Oct. 6, 2012
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COLLEGE PARK, MD. -
Postgame quotes following Maryland's 19-14 win over Wake Forest.
Maryland Head Coach Randy Edsall
Opening Statement:
"Where do you start? First of all, it was a good win and we are 1-0 in the ACC. We have a bunch of guys who are battling and want to compete for 60 minutes. What we have to do is get them better at the little things, like the fundamentals and the techniques, and not putting ourselves in positions that made it difficult to win. However, I am very proud of our guys for battling and hanging in there. We have a lot of things we still need to clean up, but I will take the win and know that the things we need to fix are things we can take care of and things the players want to take care of."
"I would also like to make a special mention of Paul Vellano being inducted into the Hall of Fame here at Maryland. He was an honorary captain this evening, and it is great to see former players coming back here and we welcome them back with open arms. I also thought the crowd was good. The crowd gave us some energy. Defensively, we played very well, except for a few plays. Offensively, we are very inconsistent and on the special teams we have things there we need to clean up also."
On the play of the defense and the secondary:
"I thought that, other than the blown coverage early on, we started to do a really good job. I think that those guys prepare well. I was very proud of Anthony Nixon. Matt Robinson hurt his groin, and so we needed to move Eric [Franklin] over and have Anthony step up because we have been so impressed with what we have seen out of Anthony. In practice he takes great notes and he is very conscientious. I thought the secondary did play well. I thought we could have held on to some of those tipped balls for interceptions, but I thought overall our defense was outstanding."
On the play of Perry Hills:
"Perry has to get more consistent. I love Perry to death, but he is missing some things out there. He could make it a lot easier on himself and be a lot more efficient offensively if he goes where he is supposed to with the ball and make some better reads. We just need to work with him and make sure he works to get better. As we continue to go forward, we need to eliminate some of those things."
On the play of Stefon Diggs:
"I think one of the things Stefon has to understand now that he is here is that he cannot make a big play all of the time. He has the ability to make the big plays, but sometimes he hurts himself more than he helps himself. He gets so excited to play, we have to calm him down and tell him what he needs to do. With his punt returns, the thing he needs to understand is that the most important thing is getting the ball back and securing the football so we can get a chance to go and possess it on offense and do something with it."
On the first Wake Forest touchdown and the defensive breakdown:
"There was a missed execution of a coverage that led to that touchdown. We would never play a coverage that would leave a guy that wide open. We had a breakdown."
On senior leadership on defense, especially with the two late sacks:
"I think Demetrius [Hartsfield] is playing pretty well. He is a guy who is playing with a lot of confidence. He is vocal, he hates to lose, and I like how he talks and gets everybody going. With Kenny [Tate], you only want to play him so many plays, but when he is out there, there is a steadiness and fluidness. I just hope that tomorrow he won't be sore. It got to a point in the game where I told the defensive coach to just leave him in there and just keep him going. When you have a guy out there with the intelligence that he has and just understands the game it helps you as a defense."
On offensive identity and prospect of trying a different quarterback:
"We had talked about maybe getting Devin [Burns] in there before the game, but the situation never presented itself. I would have hoped that we would be a little further along offensively, but that is just something that we will continue to work on."
On extra point versus going for two, and what he thought about the clock management:
"I thought that we should kick the field goal because our defense was playing really well. I guess I thought kicking the field goal was a safer option than going for two. The four minute drill was something we have worked on and I thought we executed that very well. We got as much out of the clock as we could and put ourselves in a good situation. We put Kevin Dorsey back there to get an interception and he dropped it. We were trying to get him on the stat sheet. The thing that is so frustrating is that when you see these guys go out there and execute well, and then you see them go out there again and do some things that make you scratch your head and say `Where did that come from?'. That is our job as coaches to get that focus and consistency. We need to get to where we need to be as a team."
Maryland Players
Senior Defensive Lineman A.J. Francis
On stopping Wake Forest's offense:
"Our goal is to be the best defense in the ACC, and we have to come to work every day in practice and especially Saturdays. We still have a lot to improve on. We gave up a big touchdown on the first drive, and we should have also kept them out of the end zone on their second touchdown. Other than that we played a pretty good game, and we still have room to improve. I think we have the potential to be a really great defense."
"On being 1-0 in ACC play:
"It is always huge to win conference games because they are the games that really matter. At the end of the day we really focus on winning conference games because it will help us get to postseason play. It is really good that we got one out of the way. We were able to pull it out, and it was a great win for our team."
Senior Defensive End Joe Vellano:
On goal line stand:
"Everyone was really working hard on not letting their offense get in the end zone. On third down they went for it, and we were able to stop them. They went for it again on the fourth, and I think it was Dexter [McDougle] over the top who made a huge play. That really was a big momentum changer for our team."
On being 1-0 in ACC play:
"It's a huge win for us. Our biggest goal this week was to come out and win this game to get tonight and we were successful with that. We have Virginia next week, but this was a great start to open up our ACC competition."
On your father's induction to the Maryland Hall of Fame"
"It was a crazy thing being able to see my dad's old highlights. It made me come alive during the game. Last night was a great event, and I was really touched by the support I received from the rest of the Maryland players. I never thought I would be able to be on the field with my dad, especially walking out to the coin toss with him. It was a dream come true. I am very humbled and proud of all that my dad was able to achieve."
Freshman Quarterback Perry Hills
On how he's progressed this season:
"I'm definitely starting to see the blitzes a lot easier; where they're coming from, helping myself get picked up. It's definitely slowed down a lot instead of everything happening in a split second, you start to see it a lot easier."
On the touchdown pass to Dorsey:
"We knew the corners were going to bite on a little hitch route. So I took a three step [drop] and then just gave him a nice easy catchable ball in the end zone."
On how Maryland's defense played:
"The defense won the game for us. The defense played a great game. They've played well all year and I'm glad to have a defense as good as they are."
Freshman Receiver Stefon Diggs
On the 63-yard receiving play:
"I had a little underneath route, caught the ball, and did my job. Everybody else had some great blocks on the outside. I ran out of gas a little bit, but I pretty much just did my job and did the best I could."
On the muffed punt:
"I had time, but I peeked. I took my eyes off of it, and I saw that I had at least one second. There was a little bit of wind, but there's no excuse at all; I should have squared it up. It drifted a little bit and got away from me, so I was more concerned about the ball than the hit. It happened, I tried to move forward from it. It got down on myself a little bit because that's how I play. I love the game and I believe stuff like that shouldn't happen. It wasn't the worst game of my life, but we have to move on to next week at Virginia."
On how big the win was:
"It's good to open up the ACC with a `W', so it's a big win. We pride ourselves on not beating ourselves, but we made a lot of mistakes. If you make a lot of mistakes you can't expect to win games; there's a small margin of error. We're going to hear about it tomorrow, but it's good to get a `W' battling adversity. It's big and it builds team camaraderie and chemistry."
Senior Linebacker Demetrius Hartsfield
On Wake Forest's final drive in the game:
"I definitely knew what they were running. It wasn't anything new; we just did what we had to do."
On the play of the secondary:
"I think all of our DBs played great. I think Anthony Nixon stepped up as a freshman, and I think Jeremiah Johnson played a heck of a game. They had a handful of PBUs"
On how it feels to be 1-0 in the ACC:
"It's good to be 1-0, but of course it's just one win. Now we have to get ready for Virginia. I've yet to win down there."
On how they were able to counter Wake Forest's offense:
"We knew they were going to try to run the ball, and base their offense off of the run. That was the big emphasis we had, stopping the run."
Wake Forest Head Coach Jim Grobe
Opening statement:
"I think Maryland played good. We knew coming in they had a good defense. I thought their front played well. They got us into third and long a bunch, and that was a problem. They played good man under coverage with two deep safeties behind us and made it hard for us to find an open shot. I thought Maryland played well defensively."
On the loss of players:
"First of all, I thought Maryland's kids played really hard, and they did what they needed to do. A combination of injuries and being a little bit depleted didn't help us today."
On the loss of Michael Campanaro:
"Obviously it was really tough. I think on most football teams, each year you are going to have two or three really key guys on both sides of the football and you need those guys to play their best. If they don't play their best or are injured it's really tough to win against the competition we're playing against. So not having Mike was really key. You'd like to think somebody rallies and gets the job done."
On taking positives out of the game:
"I thought our guys played really, really hard. I told them in the locker room after the game that I can't fault the effort. We had opportunities. When you have third and a half a yard and you fumble the quarterback exchange, it's maybe not going to be your night."
"We're a competitive football team, but we're not good enough to make as many mistakes as we made today and win. It's kind of spread around. I told the kids that offensively, we just didn't have enough guys step up. I thought defensively that we did some good things except for a couple big plays."
On Tanner Price:
"I think you have to look at him and say that he didn't play very well, but I don't think he had a lot of support. Our offensive line was fighting. We dropped some balls today, which hurt us. I think Tanner would tell you he didn't play his best game, and the guys around him played hard, but we just didn't support him enough."
Wake Forest Players
Redshirt Junior Nose Guard Nikita Whitlock
On Wake Forest's play:
"The defense played our hearts out. One play can get you and it did. That one play toward the end;
Stefon Diggs did a great job. Big plays will get you. It is as simple as that. Taking the lead from us then really killed us."
On Maryland's play:
"We tried to slow down the run, but every now and then they popped a few passes on us. It happens. We also don't have five starters here, then we had another player go down at halftime, so six or seven starters, not just players, weren't in the game. That really hurt us. We tried to bounce back and get the `W' but it was hard to overcome so much."
On the suspended players:
"Everyone makes mistakes. You can't hold it against them. Hopefully they learn from it and hopefully they don't let us down again."
Senior Fullback Tommy Bohanon
On facing adversity:
"It's tough. We're definitely feeling this loss. We're down right now. We're going to pick it up though since we have a bye week coming up. We have time to work on our mistakes and hopefully get a few key guys back. Hopefully then we will be able to do the things we need to do to get some more wins.
On the suspended players:
"They obviously made some mistakes and they're paying for those mistakes right now. I think once we get those guys back, we'll be able to go full steam ahead."
Redshirt Senior Inside Linebacker Riley Haynes
On Stefon Diggs' play:
"He made an electric play and you have to give credit to him. He made the play and we didn't."
On where the team goes from here:
"It's always tough when you lose a close one, but everyone on that team gave it everything they had, so you can't ask for much more. We'll bounce back with the bye week and getting some guys healthy, so we can try to get a win next week."
On the suspended players:
"They made some poor decisions and we need them back as fast as possible. We played with who we had and we gave it everything we had, but we just came up a little short. I give Maryland credit for pulling out the win."
