Pitt vs. USF Postgame Quotes

Nov. 24, 2007

PITTSBURGH -

Pitt vs. South Florida
Coach and Player Quotes

Pitt Head Coach Dave Wannstedt
"It's disappointing, the way the game unfolded. I really thought we were focused to start the game and at halftime. And then we went out there in the second half and gave up the one play on defense and offensively, just came totally unglued."

"If you look at the game, South Florida had the 80-yard run and the fake punt that led to a touchdown and the three interceptions."

"We did not finish the game. I don't think anybody thought it was going to be easy. I thought our guys came out understanding that we were playing a talented football team. And then we made a couple of mental mistakes."

"The interceptions--a lot of them--were due to inexperience. You can't have them. They will cost you the game."

"Kevan Smith did not practice all week, didn't take one rep due to his shoulder. He performed in warmups okay and said he couldn't throw the deep ball."

"There were some good individual performances. I thought Scott McKillop played well. The sad thing is that one long run on defense. Up to that point and for the remainder of the game, 300 yards is about what we give up a game."

"I thought for the most part our defense played about as well as anybody has played against them all year. Matt Grothe makes a lot of plays on his feet and scrambling around. He's a heck of a player."

"That was a game where you needed to convert third downs in the second half to keep them off the field. We were unable to do that because we ended up with third and long."

"They're good up front. They are good physically. I thought we were two different offensive teams today - one in the first half and another in the second half."

"Pat (Bostick) was pressing in the second half. The pass rush was picking up a little bit. When you fall behind like we did, they are expecting you to throw the ball. They play a little more coverage rather than the run. If you are not right on it, all of that leads to turnovers."

Pitt Offensive Lineman Mike McGlynn
"We made some mistakes throwing the ball and the big plays will come back to hurt you. As an offensive line, you have to protect. It's hard when we had three interceptions but we kept fighting. We kept fighting until the last possession but it's hard to win football games when you make those mistakes."

"It's nice to be a part of LeSean's (McCoy) accomplishments this year. When we were at the half-inch line, I was screaming for the offense to give the ball to him so he could break that freshman TD record. That was definitely one bright spot today."

Pitt Linebacker Scott McKillop
"They had one big play with the run by (Matt) Grothe. We came in knowing that Matt is a great athlete and if you take that one long touchdown run back, I thought we did a good job containing him."

Pitt Wide Receiver Maurice Williams
"On my touchdown, I basically ran a simple go route and Pat threw the ball up to me and he had faith in me."

Pitt Quarterback Pat Bostick
"We came out and they played at a higher tempo in the second half. It's disappointing. We didn't come out and execute the way we needed to in order to sustain a lead."

"I feel that we threw the ball successfully toward the end of the game and in the first half. I think what killed us today, and you can ask anyone in our unit, it was penalties."

"The mistakes we made today...we're better than that. It's hard when you put yourself in third and 15 situations. There's really not a perfect play you can call for those."

Pitt Running Back LeSean McCoy
"I guess it's good to break a record that was previously held by one of the greatest running backs ever. It hasn't really hit me, but I think it will eventually."

"I think every week we continue to get better and better. You can't forget that we're still a young team and there's obviously a lot of room for improvement."

"Pat made some mistakes but we all make mistakes. One thing I've learned is that you can't point the finger at one thing. You win as a team and you lose as a team. It's as simple as that."

"It's tough to feel good about breaking the freshman touchdown record right now when you lose the game. Let's just say that it will feel better each and every time we win a game."

Pitt Defensive End Joe Clermond
"Scott (McKillop) plays well every week. He comes out and plays the same way he prepares."

"To beat West Virginia next week would be a real nice treat, not only for me, but for the team, the fans and even the alumni."

"I think we've improved on having a short memory for the mistakes we've made. I think we're able to come out and practice hard and not let things get us down. We just have to stay focused and prepare for our next opponent."

USF Head Coach Jim Leavitt
"I thought we played a very good overall game and there's not a lot to complain about. Our kick coverage was weak at times, but I thought it was also very good at points too, so the trick is in finding some consistency. I was very impressed with the way our offense came out in the second half, particularly in the running game and really controlled the ball. I also want to mention our hands team which did a tremendous job on all those onside kicks in the second half. If those go the other way, this might be a completely different ballgame."

"One of our goals coming in was to force a lot of turnovers and our defense really rose to that challenge. I was disappointed that we got beat with the screen pass so consistently today. That was a problem earlier in the year that I thought we had corrected, but you saw Pitt using it to bust a bunch of big plays today. I think part of it was that we were banged up along the defensive line, and had some trouble getting a rush on the quarterback."

"I thought all along that this was going to be a 60 minute football game. Pitt's too good for that not to be the case."

"We worked on that particular fake punt play all week, and were pretty sure that it was going to be there. I actually think it was open again later in the game when we had fourth-and-one at our own 20, but we didn't want to risk a bad snap in that situation, so we decided against running it."

"I'm really proud of how resilient this group has been. We had a bunch of near misses in the middle of our schedule that led to three close losses, but we bounced back to play some of our best football of the season. We learned some important lessons too with calls going against us at the end of a game. You have to play well enough that you don't put officials in a position to decide the outcome."

USF Linebacker Sam Miller
"When I heard the play call, I was very excited to run the fake punt. We had practiced it all week and I knew it was going to work. Just like any team, we're a close knit unit and when the opportunity comes for me to make a play I want to provide the spark to get us going."

USF Quarterback Matt Grothe
"Pitt overreacted a little bit at the snap of the ball, and everything just kind of came together from there. I got some good blocks at the line of scrimmage and some good blocks down field, and fortunately I was able to take the ball 80 yards for a score .The fake punt helped a lot. I think they controlled the play pretty much throughout the first half, and the score that resulted from the fake punt kept us in the game. We were able to come out after that and play exceptionally well on both sides of the ball and get the momentum back."

USF Linebacker Ben Moffitt
"To be able to put up basically 21 points on defense is a big thrill for us. We pride ourselves on being able to change games, and you saw that we were able to do that today. We're not happy with just getting our hands on the ball. Every time we touch it, we're looking to score. There weren't a lot of halftime adjustments, it was really just us buckling down and playing our game that made the difference. We knew we didn't need to change anything, we just needed to pick up our play."

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