University of Massachusets Athletics
UMass Football Postgame Quotes Vs. Bowling Green
September 27, 2014 | Football
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Coach Whipple's Opening statement
"I thought our guys prepared well and the people at UMass did a good job for the day. We just came up a little short. We did a lot of good things, just dropped the ball too many times on offense and certainly the two dropped interceptions were crucial. We knew they were gonna move the ball... We fumbled the ball twice with the young running backs and that really hurt us. We didn't run the ball very well. But we're closer and we've just gotta keep working."
On BGSU breaking through tackles
"Well I think they're runningbacks are really good.. they ran the ball better than we did and broke tackles. They've done that against everyone, they didn't get the chance against Wisconsin...."
On homecoming atmosphere
"I thought the people at UMass did a really great job.. the whole atmosphere... the kids have never really experienced it... it certainly helped us... we played a good team."
On confidence towards end
"We thought we were gonna win the game... We made the stops on defense. JT makes a great play on an inside run... and the next play he fumbles it. You can't make crucial mistakes at crucial times. He's a young guy. It was heartbreaking, and we've just gotta play better."
On Blake Frohnapfel
"I thought he hung in there and did a lot of good things. He's doing what we thought he was capable of. I don't think there was any doubt, he had no doubt, and the offense had no doubt he would lead us out there. He's just a great kid, he makes it fun for me, among all of them. I really wanna win for them and he's one of the reasons. We've been close and he gives us a really great chance to win and I think everyone sees that."
Is this 0-5 team one of the hungriest you've seen?
"I've coached other 0-5 teams, I try not to relive those moments. But they're great kids, they're doing what we want them to do. As I said, I want it for them, maybe even more than they want it. We'll just go back to work, that's all you can do... You have to show me that you can do something in practice before I put you in a game, and they're learning that. And I think we have to practice harder because we have so many guys who get cramps. We can't lose our best players. All I know how to do is keep working, keep showing them the tape, keep getting better"
Blake Frohnapfel on previous losses & team confidence
"You can't let it break you... Heartbreaking game one after another. If you sit there and look at your last game it won't do anything for you. That's why we've gotta move on to our game against Miami and just see what they're doing and learn from it. We'll be alright."
Randall Jette on bouncing back
"Yeah we made mistakes. It's not hard to get better. I don't think it will break us; we're fighters. We fought in that game and just didn't come out with a victory."
Blake Frohnapfel on JT's fumble
"He's a freshman... You can't blame him for that. There's so many other chances we had... he just happened to be the last one. He'll be alright. He's doing a great job, I'm not too worried about him."
Blake Frohnapfel on breaking record
"I actually didn't know until someone told me when I was walking up here... It's pretty cool but I'm not here to break records, I'm here to win games. That's why I came from Marshal I'm here to win games."
Randall Jette On defense
"The past few games have come down to the defense getting the ball back to the offense and we didn't do that and we felt that pain. We weren't gonna let it happen again. D-Line stepped up backers stepped up... We've had great offense... it just didn't happen."
You hung with them, you were in position to win, is this a different conference play coming up?
"No, we're 0-5. That's it. I don't care how good they are. We should've won." -Randall Jette
Tajae Sharpe on team confidence
"We were extremely confident in both ourselves and our teammates... we prepared great this week, we just came up a little bit short. We'll go back to work, get things tightened up and work a little bit harder."
Tajae Sharpe on records set in context of loss
"At the endof the day all the records and things like that are great but you always wanna come out with a victory, especially if you wanna become champions you've gotta be champions. We had them on the ropes and we just couldn't finish the job. That's one thing we've gotta work on."
Tajae Sharpe on playing with Blake
"We have great communication. I feel like we have great timing and things like that. That's one of the reasons why we can put up numbers like that... but at the end of the day we came up short. We've gotta go back to work and continue to perfect our craft."
Bowling Green Head Coach Dino Babers
On the last defensive stand?
"You had a redshirt freshman in Sanford causing the fumble and a true freshman, Stephens, recovering the fumble. Your defense won the game."
"Without question, and we tried to move the ball and we couldn't. I had no problem kicking the ball to our defense. They went out there with two minutes left on a good football team with two timeouts, I'm not sure if they had two timeouts or not in that situation, I think they did and they found a way to win the game for us and that's big, that's something we can grow on."
"The numbers are bad, 638 total offense, 589 is passing, but a good number I see off the top is three turnovers, the three fumbles are there other numbers there defensively."
"Well I think the three turnovers are big. When you look at the third down conversion, only six of seventeen, I think ours was a little better than theirs. Coach Whipple is good, he's old school. This guy has been around a long time. So, I am not happy with the numbers. I am happy with the turnovers. I think we have to get a lot better on that side of the football there's no doubt about it, but they're our guys and we love them, and we're 1 and 0 and we're in first place in the MAC."
On James [Knapke] and having three guys with receiving yardage over a hundred yards:
"We really don't target one guy. We run plays and see what the defense is giving us and we try to take advantage of those situations. For us to have three wide receivers with a hundred yards, that might be something today, but when you get four, that's something. And we need to get to that. I thought that James did a really really nice job obviously we had a couple interceptions. I mean, they have some good DBs, and their ball skills are really really good. So I think it was a good test for both offenses and defenses. I think in the battle of the offense we might've won a little bit. They're a really fine group and Coach Whipple does a really nice job. It was great to get a win with the defense on the field doing it. So now we have one win in the last drive with the offense in Indiana and now one drive with the defense here at UMass."
On the emotion coming out in this game:
"Regardless, we're a good team. We just won on the road and you're not allowed to call yourself a good team unless you win on the road. We proved that we can go and take a game away from a football team that was desperate for a win. For a sellout crowd, where someone even told me there were as many people outside as there was inside. Guys were just playing their tails off. Nobody wants to lose their homecoming game. They were playing their tails off and the coaches were coaching their tails off with a veteran staff. So, I'm really happy. I'm going to fly home happy, I'm going to go to sleep happy and when I wake up we're going to look at these things I'm not so happy about, then start solving. We'll get ready to go and get an opportunity to play at home at our homecoming game. It would be really nice to win homecoming for our fans. I know that Buffalo will be just as determined not to let that happen and I'm looking forward to taking the field again with these football players."
