Syracuse Student-Athlete Quotes Vs. Toledo
Syracuse vs. Toledo
September 24, 2011
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
Syracuse Student-Athlete Quotes
Sophomore Kicker Ross Krautman
On kicking four field goals and the game winner:
“It is definitely awesome. Definitely good to get a good amount of chances in (a game). It was a close game all along, so every kick is a big kick. I have to give credit to the team--offense and defense.”
On the extra point which was eventually reviewed and the call upheld:
“It definitely went through. I was nervous though when they reviewed it. I knew it just sneaked through, but when they said they were reviewing it I was a little nervous.”
On having one extra point hit the upright and bounce in:
“I just have to forget about every kick. Whether you miss it or you make it, I have to go on to the next kick. Every kick is a new kick and when you start thinking about the ones before, you’re going to miss them in the long run”
On if he was nervous about attempting the game winner:
“It is the same routine. Every kick is a new kick. I had all my trust in the line, the snapper, and the holder. I know that they are always going to do good. The thing is to just always focus, stay in the zone, and just move on from the last kick.”
Senior Tight End Nick Provo
On his catch late in the fourth quarter:
“I was just trying to make a play. Just trying to get us close to the end zone, so we could score and put the game away.”
On his touchdown catch in the second quarter:
“That play was not even meant for me. I was just meant to kind of be a decoy. I set a block and the safety ran over to the other side of the field so I was wide open.”
On keeping the run blocking simple:
“Absolutely. We practiced all week on the same running plays so we could perfect them.”
On having a presence in the passing game:
“It was just playing football, running routes, and getting open. Some plays, like I said, weren’t really meant for me but in the end it worked out and we got a touchdown.”
On having the endurance to win overtime games:
“They try to keep us in shape. Every day we are running 120’s and all that, just in case. That way we are in shape and we can put it away in the end.”
On pulling out a tight win:
“We like to put the game away earlier, score a lot of points. Sometimes it does not happen. But that is the way it went”
Graduate Student Cornerback Kevyn Scott
On the defensive scheme which resulted in an interception in overtime:
“As a cornerback I was not seeing much action for passes the whole game. I was hoping he would throw that ball. I was in coverage and turned around to look for the ball. I saw it was coming and it was like a baby seeing candy. When I saw the ball coming to me, I was ready for it.”
On covering Toledo’s Eric Page:
“It is tough. He is a good ball player. He presents a tough matchup for us. Just as USC did with Robert Woods, they kind of put him in different positions to get him the ball. They offensively schemed around him. So it is tough, but at the end of the day we did a pretty good job.”
On overcoming the adversity the secondary has faced:
“It feels great because a lot of people talk about how we have a lot of young guys. When you fight through a game like that for four quarters. When we have injuries and guys coming out, second-string guys like Jeremi Wilkes stepping up for Shamarko Thomas. It means a lot. It shows a lot about the future and it shows a lot about the current state of the team. Those guys are heck of ball players.”
On guarding against the bubble screens and bubble and go’s:
“When you study film during the week, you kind of know where they are going to go. That was not a formation that showed the tendencies of their bubble. They had the tight end as a number two, so I stayed in man and press coverage. Some plays you can jump and some you cannot. That play you could see that something different was going on.”
Senior Wide Receiver Dorian Graham
On the outcome of the game:
“It was almost too exciting. I don’t like it to be that close, but I am glad we came out with the win.”
On his play during the game and special teams with freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Kobena:
“We were setting it up to do something different, but when the opposing team decides to do something different, we have to think on our feet and just try to make the best play possible. And that is exactly what we did out there, we just adjusted and tried to make something happen.”
On what he is most proud of in terms of team goals:
“Definitely being 3-1, everyone likes to be in the win column. We keep fighting every time we’re down and I am proud of the team because they can fight and come back and get the W. We have this motto on the team, the “Horse Secretariat” and he took the crown by every race getting faster and faster, so we like to finish harder than we started.”
Junior Defensive End Brandon Sharpe
On being 3-1:
“It feels so good to be 3-1. We had to bounce back from that loss last week, and I feel like we did a good job today.”
On controlling the Toledo offense:
“They gave us formations that we’ve never seen before, but our coaches do a good job of getting us ready to see formations we were not used to seeing, and at the end we came through.”
Senior FB Adam Harris
On Ryan Nassib in the clutch:
“Ryan is a really intelligent kid, he’s always up on our playbook and I trust him 100 percent. I don’t think I would want to have anyone else out there.”
On how Toledo played:
“They are a real good bunch of guys and we knew that coming in. They have a lot of juniors and seniors so when you have an experienced bunch like that you know it will be a challenge.”
On the defensive effort of Syracuse:
“Coach Shafer does a great job with them every week and they’re just a real passionate group of guys who love what they do.”
Senior RB Antwon Bailey
On importance of Prince-Tyson Gulley in the lineup:
“He is very important. Coming from these past three games that we’ve played, I’ve pretty much taken the load. So having Prince-Tyson [Gulley] come in there and take a few snaps, he was running well. He wasn’t just in there taking up space. But it gave me a chance to rest, gave me a chance to talk things over with Coach Wheatley and see things from the sidelines, see what the defense was doing.”
On successful running game today and closeness of games this season and how that affects team mentality:
“First of all, we put a big emphasis this week on running the football because at the end of the day that’s who we are as a program,. We’re a smash mouth team. There was a big emphasis on that and we came out and we were productive in that. But the close games in the Carrier Dome are amazing. We came out and we are undefeated at home. It’s a big thing for us, that was one of our goals coming into the season was to have a winning record at home. So we’re on a great track.”
On difference between the running game today and last week against USC:
“I think our whole mentality. Like I said all week, the emphasis was ‘We are going to run the ball on this team. No matter what look they give us, no matter how many are in the box, we’re going to run it.’”
On the offensive line’s improvement:
“They are confident. They have a much greater confidence every week. Each week as we progress, their confidence is growing. We’ve got four guys that have been playing together for over a year and then we have Macky [MacPherson]. Macky’s just getting better every week. Everything is just growing.”
Sophomore RB Prince-Tyson Gulley
On his success against the Toledo defense:
“It wasn’t really what I saw, but it was pretty much my [offensive] line. They were just blocking and opening holes and after the game I just thanked them for opening those holes and I just ran.”
On how his first big run down the sideline affected his play:
“It feels really good. You’ve seen that I haven’t been in a lot so just to get that was pretty big, especially in the Carrier Dome.”
On whether he is a spark for the team morale:
“I could pretty much say that. I’d like to take that role if it’s not already seen but I think that is part of my role.”
On how he continued to push through and never stay down:
“Right now, I’m really hungry. I want to play, so every chance I get, I’ve just got to make something happen so that’s exactly what I was trying to do.”
On his larger role in the run game today:
“I was pretty surprised, but I’ve just always got to be ready. That’s the mentality that I have, that’s what they’re telling me so that’s what I need to do.”
On the offensive line:
“Like [Antwon Bailey] said, they’re getting more confident. I see that as well in practice and in the game. I just feed off of them and just continue it.”
Sophomore LB Marquis Spruill
On the injuries affecting the young defense:
“It’s been pretty difficult because you have to have guys that can practice and be able to run and do everything you can to teach some things. So if they miss a practice it’s going to be pretty hard to catch them up, especially on that day where we are putting in the game plan, implementing some stuff.”
On how far the defense has come since the start of the season:
“We’re still learning, we still have things that we have to get better at and mistakes that we need to stop making.”
On whether first drive from Toledo offense caused fatigue from defense late in the game:
“No, I don’t think so. We are a very well-conditioned team and we have a big emphasis on running and staying in shape. It didn’t bother us.”
On how his injury and sitting out the first drive affected his play in the game:
“It was really hard because I am used to going out there with my boys, but I had to sit back this one for a little bit. It didn’t really affect my play though because at the end of the day, when he puts you in there, you’ve still got to go in and make plays and that’s what I did.”
On his role in the pass defense today:
“I had some knowledge, we had a lot of film study and we’d seen all their routes. We made adjustments to them, made game plans for them, so I was kind of ready for it.”
On whether overtime is starting to feel normal:
“I don’t like overtime, it gets me really nervous. I still get butterflies being close like that, because that was a close game. That was a very good game, so I still get kind of nervous.”
On defensive growth today:
“Just today, we grew a lot. There are still mistakes that we made, still ones that we’ll have to take from the sidelines and then practice them and film study. Every game we gradually get better as a defense and as a team.”
On comparing defenses from this year and last year:
“At this point in the season, I feel like the team that we have this year is better than the team from last year. Last year we had Doug [Hogue] and Derrell [Smith] and they were great, they were great leaders with the rest of the defense. But this year, everybody’s hungry. They’re young, they want to play, they want to get in and make plays and be known, so it’s a really good feeling.”
On whether the team took to mind that Head Coach Marrone said Toledo played tougher:
“Yes, we definitely did. We feel that with teams that we’ve faced, since camp, since before camp, we feel that no team can out toughen us. He challenged us and we accepted it.”
Senior QB Ryan Nassib
On whether the offensive game was more hurried today:
“Yeah, it was more of adjustment. They were playing a specific defense to our empty formation and we just made an adjustment on some plays and I just knew I had a few guys coming free and I just had to get it out.”
On first offensive drive and how the offense responded:
“The problem with that snap was that I was in the middle of checking the play. I guess Macky [MacPherson] had a tough time hearing me and I was in the middle of an audible and he must have thought I said ‘set, hut’ because he can’t see me back there. I guess I just have to do a better job of communicating back there, especially when the crowd is really loud. And, we knew that before that play even happened that we could move the ball on these guys. We knew we had to come back from that turnover because we were down 10-0 at that time and we had no other choice than to drive down and score.”
On what he saw on the last touchdown:
“Yeah, it was an audible. It was an empty pass play, same old same, but they went to an all-out blitz where they bring everybody and just play man-to-man across the board. I saw a matchup with Alec [Lemon] on a safety and I thought we’d just change his rout up a little bit, make it something quick so I could get the ball out quick because I knew we didn’t have enough guys to block all the guys they were sending.”
On whether there is a gamble with that audible:
“It’s something that we talk about on the sidelines, that if we came back to our empty formations that might be an audible that we look to. It’s not a very high completion play but to be honest with you, I really wouldn’t have done it with just anybody. Alec [Lemon], we hit that a couple of times last year, hit it in camp, Alec [Lemon] has a great feel for that. So I knew that when I saw him in the slot I had a chance with him.”
On Jarrod West’s impact on offense today:
“That was big. We knew Jarrod [West] was going to play a big role for us this year. He was able to come up and make some big third down catches, and it’s been a long time waiting but we are really excited about it.”
On new faces stepping up to help on offense:
“Yeah, [Prince-Tyson Gulley] Tyson definitely ran the ball hard today and he’s definitely a speedy little guy so he was able to break some tackles and make some plays. That hidden yardage that we had from the running backs after their first contact was really what got our drives going.”
On whether he would rather pass the ball on big fourth down plays:
“At the end of the day, it’s really just I want to be the reason why we make the first down, or if we don’t. Same with Antwon [Bailey], I’m sure Antwon was bummed when he heard it was going to be a pass play because he wanted to get that first down. The guys that we have, once the pass play was called, I guarantee everybody on the field was saying, ‘Just throw it to me, let me make this play’. That’s just the type of guys we have.”
On how the running game affects the passing game:
“Our game plan going into this game was that we wanted to run the ball, we wanted to keep punching them in the mouth every play and just get the ball going with the run game. It takes a lot off me to know that we’ll get four or five yards a pop with our run game.”
On his confidence in Ross Krautman and what momentum the team has going into conference play:
“I am very confident in Ross Krautman. He’s been there before, he’s made big kicks before so really no worry there about that. We’ve got a lot to learn from today. We maybe didn’t win the game the way we wanted to, but at the end of the day, we won the game. We’ve still got a lot of stuff to take forward from this and now we’ve got our first BIG EAST opponent next weekend. We’ve got a lot of work to do to get ready for this game.”
On offensive line:
“The offensive line all year has been a solid group. The chemistry they have with each other, they really play well as a unit. From last year to this year, they’ve made improvements by leaps and bounds. I couldn’t be more proud of these guys and I trust these guys in front of me all day.”
Junior OT Justin Pugh
On getting the running game going:
“It feels good. You know, the first couple of weeks they were stacking the box so we knew we could run the ball it was just a matter of getting in a situation where we could go ahead and do it. And once we started, it just kind of worked for us and we kept going with it.”
On Prince-Tyson Gulley’s play:
“Both backs, Antwon and Tyson, give us great things out of the backfield. Really whoever is back there we know is going to do a good job and make good cuts and make us look good even though we’ll mess up sometimes. Tyson comes in and helps Antwon, spells him a little bit. It’s a good problem to have to have two good backs.”
Offensive Coordinator Nathaniel Hackett
On the running game:
“It was awesome. It’s just so great, as a coach, when you challenge the team, get them fired up for it and we come out and they run the ball. There’ s nothing more you can ask from those guys. We told them it wasn’t going to be big plays and we were just going to keep wearing them down, keep hitting them. It’s a great thing from a coach’s standpoint when you want that and they give it to you.”
On the feelings in the locker room after the big run game:
“It’s just one of those things when you keep pushing them, keep setting that goal for them and you show them how you want to attack it, it works. And they saw it and they kept attacking it. Tyson made some incredible runs and Antwon made some great runs and we needed something like that to happen. Those two guys, coming out there and helping each other, trying to spell each other, and that’s what they did.”
Junior FS Philip Thomas:
On making the defensive stop in overtime:
“It feels really good because we felt like we had a stop and coming down and making a big stop and giving the offense a chance feels really good. “
On covering Eric Page:
“It’s really hard. He’s good and Toledo, we don’t hold anything against them they are a good team, a very good team. We don’t look down at our opponent so it wasn’t easy.”
Sophomore WR Jarrod West:
On his first reception:
“It was really exciting. I was trying to get my first one out of the way and I finally got put in the right position where I was open and Nassib found me with a great ball.
On his third down conversions:
“I was just going through the coverage. I saw Cover-2 and the safeties bailed and they let me come right down the middle. So I was just being alert on that play.”
On Nassib getting the entire receiving core involved:
“We’re working every day on becoming the best wide receiving core in the nation. Coach Moore is a great coach and he’s giving us the tools to put ourselves in that position. And we’re using our tools to get open.”
