Pittsburgh Quotes
10/6/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 6, 2001
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Pittsburgh Coach Walt Harris
On the game
"This was a hard fought football game. When you are playing against an evenly-matched team, you need to make the most of your opportunities. In a road game like this one, you cannot win by committing five turnovers and allowing 99-yard drives. We beat ourselves today."
On Pittsburgh quarterback Rod Rutherford and his interception
"Rod did well when he was in. As the game progressed, it became difficult to use him as much as we would have liked, due to the nature of the plays designed for him. On that play (the interception), he simply should not have thrown the ball. He did not have his legs under him to get a balanced throw off and he did not even put enough strength into the throw. When he got to the sidelines, I just told him not to forget what happened so that he can learn from it."
On Notre Dame quarterback Carlyle Holiday's performance
"He clearly is a great athlete who made some good plays today for them. He has a lot of talent and ran the offense well for a young guy. We hit him hard today, but he showed how tough he is and that he could come through for his team."
On the game's turning point
"We came right back very strong on the drive after Notre Dame took the lead on their field goal. We were feeling good and moving the ball. However, we still found ourselves coming up short. Notre Dame turned it up. We did not answer the call and the momentum went to them. We still had opportunities when we were down 17-7, but we were knocked around a bit and they continued to turn it up when they needed to. We simply could not take advantage of the opportunities we had in this close game."
On the meaning of this loss
"I feel real bad for the 14 seniors, of course. The team paid a big price by not staying disciplined and executing what they have been taught to do. You cannot win if you do not do what you are instructed to do. It simply comes down to the team who makes the fewest mistakes, wins the game. We need to learn from this experience and learn to be more responsible to each other. Our goal will be to keep this in mind and to keep our guys in a good frame of mind. I know these players will work hard to correct our mistakes and to improve as a football team."
Pittsburgh Player Quotes
Senior split end R.J. English
On third quarter fumble recoverd at Notre Dame 1-yard line
"I am not even sure what happened. I turned around, saw no one there, and thought I was going to score. I forgot about the fundamentals and didn't tuck the ball away. I don't know if someone hit me or not, but I just lost it."
Junior flanker Antonio Bryant
On apparent shoulder injury suffered in third quarter
"I was just a little bruised from practice and that's about it."
On sputtering Pittsburgh offense
"
We were clicking and everything, but we just didn't finish our plays. The turnovers slowed us down."
Senior quarterback David Priestley On 1st quarter interception by SS Abram Elam
"The first pick I threw I think I was trying to be too aggressive and the wind just totally ate it up."
On 4th quarter interception by DE Anthony Weaver
"The second one, the DE didn't rush and didn't drop out of coverage. I just wanted to dink the ball over on top of him. You don't account for those guys. He just made a hell of a play. I've got to give him credit. I couldn't believe it when it happened."
Sophomore quarterback Rod Rutherford
On two-quarterback system
"It was kind of hard coming in for a couple of snaps, and then coming right back out. I think we played fairly well in the first half. It's not rough on me. It's given me a lot of opportunities to see what college football is all about. I've got two years out here to play, so I see it as an advantage to improve myself at the position."
On fourth-quarter interception by LCB Shane Walton
"It was a trick play. Antonio (Harris) was supposed to run an out instead of a post and RJ (English) was supposed to run a post. The one safety wasn't supposed to be there."