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Sept. 1, 2012

Virginia vs. Richmond

Sept. 1, 2012

Richmond Head Coach Danny Rocco Quotes

On Richmond’s performance:
“We got outplayed today by a really good football team. Especially with the FCS playing up, you really find the time to watch a lot of film. They are well coached and Mike (London) is doing a great job with this team. They are settled there with the quarterback. Mike (Rocco) knows what he’s doing back there, he understands the offense, he makes good decisions, he distributes the ball and he didn’t make any significant errors. They were more physical than we were, and their defense really flew around today. I told the guys after the game that there’s nothing to feel good about. I don’t feel good about anything. We pretty much got our butts kicked, but I’m really really excited to be the head football coach at the University of Richmond. We showed some glimpses of being able to withstand and athletically compete. But we lacked consistency today, and our special teams were very erratic. I encouraged our guys to work to put this behind us and move forward.”

On the play on defense:
“Our kids on defense competed well. The one thing that happens defensively when you are thrown out there repetitively on three and outs, you just swing the pendulum so much against you that you have to understand what you want to get. Once we got any movement or balance on offense, once we were able to control the ball at all, our defense kind of settled in. I’m not disappointed with the way our kids played on defense. They played hard, they played physical. We were outmatched somewhat athletically and played against a very efficient quarterback. We had a couple plays on the perimeter where our corners missed the tackle, and you know those are the kinds of things that will make it hard to win. We had a few too many of those miscues, but nothing against the kids who competed and gave it their best shot.”

On containing UVa’s passing:
“We did pack things in a little bit. It was a calculated decisional risk. We didn’t drive our underneath people for as much width and depth as we have in the past. We wanted to have a few more helmets around the line of scrimmage, a few more guys who could negate the cutback runs and get gang tackling. I think in theory we set ourselves up a little bit for Mike to be able to get the ball out to the edge, and they saw it and took advantage of it. But you have to choose your poison a little bit in these types of match-ups, and maybe be hopeful that they won’t throw and catch at a really high percentage, that they drop a ball or tip a ball, and get a break. You make your own breaks, but we didn’t really get one today. We didn’t take the ball away, and we were never really able to get the ball on the ground.”

On talking to Michael Rocco postgame:
“I said I’m really proud of him and I love him. I’m just really proud of Michael, of all he’s done and the way he’s performed and competed. I’ve been following him for a long time, and he had some poise, which hurt us today.”

On Strauss’s touchdown:
“I don’t even know what to say, it was irony. We botched the play a little bit, and Mike found himself under pressure and kind of forced to throw. Kendall (Gaskins) received the ball and fell into the end zone. I called a timeout more so because I was concerned about the play clock and I didn’t feel that the play was signaled in clearly enough. There was a little confusion out on the field with our guys so I chose to call a timeout.”

On his perception of the season as a new coach:
“You just don’t know what to expect today as you go into the first game as the head coach in a new program. I’m happy to be the head football coach – I think that sums it up. It’s all about relationships with people, and you don’t really get to the core of some of these relationships until you get into the heat of battle. Practice is practice, meetings are meetings. You get to know the guys, they get to know you, you get mad sometimes, you praise them sometimes, you encourage them sometimes, and now you’re in a game. The players need the coach and the coach needs the players. We need to be united and we need to be one heartbeat. It’s in these battles that you start to find out who your leaders are, who has that heartbeat and who has that focus, who’s on board with you in terms of your thinking, and I liked some of the things I saw.”

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