Amato and Fridgen Weekly Press Conference Quotes |
NC State Head Coach, Chuck Amato –
On regrouping from the loss to Miami after investing so much into that game: That chapter is closed. The chapter is closed on Sunday win or lose. Everybody invested a lot. ESPN invested a lot, the State Fair invested a lot, the people that came to the Walk of Champions, the people that came to the game and all the people that watched it on TV. It's over. The game is over. That's the thing about athletics - you can't dwell on that last game. On the performance of quarterback Jay Davis: It's funny because all you hear about is Brock Berlin throwing five touchdown passes and throwing for 265 yards against our defense. Jay Davis, against a defense that has consistently been one of the dominant defenses in the country over the last 15 years, threw for 260 yards and four touchdown passes. Nobody knows that. Nobody talks about that. T.A.McLendon ran for 145 yards. But statistics don't mean anything unless you win. We are getting better and better every week offensively. There is no doubt about it. On the improvement of Jay Davis throughout this season: That's one of best parts about coaching - to watch kids improve, watch teams improve, watch teams hit better. That may be the best football team in America that played here Saturday and the first 30 minutes, granted the first 15 lasted an hour and 15 minutes, were probably as exciting of a game as anyone would have wanted to see. It was like two heavyweight fighters out there. Seven nothing, seven-seven. Ten-seven, 14-10. Seventeen-14, 21-17 and then bing, fumble. On a solution to the turnover problem: We'll just continue to work on it. One was by a freshman, one was by our quarterback who was scrambling for his life when he fumbled, the interception was a close call and one was by a guy who was fighting and spinning for extra yards and had the ball bounced out of bounds at the two yard line instead of crossing the goal line before going out of bounds we would have had the ball first and goal. (Running backs) Coach Portee probably does as good of job as anybody with teaching how to protect the ball and how to carry it. When guys are fighting for extra yards, they've got to learn that those extra yards don't mean anything if they go down without the ball. Those turnovers will kill you though. On the Clemson game having extra meaning for former Clemson assistant coach and current NC State defensive coordinator Reggie Herring: Let me tell you something about Reggie - every game his intensity level is unmeasurable. He doesn't care who it is, he just wants to win. I've worked with now for seven games and I'm not sure he even knows who were playing, because he's so focused on getting our defense ready. There's no way that it will be any different going back to a place that he worked at for seven years. Knowing him, his answer to that question would be 'It's not about Reggie, it's about what Reggie can teach.' On the public's perception of NC State football after basking in the national spotlight all day last Saturday with ESPN's College GameDay in town: Boy that coach is stupid. Kick the ball to the best return man in America on the opening play of the game? I was watching our kicker before the game during warmups and he was kicking the ball five yards into the endzone, or out (of the endzone), 98 percent of the time. That one went five or six yards deep and the hangtime was unbelievable. We felt comfortable with that. If one of our safeties would have pushed him towards the sideline, he probably would have gone out of bounds around the 35. On the 10 penalties against Miami: Miami had 10 penalties too, but nobody is asking their coach about their penalties. It's the same number we had. No, I don't like it. Some of them were dumb and foolish. Those were on both sides too. You get that kind of energy you're going to get some foolish penalties. We've gotten better and better and turnovers and penalties. On preparing for the hostile environment of Death Valley: Maybe I should open up practice for the media and you guys could all come out in Halloween costumes and make a lot of noise, trying to scare our kids. You have to talk to them about how noisy it could be. It's getting to be that way everywhere you go because the fans can create such a home- field advantage. On the health of the offensive line: I don't know, I'm trying to see if we can practice over in the intensive care ward over at Rex Hospital. We'll have to get some people to come in and step up. They might not have played one snap so far, but they're going to get it. It will be an opportunity to prove to their coaches that maybe they should have been in all along. We'll tell them 'you wanted it and now its here. You've been coached, you've been drilled and you've been prepared for seven weeks now and it's time to play like a first-stringer.' Maryland Head Coach, Ralph Friedgen – Thoughts on last week’s game against Clemson: “Our team was very disappointed after the loss to Clemson. I thought they played hard and good enough to win, but it didn’t turn out that way. We are going through a stretch of bad luck – we’ve had opportunities to make plays and we’re not making them. Sometimes we’re not getting all the calls or the ball isn’t bouncing our way. We are going to keep on working hard and striving to get better.” On the defensive performance: “Defensively, I think we are playing very, very well. I was happy to hear that D’Qwell Jackson was the ACC Defensive Lineman of the Week. I think that’s a tremendous credit to him that his play his recognized, especially in a losing effort. I could say that about a lot of kids on our defense. Shawne Merriman is playing well.” On the team’s goals for the rest of the season: “One of the goals we’ve had since I’ve come here is to beat a top 10 team, and that opportunity is going to be available again this weekend. I’m playing every game to win, and I think if we could win one of these games here it would tremendous things to our confidence, and who knows what could happen after that? Right now I’m focusing on the Florida State game and giving that our best effort.” On competing against a team and a program like Florida State: “As our program grows, those games are going to come about. How successful we are in those games are really going to determine the direction of our program. That’s why, as a goal, we want to beat a top 10 team, and once you do that I think you reach a certain status. I know when I was here before when that happened we felt like there wasn’t any team we couldn’t play with. This is a young football team, so I don’t know that they’ve seen a team like Florida State yet. We need to go out and have fun; we have nothing to lose and play to win.” On dealing with disappointment: “We worked very hard last week, we prepared hard, and it didn’t work out. But if we continue to prepare and work hard, sooner or later, it will work out. I don’t know if it will be this week or the next week, but you can’t just give in when things don’t go your way. You have to keep fighting and working.” On if it’s tougher to come back from a tough defeat: “I think it’s harder when you think you had a good opportunity to win the game and you don’t come away with the win. We have to finish the deal to win football games. You can’t play for 58 minutes; you have to play for the whole game. Maybe we learned that lesson.” On the controversial pass interference call against Clemson: “I could make a big deal out of that and gnash my teeth, but it won’t get the game back. That’s not going to change. So why go there? We need to worry about Florida State and hopefully the call will go for us the last time.”
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