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Mike London Quotes
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Virginia vs. Richmond
Sept. 5, 2008
Richmond Coach Quotes
Richmond head coach Mike London
Opening statement:
“You know it’s true that we kind of hung in there. I was proud of the guys. We didn’t have as many issues with cramping as we did last week. We just physically tried to play our best against their best and we had to rotate some guys in there and maybe it kind of wore us down there in the latter part at the very end, but I’m very proud of the way those guys hung in there and, for a very long time, went toe to toe.”
On the game being close:
“If the spider has eight legs, I think we shot ourselves all eight times. It was just so close and it’s a shame the outcome was what it was, but it was a learning experience, and these guys will learn from it and I’m really proud of them. They’re a BCS school and we’re an FCS school and everybody thought we’d get clobbered and, for a really long time, we really held on.”
On his knowledge of UVa helping him better coach his team against UVa:
“I think the only thing that probably helped was evaluating some of the players’ skill levels and obviously scheme-wise it came out that they played their defense 3-4 but they also had some wrinkles that we hadn’t prepared for. Hats off to the coachhe does a good job of planning each game and not necessarily doing the same thing week in and week out. I’m extremely proud of these young men, these guys played tough, they played hard and somebody’s got to win and somebody’s got to lose and if we would’ve just given ourselves a chance, we would’ve had a chance to do some things. Now we’re back to the drawing board.”
On whether he’d like to see his team play UVa every year:
I think we’re going to do something like that. We’re going to play a BCS school every year. I don’t think we play Virginia next year, but, we’re going to play a BCS school every yearthe guys always look forward to doing thatand if we can compete like we did today, then I wouldn’t sell us short.
On whether he felt discouraged as Richmond kept missing chances to score:
“We kept getting chances. We just kept getting chancesthe interception, the third down they missed, just different things. I felt really good about it thinking something’s going to break for us soon.
“If you’re competitive and you want to win games, then you have to, somewhere along the line, make your chances come to fruition. You’ve got to be able to capitalize on it. If you don’t capitalize, you always have a taste of if I would’ve, could’ve, should’ve. It’s a learning experience that if we get chances again from future opponents, that making one extra first down, converting on a third down, not having silly penalties, things like that that make us go backwards instead of forwards. Those are things that are correctable and those are things that I’m encouraged about that I think our team can get much better by learning from an experience like this.”
On coming back to UVa:
“I’m a competitor and I want to win in the worst way and, after the game, there were several [UVa] players who came up and it was hugs and kisses all around. I’m disappointed we lost a game, but at the same time I have established relationships with those players and coaches that are life-long relationships and you can’t shorten that off, and I’m disappointed for us and I’m happy for them. I’m excited about moving on and playing our first league game next Saturday at home.”
On how it feels to know he’s not forgotten at UVa:
“You realize how you’re appreciated by the players and people around here in this community. I’ve got a lot of players and coaches I love here, and I have a new family and I love them and I appreciate the guys I have. I’m excited about being the head coach here at the University of Richmond and winning some football games.”