Post-Game Quotes at #10/9 LSU, Sept. 13, 2014
ULM Head Coach Todd Berry
Opening Statement…
“Obviously, I'm disappointed. I want to congratulate Coach Miles and LSU in relation to how they played, they played well. They played a much better game, obviously, then we did. The special teams, obviously, was a huge part of the ball game. We never could change the field position, and that put our offense in the hole too many times. We committed too many really, really silly penalties; mostly by younger players. That's something that we have to address because those are things we've tended not to do. Sometimes, young players have some out of body experiences. We either have got to learn, or they don't need to be playing.”
On the offense…
“Offensively, we were just bad. I've been doing this a long time, been around a lot of offensive football; that's about as bad as it gets. To LSU's credit, they're good, but we're – it was just bad. We just got our tails whipped on everything. We couldn't get open, we couldn't block anybody. There was nothing there. I've seen us separate from people, I've seen us block people before that were as good as what LSU has. We just didn't show up. Offensively, that was an embarrassment.”
On the defense…
“I was really proud of our defense. I thought they kept coming back. I thought they wore down over a period of time, to LSU's credit. Missed some tackles, but that's something we got to continue to work on, but most of those were when we were tired it was when we were a little bit tired.”
On positive takeaways…
“I think defensively we played with a lot of heart. I really felt good at halftime. I thought this is exactly where we want to be. To LSU's credit, they came down and scored, then came down and scored again. And then offensively, we just couldn't get anything going.”
ULM Quarterback Pete Thomas
On the offense …
“Obviously, we did not play well offensively from the very first drive – gotta give credit to them [LSU]. They played great, and we didn't execute the game plan.”
On the crowd noise....“We were right in front of their student section. We were trying to check a play. I was trying to tell all them the play, and they didn't get it. Some guys got it and some guys didn't. In the end, you got to give their defense and their crowd some credit. We didn't make enough plays on offense starting from the very first play of the game.”
On the game plan being conservative...
“They were a great defense and challenged us man-to-man. We knew they were going to do that. We just didn't make enough plays. It really comes down to the players making plays, and we didn't do that today. But like I said, they are a great defense. They challenged us, and we didn't get it done.”
On what gave ULM's offense trouble with getting settled...
“They got great athletes. We knew they were going to press us, challenge us on the outside and stack the box. That is what they did, and we didn't make enough plays. I really do think the O [offensive] line did their job in giving me time to throw. I didn't make enough plays, and we didn't make enough plays in the past game to give ourselves a chance.”
On the team's leadership and their goals going forward...
“We have real strong leadership on this team. This game, as disappointing as it is, doesn't affect our goals toward the end of the season. So, we have to come back into work starting tomorrow. I don't think this will hang over our heads. Obviously, we are very disappointed in the way we played offensively, but I think we will come out strong and accomplish other goals we want to this year.”
On Coach Berry's message at halftime…
“We were all very confident. The fact that we were only down 10-0, and offensively we didn't play great at all. Our defense was playing their butt off, and offensively we weren't playing enough. I think coming out first round of the first half, we had something going but then we had a penalty or bad throw or something … that kind of set us back. I thought we really needed to come out and at least get a field goal that first drive at second half, and we didn't do it. It really comes down to us not making enough plays offensively.”
ULM Defensive Lineman Gerrand Johnson
On how difficult it was playing against LSU's offensive line…
“Those guys are good athletes. They're in the SEC for a reason. When you come into the trenches, it's physical. They made their plays, and we made our plays. We threw haymakers, and they threw haymakers. You can't compare it to Wake Forest. It's tough - life in the trenches.”
On what happened in the second half…
“We're conditioned so much. It's not tiredness. It just came down to lack of execution and lack of communication. It's just a good football team. If you make a mistake, they're going to find it. They're a good team.”
On how tough it is to accept defeat…
“Thirty-one to nothing is never acceptable when you consider yourself a top-flight team. If we had won this game, it would have been no shock to us. It could have been Alabama. It could have been Florida. It could have been anybody in the nation. If we lose this game, we're pretty mad about it. We want to win every game. We never go into a game (thinking) that we're going to lose. We did have them right where we wanted them, and we let them get away. LSU's an awesome football team and they found it (ULM's mistakes). That's what a good football team is supposed to do.”
ULM Linebacker Ray Stovall
On tonight's loss…
“We played our hearts out, and the result wasn't the same [compared to previous games]. Everybody has a right to be mad. No one likes to lose.”
ULM Safety Mitch Lane
On the team's approach...
“We wanted to let them know we weren't afraid of them and really just take it to them.”
On tonight's defensive performance…
“Going into this game we knew that they had a lot of talented and big, strong [players], so we knew we had to gang tackle and get to the ball. We tackled as a unit. No one person made a solo tackle. That's the big influence we had on this game. ”
