2013 Military Bowl Postgame Quotes

2013 MILITARY BOWL
Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium  |  Annapolis, Md.
December 27, 2013

Marshall Postgame Quotes

Doc Holliday

Opening Statement…

“First off, I would like to say how proud I am of our football team, coaching staff both offensively and defensively. Our senior group is a special one, they played their best football this season and translated this seasons success into a bowl win. I am very proud of how they (seniors) played in all three phases and it is a great way to send the seniors out and the momentum into next season.”

On Gator’s outstanding performance…

“What Gator has been able to do all season is create a mismatch between him and a defender covering him. When he is out there being covered by a safety out in space or a linebacker creates a mismatch because of his athletic ability and his ball skills, which showed today and the reason why he has the most touchdowns in the nation by a tight end.”

On being able to stop Maryland’s offense…

“We knew we needed to stop (C.J.) Brown, he is a tremendous player and we knew that coming in. As far as moving the ball, he did that very well, especially against Virginia Tech and being able to beat teams with his feet. Going in we knew we needed to stop the run.

On punter Tyler Wiliams performance today…

“It was huge with special teams main purpose to create bad field position for the opposing team’s offense and creating great field position for us. He was able to do that for most of the day, having pinned Maryland back four times within their 10-yard line and the one time it went into the end zone we should have helped him out and knocked it in bounds. He was tremendous today and played a huge part in the field position for both offense and defense.”

On responding to Maryland’s 99-yard drive…

“Well these kids didn’t flinch. The one thing I like about this group is that it didn’t matter that they went down the field. The one thing that we talked about all week was to go out and play great and they did. They were not concerned about he scoreboard, they were not concerned about anything else except playing extremely hard. Being able to respond back from that drive was huge and get the turnovers at the end of the game was huge.”

Rakeem Cato

On keeping composure throughout the game….

“Stay patient on the sidelines, keep my teammates motivated and to be ready to get back on the field. I told the guys that when we get back on the field, following their drive, that we have to capitalize. I saw that they were able to keep us off the field from time to time, but in the end we just need to have the mindset to get on the field and score.”

On his performance against an ACC opponent on a national stage…

“I tell the guys all the time, big time players make big time plays in big time games. I just wanted to come out here and lay everything out on the line and bring my team to a victory.”

Gator Hoskins

On the 3rd-and-12 play…

“Right before we called the play, Cato looked at me and said,”You have to win it right here, I am coming to you.” We saw that they (Maryland) was trying to put the safety (#20 Anthony Nixon) on me. When the play happened, I saw that he was on the outside so I broke inside and Cato found me and I just made a good play.”

Maryland Postgame Quotes

Randy Edsall, Head Coach

“We were disappointed in the outcome today. Give credit to Marshall. Marshall is a very good team. I’m not going to take anything away from our guys on what we accomplished during the season.

“Today, we just weren’t able to get off the field on third down, defensively. Offensively, we had some opportunities to make some plays and we just didn’t make enough of them today. One of the differences was (Marshall’s) punter. Their punter did a tremendous job of giving us tough field position all day long, and we weren’t able to overcome that.”

“We knew we needed to score touchdowns because of the way that Marshall’s offense is. We weren’t able to finish some drives and had to kick the field goals. Our kids played hard, and I’m proud of what they accomplished this season.

On Marshall’s ability to make big plays on offense…

“Their tight end really hurt us. We just didn’t play that as well as we needed to. We had a chance on one drive to get them stopped on a third-and-12. We just had some breakdowns, and you can’t have those types of breakdowns against the kind of athletes that Marshall has.”

On establishing the running game in the first half…

“As we looked at things, we thought that we were able to run the football. We felt that, as fast as they were going, we wanted to control the clock. The problem we had was we got down into the red zone and ended up kicking some field goals rather than getting touchdowns.”

On trying to get pressure on Marshall quarterback Rakeem Cato…

“When we did get some pressure, we didn’t keep him in the pocket. We let him get to the edges. That was the one thing we wanted to try to do was make sure that, if he was going to scramble, he was going to scramble up the middle because he’d have a tendency to run and slide. We did get the pressure, but we didn’t get the sacks.”

C.J. Brown, Quarterback

On what Marshall did defensively…

“They gave us different looks like we thought they would. The biggest thing was we kept kicking ourselves in the foot. Hurting ourselves with penalties, a couple drops, a couple misreads. Little things that were not helping us on first and second downs, and creating unmanageable third downs. It wasn’t anything that they did that we hadn’t seen before.”

On playing with poor field position…

“It put us in a tough positon, but we practice that. When you have a 17-play drive for 99 yards and a touchdown, it swings the momentum. That was a big start for us. All in all, we played well on offense, but we just didn’t get the job done.”

On watching Marshall answer the 99-yard drive with their own scoring drive…

“They did a very good job of answering right away. That kind of sunk the ship right there. We have to get out there and answer. It’s a game of momentum, and we had it going in. It’s football – it’s going to happen. They did a nice job of answering.”

On the outlook of moving to the Big Ten next year…

“When it is all said and done, we had a great year. We had a winning season and were able to extend it to the postseason and go to a bowl game. We’ll be ready come next year. We’re use this to prepare for the future.”

On offensive adjustments at halftime…

“There were many adjustments because the only thing that kept hurting us in the first half was ourselves. Going into the half, we were moving the ball well but we were kicking field goals. If those drives had come out touchdowns, it would be 21-17. A whole different ball game. When you get down in the red zone, you want seven (points) and not three. That was the biggest thing that hurt us today.

Brandon Ross, Running Back

On trying to get the running game going…

“One of the big things coming into this game was establishing the run. We knew that, offensively, Marshall was going to come into the game throwing and moving the ball downfield. We wanted to try to keep our defense off the field for as long as we could. That was our goal.”

On not being able to answer Marshall’s touchdown early in the fourth quarter…

“It was tough. We knew that they had a good offense and they were going to be going up and down the field. Our goal was to keep trying to counter them as much as we could. Our defense has been great all year. We knew we were going to get the ball back and we’d have another opportunity.”

Andre Monroe, Defensive Tackle

On defending Marshall quarterback Rakeem Cato…

“He definitely was a good quarterback. He was very shifty. That was one of his biggest assets. There were quite a few times we would get him back (in the pocket) and he was able to wiggle or get the ball away just in time and do what they needed to do to get the ball down the field.”

On Marshall getting the big plays…

“It was very frustrating, but it’s nothing that we haven’t been through before. It’s going to happen. It’s a game. You just have to keep going, keep fighting, and don’t give up.”