Quotes From Players and Coaches Following Miami-Rutgers Game

MIAMI HURRICANES FOOTBALLMIAMI V. RUTGERSSATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2001

MIAMI POST-GAME QUOTES

HEAD COACH LARRY COKER:
“I thought that Rutgers came in and gave an excellent effort. Coach Schiano and his staff did an excellent job of getting his team ready to play. I think as the game wore along, our talent and speed was the difference.”

“I really thought Rutgers did a good job preparing for us. I’m not saying they looked past Buffalo, but they had a great plan for us.”

“They knew that physically they couldn’t just line up and run the ball, knock us around, so they had to get us mis-aligned and I’m very proud of our defense and the job they did.”

” I really felt that offensively and defensively we were a little bit out of rhythm. Our speed wasn’t as fast on offense as it was a week ago. Their offensive sets and shifts caught us a little flat-footed. But again, a shutout at this level is something special, and it was a great job by our defense.

QUARTERBACK KEN DORSEY:
“We haven’t clicked on all cylinders yet, that’s for sure. Next week is a very important game and if we don’t come out on all cylinders, it will be a long day.”

On Wide Receivers: “I think this year’s group as a whole will be better than last year. You can’t match the talent of last year’s wide receivers, but as a unit I believe this year is better. Last year there were three main guys, this year we have seven guys making contributions in the passing game. It makes it very difficult to defend.”

WIDE RECEIVER ANDRE JOHNSON:

On Starting: “It’s a moment I have been waiting for. Growing up in Miami, it was my dream to play here and now it is happening.”

On the WR Corps: “I know everybody is talking about our receivers, but our goal is to improve every week and we are doing that.”

On Washington: “We are going to take it one game at a time and be focused.”

CORNERBACK PHIL BUCHANAN:

On Returning punts: “I love it. I love to get my hands on the ball.”

On Washington: “We have to be ready for the option and not get caught up in the hype.”

DEFENSIVE END JOHN SQUARE:

On becoming a father and scoring his first touchdown: “It’s been quite a month. Becoming a dad is awesome, next to scoring a touchdown, its my biggest thrill. I’ve been blessed.”

On his improvement: “After redshirting last year, Coach Shannon has shown a lot of confidence in me. I just want to get better every week and help the team win.

RUTGERS POST-GAME QUOTES:

HEAD COACH GREG SCHIANO:

“This game put a test to our metal, we’re worried about one team and that’s Rutgers. Miami was a very good football team we played out there tonight, I know that better than anybody. They are an extraordinary football team, and we went out and played as hard as we could.”

“We hung in there early, this was such a game of emotion. A couple things happened and the game swayed and with a team like that, when then get a little momentum going they got ya.”

“They got us, we’re in the early stages of our program, and we are going to build it, and someday those will be ours.”

On getting ready for California:

“We’re going to go back to work, we are going to take what we have to improve on this game and we’re going to keep going. That’s my mentality and that’s the team’s mentality. We’ll be back.”

FRESHMAN RUNNING BACK RIKKI COOK:

“The only thing I was thinking was being focused. We’re always taught to be fundamentally sound.”

“I believe we’ll be better next week. We’ll get better every game, we watch a lot of films and we see what we should’ve done and you improve during the week.”

SENIOR RUNNING BACK DENNIS THOMAS:

“Miami is a great team, they are No. 1 in the nation, at the same time we hurt ourselves. We could’ve played a better game, we know we should have, but at the right time we didn’t do it.”

“All we could do is look back on our mistakes and correct them.”

SENIOR DEFENSIVE END BILLY TULLOCH:

“They were a great team with a lot of good strong guys. They have a lot of team speed and they know how to make plays.”

“I’ve been playing football for a while and that was one of the best offensive lines I’ve ever faced.”