UCF Head Coach Scott Frost
Opening statement:
"I'm sick to my stomach. We let one get away...those things can't happen. We've all got to do a better job finishing. It's a learning process for all of us and those are all lessons you don't want to learn. I feel terrible for the kids, but I'll always be proud of them."
On what he thought hurt the most:
"They played good on defense. I give credit to them, but we've got to play smarter. We've got to coach smarter. We've got to play smarter. Once we had 25 points, we had the ball on their side of the 50 I don't know four, five more times and either penalties or dumb play took us out of there. Defensively, I'm not sure they would've scored in the first half without a kick out of bounds and unsportsmanlike conduct on us and jumping offsides in their hard count. Listen, we've got to coach them better to make sure those kind of things don't happen."
On Temple's adjustments defensively in the second half:
"I think they adjusted pretty well. I think they are a well-coached, then we made some adjustments and got back after them. We just couldn't finish. I don't know at what point in the game we had 25 points, but I haven't been part of one where we had so many more chances to put the game away and couldn't. We actually talked to the team all week about finishing. I told them we were going to have them on the ropes and have our chance to finish it, and that was our goal going into the game. That's what we talked about all week and we couldn't get it done."
LB Demeitre Brim
On the toughest challenge slowing down opposing team running backs:
"We went over all that stuff in practice. We had to make some adjustments on the defensive side of the ball, because they were kind of hitting us where we weren't really pressed for them to hit us. But once we made adjustments, we were pretty fine. We just have to get over - stay true, stay true to our alignment and let nothing stop play, because we went over all of those plays in practice."
On how bad the loss hurts:
"It hurts real bad. Probably one of the toughest losses I've ever experienced playing football."
On the locker room atmostphere and what Frost said to team:
"He pretty much told us to keep our heads up. We can't harbor on this loss. If we expect to move forward, we have to look forward toward UConn and teams we play next. Last year, the losses piled up on us and stuff started happening in the locker room and we refuse to let that happen this year. We are a closer team and we just have to learn from our mistakes and move forward."
On fatigue during the last few minutes:
"I would say yeah, we did get tired. We were on the field for quite a while. We practice against our offense daily with the tempo. We practice tempo every day and practice against the scout team. It's something we always prepare for, but I mean we were on the field for a long time. Of course, we are going to get winded."
QB McKenzie Milton
On when he felt the momentum shift:
"Drives started getting stagnant. We shot ourselves in the foot with the dumb penalties. Temple started making some plays and we just couldn't finish drives tonight in the second half and late in the second quarter. We'll get better and learn from it."
On if Temple did anything different on defense in the second half:
"No, I don't think so. I think it was just little things. Maybe a misread here and there, maybe not converting a third-and-short, third-and-five; it's football. If you're not going to convert on third downs, you're not going to win games. When you get yourself backed up to third-and-12 with dumb penalties it's tough to convert. Hats off to Temple; they played a heck of a ball game."
On his emotions watching the final drive:
"It's sickening, honestly. Tough loss. It is what is it. It happens."
On if injuries disrupted the flow on offense:
"I don't think so. Hats off to Temple. They have two outstanding ends that can rush the passer. I put some of it on me; I should have been calm in the pocket sometimes by stepping up. Hats off to Temple; they're a good team."
On what happened on the interception, a miscommunication:
"I'm not sure, plays happen fast in the situation like that, I think I just got to look at it on film and see what happened."