Syracuse Orange College Football Pregame Quote, 11/18/2019

On how the energy in the locker room felt after a win:

It was a good Sunday. I asked a couple of questions and if the answers are yes everyone is supposed to stand up. We had 105 guys stand up, but we still had things to go over. There was more positive than negative, but there was still growth that had to happen. I think a lot of people needed this win more than the team did. Me being one of them, but I think it was good for the entire community and everybody to get one of those.

On what the major difference was defensively:

I think it was a lot of things. I don’t want to take away from what the defense did because in college football if a team does not score a touchdown, that is big no matter what happened during the game. To hold David Cutcliffe’s football team to two field goals‚Äîthat is something that is extremely impressive. The turnovers made a big difference, and the wind played a part in that football game. That team is banged up. We talk about depth all of the time on our football team. That football team [Duke] is extremely banged up and that is what happens when you get this late in the season if you have the right surname going across the back of your jersey. So, no excuse or anything like that for them, but they were banged up and had some injuries on the offensive side of the ball during the game. Now with that being said, you watch the defensive tape, the defense played extremely hard and some of those turnovers were created, not given, and it is always good to see that. And any time the defense scores on its own, it is an extreme positive. The defense was out there 85 plays and at half time it was over 50 plays, they were on pace to play 100 snaps. But, it was because they were playing defense, getting a turnover, offense was capitalizing quickly and then they had to go back there and play defense again. As a team it was the best effort of the season and the score reflected that. If you go back and check the records that is the biggest differential for a win since I’ve been here and that was a Power Five opponent. That was a very convincing winning and that was a well-played game. I want to say that was that was the lowest penalty game we had and there was still some corrections we could have made.

On what was better with the offensive line:

It is the little things. I think we only had one illegal procedure penalty, I think it was on a receiver I may be wrong. But, when you do not have a bunch of those starting with first and fifteen and instead you have first and 10 you can stay on schedule. You can run the football, you can throw a short pass, you can run the football again and get to a third and manageable. I will look you dead in the eye, I did not like what our third down percentage was, but when you look at how many explosive plays we had in the running and throwing games and then you tie that in with the turnovers and the field position that the defense was giving you in those turnovers, you could have a game like what we had. Now if we could turn around that third down percentage then that game would have really been something. Carlos Vettorello has been working at center for a long time now. The one thing I always talk about is that football is like baseball. If you want to have a good baseball team, you need to have a catcher, a pitcher, a shortstop, a second baseman and a really good centerfielder. The rest of your baseball team you can figure out. It is no different on a football team. You want to have a tailback, a quarterback and a center. On defense, you want a one-technique, a mike linebacker, and a free safety. You just don’t want to put some new guy at center. And you do not want to do that until you are ready. Carlos came out and he did a good job. But, he has been training for the job that he did since August. I am glad that he did well and hopefully it is something he can hang around and do for a long time for us.

On what he’s seen from redshirt sophomore Tommy DeVito’s maturity:

Quarterbacks get too much of the credit and get too much of the blame. It is just the way that position is. He has handled most of it ok and he needs to get better at some of it, and he will. The longer he is here, the longer he has his position, he will. Normally they are not as good as they think they are or as bad as everyone says they are.

On how much of a difference did senior McKinley Williams make in her first game back:

He was okay. He was just okay. I think the biggest thing was he let other guys play fresher. Having that extra one body you can put the other guys in rotation where now they are fresher. And with that rotation they could do some things. From how he was last year, he was just okay. He’ll get better, but he was just okay the first time out.

On why he thinks everything with the team clicked together Saturday:

I don’t think you can put it on one thing. I think the guys were ready to play fast, we gave them an opportunity to play fast. That quarterback [Quentin Harris] is more of a runner, he still needs to work on his throwing game a little, so you are allowed to play some simpler things in pass coverage because of who he was. They lost their starting center, which means they could not use as many protections because they had their backup center in and then they turn around and lose their left tackle. I want to say that was in the first quarter, that is hard on an offensive line in a game like that, especially when you are going against Kendall Coleman and Alton Robinson off the edges. And then some of the stuff we’re doing inside with the linebackers and the one-technique. So, there was a lot of stress on their positions that were new. I think that had a big impact on what they could do offensively. I thought it was a good game plan and I think there was some things that went our way. It’ll be interesting to see how it goes this Saturday because the offense we are about to play is a lot better than the offense we just played. If you are watching the tape let’s see what happens this Saturday.

On if the guys are rejuvenated knowing a bowl is still possible:

We are not falling in that trap any more. We are not going there anymore. We have Louisville in Louisville. Scott Satterfield does a fantastic job. He’s put everybody on alert that his team is going to be good again and we got an opportunity to go down there. As far as I know we have not done well there. Let’s see what happens. That’s an interesting place. The last time we went down there, I remember seeing Lamar Jackson do all of his crazy stuff and I am glad that all of the NFL guys have the same issues with Lamar that we had at Syracuse University.

On what he remembers from the last football game he physically played in:

The last time I ever played in a football game, I was in the Canadian football game playing for the BC Lions. I had just gotten injured in practice and I they had just realized that I went through camp without an ACL. We went to our last game before our final cuts and they played everybody the entire game. And with two minutes left, they put me in at tailgate and pitched me the ball. I ran the ball one or two times because the quarterback who was in was my roommate who I think audibled to get me the ball, and then they cut me the next day because they had me on tape as playing, which means I was okay, so they did not have to pay me for my contract. So that was my last snap of football.

On what it was like hiring Eric Coley’s step dad as an assistant and then seeing Eric was a top recruit:

I heard that he had a son that played football. I was checking the local stuff and he was rolling up the rushing yards. I think he played in the Dome and he had a long touchdown run going down the home sideline for a touchdown. I think they won the game, but he was a good running back. He told me his son played ball. I constantly read the newspapers and I was looking up the stats and if you go through his year, he was one of the stat leaders in the community and he had some really good games in the Dome that I watched on channel 9 and 3, because I watch all of the stations just to see what their saying.

On what makes Louisville so explosive on offense:

4-3, 4-4, 4-3. I can read it off to you, they are lightning fast. When they get out in space, there is going to be trouble. They have an offensive lineman [Mekhi Becton] who is 6-foot-7, 367 pounds or something like that. And not only is he big, a lot of people think he is going to be a very high draft choice, and you watch him move and go ‘Wow.’ I don’t need to know his name because he will be the biggest thing out there. They’ve got some people. The team that we played last year is not the team we will play this year. They like the things Coach Satterfield is doing. They have definitely bought in. I believe they already qualified for a bowl, and they will be someone to be reckoned with on this side of the conference.

On his reaction to the protests going on around Syracuse’s campus and if the team has talked about it:

I have heard them [some of the players] say things about it, but it is nothing we have talked about in a major meeting. If those guys want to talk about that stuff, we always end our meetings with one of those free times where they can bring up whatever they want to bring up. They have not brought that up yet, but it is obviously something I have heard them talking about in small groups, but they have not talked about it in front of the entire family. I think it is the constitutional right to protest everything you want and have free speech, it is all written into the constitution and that is what makes us different from everyone else.

On what has to change to contain the running game and Louisville RB Javian Hawkins:

We better get him before he gets started. If he gets out there he is a blur. You have to get on him early, before he gets started, before he gets downhill and turns on the jets, and the jets are what he has. You get him out in space he is going to be a difficult task.

On what QB Tommy DeVito has done to prevent turnovers:

I think he is settling down. We are at game 10, about to play 11. You add the 10 plus the two, he has basically finished one season, he’s about 12 games in and we are seeing some growth in some areas and hopefully we need to see even more growth because this chapter is not done yet. So, he is growing up and seeing things a lot slower and right now he is on pace, he needs to continue to grow he still has a lot of growing to do.