Quotes from Coach Friedgen's Tuesday Press Conference
9/20/2005 8:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 20, 2005
College Park, Md. -
On the West Virginia game
I looked at the film and came away feeling a little better than I did after the game. We're not that far away. We have to play smarter. We still had some foolish penalties. We were also a little unlucky. But I really feel that we have to be able to correct these mistakes, continue to play hard, and do a better job stopping the run and running the football. Our passing game and special teams are doing very well, and we're defending the pass very well.
On the upcoming Wake Forest game
We're going to play another fine team this week. They're the number one team in the ACC in rushing. They'll probably try to run the football on us, so our focus is to stop the run. We also have to do a better job running, but we have to throw the ball more too.
Moves for this week
We've moved Jared Gaither to starting left tackle. We liked the way he played on Saturday, and if we can get Derek [Miller] back at tight end, that will strengthen us at two positions. We're probably healthier than we have been in a long time.
On problems with rush defense
If you look at our last two games, the defense has played pretty well in stopping the rush until the last eight minutes of the game. I think we did wear down as the game went on. We were really controlling the line of scrimmage early in the game. [West Virginia] had over 180 yards rushing in the last quarter.
On third down conversions
We have to get better at our third down situation. It's ironic, we're at 30% in third and 7-10. We're at 10% at third and 2 or 3. That's where we need to get better. I broke down every one of those situations. A missed assignment here or not picking up pressure there...we need to get better at executing.
On the team's confidence
I tell them that we've been here before. We have a young team, and I think our confidence is a little shaken. We all have jitters. What we have to do is go back to our fundamentals. We have to eliminate these mistakes, and some of that is on the coaches. The team that doesn't beat itself is the team that wins. The last two weeks, we've done that. Once you start to do that, confidence comes and a lot of times you play better than you really should play, because you believe in yourself. We'll get there, we just have to keep working.
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