2014 Military Bowl: Cincinnati postgame quotes

Cincinnati Head Coach Tommy Tuberville Post-game Quotes

Opening Statement:

“First of all, we are happy to be here, it has been a great week and the Military Bowl people have done an excellent job. Our players have had an outstanding time and it was all for a great cause. It has been great for our coaches and players to be around our seniors for one last time as they go their separate ways.”

“As for the game, we were beat by a better football team. We did not help ourselves with the turnovers that we gave up, too many mistakes and two crucial special teams mishaps. Overall, we were not disciplined enough to beat a team in a match like this. Hopefully our younger guys can look back and understand that you have to go out and represent the team and not yourself. We were beat up in the front. We had some good yardage on drives but we could not sustain drives and on the other side Virginia Tech did a good job in the second half with the rushing attack and that caught our defensive guys by surprise. They [Virginia Tech] did a great job scheming in the second half and I tip my cap to Shane Beamer and how he and the rest of the team represented Virginia Tech. It was fun to coach and play against some old friends. In the end, the best team won and we were not good today. I thought we had a chance heading into the fourth quarter but losing Gunner [Kiel], when he got shook up and made the choice not to put him back in, and had [Michael] Colosimo, who had just 2-3 game snaps in his career as a senior, was just a little less scared than I was when he entered the game. I however am proud of the way he went in and played well.”

Brewer’s potential fumble in the end zone and why no challenge:

“I hardly ever challenge because there are people in the box looking at each and every play closely. The play was on the opposite side of me and I did not see a replay, but you have to have full faith with the instant replay guy and the official. If they missed it then it would be a huge call, but I imagined they looked at the call hard. The officials did not beat us tonight, it had to do with us and several miscues that we had.”

How the dynamic changed when Gunner Kiel left the game:

“We have been through this situation four or five times now with Gunner going out at quarterback several times throughout the year and we would have Munchie [Legaux], however, Munchie hurt his knee in the last game and will need to have it repaired. We were very fortunate for Munchie to have come back from a very serious knee injury before to help us throughout the season. Had it not been for Munchie coming back this season and getting a part of our championship, we would not have been here today. I want to thank Munchie for everything because of all the pain he has gone through the season. I think he could have helped us today like he has done this season but we wanted him to be healthy for a long time and winning just one game is not that important.”

Thoughts on the season overall:

“We were a scrappy team after going 2-3 and played very well as a team and did not hurt ourselves over the last seven games. We however did not show up today and it looked like we came out a bit overconfident and thought there were things that we could handle that we did not. We did not handle adversity well and we did not handle our success very well. It was one of those days that we did not play well and Virginia Tech did by handling our miscues and putting us in bad situations.”

Why was Virginia Tech’s J.C. Coleman so effective today:

“They ran simple base running plays like we do and Coleman did a great job reading the defense and we did not pursue well as the play went on. Their blocking scheme in the second half helped them become more effective and we did not feel well with our secondary coming up slow to get to the run that helped them get huge yards.”

Colosimo coming in and ending his career:

“The way he finished the game will be a life memory for him, especially only taking 2-3 snaps in his career before that. We have maybe practiced with him for about 10 minutes each day for the last couple of weeks in case Gunner had gone down so he knew what he was doing. I thought he was scared to death but he competed well, especially that one pass that he threw for a touchdown that he could not have thrown any better. You can not ask a lot from a kid that had never played before like a nationally-televised bowl game but he a tough competitor and a senior. I was proud of him and it was a great effort from him.”