University of Massachusets Athletics
UMass- UNH Post Game Quotes
October 29, 2005 | Football
Oct. 29, 2005
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Coach Don Brown general reaction to the game:
Obviously a hard-fought football game. We got down early, but our guys never stopped competing and found a way to get back on top in a short period of time. (UNH Quarterback Ricky) Santos made a big play when he scrambled. We had the sack opportunity and he hit (UNH Receiver David) Ball in the back of the endzone. David Ball was probably the difference in the game. We had troubling handling him all day long. I thought our guys competed hard. There were couple things that were difficult for us to overcome. We had a touchdown called back because of an illegal motion. We had two miscues in the kicking game; we had a bad snap on a field goal and a bad snap on a punt. You can't make those kinds of miscues in a game of this magnitude and be able to overcome it. We did have a chance at the end. I thought when they threw the ball at the end they did us a favor. It's a tough loss for our guys, but we don't have time to hang our head. We're going to have to go down to Delaware and get back on track. As I said earlier in the week, this is a big Atlantic 10 game, but its not the end of the world. We only have one loss in the league. Give credit to New Hampshire. I thought they played well. Obviously from the fan's perspective. It was a pretty good football game.
Brown on the defensive strategy for UNH receiver David Ball:
We doubled him a bunch of times. We were playing two shell, double, we played three shell and went under him. We had the flat and the curl covered under him and we had three deep. We had every coverage you could possibly think of. We showed blitz and bailed out of it and showed blitz-come. The reality is that I have a lot of confidence in our guys and you aren't going to beat a team with those kind of guys only playing them one way and one way only. Unfortunately for us we gave up big plays. We didn't play straight man all day long, but those were some of the snaps we struggled on.
Brown on the UMass Pass Defense:
This disappointing thing today is that our group does a pretty good job of creating turnovers and we got zero today. We didn't get a fumble, we didn't get an interception either. We got our hands on two balls, but we weren't able to bring them in. There was one series where they called a late a late hit on us on third and fifteen and that was down right gross if you ask me. It was one of the worst calls of the game and it had an adverse affect on that football game. That's just the reality of college football. We kept competing and gave ourselves a chance.
Brown on the confusion at the line during the last drive resulting in a false start:
Liam Coen is a freshman quarterback. He busts his tail. He's got to get better at last minute drives. He acknowledges that and so do I. We've got to help him out. We probably should have spiked it there, but that stuff happens in the heat of the battle. That wasn't the difference in the football game.
Brown on the hype surrounding the game:
I think they're ( UNH) pretty good. I think Ball is very good. Santos is solid. I don't know what else to tell you. They're a pretty good offensive football team. They've got a lot of weapons. They started off very well and he (Santos) has been doing it for two years. Last year we were able to contain him and forced three picks. This year you've got to give the edge to him and all the credit to New Hampshire. The reality is that I don't get in to the hype. Its our team verses their team. I think the biggest piece is that we had a couple of execution things with penalties that, if they were different, maybe we're sitting here with a smile on our face. We didn't execute the way that we needed to in a game of this magnitude. We can't have illegal motion that calls back a touchdown. We can't have a late hit that prolongs a drive. If a couple of things don't happen then, who knows? I know one thing, we aren't going to worry about it after tomorrow. We're going to watch the tape and we're going to get better.
Coach Sean McDonald on the overall game
"Well I thought we played hard. At half time we talked about them coming back at us and they did. And the way Baylark ran and the way that they moved the ball out of set, that first series of the second half, and the next time, the next thing you know, your down and given credit to our kids, lot of resiliency, just did a great job of coming back. We gathered together on offense made some big plays then got it going on defense, just held on again. And just kept the ball in front of us enough so they didn't score the last one that would have counted obviously would have been a big one but pretty proud of the way my football team played today, our football team. They played very hard and a tough place to win a football games and beat a very, very good football team. Don Brown's team plays as hard as any team in this Atlantic 10, they're well schemed, ready to go. We just had to make more plays today."
Coach Sean McDonald on defense
"We just t kept talking to everybody after we got, after I think we did a decent job and not a great job, a decent job of slowing them down in the second half on one of those two drives and then when we had to put the ball up when they were in their open set personnel, our biggest thing was keep the ball in front of us. We did everything we wanted to do except for make the play on the fade at the end at that touchdown. They were hitting down the seam, we were a little vulnerable at times. They hit down the seam to London who had another unbelievable game against us, great player, but you know, we just talked about tackling him, keeping him in bounds, keeping the clock rolling then we got some decent pressure from Derek Stank our safety senior captain. You know he had a couple sacks I think more importantly he pushed the pocket a bunch of times and really helped us."
Coach Sean McDonald on the secondary
"David's got a unique ability and I told somebody this week, he can catch, he can run, he can jump, he's got good speed, but what I think the best thing David Ball has which people don't realize what kind of competitor he is and today he goes up and gets the first one for the touchdown, the one down the sideline. He didn't have a great game against them last year in our minds and he came back this year and he wanted to play, he wanted to show some people he's the best receiver in the league. I don't think there's any doubt in anybody's mind right now the way the kid played today how good a receiver he is. He just amazes me time in and time out"
David Ball on what it feels like to win
"It's great, I mean the game set itself up to be a huge game with their defense and our offense. I think we came out and executed better than they did. Our defense played a lot better than I think people thought they would, and they've been doing it all year for us, getting us on the field so we can make the plays that we've been doing week in and week out."
Ricky Santos on different play calls
"Coach Kelly has a play call for every situation. During the week we go along every single type, first down, second and short, third and long, whatever you can think of. We always have something that Coach is gonna come up with and I think he does a great job of getting us prepared for that situation."
Ricky Santos on David Ball's first touchdown catch
"In that situation, the safety Shannon James was over to the right, David [Ball] was on the left and then we had man coverage, you had to beat the jam. I took one step, I threw it up and beat the jam clean, and he went up and caught it. And that's just they type of kid he is, very competitive like Coach said. He wants to get better."
Ricky Santos on man to man coverage
"I'm not surprised. I think it's their coach's philosophy, kinda stick with what they do, and that's what they do best. They play man to man and blitz a lot and it's worked so far this season that they've been doing a great job with it. We just have some pretty good athletes that found a way to get open for us."
David Ball on types of plays
"We run plays according to what we're gonna play that week, so we had a special offensive design, special plays. We exposed them on a few of them with a little half back pass, but all in all it's just situational. It's all in our offensive coordinators hand and he made a lot of great calls today and he had throughout the year."
Ricky Santos on the chemistry between UMass and UNH
"Like I said, it is my favorite kinda game. We talked all week how we felt between us that we needed to step up in a big way to help our team win. And their style of offense when they play man to man it's on the wide receiver and quarterback, they did a great job all day."
David Ball on Ricky Santos's composure
"There are some things about Ricky that I don't think a lot of people see. His composure out on the field is unbelievable and he is very deceiving with the way he runs with the football and he makes a lot of big plays that keep himself alive in order to stay on the run and get his targets when he needs to. He made an unbelievable play on my third touchdown, to not go down, to stay alive. And he just has that competitive edge and it helps him push through games and makes a lot of great plays as well."
Ricky Santos on one of David Ball's touchdowns
"They blitzed off the right edge. It was actually my fault why they blitzed, why they came. I saw the protection the wrong way, they came and just saw them coming right in my face so I tried to quick to Dave [Ball] but I believe number 43, the linebacker jumped him so I just had to buy some time, kinda faked one to the left, shook off 95, kinda tried back to the right, almost dropped the ball, got it off. Dave like always, scramble mechanics, finds a way to get open and the play breaks down and he was in the back of the end zone with no one on him."
Ricky Santos on the on-side kick at the end of the game
"Coach sees my hands in practice; he knows how good they are so he had to put me in in crunch time."
