Pitt vs. Cincinnati Postgame Quotes

Oct. 20, 2007

PITTSBURGH -

Pitt Head Coach Dave Wannstedt
"I felt worse last week. Trust me, I feel a lot better today even with a cut open Achilles and a cut open knee. What a week."

"I think it's obvious from watching it up above, it's an interesting perspective because you are not just watching the play or the defense. You really get a feel for the sidelines, you are seeing the bench area and you are seeing the coaches make corrections."

"Our guys came out today and I am going to give the credit to the seniors because that's where I think it starts. They did everything they could do to try and win this football game."

"We tried to clear our minds a little bit and come out and play as good as we can play and the guys really did a great job. The coaches, I thought, did an outstanding job."

"Defensively, I said all week that last week was not an indication of our defense. I thought in the second half the coaches and players did a great job of finding a way to force some turnovers. How? I have no idea except guys were playing hard."

"Offensively, we were running the ball well as the game went on. I think we really have to be careful about how much we give Pat to work with - with the dumb penalties, with a couple of our young kids out there taking their helmets off and doing some things that are just inexperience."

"I thought Pat Bostick did a great job today of handling it. We were trying to get a couple of shots downfield, we had guys open. We missed the throws. He'll be better at that."

"We are going to win right now with the running game. We all know about "Shady" (LeSean McCoy) and we have to give our offensive line credit. LeSean and those two first downs at the end were big, but the player that really needs to be recognized is LaRod Stephens-Howling. Put yourself in his place. You're the starter here for two years. You come in and have a freshman take your job. Then you show up when the chips are down and you play your heart out like that kid did today. He's a special guy."

"Overall, it's a good win and we get ready for Louisville."

Pitt Offensive Lineman Mike McGlynn
"We knew we had a good challenge ahead of us today and we came out and played well. I think our conditioning really showed today in the fourth quarter. This win feels great. When you lose four in a row and come back and beat the 23rd ranked team in the nation, it's great. We really needed it."

Pitt Linebacker Scott McKillop
"We made plays and capitalized today. It put our team in a good position to win and we did. We had to put pressure on their quarterback. Ben Mauk's a great quarterback and if you leave people open, he'll find them. I thought we did a good job of shutting him down today.

Pitt Defensive End Tommie Duhart
"We came together tonight and worked our tails off. Every day in practice we worked on forcing turnovers. What we did in practice showed out their today."

Pitt Quarterback Pat Bostick
"I thought the entire defense played phenomenal. They made a couple really big plays and put us in a position to win. This was a great performance by the entire team. I think it's natural with time, to be more confident."

Pitt Running Back LeSean McCoy
"It's big to have two runners over 100 yards. LaRod motivates me all the time. I know how good he is. When he gets the ball, he knows what to do. The line did a great job today. We had a great week of preparation for this game. We came out today and we just executed."

"We want to come out every week, execute, limit the turnovers, limit the mistakes and just play well."

"This win is big. Everybody came together as a team. We're going to keep stepping it up every week and go from there."

Pitt Running Back LaRod Stephens-Howling
"The touchdown felt great to be able to run up the middle and break some tackles. I knew I could do it all along and I'm glad they had the confidence in me to do it."

"Today was just a good example of a team win. Both sides of the ball came out and did what they needed to do."

"It feels great just to know that the coaches have the confidence in me. I work hard every day in practice and I'm glad they had that confidence in me to do my job."

"The offensive line was definitely working well today. You could see their (Cincinnati's) defense getting tired and we just fed on that."

Cincinnati Head Coach Brian Kelly
"What you saw out there today was a poorly coached football team and that stops and starts with me. We were poorly prepared and we didn't execute in any facet of our game. There were too many turnovers, too many penalties and you're going to lose to a team like Pitt when that happens. I hold myself accountable for the game today."

"I attribute two backs running for 100 yards to us playing awful football. Don't get me wrong, LeSean McCoy is heck of a back and LaRod Stephens-Howling played a great game. But at the end of the day, we were poorly prepared and executed at a very low level."

"Our football team did not play up to its capabilities today. That was a sloppy game by a poorly coached team. It stops and starts with me and I deserve all the criticism."

"There were a litany of things that went wrong today. Angelo Craig and Anthony Hoke not starting were just a very small part of that. Not having those two players on the field at the beginning of the game was just the tip of the iceberg in what occurred out there today."

"We worked with [punter] Kevin Huber all this week on being more consistent. It was something that was a concern after last week, where we realized it was getting to be a problem, so we focused on it hard in practice. It wasn't where we wanted it to be today, but really we didn't execute in any facet of our game."

Cincinnati Quarterback Ben Mauk
"We shot ourselves in the foot today with penalties for sure, but there were a lot of things that went wrong. There were a lot of missed reads and missed assignments throughout the game. Give Pitt credit, but we really hurt ourselves."

"To prepare for our next game we just have to get back to fundamentals. We're a much better team than we've shown the last two weeks and we have to get back and focus on what made us successful to start the season."

"I don't think the two losses take us out of the running for the Big East Championship at all. It's the kind of conference where any team can beat any other team on any given week. We need to not worry about anybody else and just make sure we take care of business."

"I don't think being ranked No. 15 affected us. We're focused on what we have to do as a team, and we know that being ranked doesn't mean you'll win games."

Cincinnati Linebacker Corey Smith
"I was stunned to learn that two of their backs rushed for 100 yards against us. Give credit to both of them, they're good backs, but we always feel like we have the capability to make plays and get stops. We just played sloppy football."

"This loss is devastating; it really hurts. After one loss, you go into practice, work extra hard then to come back and lose again makes it extra hard to swallow. You hate to fall short again, but it means you get back to working hard and looking deep within yourself to find some answers."

Pitt vs. Cincinnati Postgame Quotes

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