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Miami Coach/Player Quotes
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Miami Head Coach Randy Shannon
Opening statement…
“This was a nice win to be at home on Homecoming. Coming off the last time we played them at home in the Orange Bowl, this was a big win for us. To see those guys like Jason Fox who were here for the last time we played them to come out and play the way they did today was unbelievable. The defense did a nice job today – did a nice job on third down. The defensive line has been working on the pass rush side of it and they did a good job of harassing the quarterback. We held them to 149 yards total offense.
“Offensively, Cooper came out. He’s finally healthy for the first time in three to four weeks and it showed. He does a great job of being patient, and when he had the opportunity to break that long run I thought it set the standard.
“It was a great game, but … we had two blocks – one for a touchdown and one that gave them field position, and then we had one return. You don’t ever want blocks – that can change the momentum of a game. I think the guys did a good job of responding and coming back out to play the way we are supposed to. The offense came right out and scored points, and the defense kept going.
“Thearon Collier’s return was unbelievable. We got some key blocks. I think we are finally getting the mentality of where we want to be on returns. The more we keep working on everything we have at University of Miami as a football team, we will keep getting better each week. We’re not there yet – we’re not where we want to be offensively or defensively, we still got a lot of things we need to fix and get going and we will. The more we keep coaching these guys to be the best we can be, we will get better. The coaching staff does a great job of doing it and we’re going to stay on top of it. The coaching staff will stay on top of the players, I will stay on top of the coaches and we will get where we need to be.”
On finishing games…
“As a total unit, that is probably the best we have played all year in the second half with finishing games from a defensive standpoint and special teams. You see everybody come down and get big hits – Damien Berry had a big hit on kickoff. We’re seeing some guys do some great things. The more we keep demanding from our players and coaches what we want. We will get it the way we want.”
On how much they have grown since two years ago…
“Staying focused… If you look at this team from two years ago, I think they stayed focused in crucial situations. If something bad happens, they don’t get flustered. They don’t get frustrated. They stay in tune to what we are trying to get done. There are things we learn a lot from in every game. We will learn a lot from this game. We learned a lot on the punt team today. Things you can’t do, and as a coaching staff we have to teach it to get it done the right way. Going back to an offensive standpoint, we grew as a unit. But the coaches will tell you, when we have 12 guys on the field, that’s not acceptable. Those are things that I see we need to fix, but as far as maturing you can see that these guys don’t get flustered.”
On if the change in the practice routine helped…
“I think it did. I mean ask the players – I didn’t run around last week. They will probably tell you how they feel. But I think it really made a difference from the standpoint of the offensive line, a double team is a double team. How much can you say stay low, bend your feet and hit the guy at the waist line? There is only so much you can do as a coach. We wanted to keep these guys fresh so we could take it to the next step.”
On the offensive line…
“They did well if you look at the total yards that we had and the protections. I think Jacory [Harris] did a nice job of moving the pocket and throwing the ball away in certain situations. Last time he threw the ball away one time and today he threw the ball away three times and that’s a growing process for all of us as a team. It shows how he is maturing and it gets the offensive line going. The quarterback has confidence in the offensive line and the offensive line has confidence in each other and the more we keep playing together, the better we’ll get. “
Miami QB Jacory Harris
On the success of the defense…
“It makes things a whole lot better. You can go onto the field without any worries. You can just run your offense and not feel like you need big plays. The defense stepped it up a whole lot this week and gave us great field position and just took care of business.”
On having a good running game…
“It was good for this game because Virginia runs that 3-4 which sometimes they drop eight into coverage to where you have to look for the check downs and it opens up the running game.”
On the last three games of the season…
“We used up all our bye weeks at the beginning of the year so we just have to fight it through. North Carolina is a tough team, you have Duke who is now up there in the ACC fighting for a spot and then you have USF who is doing their thing in the Big East. We just have to go out there and prepare every week mentally and physically and hopefully we can get some victories.”
On Thearon Collier’s punt return for TD…
“Thearon is someone that works hard and is a guy that may not get the ball as much, so in special teams he has to make things happen. He made a Devin Hester play – he went out there, had fun and got a touchdown.”