VMI Player and Coach Quotes

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Virginia vs. VMI
Sept. 25, 2010
VMI Head Coach Sparky Woods

Opening Statement:
“I’d just like to congratulate the University of Virginia. Boy, that was a good team. They were very well coached and are good athletes. This stadium has a great atmosphere and it was a good opportunity for us. I wish we were a little better prepared for the game than we were. They tackled. They had a lot more broken tackles than we had and they had a lot fewer missed tackles than we had. It really came down to special teams. In order to be competitive in this game, we had to play our best and not make mistakes. I thought our plan was okay; we just didn’t execute it well. I think that we had one huge turnover in the first half. Overall, I thought they were a much more intense football team than we were. We couldn’t put pressure on their quarterback. I think they only punted the ball once in the first half. We got them to third and long but we couldn’t get them off the field and we had to do that. Certainly, part of that was a result of their defense. They whipped our blockers at times. I think they are a really good team and have a chance to have a great season.”

On what he expected coming into today’s game:
“I see it as an opportunity. Obviously there are monetary reasons to play a game in a place like this but the kids also want to play in a game like this, as they should. Virginia is first class. Everything they do is super. This game was a chance for us to measure ourselves. The disappointing thing is that we played poorly as a team. When you’re not executing well and you’re punting the ball, that’s okay but if they do it because you’re out of position, that’s not okay. That’s something that you can control no matter what level of football you play.”

On playing a much physically larger team:
“I was worried in the second quarter. When we came in at halftime, we thought about playing a couple more people. We held up second in the better in the second half than we did in the first. That could have had something to do with the anticipation and excitement that comes with playing at a place like this. We talked about executing because we knew that the players would be excited about playing but we wanted them to be somewhere between hyper and not quite as intense. There were some times when we stepped up. Coach London played a lot of his players down the line so you would think that we would have matched up better at times so that was disappointing.”

VMI Player Quotes
Senior Quarterback Cameron Jones
On size of Virginia
“They’re a lot bigger than anyone else we’ve played or anyone else we’re doing to play. In the beginning we were moving the ball and rolling a little bit, but it was just one of those things where they had a good play and then we’d have a bad play. We just couldn’t answer back, and it just kind of got away from us a little bit.”

On Virginia’s kickoff return for a touchdown
“I wouldn’t say it completely took the wind out of us, but it’s definitely a momentum shifter. To compete against a decent team, you’ve got to be able to bounce back after something like that. Any good team is going to have big plays, so we’ve just got to overcome that. We weren’t able to do that today.”

On upcoming Big South Conference schedule
“Basically now, everything that we’ve done is behind us and in the past. We’ve got to move forward. It’s a brand new season. Conference play is conference play, and everything from here on out counts a lot more than it did before.”

Senior Defensive End Ben Brandt
On size of Virginia
“I thought they were definitely a bigger team. They exposed us in a lot of ways that good teams do, and they’re definitely a good football team.”

On what VMI can learn from the game
“A good team like that shows you weaknesses and what you need to work on. It’s good for film-to be able to get in there and show what our weaknesses are and what we need to improve on.”

On thoughts coming into the game
“We felt like we needed to prove something and make the Corps proud.”