Sept. 26, 2009

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COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Postgame quotes following Maryland's 34-13 loss to Rutgers.

Maryland Head Coach Ralph Friedgen
On the game:
"I am disappointed. I thought our defense played their hearts out and I really felt we had the chance to win it even though we played poorly on offense. Our kicking game was average; it just wasn't a very good effort. I am very disappointed and I'm sure our players and our fans are."

On penalties:
"We have to stop turning the ball over and we still have the penalties. Over the years it has become a trademark of ours that we don't do things like that and it seems that we can't stop doing them this year."

On effort of the players:
"I thought the defense gave great effort. Offensively, I can't say yet until I see the tape. We were fighting and scratching and hung in there. If we had something going offensively I think we would have won the football game."

On accountability:
"I'm sure it all starts with me. It's my responsibility to get these guys ready to play and it's my responsibility to get these things corrected. I am accountable too."

On the offensive line:
"I'm going to try to get the five best players to play. It's going to take some time but we just have to try to get them better. That's all I know how to do. No one on offense played well."

On Chris Turner:
"Other guys have to be in the right places and do the right things too. I thought last week he started out slow and played pretty good at the end of the game. I think he's been playing okay. I don't think he's had a great game and I don't think he's had a bad one either."

Senior Quarterback Chris Turner
On limiting the turnovers:
"As far as my play, I do focus on trying to limit the turnovers, limit the interceptions. On Saturdays I try to be aggressive but sometimes that kind of bites me in the butt."

On the fumble in the endzone:
"It was a shovel pass to the runningback. I think they blitzed up the middle and some guys came through. I didn't have a plan in the back of my mind what to do. I tried to get rid of it and the ball popped out. It happened really fast. I messed up. I should have had a plan in my head but I didn't."

On his responsibility for the turnovers:
"It's frustrating and I feel like once we eliminate the turnovers and start to play sound football we're going to be a better team and we're going to start putting ourselves in better positions to win. For me personally, it's hard. It's the first time in my career where I feel very responsible for the loss and I feel like I let my team down in a lot of ways. I've got to get in tomorrow and see the film and get back at it on Monday.

Sophomore Wide Receiver Torrey Smith:
On the injury sustained in the second half:
"There are lots of bumps and bruises in football. I'm walking on my two feet. If I'm on my two feet I'm alright."

On the turnovers:
"For us we've got to fix the little things, the mistakes, the penalties, the same things that have been killing us since day one. We should easily be 3-1. There's a bunch of key plays that we made. Our defense fought hard the whole game and they came ready to play. We gave up two touchdowns on offense. Our mistakes and turnovers, if you take those out of the game it's a different game.

Junior Linebacker Alex Wujciak:
On the final touchdown by Joe Martinek:
"He had the long run down the sideline which was tough. It was eating me up because it didn't look like we were pushing to finish the game out."

On the game getting out of hand and fans leaving:
"I would say it's disappointing. I feel bad for the fans. Let them know that we're going to keep fighting. Obviously it was a rainy day but it looked like a pretty good crowd."

On ACC play starting next week:
"If we go undefeated in the ACC we go to the Orange Bowl."

On a lack of momentum by both teams in the final quarter:
"It's a team game. Some games the defense has to do more than the offense, some games the offense has to do more, some games the special teams has to play really well for us. So I don't think there were any snowball effects whatsoever."

Rutgers Head Coach Greg Schiano
On the breakout fourth quarter by Rutgers' offense:
"That's a vision of the running game... If you're in a close game then you can stay in it with the running game, but if you get behind it's hard to do. It's good that we were able to keep pounding away, and that's what our players did, they kept with the plan and didn't get nervous."

On whether or not the lack of offensive execution early frustrated the team:
"I'm really proud of the offense, because I didn't sense [frustration].It's easy when that stuff happens [to say] it's always somebody's fault, or it's not working. There was none of that stuff. They just kept going, and believing it would turn and it turned. As a coach it's what you look for."

On the Rutgers defense playing strong:
"We do everything as a team. The kicking game, offense, defense are family. Certainly the defense played extremely well today. When you can hold someone to 25 yards rushing that to me is the key to the game. I know people will talk about the scores and the takeaways, but 25 yards rushing- that's a very telling stat to me."

On the offensive line's role in Maryland's goal-line stop in the third quarter:
"That was disappointing. I don't know if it was the offensive line. It looked like we didn't go in there [hard]. I was disappointed. At the time we weren't exactly moving well and it felt like we needed the points. At that point we had scored three points on offense and I thought, `I don't know if we're going to get back down here.' It's not that I doubted our guys, but I thought they were playing good defensive football."

On the turnovers Rutgers forced:
"We have some experienced guys on defense that are playing hard. When you're seniors and you're playmakers, make plays. We have some guys that can really hit, and some of those fumbles today were just great hits."

On his team going on the road for the first time this season:
"We have a lot of young guys that have not played on the road. You saw the effect of the crowd on a couple of illegal procedure penalties. If you're not careful when you're on the road that's when things start to go against you and then the momentum can just crush you. You need to have a certain mindset when you go on the road, and I think our seniors did a great job of teaching our younger players about how we do things on the road."

Rutgers Players
Senior defensive end George Johnson
On recovering a fumble in the endzone:
"I saw the quarterback trying to get it out, so I was like I was going to jump on the ball and then everyone else jumped on me."

On scoring on defense and forcing turnovers:
"Yeah, it feels good because we know that great defenses have to score on defense. We're trying to find ways to get turnovers and score on defense."

Senior linebacker Damaso Munoz
On forcing turnovers and scoring on defense:
"I think that's where we got it. We got tons of turnovers and that's where we scored. Coach tells us if we want to be a good, great defense that's what we have to do."

On expecting to score on defense:
"I don't know if you want to say expected but that's what we're trying to do. We know that's what good defenses try to do so if we get the ball, we're trying to score."