Miami Head Coach Randy Shannon Quotes

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On how the team will respond to this loss:
“We’ll bounce back and get ready for Maryland next week.”

On quarterback Jacory Harris’ injury:
“I haven’t discussed it with the trainers or the doctors.”

On whether Harris was knocked unconscious by the hit:
“No, he was talking.”

On the effect of Harris’ injury on the team’s play:
“It affected the team. When you have a guy like Jacory [Harris], the leader of this football team, go down like he did, it takes a little bit out of you. Spencer [Whipple] came in and threw the ball down the field, but we had turnovers in the red zone. We went to Stephen Morris in the second half to give us an opportunity. We turned the ball over, but we made some plays to bounce back at the end.

“It affected the whole team. Anytime you lose a young man like him who’s a part of the team, has been here for a long time, and has done some great things and has been on the road. Offensively, he’s been doing some great things. Like anything though, you have back-ups, and Stephen Morris came in and did a great job, giving us a chance to win the game at the end and that’s all you can hope for.”

On the play of freshman quarterback Stephen Morris:
“It was very tough-to come in on a situation like that as a true freshman, going in there and running the offense and putting him in that situation. But he had to learn. He made some good throws, he made one bad one, he bounced back. [Virginia] blitzed him a lot, and he got out of those situations with his feet. Scored a touchdown and ran for a touchdown, which was good. Anytime you have a young man do those kinds of things and give you a chance, being so young, that shows a lot of how he can improve and how much he can really help this football team.”

On whether the decision to play Morris was a difficult one:
“It wasn’t tough. We’ve been working him a little bit, and you have to give a young man the opportunity. I had confidence in him, and he responded late in the game.”

On decision to go with senior quarterback Spencer Whipple first:
“He’s a veteran. He’s been here for a while, so the thing you have to do is give him the opportunity to go in. He’s learned the offense, he’s been around. He did some good things, and he didn’t.”

On defense’s play:
“In the fourth quarter, our defense really responded. They started making some plays, getting off the football field, creating a short field for the offense to have an opportunity to score. As long as your defense keeps playing and giving yourself a chance, you’re going to get it. They kept fighting and trying to make plays. They gave the offense the ball.”

On whether loss alters the team’s goals for this season:
“Alter the goals? No. We still just have to win the games-win each game one-by-one and just keep going from there.”