Houston Cougar Football Postgame Quotes
11/13/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 13, 2010
Recap | Final Stats | Quotes | Photo Gallery 
2010 Houston Cougar Football Postgame Quotes
Tulsa Golden Hurricane (7-3 * 4-2 C-USA West) at Houston Cougars (5-5 * 4-3 C-USA West)
Saturday, Nov. 13, 2010 * John O'Quinn Field at Robertson Stadium * Houston, Texas
HOUSTON HEAD COACH Kevin Sumlin
On the game overall
"Well we made some adjustments at halftime, and they had a great plan defensively in the first half. When we turn the ball over five times you can't expect to win the game. It was great for our guys to be in a position to win the game there late. I'm really proud of our seniors, but at the same time disappointed for them."
On holding the Tulsa offense to 28 points tonight
"Our defense did really well. We're both averaging 40 points a game, and to hold them to only 28 was a great showing of our defense. It came down to who could make the most big plays on defense and they did that tonight."
On if there was ever a thought on a quarterback change
"No not at all was there ever that thought. The last interception late on our last drive was the only time you could have thought about it, and by then it was already too late. We thought we put David in a good position to make plays, but we didn't do it well enough."
On coming out with a slow start
"I disagree with that, I don't think we came out to a slow start at all. It was us making mistakes that gave them short field position, and when you do that with a team that has an offense like they do that's going to happen."
SENIOR WIDE RECEIVER James Cleveland
On how tough this loss was
"It's Senior Night and Homecoming. A lot was on the line and we understood that. With everything that was at stake, we just couldn't get it done."
On what Tulsa's defense was doing to confuse the offense "They were doing a lot of moving around trying to confuse our young quarterback. Disguising their defenses and making David (Piland) believe that something was open and then jumping it. (Tulsa) was doing a good job at that. We made some adjustments at halftime and came out in the second half and executed better."
JUNIOR LINEBACKER Marcus McGraw
On what caused the shutting down of a top tier offense
"Reading our keys and playing hard. That is all we can do week in and week out. Just go out there and try to play your best each week."
On what was being said when the team was down
"We are going to play until the end, a full four quarters, until the clock reads all zeros. We don't look at the score. We just go out there and try to stop them. If we do that, then eventually the offense can start putting up points."
SENIOR DEFENSIVE BACK Jamal Robinson
On what caused the loss
"We didn't get a stop early in the game when we needed to and we had some turnovers that we'd like to have back. With defense, stopping the man is our job and we really didn't do that tonight. You can't blame any one person; it's a team loss. We've got to move on and get this next win and hopefully things shake up for us."
On playing in Robertson Stadium for the last time
"The Rob has been great to me. It's a great stadium with great fans. I've made a lot of plays on this field; all the seniors have. It's going to be hard to leave, but we can't get caught up in that right now. We have to keep moving on and get these next two wins."
SENIOR WIDE RECEIVER Kierrie Johnson
On how he played
"We had five turnovers and three in the red zone. Defense did their part, but we couldn't capitalize on the turnovers. As far as my performance; it was good, but it wasn't good enough to get us the `W'."
On David Piland
"It was an off night for him, but we told him to let the game come to him; don't try to rush anything, don't try to force anything; just let the game come to you. We just wanted to let him throw the ball to us and let us make the plays for him."
TULSA HEAD COACH TODD GRAHAM
On what this win means to his team
"I'm just really proud of our football team to come in here and win. This is a difficult place to play and we were playing against a very good football team. This is as good as a performance as we've had since I've been associated with the program. Defensively, we played remarkable."
On Marco Nelson's performance
"Marco was incredible. Curnelius Arnick was incredible. Our whole defensive line was incredible. Our linebackers were incredible. Tanner Antle gets hurt, comes back in and plays hurt. Just the courage that our guys showed was incredible. We were pretty stingy against the run. We gave up a couple of big plays, but it's unbelievable the heart that our guys are playing with. Then we take the ball with 5:39 left in the game and we run it down to zero, that's what championship teams do. I'm really, really proud of our program."
On Houston's comeback
"That wasn't our mentality. Our mentality was that we knew coming in here that they were going to have some big plays. They probably have as good of a receiving core as anybody in the country, top to bottom. Getting the turnovers and the takeaways we knew was going to be important. That and our guys play outstanding in all three phases we played outstanding."
On quarterback G.J. Kinne putting up more rushing yards than passing yards
"Coach (Chad) Morris is doing one heck of a job. Our offensive staff is going to take what they'll give us. We felt like we could run the football, we're a pretty good running team. We've ran the football against just about everybody we've played. That's the key to winning football games. We had the ball for 36 minutes tonight and the only way we can do that is to run the ball effectively."
On his defense against a powerful Houston offense
"I've been doing this for 25 years. I told the kids in that locker room, and naturally you're always emotionally attached to the kids on your team, but I told them that`s the best performance from a heart standpoint. From the intensity and the passion standpoint, that's the best performance that I've witnessed."
