
On what Golden told Shelton after the drop:
"Coach still had faith in me throughout the game. He used our motto flip the switch and told me just to forget about it."
On what Coach Golden told the team:
"He told us that we fought hard but we still need to learn how to finish."
Connecticut Head Coach Randy Edsall
"Great victory first and foremost, anytime you can go out on the road and get a win it's a great win."
On Temple:
"You know I want to give a lot of credit to Al Golden and his staff and his players. I thought they just played a tremendous game. They're a much improved team, (from) over a year ago. You know they're going to be a team that is going to contend in my opinion for the East Division championship in the MAC."
On his team:
"I thought that we made some mistakes in the first half that really hurt us, but I'm very proud of our team and our coaches for nobody panicking and just keeping their heads on straight, sticking to the task at hand, and finding a way to get a victory."
"We had to overcome a lot of adversity in the game with some turnovers, with some missed field goals, a couple plays against us in the passing game that I wasn't real thrilled with, but again to go on the road to get a win and to be as dominant as the offense was there in the overtime and for the defense to stiff them and to hold them to the field goal even after we had the personal foul call, I'm proud as heck of these kids."
On halftime:
"At halftime I just told them, I said here's the deal, we've self-inflected the wounds to ourself."
