Nov. 4, 2006
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Game 9
ECU VS. UCF
FLORIDA CITRUS BOWL
NOV. 4, 2006
Post-Game Quotes
UCF
HEAD COACH George O'Leary
Opening Statement:
"We had our opportunities and we did not take care of them on offense. We have opportunities in the game to do some things and we did not accomplish them. I thought we made some better plays on defense, but that is why it is a team game. Offensively, we were not real sharp, like in the passing game or the run block. It is a tough loss, but I thought the kids played hard. You have to make plays when you have the opportunities."
On Rushing Defense:
"One of our biggest problems was not tackling. We had some plays to make at third and two's and we missed tackles. I think it was missed tackles that hurt us the most. I thought they made some plays when they had to make them like sacks, but we let too many plays go for first downs."
On the run game:
"With the wind today, we would have liked to run the ball. I thought we were not sustaining on the second level. We were getting to the first level and we did not come off and sustain anything in the second level. Offensively, I don't think it was a great day for the run. Obviously we have to be a lot sharper with the quarterback when throwing the ball and again, we had some balls we would have like to pull the string on and make plays but we did not. Defensively, I think we played better than we have played. There was too much first down yardage and then there were missed tackles on later downs. The big thing I saw was when the offense had the ball, we did not take advantage of some opportunities."
On Kyle Israel's performance:
"Kyle [Israel] had plenty of time to throw the ball. A couple times he sneaked out of the pocket and made some late decisions in trying to run the ball. He is young in some areas, but the big thing was he under-threw a lot of balls today. He was not stepping into the ball. For the most part, they did a good job in some coverages. We just have to throw the ball where they are not. We had some opportunities, but we just did not take advantage of them."
SENIOR WIDE RECEIVER Mike Walker
On offensive production:
"He told us to play hard, play for 60 minutes. Offensively, we could not move the ball. We could not get the ball running and that is one of the main things in our offense. East Carolina played a good game. We had all the opportunities in the world to win this game. We just could not get it done."
SOPHOMORE CORNERBACK Johnell Neal
On preparing for next week:
"We have to go in Monday ready to work hard and do what we have to do. It is a team game. Defense cannot go in feeling good because it's a team loss. We cannot go in pointing fingers. We just did what were supposed to do, nothing miraculous so we cannot go in and point fingers. We cannot give up."
On individual performance:
"I had a few key plays, but from a defensive coordinator standpoint I had a lot of mistakes. There are a lot of things we have to fix when we go in Monday. I am nowhere near where I want to be now. We just have to work hard."
On offense targeting him:
"When Travonti got his first pick, I knew they were going to come at me more. We knew his tendencies so we knew where the ball was going. Every play I expect the ball to come my way."
ECU
HEAD COACH SKIP HOLTZ
Opening Statement:
"In a football game, playing on the road you have to play great defense to win on the road. I thought the defense was awesome tonight. Right out of the chute, they jumped a curl route early and intercepted it. The defense starts with the back against the wall and holds them to a three and out. They miss the field goal. The only drive they really put together all night to get a touchdown out of was the series. They hit the wheel route up the sideline early, then the facemask penalty. Outside of that, I thought the defense played one great game tonight.
"There were a lot of good things from an offensive standpoint, we were able to start running the ball a little bit more and I thought that Brandon Fractious really showed up. I thought he ran his tail off. There were some frustrating things too. We took about three or four sacks that we had no business taking. We were not seeing the field very well in the passing game, and sometimes you are going to have nights like that. They changed an awful lot, I talked about that in the press conference. They said that they were going to become a lot more aggressive with blitzing and everything. They did, they came after us and played a hard nose tough physical game. I am really proud of this football team and they found away to win."
On time of possession favoring ECU by 10 minutes:
"That is running the ball. When you can run the ball, you are going to eat the clock up. We controlled it and tried to keep our defense off the field. I was watching what Brandon Fractious was running, spinning, and I really challenged him. I thought that he really responded tonight. I told him that if he will carry the ball and make some things happen, he will carry it 20 times. He did one heck of a job and played a great game."
On the second effort that pushed the chains:
"Without a doubt, you know there at the end, it is tough to run the ball when the safeties are down hill. You can turn and say that you are going to throw the ball, but why stop the clock. At least make them use their time outs and see if you can break a tackle and see what is going to happen. They found a way to win. Offensively it was ugly. There are a lot of things that we have to correct on offense and I certainly did not think that we played very well as an offense. The first thing that we said is that if you are going to go on the road, which we have to do for four of the last five games, we have to play great on defense and try and take the crowd out of the game and do not let the momentum go against you. They have really responded to it. I think that they are really relishing and are excited about the role that we are asking them to play. They have done a phenomenal job."
SENIOR RUNNING BACK BRANDON FRACTIOUS
"They [coaches] really stuck with me. I was feeling kind of down this week and we got challenged. I mean the line really brought us through. It was a team game."
On the struggles of the passing game:
"We just went in there and got our minds set to be road warriors and just performed today."
On gaining the extra yards:
"We just got challenged this week. Coach Holtz just said that he wanted to challenge the running backs. He wanted to get a running game started. The pressure was on and it was a blessing that everything came through."