Miami Head Coach Al Golden Postgame Quotes

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Nov. 10, 2012

Virginia vs. Miami
Nov. 10, 2012
Miami Head Coach Al Golden Quotes

On the last offensive possession:
“I thought we were running the ball well, and that we could get the first down on third and five on a run. Obviously we came up short, so that’s that. I thought the strength of our team at that point was the offensive line, the tight ends, and running backs. We gave the ball to Duke [Johnson], and we came up short.”

Thoughts on Michael Rocco’s performance:
“We didn’t get enough sacks. We hit him a couple times, but we didn’t get enough sacks. Their third down percentage was excellent; we had chances to put them away on offense and we didn’t do it. We had chances. We fumbled at the one yard line, and had several other chances but we weren’t able to do it.”

On the defense:
“The only thing that I can tell you is that we’re playing hard. We were fighting our tails off. We were shorthanded, with Denzel [Perryman] and Deon [Bush] out for the game. They’re dynamic guys, and that hurt. We didn’t have guys that have accounted for 25-30 tackles every game. So that’s tough. But we had enough talent here to win the game, and we didn’t do it. There is no excuse. We needed to make one more play then them and we didn’t make it, we had a chance to put them out a couple times on offense, and we didn’t do it.”

On Duke Johnson’s performance:
“I gave him the ball in the end on third and five because I thought he was the guy that could make them miss and get us the first down. We knew that they were bringing pressure and thought it was a safe bet inside, and it’s unfortunate that we came up short.”

On what to tell the team after the loss:
“We’re not going to go backwards. We’re not going to go back to the days where everyone does their own thing and we turn into individuals. It’s a tough loss, it is. But we have to bounce back. It’s the seniors’ last home game coming up, and we have to fight back.”

On the offensive play:
“We thought there were a couple of different things that we could do to get yards. We felt pretty positive about what we were doing offensively. We needed to make one or two more third down conversions and protect the ball down there in the red zone. To be there and to fumble it, that was tough.”

On shutting down Virginia’s rushing game:
“It’s obviously a great running attack that Virginia has, and we tried to take the running game away. Their quarterback did a really nice job. I thought they threw the ball and caught the ball really well. We didn’t get off the field on third down like we needed to, and we needed to keep applying pressure.”

On allowing multiple third downs:
“It was terrible. I think we were near 50 percent on offense, and I don’t know if we stopped them at all on defense. It all adds up, in the end.”