Post-game quotes |
COLLEGE PARK, MD – Other quotes from No. 8 Clemson’s thrilling 56-45 win over Maryland Saturday night at Byrd Stadium.
Running back
Andre Ellington RS Jr. Running Back #23 5-10, 190 Moncks Corner, SC On the comeback ”We just stuck together. It was going to take a team effort. Maryland, they did a great job. There were some things that we came at them with that they stopped. It too us getting to half time, making some adjustment and playing Clemson football.” On if he was surprised at the Maryland’s effort ”Not at all. When you are a team that is undefeated, everybody wants to take a swing at you. It was their Homecoming. They were excited. They stopped us on some key plays. Give them credit.” On what won the game “Just up front. Those guys did a great job. They took some ownership. During the week, we got after it. Coach said he was expecting us to have a great rushing game. We just took it and went with it and tried to make the best of it.” On key to the win “Just our heart. We stuck together as a team. The defense has our back and we have the defense’s back. That’s how it’s going to go. We kind of let our tempo get to them. We were tired at all. We still had some fight in our hearts. We just went out there and made plays.” On enjoying the win “We are going to enjoy it tonight, but we know that we have to get back to work on Monday. North Carolina is another great team in the conference that’s willing to beat us. We just have to take it each day at a time and get better. It meant a lot just to make that run. They guys up front- there wasn’t really anybody in sight- they did a good job hatting them up. I give the credit to them and to the tight ends for the blocks.” On breakout game “We were just looking for a breakout game rushing the ball.” Offensive coordinator Chad Morris On the game “I left a whole lot out there. A lot of age and years off of our life out there. What a ballgame. You can’t say enough about Coach Edsall and Maryland and the game plan they had. They are a good football team. Hats off to them. I am just so proud of our guys. Good teams and great teams find ways to win. “ On the comeback “How many times did you see that against Auburn? You find ways to come back and you find ways to win. We did that. My response to them in there is that we will worry about correcting and fixing some things on Monday, but we found a way to win and right now we are going to be excited about that. We were over there down 18 in the second half. There was nobody panicking. We weren’t going to change our game plan. It was still early in the game. Somebody was going to have to make some plays. Obviously a great ball that Tajh throws to Sammy on a double move to kind of get us back rolling again. Hats off to our guys. Our offensive line played extremely well. They allowed us to be in the ball and protect us and allowed us to come back.” On bad play in first half “That happens. Sammy drops a ball. You throw a pick six. It just seemed like everything was going against us. It was early. We couldn’t panic. People were upset. We just had to rally and pick ourselves back up and keep going.” On running the ball “That was our game plan going in. We felt like we could run the football and needed to run the football. We challenged our offensive line. We challenged Andre and he did a great job. He started the game well. He ended the game well. We ran the ball well. We had to run the ball because Tajh wasn’t in his game especially early in the game.” On play of Boyd “I think early on in the game, I don’t know if Tajh was pressing a little too much. He was healthy. He just wasn’t the Tajh that we have seen in the past. That will definitely re-motivate him. He felt a lot of the burden on the sideline. He felt a lot of it was on him and he was a little disappointed. We kept trying to tell him over and over that we had a lot of football left to play and that he was going to have to make some plays for us. He did that and finished strong completing 11 of his last 12.” On finding a way to win “You find ways to win. That’s what you do. I don’t care how you win or how many points you have to score to win. A win is a win. I think we will look back on this being down 18 points at one time and still battle back and win a ball game. That’s a sign of a good football team. We have to fix some things. We are a long way from where we want to be. You have to win games like this.” Maryland head coach Randy Edsall “This was a tough one tonight. I thought we did some good things tonight. We just didn’t play consistently good enough for 60 minutes.” On Clemson’s offense “I think that Clemson has some very good players on their team. They have an outstanding quarterback, a great running back and an outstanding receiver. The biggest thing is we have to go out and finish games.” Right tackle
Landon Walker Gr. Offensive Tackle #72 6-6, 305 North Wilkesboro, NC “We couldn’t get anything going anything going in the first quarter. We weren’t playing really well. You can definitely see a difference in these two team and the teams in the past. To give them two touchdowns and then come back like we did says a lot about our team. It’s something that we’ve never done in the past to come from 18 points down on the road and capitalize like that with a win.” DB
Bashaud Breeland RS Fr. Defensive Back #17 6-0, 185 Allendale, SC On his interception “I just play. I just play on the defense and having fun. That’s all. I just read his hips cause he went on an over route. I just went to his hips because I knew that I had help over the top. I saw it in practice. We practice that play a lot in practice- the over route. “ Quarterback
Tajh Boyd RS So. Quarterback #10 6-1, 225 Hampton, VA “They are a great team that is well-coached. We knew we were going to get their best shot. The guys definitely pushed me and we persevered. I’m definitely proud of the way that we handled it, but there are things that we can learn from it. We are still a young team and we can grow from here.” On his first quarter “I was just indecisive. The ball didn’t come out like I wanted it to. It was just one of those deals. Luckily we finished the game strong.” On if the team panicked “Not at all. It was just one of those deals that we had to keep working and keep pushing and it would work out for us. I just had to get myself together. “
Andre Ellington
Landon Walker
Bashaud Breeland
Tajh Boyd
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