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Virginia Head Coach Mike London Quotes
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Opening statement:
“I’m very disappointed in the lack of better effort-particularly in the fourth quarter. It’s frustrating. It’s frustrating to have 16 penalties. That’s directed on us coaches-what we teach and how we teach it, getting it across to the players about what’s acceptable and what’s not acceptable. You can’t have that many penalties. We gave up turnovers. The team that gets turnovers has a chance to do well, and they got two of them late. We had an opportunity, but the ball went through Darnell Carter’s hands and the guy caught it. It was unbelievable, but that’s the way it goes. They got theirs, we didn’t get ours. As I told the players in the locker room, we’ve got two games left. You can take it and go south. All of those that want to do that can come by my office tomorrow, and I’ll excuse them from practice for the rest of the season. Anyone that wants to go forward and move forward can show up and we’ll get this thing going and get it in the direction we want it to go. We’re a work in progress, it’s rough, it’s not smooth around the edges, but it is what it is. We’ll get this team and this program moving in the right direction. I think when adversity hits, a true test of someone’s character is how you handle that, and you’re not going to see this guy tucking his head or ducking questions or walking around feeling sorry for himself.”
On turnovers:
“The biggest thing is, when the ball is thrown up in the air, having the ability to make a play or not have a penalty on that. When the ball’s thrown into the air, the mindset has got to be ‘it belongs to me.’ Those things have to be addressed as far as people being in position. You’ve got to go up and make a play, or you’ve got to contest a pass. A couple of the interference calls-they are what they are-but you’ve got to go up and contest the ball. You don’t have a chance to do that if you’re not in the vicinity. We have to keep manufacturing those types of plays. We do have to find a way to put a game away in the fourth quarter.”
On injuries:
“I think with Perry [Jones] it was a collision issue. I don’t know exactly about Ras-I [Dowling], but I see he’s in a boot. In Keith [Payne’s] situation, it’s a lower-leg injury. I think he’ll be back. It’s frustrating that the week before, you lose your starting left tackle. We’re a team that can’t afford to lose players and guys that have played. On the other end, guys like Morgan Moses and Sean Cascarano-hey, you’ve got to play. You’ve got to take the growing pains along with that.”
On penalties:
“When you’re in certain positions to carry out plays and to carry out blocks, I’d rather you not carry the block out than carry the block out and block in the back. That’s got to be created in practice. Holding the coaches accountable for the techniques that they teach-making sure that their techniques are sound and that they will allow us a chance to execute whatever we’re trying to get done. I’m in charge of the whole team, so I’m the one that’s got to make sure we reduce the amount of penalties by what’s being taught and by what’s being understood by the guys playing.”
On interceptions:
“They were ugly. They went to the wrong guy. It’s one of those things where [Marc Verica] probably didn’t see the underneath coverage. On the second one, I believe [the Maryland player] just took it out of the receiver’s hands. He made a great play on it. Not to minimize the play, but when the ball’s in our hands, we’ve got to hang onto it. They got turnovers that they needed.”
On drops by receivers:
“Coach [Bill] Lazor mentioned that-a couple of drops by guys that were pretty open who are usually sure-handed. Obviously when you’re in a game and playing a team like Maryland, those drops end up hurting you. It is very uncharacteristic to have that many drops by our wide receivers because usually they’re pretty sure-handed.”