Bowl Quotes - December 30
12/30/2001 7:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 30, 2001
Maryland Offense Press Conference
12/30/01
Shaun Hill on the passing game:
"I feel like I still have a lot of potential to bring out. I feel like I'm a very young senior, if that's possible. I spent two years at junior college and really only four games my junior year. I was injured the rest of the season. I've really taken a lot of coaching in the last twelve months here at the University of Maryland. I feel like I still have a lot of improvement I can make."
Shaun Hill on Florida's secondary:
"It's no secret that Florida's secondary is very athletic. Myself and the receivers are going to have to be at the top of our game. We'll have to run crisp routes and I'm going to have to put the ball in an area where only we can come down with it. We're going to have to have our best game."
Guilian Gary on being underdogs:
"We don't care. We've been underdogs all season. Being the underdog really doesn't bother us at all. The only people who care about that are the people that are betting on the game and none of us are betting on the game."
"It's a long road to get here. We've gone from my freshman year of being 3-8, 5-6, 5-6 and then 10-1. It took a lot of hard work in the off-season to get here and now it's all working. I'd trade any day, three years in a row of not going to a bowl game to go to the big BCS game and play a team such as Florida."
Scooter Monroe
"At the end of last year, our coach got fired. Everything was up in the air:
we didn't know where we were going, what was going to happen. It was a new situation for all of us and when Coach Friedgen got hired, it was a 180-degree change. The expectation for us to perform and play just stepped up a bunch. We worked hard all year to get here and it's been good. Obviously its paid off:
we're in the Orange Bowl right now and it's just an unreal situation."
"A lot of people haven't given us a shot all year, and even when we were 5-0, people were like, 'they're going to blow it sooner or later.' I think we met every challenge that's been put in front of us all year. So we feel like this is no different. We're going to go in, play our game, play how we are capable of playing and I feel like everything should work itself out."
Melvin Fowler "There have been a lot of people that don't give Maryland the credit that we deserve. We just put that in the back of our minds and go out there and play our football like we've done all year round."
Marc Riley on Florida's run defense:
"From seeing them on tape, we feel like the coaching staff has put us in a great position to run the ball effectively. We have a few plays that we feel can be very successful."
Riley on the magnitude of this game:
"We can put ourselves on the map by beating Florida. We felt that if we played well every game we could come away with a lot of victories. Coach said going to a bowl game was a given. It was just a matter of what bowl we wanted to go to. He has instilled the will to win here and, I think that is what we were missing."
Matt Murphy on Alex Brown:
"He's giving a lot of trouble to a lot of teams. He's the type of player where you just have to contain him. He's got a lot of speed, and we'll have to use a lot of chips (blocks) from the tight ends and running backs to help the tackles."
Charlie Taaffe, Offensive Coordinator, on exploiting Florida:
"The two teams that defeated Florida, both had some success running the football against Florida. Florida has tremendous team speed on their defense. For us to be competitive, we have to be able to run the football. The one thing we have in our running game that Florida has not faced is the option. That's something I hope we can utilize and exploit."
Taaffe on Alex Brown:
"He's a great edge guy - a great pass rusher - that's his specialty. That's what he's really good at. We can't just let them pin their ears back. We can't let Alex Brown tee off on us and come off the edge every snap."
Taaffe on Maryland's offensive game plan:
"Part of our game plan will be to control the ball, control the clock, and try and keep their explosive offense off the field."
Florida Defense Press Conference
12/30/01
Lito Sheppard on Maryland's option offense:
"If we stop the run, then we can make them one dimensional. Their strength is their running game right now. As long as we play sound and do what our coaches tell us to do, then we'll be fine."
Ian Scott "Their [Maryland] balance on offense is their biggest asset because they're able to run and pass the ball both effectively and if you've got that in your offense, it's hard to game plan. They average over 200 yards in offense and 200 yards in passing, they're about even in what they average per game in each area. It's hard. You have to prepare for everything. You've got to try to take one option away."
Andra Davis "They run different defenses in the ACC than we do. We have basically 8 deep in the box all the time. ACC teams, they don't play a lot of pass, I think it'll be a good look."
"Our d-line gives great pressure all the time. Alex and Bobby and Marcus and all the boys and Bernard coming off the end, that's blitzing right there. I don't think anybody can block our ends one on one. We don't need blitzing. Every now and then we will give a little bit more pressure. But as far as straight up playing man to man, we have got the great corners."
Todd Johnson "We all have our mind sets on Maryland and we know we've got a challenge ahead of us. We are excited to be here and excited to face Maryland."
Alex Brown "The Orange Bowl is a wonderful game. I am enjoying it now and we just want to go out play again."
"They are going to come out very hungry and if we come out to play, we'll be o.k."
Jon Hoke on Alex Brown:
"Alex has brought a lot to us. Number one, he stayed for his senior year, which to me means a lot. And it shows that the University of Florida means a lot to him. He's matured as a person and as a football player. Alex has shown his leadership by his consistency and play, for the most part of the season."
Hoke on corrections made after the Tennessee game:
"You'd like to be confident that we corrected the problem. We have worked on the problem. The one thing we do defensively is that we all understand the plan that we have in place defensively. So when there is a breakdown everyone knows what the breakdown was. We feel like we've gotten those things corrected and we've worked extremely hard on it."
