Mike London Postgame Quotes - La Tech Game

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Sept. 29, 2012

Virginia vs. Louisiana Tech
Sept. 29, 2012
Virginia Head Coach Mike London quotes

On the final play and illegal substitution penalty:
“From a technical standpoint, they put their punt team on and we put our return team on. Khalek Shepherd went to the back to receive the punt. Somewhere along the way, I guess they decided to bring their regular offense in. Due to that, however, you have to be allowed the opportunity to substitute your correct personnel into the game. As they brought their regular offense in, Khalek was 40-50 yards away. Normally it is the technique of the umpire to stand over the ball and allow the substitutions to take place. We ran one of our corners on the field, because their regular offense was there. But, 50 yards downfield, was our punt returner, who should have been given the opportunity to leave the field. The official counted 12 players on the field, outside of the absence of knowing what’s going on with the personnel going in and out. A penalty is called. That’s the technical aspect of it, my interpretation of how it went down.”

On the emotional aspect of the illegal substitution penalty:
“It wasn’t just that play. It was great to see the guys fighting back into a position where a touchdown wins the game. You look at that play, or other plays, and there are other plays that occurred during the game that had we executed better than we did, we may not even be talking about this ending as it is right now. We have to look at how we do things and who’s doing it, and keep this team’s head up. There’s no place else to go. We’re here, and I’m going to coach this team hard. I’m not going to give up on this team. I’m not going to allow them to give up on themselves. It’s a tough loss, but you know what, it’s a long season. There are a lot of positive things to take from this. I appreciate the fans that stayed out to the very end. It means a lot to see people jumping up and down and making that noise at the end. Just hang with us. To the fans: hang with us. Don’t leave. Hang with us. We’ll be fine. We’ll be all right. We need your support. I’ll coach the guys harder; I’ll coach the guys better. We’ll be representatives of this University.”

On interceptions:
“I don’t know the gist of the interceptions. I know one was an issue with a route that wasn’t run correctly. Phillip (Sims) came in and showed an arm, and threw it deep. He hit some guys downfield and we saw some amazing plays. It was good. I believe Adrian Gamble was one who caught a touchdown pass, and it was great to see a young player like that. We talked about receivers and how they had to step up, and it’s evident that Darius and Gamble, and even Tim Smith on one pass that was just slightly overthrown, can go vertical. They did a good job. I thought Phillip did a good job coming in and handling the part of the offense he had to handle to move the team.”

On personal fouls:
“You talk about playing smart. The second guy always gets caught. There was a lot of chippiness going on out there, a lot of talk and just stuff that we don’t need to get involved with. You’ve got to be smart. We talked about being physical, but also playing with poise. You can’t have however many penalties we had. We had six last week, and it’s amazing that the number is where it is. I’ll take responsibility for that. We’ve got to play with better poise and be smart about what goes on. A lot of stuff on after the play, but you’ve got to just be smart about how you react to those types of things.”

On evaluating quarterbacks:
“I haven’t seen the tape. I can’t make any decisions about that right now. So, as we go into watching the tape, and the decisions that we made on the quarterbacks and the receivers, then we’ll have the opportunity to make that kind of evaluation. Outside of making the evaluation based on seeing tape, knowing the call, and the assignments of those involved with it, it’s hard to do that.”

On Louisiana Tech’s second-half pressure:
“It’s a style that they run. They’ve been successful at it – the pressure it puts on, particularly the balls on their hatch close to their sideline, to hurry up, get you lined up, and look over to the sideline if you’re in a particular defense to call another play and try to attack the defense that you’ve shown. So, the tempo of it can get you gassed, particularly when you’re trying to substitute if you can. You’re running your guys from your far sideline over to the other side. It’s a strategy that a lot of other teams use. It’s a strategy that obviously worked for them. You got tired a little bit in there. As I said, toward the latter part of the game, we woke back up and started playing again. I give them credit. It’s a very good team, a very good offensive team. All I can say is that I’m proud of this team. I’m not going to quit on this team.”