Cincinnati Bearcats College Football Pregame Quote, 11/23/2021

Well, it’s hard to continue to reflect back on last weekend when you’ve got to continue to move forward, but last weekend was an awesome weekend. It starts with the seniors, then it moves to the students in the student section, and that environment that was created last week in the stadium. Then the combination of all, the way those guys played and led that team so all-in-all, it was a great weekend. The difficult thing is you’ve got to move forward, especially when you’ve got an earlier game, you’ve got all the distractions of this week, with Thanksgiving and things like that, then you play on a Friday afternoon. It’s been one of those things where there is not a whole lot of time to celebrate, you kind of enjoy it quick, continue to move forward and get right back into things. That’s how it is late in the year anyway and you can’t dwell upon the things that have happened when you’ve got other things ahead of you that you got to continue to roll to. So I think those guys have done a really good job of that this week and have recognized that and had, hopefully, a way to balance those things out and enjoy what they did, especially those seniors and continue to move forward. We’ve got a big one this week, we’ve got to go on the road, and it’s always difficult on the road. I think that if you look at our league, and how teams have fared on the road, it’s been really really tough, and ECU has been playing really well. I think that this is a really good football team that is hitting their stride at the end of the season.

On the difficulty of playing in Greenville:

I don’t know, I mean I just think, in general, it’s what Coach Dykes said to me before the game last week. He said, ‚ÄòI don’t know if it’s just the league, but going on the road, it’s really difficult.’ And I’m not saying it’s the crowds and the noise and things like that, it’s just you get out of a different routine. So, we’ve been there twice I think in the last five years and the first one was really, really, really ugly, and then obviously two years ago was a really difficult game and someway somehow, we found a way to kick a field goal to win the game in the end. That’s kind of what you have to prepare yourself for, and not just going on the road, but also watching as this team in the last five weeks and how they’ve played. I think that’s where you’ve really got to say, this is what you’ve got to be prepared for.

On it being senior day for East Carolina on Friday:

That’s what it’s about. I mean, we know, that you’re going to play somebody on their senior day, and that we’ll know their seniors, leaders of their program, and things like that, but this is another one like that. There will be a lot of emotion, a lot of energy for them, not just because of senior day, but because we’re on to a bowl game and have a lot of momentum within the program.

On East Carolina bringing a four-game win streak into Friday:

I don’t know if it’s something that we’re doing different because they’re on a four-game win streak, but I think it’s respecting and understanding what it is that you’re playing and walking into. We’ve said it all year, it’s not the best team, it’s the team that plays the best. As you know, you go down a season, the last three or four weeks of a season, you can tell a lot of different things from programs and teams. And think that’s the thing you look at with what they’ve done there. You see a team that has a lot of positive momentum, so there’s a lot of things that add up to it. For us, we got to go out and play. We know what’s at stake. It’s another opportunity for our guys to go out and compete and do what they love to do.

On senior cornerback Coby Bryant being named a finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award :

Well, we try not to get into the individual stuff and the individual awards, especially when a season’s going on, but it’s really difficult not to smile and not be so happy for a guy like that who’s worked so hard. I know that the great thing is it’ll probably go in one ear out the other for Coby. He’ll probably crack a smile if he did, and he’ll continue to move on. I know he’s a guy who can handle it, but it’s well deserved, and I know that if you asked him about it, he’d deflect the individual award or at least give recognition on what this team has done and what they still have got to do.

On the improvement of junior wide receiver / kick returner Tre Tucker:

Sometimes it has a lot to do with the opportunities, and last week was just one of those opportunities with Mike (Micheal Young Jr., wide receiver) out, that Tre maybe had some more chances to be in there in some other situations. He has obviously proven a lot of things, starting from a kick returner to a, not to say a gadget guy, but a guy you want to get a ball in his hands and find ways to truly be a complete wide receiver. His future is really bright, he’s a guy that we’ve talked about with Coby Bryant and what he’s done in a process, I’m not sure you would say much different from a guy like Tre Tucker. You’ve seen the process of how he’s continued to grow into a complete player and I think he’s just getting more opportunities to show that and demonstrate what he is kind of growing into.