Post Game Quotes
Oct. 19, 2008
Miami Coach Randy Shannon
On the win…
“That was our first ACC win. I told the team it was great to come back at halftime, change the spirit of the game and they made adjustments. It was also a long time since we’ve won back to back games. This is a good start and building block for us for what we’re trying to get done and what we’ve started. We’re doing the things we need to do to be successful.”
On the offensive output…
“It came in abundance. It was a great thing to see us score the way we did. It was kind of a hurry-hurry situation, and we did a great job of responding. It was like a two-minute drill but not a two-minute drill. Just line up and snap the football, and we worked on that in practice and made some plays. They adjusted and weren’t in panic mode. We threw the ball around a lot – to some different receivers and some different guys caught football.”
On the play of Jacory Harris…
“Jacory did some things. He threw two interceptions but he also did a good job of running the ball. He scrambled a little to get in the open field. We know we have to play him [at quarterback] – to build depth at that position. He did a tremendous job and responded in tough situations. He was never in panic mode … he’s going to keep getting snaps like he has.”
On the competition between Harris and starter Robert Marve…
“These two guys are going to make us a better football team. They are competing to make each other better and that’s something we can use to our advantage on this football team.”
Duke Coach David Cutcliffe
Coach Cutcliffe on second half…
“It was a matter of them making plays and us making none. That was consistent. It’s still kind of amazing to look at that game from the sideline and watch us from the line of scrimmage and then watch what was going on as far as in the perimeter where we just couldn’t make plays on either side of the ball. I don’t know if I’ve been around one quite like that. We’re much better than we played. We didn’t play very well on third down in the second half and you start combining all of that and things will blow up in your face. “
On Miami freshman quarterback Jacory Harris’s play…
“I thought he played good. I see he was 18-of-28 with two interceptions and 185 yards. Where he played good in making plays were the touchdowns. They got down in the red zone and they’ve been a really good red zone team. Someone asked me about that this week and I said the reason they are is because they have so many athletes to make plays with. The youngster put the ball where he needed to put it and those big receivers went up and got it done for them.”
On the confidence of the team after tonight’s game…
“I can’t change what happened in this game, but we can’t play like that. Our guy that is our leader, Eron [Riley], struggled. I don’t think his confidence will be hurt. He’s been hurt with his hand and maybe that’s in his head. Maybe that’s the case, but he’s been catching the ball great in practice, so it certainly shouldn’t happen in a ball game. You don’t just say we’re going back to work. We work hard and we prepare hard. We had a really good plan going into this game and a lot of that was displayed in the first half. We’re going to look at everything we’re doing to see what we can do. This is unacceptable and I told them that after the ball game. We didn’t run out of juice, it wasn’t that we got this or got that, we just did not play well in the second half.”
On where the game shifted to Miami’s favor…
“The big thing was when the field position flipped. That was a tough punt and I’m not going to blame Donovan [Varner], but you’d like to catch that punt and do something with it. But that’s a very difficult catch and the ball got caught up in the wind. The field got flipped and we got a big penalty on a run that was broken and from there it went downhill. I don’t know if would have been any different, but I certainly liked our chances most of this game until it just got away from us.”
