Rutgers Student-Athlete Quotes
Syracuse vs. Rutgers
October 1, 2011
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
Rutgers Head Coach Greg Schiano
On their comeback
“I’m proud of our players and coaches for continuing to stay calm and continuing to chop. Sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn’t, but if you don’t keep doing what we did today, it never goes your way. I’m really proud of the people in the program.”
On the effort shown by his team
“I told every coach in that locker room it was a very gutsy effort. We’ve all done better jobs coaching. We’ve all done better jobs playing. It wasn’t a very pretty game. We fought. Sometimes in life you keep fighting. You don’t worry. You don’t judge. You just keep fighting. It gives you a chance. That’s what we did today.”
On pulling Chas Dodd from the game
“I thought Chas (Dodd) was a little out of sync today. At twenty, we made a change. (Offensive coordinator) Frank (Cignetti) and I decided to give Gary (Nova) a chance. Chas didn’t look like himself.”
On the play of Gary Nova
“That game was so crazy. We had a few passes. We had some game management issues, including burning timeouts and having delay of games. You expect that, but don’t hope for it with a rookie quarterback. He obviously needs to work very hard on that if he wants to be in there. Right now, I’m just proud of all of our guys.”
On the resiliency both teams showed
“Our players played incredibly hard, so did theirs. I thought it was just a gut-filled game. They are tough kids and were very confident. They had won two overtime games. It’s a battle of wills.”
On Jamal Merrell’s blocked field goal
“It was great. He’s such a long guy, but when that happens, it’s never just one guy who does it. We had two defensive linemen help. The two defensive linemen did a great job penetrating, which caused some other people to cheat down to help. That helped Jamal (Merrell). He’s such a long, good athlete. He went up and got it. That’s great.”
On his defense’s performance
“I’ve never seen a performance like that by our defense. I’m sure when I turn the tape on, we’re going to have mistake after mistake, but if you think about all the short fields they were on, it was great. We intercepted three, got two fumbles and blocked two kicks. That’s an unbelievable day. With some of those short fields, the score could have got out of hand. It was a very, very gutsy performance by our kids.”
On why the interception for a touchdown in the fourth quarter got called back
“He said that Steve Beauharnais blocked in the back. I’m anxious to see it.”
On how Syracuse had many opportunities to win the game
“A few times it could have got out of hand. Again, I think our kids showed up. We’re beginning to grow up. We’ll see. We’re starting to show more maturity, which is good.”
On the mistakes his team made
“I’ll care tomorrow or tonight when I’m watching the tape, but right now I’m just really happy for those people in that locker room. They work so darn hard. Both teams deserve it because they work hard too. That’s sports. Those are my guys, so I’m happy for them.”
On getting their first BIG EAST victory since beating Connecticut last season
“It’s been a while. We did a couple things here for the first time. We’ll get that going. I can’t wait to get back to work. We have a great team in Pittsburgh coming in here. They showed that Thursday night. They are going to have a rest on us. For about three or four hours, I’m going to enjoy this one.”
On mistakes that Gary Nova made
“I don’t know. I have to see the tape. Made some plays and did some things that rookie quarterbacks do that you can’t do that you usually don’t overcome. We have some older guys around him that were responsible.”
On whether Chas Dodd or Gary Nova will start next week
“We have to look and see. I have to look at the tape and see exactly what problems we have. I’ll discuss it with Frank (Cignetti) and the staff. We’ll make decisions then.”
On the running game struggling
“You keep pounding. They give us problems. For whatever reason, with their blitzing schemes since Scott Shafer has been there, we have not been real good against their defense. We need to do a better job in the off-season studying them and find a way. That’s if we play them. I don’t even know what the heck the deal is.”
On Mark Harrison’s long catch
“It’s good. It’s not by design. The plays play out the way they do. It’s good to get some guys going. I was really happy for Mark (Harrison) making that big catch. It was nice to get him back on there. To make that catch after the drop last week is a big play for him. Hopefully we can get him cooking because he’s a big time player.”
On Edmond Laryea’s forced fumble to win the game
“That’s what I love. It’s a sixth-year guy who cares so much about his teammates that he comes back knowing he is probably not going to be the starter. That unselfishness is what I love about our program. It is a family. Certain guys don’t always get exactly what they want, but the players mean that much to them. That was awesome.”
On Khaseem Greene’s injury
“He cramped up. He left it all out there on the field.”
On David Rowe’s interception in the end zone
“It was a short field. It was a great play by the corner (Marcus) Cooper playing press coverage. He was the one that deflected it. I’m really proud of our corners because no one was harder on them than me the last week. I’m really proud of the plays they made at the corner position. They played three-step slants as well I’ve seen in a long time.
“Three-step slants are tough to play. In the west-coast offense, they say when you’re playing against press coverage, a three-step slant should be a catch or a DPI (defensive pass-interference) every time. On the other side, that’s pressing them, they have to either knock it down or intercept it. The one time Coop deflected it, David was in the right place at the right time.”
On Syracuse’s attempts to limit Mohamed Sanu
“Again, I think Scott (Shafer) does a great job. They had under-over coverage on him often. Once in a while, they gave him single coverage and our quarterbacks got him the ball. We did a good job moving him around, trying to get him open. That will be par for the course now.”
Syracuse Football
Syracuse vs. Rutgers
October 1, 2011
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
Rutgers Student-Athlete Quotes
Senior DB David Rowe
On the overall effort of the defense:
“It was an incredible effort and a lot of times we were in bad field position. All I can remember is Justin Francis (senior defensive lineman) saying ‘Let’s get the ball back’ and we did that multiple times.”
On the effort of special teams:
“The PAT field goal block, I’ve never seen anything like that, such incredible effort. We just kept going hard and I thought we had a good day.”
On what kept them fighting:
“It’s been what it always was…keep chopping and doing your job. That’s what they (coaches) said and that’s what we did.”
Junior WR Mohamed Sanu
On his overall thoughts of the game:
“I was just trying to stay calm with a calm mind, play with poise and just do what I was cached to do.”
On the Rutgers’ defense being “back and forth”:
“We have total confidence in our defense that they will be able to make the play and we were just trying to stay in the moment, not get ahead of ourselves and do what we were coached to do.”
On what he said to sophomore linebacker Jamal Merrell:
“I just told him he was doing what he was trained to do, going hard every play and that’s what we needed.”
On the offense:
“We performed pretty well; we weren’t able to hit plays that we needed to. We’re going to go back, look at the film, and work on it.”
Junior DTScott Vallone:
On his thoughts of the game:
“I’m so happy to be able to come down from behind in the fourth quarter, defensively being able to stop them with so many short fields, playing great team defense and the offense played hard when it counts and we came out with the win.”
On the defense making key plays:
“We have to make those plays to give ourselves a chance to win the game. When our number was called we had to be able to step it up.”
October 1, 2011
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
Rutgers Head Coach Greg Schiano
On their comeback
“I’m proud of our players and coaches for continuing to stay calm and continuing to chop. Sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn’t, but if you don’t keep doing what we did today, it never goes your way. I’m really proud of the people in the program.”
On the effort shown by his team
“I told every coach in that locker room it was a very gutsy effort. We’ve all done better jobs coaching. We’ve all done better jobs playing. It wasn’t a very pretty game. We fought. Sometimes in life you keep fighting. You don’t worry. You don’t judge. You just keep fighting. It gives you a chance. That’s what we did today.”
On pulling Chas Dodd from the game
“I thought Chas (Dodd) was a little out of sync today. At twenty, we made a change. (Offensive coordinator) Frank (Cignetti) and I decided to give Gary (Nova) a chance. Chas didn’t look like himself.”
On the play of Gary Nova
“That game was so crazy. We had a few passes. We had some game management issues, including burning timeouts and having delay of games. You expect that, but don’t hope for it with a rookie quarterback. He obviously needs to work very hard on that if he wants to be in there. Right now, I’m just proud of all of our guys.”
On the resiliency both teams showed
“Our players played incredibly hard, so did theirs. I thought it was just a gut-filled game. They are tough kids and were very confident. They had won two overtime games. It’s a battle of wills.”
On Jamal Merrell’s blocked field goal
“It was great. He’s such a long guy, but when that happens, it’s never just one guy who does it. We had two defensive linemen help. The two defensive linemen did a great job penetrating, which caused some other people to cheat down to help. That helped Jamal (Merrell). He’s such a long, good athlete. He went up and got it. That’s great.”
On his defense’s performance
“I’ve never seen a performance like that by our defense. I’m sure when I turn the tape on, we’re going to have mistake after mistake, but if you think about all the short fields they were on, it was great. We intercepted three, got two fumbles and blocked two kicks. That’s an unbelievable day. With some of those short fields, the score could have got out of hand. It was a very, very gutsy performance by our kids.”
On why the interception for a touchdown in the fourth quarter got called back
“He said that Steve Beauharnais blocked in the back. I’m anxious to see it.”
On how Syracuse had many opportunities to win the game
“A few times it could have got out of hand. Again, I think our kids showed up. We’re beginning to grow up. We’ll see. We’re starting to show more maturity, which is good.”
On the mistakes his team made
“I’ll care tomorrow or tonight when I’m watching the tape, but right now I’m just really happy for those people in that locker room. They work so darn hard. Both teams deserve it because they work hard too. That’s sports. Those are my guys, so I’m happy for them.”
On getting their first BIG EAST victory since beating Connecticut last season
“It’s been a while. We did a couple things here for the first time. We’ll get that going. I can’t wait to get back to work. We have a great team in Pittsburgh coming in here. They showed that Thursday night. They are going to have a rest on us. For about three or four hours, I’m going to enjoy this one.”
On mistakes that Gary Nova made
“I don’t know. I have to see the tape. Made some plays and did some things that rookie quarterbacks do that you can’t do that you usually don’t overcome. We have some older guys around him that were responsible.”
On whether Chas Dodd or Gary Nova will start next week
“We have to look and see. I have to look at the tape and see exactly what problems we have. I’ll discuss it with Frank (Cignetti) and the staff. We’ll make decisions then.”
On the running game struggling
“You keep pounding. They give us problems. For whatever reason, with their blitzing schemes since Scott Shafer has been there, we have not been real good against their defense. We need to do a better job in the off-season studying them and find a way. That’s if we play them. I don’t even know what the heck the deal is.”
On Mark Harrison’s long catch
“It’s good. It’s not by design. The plays play out the way they do. It’s good to get some guys going. I was really happy for Mark (Harrison) making that big catch. It was nice to get him back on there. To make that catch after the drop last week is a big play for him. Hopefully we can get him cooking because he’s a big time player.”
On Edmond Laryea’s forced fumble to win the game
“That’s what I love. It’s a sixth-year guy who cares so much about his teammates that he comes back knowing he is probably not going to be the starter. That unselfishness is what I love about our program. It is a family. Certain guys don’t always get exactly what they want, but the players mean that much to them. That was awesome.”
On Khaseem Greene’s injury
“He cramped up. He left it all out there on the field.”
On David Rowe’s interception in the end zone
“It was a short field. It was a great play by the corner (Marcus) Cooper playing press coverage. He was the one that deflected it. I’m really proud of our corners because no one was harder on them than me the last week. I’m really proud of the plays they made at the corner position. They played three-step slants as well I’ve seen in a long time.
“Three-step slants are tough to play. In the west-coast offense, they say when you’re playing against press coverage, a three-step slant should be a catch or a DPI (defensive pass-interference) every time. On the other side, that’s pressing them, they have to either knock it down or intercept it. The one time Coop deflected it, David was in the right place at the right time.”
On Syracuse’s attempts to limit Mohamed Sanu
“Again, I think Scott (Shafer) does a great job. They had under-over coverage on him often. Once in a while, they gave him single coverage and our quarterbacks got him the ball. We did a good job moving him around, trying to get him open. That will be par for the course now.”
Syracuse Football
Syracuse vs. Rutgers
October 1, 2011
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
Rutgers Student-Athlete Quotes
Senior DB David Rowe
On the overall effort of the defense:
“It was an incredible effort and a lot of times we were in bad field position. All I can remember is Justin Francis (senior defensive lineman) saying ‘Let’s get the ball back’ and we did that multiple times.”
On the effort of special teams:
“The PAT field goal block, I’ve never seen anything like that, such incredible effort. We just kept going hard and I thought we had a good day.”
On what kept them fighting:
“It’s been what it always was…keep chopping and doing your job. That’s what they (coaches) said and that’s what we did.”
Junior WR Mohamed Sanu
On his overall thoughts of the game:
“I was just trying to stay calm with a calm mind, play with poise and just do what I was cached to do.”
On the Rutgers’ defense being “back and forth”:
“We have total confidence in our defense that they will be able to make the play and we were just trying to stay in the moment, not get ahead of ourselves and do what we were coached to do.”
On what he said to sophomore linebacker Jamal Merrell:
“I just told him he was doing what he was trained to do, going hard every play and that’s what we needed.”
On the offense:
“We performed pretty well; we weren’t able to hit plays that we needed to. We’re going to go back, look at the film, and work on it.”
Junior DTScott Vallone:
On his thoughts of the game:
“I’m so happy to be able to come down from behind in the fourth quarter, defensively being able to stop them with so many short fields, playing great team defense and the offense played hard when it counts and we came out with the win.”
On the defense making key plays:
“We have to make those plays to give ourselves a chance to win the game. When our number was called we had to be able to step it up.”
