Postgame Quotes Pitt vs. Toledo
9/30/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 30, 2006
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Pitt vs. Toledo
September 30, 2006
Pitt Coach Dave Wannstedt
"As I told our players in the locker room, I don't care who you are playing or where you are playing, when you win a football game and do some good things you never take it lightly."
"It's easy to rise up against Syracuse and West Virginia. I really think that playing games like this and last week define what type of team you are."
"Our approach has been good. It goes back to our seniors. We lost one today and it's tough. John Simonitis is out for the year. He broke his leg. That hurts. It hurts because of the type of player that John is and the fact that he is a senior. You hate to see this happen. At that position, Joe Thomas went in and played and Jason Pinkston played a lot in the second half. It hurts for John and it hurts our football team. Guys are going to have to step up."
"Joe Thomas will start next week. When you are a starting freshman, every week is a new adventure. He's going to be a good player for us. He is everything that we had hoped for."
"Doran Dickerson had the mind set that he wanted to play. He wasn't as concerned about how much, but he wanted to be part of it this year. When I recruited him, I told him he would have a chance to play."
"H.B. Blades is fine. Other than bumps and bruises, I don't think anybody else is injured. We tried to play a lot of people."
"The screens were a big part of their offensive attack and always have been. We did very little blitzing today. That play was great recognition on Gus Mustakas' part. And, that's what he does. He is one of the smartest guys we've had on the team and he's very instinctive. That's the upside of a player like Gus."
"You have to run the football and we're not doing it like we would like to. But, we'll get there. Our running game will show up."
Pitt Quarterback Tyler Palko
On John Simonitis' injury...
"Everybody knows how brutal football is and injuries happen, but you hate to see something happen like that to a fifth year senior, a four year starter and pretty much the anchor of our offensive line. He's going to be missed. He's going to be sorely missed."
On Joe Thomas taking over for Simonitis...
"He will be ready to play. Joe Thomas is a physical football player and someone who is going to be a great player here."
"We've been fortunate to come out and execute. We've executed and that's why we're having success on the offensive side of the ball."
Pitt Linebacker H.B. Blades
"The guys up front are starting to make a lot of plays and it's making everything easier for everyone else. It shows on defense. When your defensive line plays real well it opens things up for everybody else."
"We played within the defense. When plays come your way, you have to make them and that's what happened today."
Pitt Defensive Lineman Gus Mustakas
"We've found their screen tendency and lately they've been averaging nine screens a game."
On returning an interception for a touchdown...
"I was thinking back to my high school day. I wanted to score; I just wanted to score so bad."
On his experience of playing tight end in high school...
"When I caught the ball I was thinking, let me make a move and score."
Pitt Wide Receiver Dorin Dickerson
"I was really excited and I got a lot off my shoulders. I felt a lot of pressure to play and to play well."
"As long as I can help the team, that's the best thing I can do. I felt good about it and if I was going to be red-shirted then that was ok too."
"Whatever the coach wanted to do I was going to do, as long as I can help the team."
On the call for his touchdown play in the third quarter...
"When the call came in to the huddle my heart dropped a little bit but I was ready to go."
Toledo Head Coach Tom Amstutz
"We have to give credit to Pittsburgh, they are a good Big East school and they played well today, especially their defense."
"Even the smallest things make a difference."
"We gave a good effort but we broke down here and there."
"We'll go back to work and we need to get refocused quickly."
"We've been down before and have been able to come back. We needed to keep our focus today."
"We didn't execute well enough."
"I was encouraged by some plays (by quarterback Aaron Opelt). He's going to be a good player for us, he showed some great signs. He did what he needed to do but the guys around him need to play, too."
Toledo Free Safety Tyrrell Herbert
"It is our job as a defense to hold them and we didn't get that done today."
"We needed to be able to hold them once we had better field position."
"When the ball popped out I picked it up and tried to score. We'll get there next time."
"We keep playing until it's over. We aren't ever going to quit."
"We couldn't make it happen today but we'll go out and practice and work on everything."
Toledo Quarterback Aaron Opelt
"(Pitt is) a great team. We all made some mistakes today and once we correct them we'll be alright."
"We didn't play our best game today."
"We need to execute and make plays."
"We need to shake it off and work hard. We worked hard the whole game. Everyone did some good things and some bad things."
