Sept. 6, 2011
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COLLEGE PARK, MD. -
Postgame quotes following Maryland's 32-24 win over Miami in the 2011 season opener.
Maryland Head Coach Randy Edsall
Opening statement:
"It was a great win for our university, our state, our players and coaches. I couldn't be any prouder of the effort that we gave. We talked about building a team when I came here. Tonight was really a total team effort. The players did their jobs, the coaches did their job, and the fans were unbelievable. If we can create that kind of an atmosphere every Saturday we are going to be difficult to beat. When you go out and play hard and [play] together this is what's going to happen. I couldn't be any happier or prouder of those young men and our assistant coaches for a job well done."
On the red zone offense's difficulties:
"I am going to focus on the positives. I'm not going to get upset because we won the game. When you beat a team like the University of Miami and be able to go down and persevere and come back I'm not going to dwell on those things. We left a lot of points on the board and we need to get better. I think the bigger story is how this team showed resiliency and fought until the end in order to get a win. When you win, all of the things that take place that aren't as good as you would like them to be can be corrected. We will work on trying to score touchdowns down in the red zone because we did leave points on the board. But when you can go and finish and win a conference game on a national stage, I will take that any day. We can correct everything else after we watch film tomorrow."
On kicking the field goal at the end of the game:
"I wasn't going to go for it. I have a lot of confidence in Nick (Ferrara). The previous field goal - the snap was a little bit low, so the timing was thrown off and he pushed it to the right. Nick has the ability and I have complete confidence in him once we get into his range."
On Danny O'Brien:
"I thought Danny (O'Brien) played very well. I thought he made a mistake when he threw the interception. I'll have to look at the film, but I thought he could have run the ball in. In his development as a quarterback he has a lot of confidence in his ability. Even if he didn't run it in the window he had to throw the ball into was too tight. He should have thrown the ball away and given us another chance to get the ball in on third down. That is something he will learn from as he goes on. We have some receivers who can get the job done. He spread the ball out well to everyone. He was very good when he couldn't get it to his first receiver at looking down to his other options. He stayed poised through out and did a great job at the end."
On Cameron Chism:
"Chism did a good job causing the fumble and Joe (Vellano) got the touchdown, but he should have gone down on the interception because the game would have been over. They didn't have enough touchdowns so in that situation he shouldn't have scored. He should have just picked the ball off and gone down. We would have run one play and they would have called their last timeout and we wouldn't have had to have the drama at the end. That is something that we talk about and it's a teaching moment. When he picked it off I was yelling at him to go down. With the missed extra point they could have gone down and scored and with a two point conversion we would have gone to overtime. I am very proud of his performance though."
On the crowd:
"We had a lot of recruits here tonight and they were all very good. You couldn't come to this game tonight and not be impressed, with the different colors that the fans were wearing and the noise. It was loud and we made the decision to make the go into the student section in the fourth quarter and I thought that played a factor. I couldn't have been more proud of the effort of our fans and our administration for putting this together."
Maryland Players
Sophomore Quarterback Danny O'Brien
On the changes in the program that were felt tonight:
"It was a lot different. We were all talking on the sideline after the first drive when we punched it in and it was very intense. It was intense not only on the defense, but the tempo - we trained for it and we prepared all camp for it. I think it wore them down as time went on."
On the tempo of the passing game:
"I think tempo really helps us, especially when we're playing a defense as athletic as Miami's. There are several in the ACC, and teams that we are going to play and I think that the playing at that tempo can really slow those guys down. We have a really experienced offensive line that can play at that speed. We don't sacrifice efficiency so we can focus on the little details."
On stalling in the red zone:
"We did really well in the field with the freewheeling and once we got into the red zone it was hard when we came up with three [points]. I think in order to win consistently we need to score in the red zone and once we're there we need to punch those in."
Senior Left Guard Andrew Gonnella
On the newly issued team uniforms:
"The uniforms are amazing. It was great that Kevin Plank did this for us and is putting us on the map with them. I think that fact that we won makes it even that much more meaningful."
On playing at primetime and building a national brand:
"I think it's going to be big as far as media and I think it's going to be big as far as keeping our fans coming. Tonight was the loudest I've heard Capital One Field at Byrd Stadium in a while. I hope the fans continue to come out and support us like they did tonight because it definitely helped us."
On the new pace of play:
"The pace was new for us. We've been working it for a while now and I think it went pretty smoothly. Hopefully, we can continue to build on that and keep getting faster and minimize some of the mistakes to create a smooth transition into it."
Junior Wide Receiver Kevin Dorsey
On seeing tonight's matchups:
"The biggest thing is that at the end of the day, a cover-two is a cover-two and a cover-three is a cover-three; you just have different personnel doing it, certain people tweek them different ways. These are just things we've worked on all week."
On unveiling the new offense:
"I was very excited. We've been going against our defense for three and a half weeks so it was nice to finally be able to test it on someone else. This allows us to see what we need to work on."
Senior Defensive Tackle Joe Vellano
On the sold-out crowd:
"I thought the crowd was really good. I think they forced [delays of game] three times in a row, and I think it was a tie game by then so it was a huge drive. I think that was the best crowd we've ever had here, especially for the first game of the season. Those were two big penalties [the crowd] forced, [Miami] was going with a silent count and couldn't hear the ball get snapped."
On his fumble return for a touchdown at the end of the half:
"I think it just gave us a boost before half. They had scored on us and the defense had to step up. We got a turnover and I was just going for the ball and caught a gift. Took it to the house I guess."
Senior Defensive Back Cameron Chism
On stripping the ball that led to a Maryland touchdown:
"I'm not sure what running play they ran, but I had outside contain. I ran up and I tried to hit him but I slipped off and the ball was out. I saw Joe Vellano running with it and I tried to lead him into the end zone."
On Coach Randy Edsall tonight:
"He was just like he is in practice. He trusted and had faith in us so it was fun playing for him."
On finally playing tonight after all the hype and preparation:
"We've been practicing against our offense for 30 days, plus spring ball, so that's even more days, so we were ready to play a game. I was just ready to play a game."
On how the defense stepped up and came together as a team:
"We've all been in that situation before. As a defense we fight adversity when something goes wrong, and just stick together. That's something we always talk about is sticking together and we did that tonight."
Junior Kicker/Punter Nick Ferrara
On what went wrong during the missed field goal:
"We're a field-goal unit as a team, so when one person messes up, everyone messes up. So as a unit we all messed up,"
Miami Head Coach Al Golden
Opening statement:
"I thought we were ready. I thought we were ready to go. We competed [and] we answered a couple of times, but we just made too many mistakes. If you make those mistakes, you can't win."
On his team's mistakes:
"There are no moral victories. The things that we could control today - the penalties, the turnovers - we did not and it cost us the game. If you had said to me leading up to the game if we could hold [Maryland] to 20 points in this opener with all the things that we had to rearrange on defense, I would have said that would have been a great job and that's what we did. We gave up two offensive scores. So from that standpoint, [we have] too much experience on offense for us to turn the ball over and have those kinds of penalties. Again, that's starts with me. We're going to get it fixed. Clearly I'm disappointed because [turnovers] haven't been something we've been doing and I'm not accustomed to it."
On his team's final drive:
"Clearly the late interception when we were going down there with a chance to win was a critical turnover. We've got to protect the ball in that situation. We win and lose as a team. We didn't play good enough to win and I'm disappointed."
On his team's defensive play:
"I think when you're playing offenses like [Maryland] you've got to be patient and you've got to make plays on third down or make plays in the red zone. We made some plays in the red zone. Our kids kept fighting and competing. I know we gave up a lot of yards, but if we could have held them to 20 [points] on the defensive side - with the changes that we had there and the inexperience that we played with - I would have been really pleased. There are a lot of things that we have to fix on defense. Certainly, you can't give up that many yards no matter who's in the game and the offense has got to do better protecting the ball and eliminating the penalties."
On playing through distractions off the field:
"All we can do is control what we can control and that's improving every day, taking care of business, going to class, and focusing on the things that we can focus on. Everything else is out of our control. Again, [we'll] make no excuses, starting with me. We had enough on this trip to win this game and we didn't make the plays. Maryland did, give them credit. And again, [Maryland] did a better job in the penalty/turnover department and won the game."
Miami Players
Sophomore Running Back Lamar Miller
On his team's preparation:
"I feel we were prepared pretty good. We just made little mistakes and our offense came alive in the first half, [but] we just needed it to come alive in the second [half]."
On avoiding the distractions leading up to the game:
"We just had to stay focused. We were just grinding every day in practice and just staying focused."
Sophomore Quarterback Stephen Morris
On his team's preparation:
"Offensively, [offensive coordinator Jedd] Fisch and [head coach Al] Golden had a great plan for us and we executed some plays and sometimes we didn't execute, so there's a lot of things that we need to focus on when we get back to Miami. We just need to get better and that's the only way to really put it. We were very prepared though."
On playing through the off-field distractions:
"It wasn't much of a distraction at all. Whatever the situation is, the NCAA will give the sanctions, and we will move on. If a player goes down in a game, then the next player needs to step up. It's our next-man mentality and that's what we talk about at practice. Distractions outside of this program have never been an issue."
On the turnovers:
"[The turnovers] are unacceptable. That's the only word I can say from an offensive standpoint as the quarterback. It's just not supposed to happen. We've got to be on top of that and we just need to work on that in practice and we'll be fine in two weeks."
On Maryland:
"Maryland is a great team and we knew that they were going to be a great team. Coach Edsall did a good job with his defense and the offensive game plan that we had was a good game plan. We just need to execute it. Defensively, they had a lot of good players that had a lot of good opportunities. Offensively, we've just got to score points and we didn't really do that tonight."
