TicketsDantonio Disappointed in Syracuse Loss
Comments from Mark Dantonio's weekly media conference of Sept. 21, 2004
Contact: Tom Hathaway
9/21/2004
Recapping the Syracuse game:
?We competed. Obviously, we were very disappointed in the outcome. I thought that we played hard throughout the whole game?that?s the first thing we wanted to accomplish. We made too many mistakes. Much like the Ohio State game, we seemed to get bogged down when we got in the red zone. We got down there four times and we had three turnovers. We?ve got to give them (Syracuse) credit too. I thought Syracuse came to play. On the offensive side of the ball, I thought their defense played very well in stopping what we wanted to do. They were very disciplined.
?On defense, we came away with some good things. We had some turnover situations throughout the game and we responded several times by keeping them from scoring. We had some guys step up and play very well. Obviously, it was a disappointment.
?When we first sat down and planned for this year, we divided the season into two basic parts. One was our pre-conference season?the Ohio State, Miami and Syracuse games, at the beginning of the season. We felt like we needed to build a foundation in those games for Conference USA. We would re-evaluate everything once we got through those three games. We also felt like we needed to come into camp in good shape and have a great summer camp. On these things, we felt we would build our foundation for this year?s Conference USA championship. We are 1-and-2 but we are finding some good things. We are finding out that we can compete with the top teams in the Big East and the top teams in the Big Ten. If we could execute?eliminate some of those unforced errors, we could have won those two football games. These next set of games will obviously be critical to our season in Conference USA. These guys were picked to finish eighth in the conference. I think we?re a better football team. I think everyone in our program needs to look at themselves and ask what they can do better.?
About this week?s game at East Carolina:
?We go to East Carolina this week. We are starting classes this week and our operations guy told me that we are 1-4 in games at the beginning of school. I have also been told that we have lost our last seven away games. East Carolina is 0-2. They?ve had a week off to prepare for us?to get healthy and put in new wrinkles. They?ve got a good quarterback who can throw the ball all over the place. Rios is their top receiver. They?ve got decent running backs, one that ran for 1,000 yards in 2002 and one who ran for 1,000 yards in 2003. They have two established running backs as well as Bruce Johnson, who leads the team in rushing. Defensively, they work from a 3-4. They are all over the place. We need to get ready and go with focus. That?s got to be our mission?to focus on who we are, look at the mistakes we?ve made and try to correct those mistakes, and become a better football team.?
Views of Conference USA:
?From what I have seen on tape, anybody can beat anybody in this conference. The conference represented itself well throughout the nation. We think that there is a depth problem across the board. The schools don?t have the depth that Ohio State has. There is excellent football. There are very well-coached football teams in the conference. It will be a challenging conference. I think that we can play. I thought we could beat Ohio State. I?m disappointed that we didn?t beat Ohio State. But we are what we are. We as a group cannot splinter. We?ve got to move ahead and stay focused.?
Evaluating the Bearcats:
?I think we are a football team that defensively, if we could eliminate the big play, we?re pretty good. We?ve got a pretty good pass rush. We?ve got some guys who play extremely hard in front. We?re going to try to solidify the secondary. We need to continue to improve on the perimeter. We?ve got a new system. Our players are still learning the system.
?Offensively, I think we?re getting better. We?ve found a way to run the ball. I thing our running backs are as deep a position as we have on this football team. We?ve got some young backs like Butler (Benton), Bradley Glatthaar and Mike Daniels. Richard (Hall) has done a great job. We?re moving in the right direction. We?re getting production from our tight ends. We got a good game from our wide receivers two games ago. I think Gino (Guidugli) is a competitor. I like his toughness."
More on East Carolina:
?They?re going to test us. They throw the ball around. We need to get ourselves in better coverages. We need to get better technique. We?ve got to make the play. We?ve all got to take responsibility. ECU runs their people all around. They?re going to give us different looks. We have to eliminate our mistakes. We cannot afford to go down there not prepared.?