Miami vs. Clemson :: Post-Game Quotes
Oct. 24, 2009
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
Miami Head Coach Randy Shannon
Opening Loss:
“It was a tough loss tonight. Clemson just made more plays when they had opportunities to do it. We had sloppy play all night long. If you play a team like Clemson, that has athletes on the football field, and you play sloppy as a unit, let guys hang around and hang around, they’re going to (get) opportunities to win the game. I’m not making any excuses. We just played sloppy. The special teams aspect of it, we had a call made and guys chose to do something different. An interception for a touchdown, third and long we’re supposed to get off the field – guys blow coverage. When you play that sloppy you’re not expecting to win games.”
On if he considered going for it on fourth-and-goal from the three in overtime after a penalty on the made field goal:
“No. It was fourth-and-three. It really wasn’t going to make a difference.”
On three consecutive running plays late in the fourth quarter and if that was too conservative:
“It wasn’t conservative. We were trying to run the clock out like we did the last two or three games. We were able to run the football in our four minute offense the last couple of games. That’s what I mean by sloppy play. Guys up front blew the check. When that happens, that’s going to get you.
On Ford’s TD:
“A breakdown. All sloppy play. You give up big plays when you get sloppy.”
On Clemson’s play:
“They’ve got some playmakers, a lot of athletes on their team.”
On kicking deep before the first half:
“That’s what I mean by blown assignments. We had something called, but on the field it was totally different. We made the call coming off the sideline. Everybody knew what we were going to do. Guys didn’t get it done.”
On Jacory Harris:
“He threw the interceptions. He came back, responded on the touchdown pass. That interception (return for a touchdown) he was trying to get too much out of it. They had a guy sitting up there on the crossing route, and the guy picked it off and ran it for a touchdown. Sloppy. Everything that happened tonight was sloppy play.”
On the feeling of losing:
“This has to be my toughest loss here because we fought so hard throughout the game, and we didn’t come out with a victory. We let Clemson outwork us and we turned the ball over too much. It was just the little things that made us get to this point.”
On coming back and throwing a touchdown after the 4th quarter interception:
“Coach Whipple has a lot of trust in me, but at the same time I was throwing too many interceptions. He told me he had a lot of faith in me and we just wanted to take a shot. They were giving it up to us the whole game, but at the same time that didn’t help us win.”
On the rest of the season:
“There is nowhere else to go but to go up. We have to keep on fighting. After Virginia Tech, we didn’t want to feel like this and it’s unfortunate that we had to come back to the same situation.”
On where it got away:
“I would think the last play. We did pretty good on defense the whole night, but we let them stay in the game too long and with the great athletes that they have, you can’t do that.”
On the last play:
“He made a great play, but it was miscommunication. We dropped the slot guy all night. That is why they kept running the same play. A lot of teams are going to try and do the same thing when they watch our film, but it won’t happen again.”
On the emotions of losing:
“It’s like an emotional roller coaster. We will get in tomorrow and watch film. If we ever get in that situation again, we will win the game.”
Clemson Head Coach Dabo Sweeny
“Just a great, great win. We’re proud of the team for hanging in there. Thought they showed a lot of maturity. I want to thank god for giving me the strength to hang in there. I have a birthday next month, I think I’m going to turn 50, instead of 40. We’ve got a special group of kids that got something within them that just keeps them going. No group deserves to be able to break through like they did than this group. They have played to the last play all year; they practice hard. I told them coming down here that this wasn’t a David and Goliath; that we were good enough and expected to win.”
“We made plenty of mistakes that could have cost us the game. But they played with poise, they played with confidence, they believed all the way to the end, made some good adjustments and I just couldn’t be more proud of our kids.”
“They had some big plays on us, but we just kept battling, kept battling, kept battling. The coaches hung in there on both sides of the ball. I gave the game balls to our strength coaches…We were a physical team, we were in shape, we were tough mentally and physically.”
“Hats off to Miami, holy smokes, what a football team. I really, really think the world of Coach Shannon. Just a class act all the way through, does it the right way, very gracious after the game. I wish his team nothing but the best, maybe we can do it again someday sometime down the road.”
“C.J. Spiller, he had over 300 yards. I hope the country watched him tonight. If people don’t want to put him in the Heisman race, shame on them. This is the best player in college football, period. He has done it every week. This guy here has been unbelievable.”
Ricky Sapp, DE
On controlling the line of scrimmage…
“When you play against an offensive line like we have, it makes it easier on Saturdays. We have great offensive lineman. You go out there on Saturdays, and it makes it easier to do that. We came out and did what we had to do.”
On the win for the program
It’s big. It’s big. You come in to play a ranked team that’s so high, and you get the win. It’s very big for the program. But at the same time, we’re not done yet. We still got a lot to do.”
C.J Spiller, RB
On changing the perception of Clemson
“We want to be considered one of those elite teams, which we think we really are. We got to come in and get the win in these types of game. We kind of let two of these games slip away earlier, but we put the focus on and we tried to change that. So this is a big win for us.”
On breaking the most all-purpose yards for a Clemson player…
” It means a whole lot. Records are meant to broken, but I couldn’t have done it without my teammates. It’s a great record to have, but, like I said, I can’t do it without my teammates. Hopefully the team can build off what I did tonight.”
