TicketsComments from Dantonio's Media Session
Contact: Tom Hathaway
9/14/2004
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On the Miami game:
?Saturday was a great day for the University of Cincinnati. We got the Bell back. Any time you can get a win over a rival, you are heading in the right direction. I am especially happy for our seniors. It?s a fitting way for them to go out their final year. We?ve made a big deal about it because it is a big deal. It?s great for college football.
?In the game on Saturday, we felt that we had to be able to do three things. We felt that we had to have explosive plays, by that we mean that we had to have plays of 15 yards or more. I think we had 13 of those on offense. Certainly on offense we came up with explosive plays that led to scores. We felt that we had to win the special teams. They were averaging 21 yards per punt return and we had given up some kickoff returns the previous week. I felt like we won the special teams. We need to win the turnover margin. We ended up minus-1 but we were able to overcome that because of the explosive plays of our offense.
?A goal we have a team, which we set on Day One when we came here, was that this program is going to be built on toughness. That toughness will always start up front on the offensive line. We ran the ball well. Richard Hall had a great game. He had 238 yards but we had 350 as a team, and that?s a credit to our offensive line. On defense, they had 24 rushes for 37 yards. We certainly played well up front on both sides of the ball. When you do that, you tend to make the game one-dimensional. Because of that, we won the football game.
?Physically, we came through the game with some bumps and bruises, but we?ll be at full strength for Syracuse. We?re pretty healthy right now, which is a key to our success. If you?re able to stay healthy as a team, then you?re keeping your experienced players on the field.
About Syracuse:
?Syracuse is a football team that I have a great deal of respect for. Playing this game gives us a chance to do a couple of things. First, it gives our seniors a chance to experience the Big East which we will be heading towards next season. We want to build on that. Secondly, it allows us to play an opponent that we will play in the future, which gives us a history when we go to prepare for them. The third thing, it allows us to get more regional coverage. This game will be seen and throughout of throughout the East. Lastly, I have a great deal of respect for Paul Pasqualoni. He?s a very good football coach. They had a tough game at Purdue. Things can snowball on you when you play away and that?s what happened to them. They have a freshman quarterback who came in at mid-year who is an athlete and very talented. They?ve got some big wide receivers. They have a running back, Walter Reyes, who is in the Heisman hunt. They have a defense that has five starters back. They?re a well-coached football team. We are looking forward to the challenge.
?In Ohio State, Miami and Syracuse, we have one of the toughest out-of-conference schedules in the country?I think we?re ranked third.
?We can?t move indoors to practice, so we?ll have to just go up and play. I do think playing in a dome is a different atmosphere. It gets loud up there. UC has played very well away from home in the past and I think (our players) will be excited for the opportunity.
About the UC defense:
?We?re concerned about the yardage (given up by the defense), but we?re more concerned about the wins. We?re giving up some plays. The thing that is positive to me is that we?re giving up some plays doing something that we can improve at. If we play a little bit better technique, if we don?t make this mental breakdown, things are going to be okay. Our guys are playing hard. It?s a new system. We?re evolving. There are going to be some mistakes made. This first year, I don?t care how many yards we give up as long as we win. We have not played our best football game yet.
Syracuse running back Walter Reyes:
?(Walter) Reyes is a good running back. They?re a power football team that runs some option. He?s been very successful the past two years. He was one of the highest recruited running backs in the state of Ohio.
About Hannibal Thomas and the passing game
?Hannibal (Thomas) had an excellent game this past week. He continues to make the tough catch and the run after catch. That is critical. About every play he made Saturday, there was a good run after catch which turned into a big play. We need to continue to have a go-to guy. We need to have some other receivers step up. Two or three critical things to the success of a passing game are: One, you have to protect your quarterback. If your quarterback is sitting on the ground or has someone in his face, it makes it tough for him to complete those passes. I give credit to our offensive line, Coach (Jeff) Uhlenhake, and our offensive staff. (Gino Guidugli) has not been sacked this season. We?ve had great protection and Gino gives you that added capability of getting out of the pocket. He does a nice job of avoiding the rush. He has a quick release and does a good job of getting rid of the ball. It?s a group effort. You also have to have the ability to run the football like we did last Saturday because it will open up the passing lanes.?