Head Coach Doug Marrone Press Conference Transcript
Syracuse vs. Pittsburgh
October 16, 2010
Opening Statement:
“Obviously we’re disappointed with the outcome. Sometimes you can look at a game and say, ‘If we would have done this, it would have been different.’ I give credit to Pitt, they beat us on offense, they beat us on defense and they beat us on special teams. We had a good week of practice, we came out here, we didn’t make plays, we didn’t perform. I’ve said it from the beginning, we’re going to have to fight and scratch each week and that’s what we were counting on doing. What I feel bad about is for the people who came out to watch the game. Their expectations were high, and so were ours. My expectations were high for these players to get over this hump, (which was) playing in front of these fans and bringing them back. We’ll get back to the drawing board, start from the beginning, start working our way back up and go on the road and get some wins under our belt and come back home to treat the people of Central New York and Syracuse fans to better quality football than what they saw today.”
On what went wrong in the game (or do you you have to look at the film?):
“I don’t have to look at it (the film). If you have to ask me about an individual thing, maybe, but it was right from the beginning with the first play, a bubble (screen pass), there they go, 79 yards. I thought we did a nice job responding and coming back and all of a sudden it was a wheel route. And then we were short on a route, they make a good play on third down, or we don’t separate enough, however you look at it, so we can’t get in a rhythm offensively. They beat us on the post. We don’t make a play on offense. Special teams, we have a guy stopped, he turns the other way and runs it down the field. I think it’s hard to point to one thing but it’s something I have to take a good look at to make sure how we can be better focused on what we have to get accomplished out there. I don’t think we have too much in. I don’t think we’re doing anything different. We just have to learn to do it better and do it with a greater sense of urgency and focus at times.”
On if he was surprised with the outcome:
“I think anytime you lose, you’re surprised, that is myself, personally, I don’t know if I can say that about anyone else. I know when I go out there and I lose a game, I’m shocked. That’s not what we had planned. I think people use that phrase a little bit. We knew that Pitt was a good football team coming in. We knew that they had good players. We understood that and we wanted to go out there and win a game. So anytime you lose a game, I think you should be shocked a little bit because the goal is to go in and win.”
On what he wants to say to the fans that came to the game:
“I think I said it in my opening statement. It’s something that I am aware of. If you want me to apologize, I apologize, I do and I mean that. I’ve been a part of a lot of great things, as well as a lot of guys on our coaching staff. I was a part of a lot of great things when I was a player (here). I know that hasn’t happened in a while, it hasn’t happened to our players. I said it before, and I’ll say it again, I feel badly about that, I do, I really do. It’s going to happen, I promise you that. It will happen. I can’t predict when it will. Obviously, I wanted it to happen today. But it’s not going to be for a lack of effort on my part, the coaches or the players.”
On if he expected Pittsburgh to pass as much in the first half:
“No. Not to say we weren’t prepared for it. Honestly, no, I thought they did a nice job. They went to max protect and they were going deep, obviously, and we fell short on a couple of them. The reason I say I was surprised is because 53 percent of their rushing yards occurred on first down.”
On if he was pleased with how QB Ryan Nassib played:
“I don’t know how you watch or grade quarterbacks, and I’m not going to critique anyone out here on how they do that, but I look at statistics, obviously things like passing percentage and completion percentage, but the other thing is how he handles the game and his game management. You mentioned last week, I thought his game management was excellent. This week, how do you criticize the quarterback when it’s the whole team? If the kid goes back there clean and throws an interception without anyone in his face, yes (it’s his fault), if it’s the wrong read. But hey, there are people back there, there’s always something, poor route, wrong route, people in his face, maybe it’s his footwork, maybe it’s something else. I know it sometimes goes with the territory of the position but I’m excited about Ryan Nassib being our quarterback. I think one day we’ll have a great appreciation when we look back at Ryan Nassib’s career.”
On why it was so difficult for them to sustain drives:
“It was they made a nice play or we didn’t separate, I’ll be honest with you. The one play where we were backed up on the 14 (yard line), that’s my fault. I started that series with a call that was my fault, totally, and it got us out of whack. And I told the players that as we went on. But, again, I think when we you see us cut short on some routes, focus and making plays. It wasn’t the scheme, they really didn’t change. We kept with the same game plan. We didn’t need to change the game plan because what they were doing. They were better than we were today at those things.”
On if he was pleased with the amount of effort:
“I’m going to look more carefully, like I do even after the wins, at the effort. Sometimes you get confused (with gauging effort) with winning and losing. Sometimes you win and think you have great effort, but you have to go back and look at it. We’ll look at that. But I told the players, I’m big on the little things, doing the little things better. When I say little things, it’s not only on the field, it’s off the field. I really believe that. If you see a piece of paper (on the floor) when you’re walking through the hallway and you don’t pick it up, what does that say about your character? I talk to the players about that all the time. We just have to tighten up the ship, get everybody focused on the task at hand and go back to work and work harder. And I think we’ve worked quite hard up to this point.”
On wide receiver Marcus Sales improvement through the season:
“I think Marcus has done a good job of battling his way up in there. I think I can sit here today and say that he’s our third receiver. He’s done a nice job. If he continues to get better during practice and get better during the week, the more he’ll play. And I can say that about just about every position on this football team. Marcus has fought hard.”
On not being able to convert third downs:
“We were 4-of-13, you talk about every possession, we did convert a couple. We didn’t convert enough, I’m not saying that. I thought when it was 28-7 at the half, and I knew in my mind we were going to kick the ball off to them, my thought process was, let’s get a three-and-out, force something to happen, let’s go score, let’s make this a two-score game. And then we threw the pick and they ended up with 35 (points). That’s tough because then your mindset starts to change to, ‘Let’s get this possession back, let’s score.’ And then, depending on when you get it back, when do we go to two-minute (drill), because you can’t score fast enough. That was tough. At halftime, and it was three scores, it was a tough situation but you can do it. But when you get to four scores, it’s extremely tough. That was what was going through my mind , ‘We’re behind by this, how do we win, how do we paint that picture for the players?’ I try to come over to the sideline and paint that picture for them, it just didn’t work out.”
On if the expectations of the fans and team were too high coming out of last week:
“What’s wrong with that? What’s wrong with someone thinking we’re a good football team? What’s wrong with thinking that you’re better than you are? There’s nothing wrong with that, in my opinion. I don’t see it that way. I know you always have to work hard. I’m not critical of that, that’s not a problem, that’s a good thing. You want high expectations. I want my players to think that they’re better than they are. It creates higher expectations and you work for it. I know I want that, even with my own children.”
On if he has the same goals as he did at the start of the season:
“Absolutely. It feels, for the moment, that the sky is falling down and everything is bad. But that’s why you have to keep an even keel. There’s a lot going on on this football team, there’s a lot of good things going on. Today, there weren’t a lot of good things that went on on the field but we have a lot of football left. Some things today, believe it or not, at the end of the day, you’ll say, ‘That was a good job by some of these kids.’ They came with some all-out pressure, we hit some slants, we had some tackle-for-losses, and we gave up some. We had them back there, we wound up letting them out of our grasp. You’ll find something to build on and go forward. We have a lot of football left and we’ll be excited and it’ll be my job to get them ready to play next week and get them coming back. It looks like we’ll be healthy again, and that’s a good sign. We’ll come back, put our nose to the grindstone and go. We’re 4-2. That’s what we are and it’s the halfway point.”
