Post-Game Quotes vs. Wake Forest, Aug. 28, 2014
ULM Head Coach Todd Berry:
Opening Statement…
“I thought our defense played superb. I have been excited about watching our defense play since the start of preseason camp. It's a group that has mature together. They know the defensive structure. We have good athletes out on the field. We took advantages of some opportunities today, obviously just not in the vertical field and down and distance. We went against a freshman quarterback. We had a lot of movement and got back to being really aggressive on defense. It was one of our better defensive efforts in a while. Offensively we really struggled, especially in the first half. Quite honestly, it was a little bit ugly.
We never could get into any kind of rhythm. We had multiple mental errors. It wasn't coming out of the older players, but coming from the newer players. That's what I talked about last week. You work, prepared, practice, but all of a sudden when the lights come on you never known when you have a younger player. He could be right out in practice every time, but when the lights come on, you get a different guy. Sometimes it's good. Sometimes it's bad. Most of it was bad today on offense. We had a lot of mental errors on offense. The same could be said about the blocked punt. We had a really bad mental error, and that created the block. Going into the game we talked about special teams, turnovers and penalties, we saw all that tonight.
We'll take the victory. It wasn't pretty, but I'll take it. I think we'll get better for it. I was proud at how the team responded in the second half, because there wasn't a lot of positive in the first other than the defense playing well. We cam back out in the second half. We take pride in our conditioning. We came into the fourth quarter and put on more steam. We were very resilient and determined at the point in time.”
On defensive performance…
“It was an outstanding performance. I can't say that I am totally surprised by it. I think we have a chance to be a pretty good defensive football team. We recruited well to it. Those kids have had a chance to grow up now. One game doesn't make a season obviously. We are pretty good at stopping the run because we are committed to stopping it. If you can make a team one dimensional, you have a better chance. I thought their freshman quarterback played very maturely in the game. He was under a lot of pressure, both emotionally and us running after him. I think Coach Clawson has to be very excited and pleased about the direction his young quarterback is going to go. He handled that really well. It's hard to run the football against us. When you put as many people in the box and blitz as many people as we do, it's hard to run the football. You've got to be willing to throw it. He did throw. We didn't tackle great. That's something you're always worried about in the first ball game. We weren't tackling as well as we were expecting.”
On coming back the second half…
“We knew we needed to respond. It's not about what the score says. It's on every play you measure yourself. At the very end of the game, you get a full measurement. It's living in the now moments. We basically talked about that during halftime. I really believed that we'd see a different team in the second half in the offensive and special teams. We got a few of those things going a little. To Wake Forest's credit, we knew they were going to be a better defensive team than our offensive group. That's where their strengths were. They made some changes. Our first half, some of the mistakes were due to them changing things against our younger players. Give credit to them. That's why first games are always so difficult. We'll get better than this. We'll take the victory and go from there.”
On Pete Thomas's maturation…
“There was a significant amount of pressure on him. Just because somebody comes form some place else, they become anointed. That's too bad. What happened sometimes is that further off they come, the better off they are. I don't understand that dynamic. He was walking into a place where a pretty prolific quarterback just left the program. I told him going in let's take care of the football, and every thrown doesn't have to be a completion or a bullet. Let's make some good decision. I thought he handle those things pretty well. There was some frustrating moments for him with the young receivers. We had the struggle when them getting lined up and going the right direction. I thought he handled the sideline well. There are certainly things he knows he needs to get better at. He is anxious to get better, and he will.”
ULM Senior LB Ray Stovall
On driving force behind the defense…
“In my mind, it was last season. We had a lot of let downs in 2013. We just had something to prove. Looking forward to the rest of the season, it's the same thing. We aren't where we want to be, but we are heading to the right direction.”
On quarterback pressure…
“Coach Reffett is a mastermind drawing up plays and schematics-wise. Last season, we didn't get as many sacks as we necessarily wanted. It was one of our lower seasons sack-wise. We worked on pass rush all camp. Whether it be pass rush or getting off blocks, I think we showed front six-wise what we are capable of and the progress made.”
On Mitch Lane's pick six…
“First off, I hope to wake up, eat my cereal in the morning and see it on SportCenter's Top 10. I don't see why it wouldn't make it. Football really comes down to two or three plays that's going to make or break the game. You just have to capitalize when they come to you. Mitch capitalized, and he scored.”
Wake Forest Head Coach Dave Clawson:
Opening Statement...
“I think our guys played hard. We didn't play very smart but obviously we got nothing going offensively. We didn't block, get open and had no explosive plays on offense other than the one third down.”
On failing to stop ULM during the final drive…
“That's too much to ask from the defense. They didn't play perfect but certainly well enough to keep us in the game. Offensively, we struggled to block and didn't really do anything well on that side of the ball today.”
On the defense…
“I have to watch the film but in the end we just got beat. They out clicked us and we didn't sustain blocks. They didn't upset us, they outplayed us. If we don't block the punt, it's not even a close game.”
On wearing down…
“We are extremely thin. Our defense was out there too much playing too many plays without much relief.”
On QB John Wofford's play…
“It's hard (too assess). He just got hit so much and didn't have time the whole night.”
