Post-Game Quotes vs. Troy, Sept. 27, 2014
ULM Head Coach Todd Berry
Opening Statement…
“Obviously, we're very excited about the win. We felt good going in despite all the pundits that this was going to be a very hard fought game. I have no doubt our players felt it too. All you had to do was turn on the video and see how much talent there was on the other side of the football. Congratulations on Troy for a really hard fought game. I really think they have a good football team, and moving down the road, if they play like they did, they are going to do well. If they don't make so many mistakes, I think that is what hurt them in other games. I think they'll find themselves in the win ledger.
There are some things that we definitely need to clean up, which is like every football team in the country right now. I'll take these kinds of wins much more than I will a clean game right now. There's something that rallies a football team early in the season. It's that willingness to find a way to win, and I'd rather have hat over a clean win. Clean wins are better, and I hope we'll get to that point later in the season. For us right now to gel, these are important moments. We still have things we need to clean up, but they find ways to win. For us to be 3-1 for the first since 1993, those are good things.
We are looking forward to next week. We're anxious to get practicing again. I'm very proud of the defense coming up with stops when they needed. We also need to get better on defense. We had some balls that went over the top of our heads. I think we really came back on both sides of the football. The third-down conversion rate coming out of the first half was really telling. We kind of reversed that, and it was something we talked about at the half.
Field position was obviously very critical. Even though we weren't necessarily moving the ball, playing the field position game with them was very significant because of their ability to be able to turn it loose. As long as you hemmed back, it was hard for them to cut it lose until they had a better zone. It took some plays off of them that were plays that they could have thrown the football, but obviously chose not to because of the field position.
We've got some things we have to clean up, but this group will come back to work. This team will continue to grow and learn. We had some defensive backs go down in the game against a team that can go throw a football. I thought while we gave up some plays, we made some plays too. I was glad to see those young guys step up. They had their moments. It gives them some good playing time.”
On offensive struggles...
“I was really disappointed that we couldn't run the football better. I really was. I thought going into this game with Troy's scheme we'd do better. We were getting a lot of five-man box, and you've got five linemen. We could not run the football, and that was disappointing. A lot of our game plan was based off the play action. We did through the football pretty well off play action. We had some big plays off of it. They were trying to buy a safety down and back down in the box late, but we couldn't pop off some five and seven-yard runs. It's totally disappointing.
I kept thinking we would find a way to run the football. Obviously, that didn't happen. In the fourth quarter, we decided we'd give up on it.”
Pete Thomas, QB
On tonight's game winning…
“I think it says a lot about our offense and our team. I think there were a lot of plays out there that I personally didn't make. I think that it says a lot about our team that we can put a drive together like that. You really have to give a lot of credit to Troy. We just out on them pretty well, and they fought back to make it a game. Going forward as 3-1 and the way we won all three games, will help us down the road.”
On frustration of offensive sputtering…
“To be complete honest, I felt it was what I personally wasn't doing. I felt like we did pretty well on offense. We all made plays, but I need to make a lot more plays. I think there were a lot of plays out there that I didn't make. It wasn't necessarily what the defense was doing. As Coach Berry said, Troy didn't really change their defense. Give them credit, obviously. I think it was mainly me not making plays coming down to it.”
Troy Head Coach Larry Blakeney
Opening Statement…
“I knew it was going to be a tough game. I thought we could've won it but ULM certainly could to and they did a good job. There a well-coached bunch of guys. If they (media) really ranked them by who gets the most out of there program, kids and coaches, Todd Berry would be the guy that is ranked near the top. They did everything they had to do to win and we fell short a little bit. Hopefully we could build upon our loss and sometimes you have to do that when you haven't won.”
On the defensive performance…
“I was really proud of that (settling down after giving up 13 points early). It looked like we found a couple of things, a couple of defensive calls to match there formation. Our kids played hard and they tried hard. They were able to make some plays on the ball and tackle guys in the open space. I think there was a lot of improvement on that and we certainly were tested because they scattered us everywhere.”
On the offensive not getting much going…
“You got to be able to get it out of there (inside the 10-yard line), whether its run, pass or trick them. The best way to get it out is to knock them off the ball, getting two, three or four yards per carry. That's something we struggled with mightily, and everyone knows we need to work on. But there's a lot of things we do that opens other avenues up for us and gave us a chance to win tonight.”
