University of Richmond Athletics
Richmond Football Postgame Quotes -- Sept. 16, 2006
Sept. 16, 2006
Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery
Tim Hightower
On coming off the Duke win and having two weeks to prepare for VMI:
"We had a lot of time to prepare. A lot of film, a lot of preparations and a lot of repetitions. We were well-prepared and we executed our assignments well."
On the play of Richmond's offensive line:
"I've got to give all of the credit to my offensive line. They did well just like they did in the Duke game. They came out and executed their assignments well. I mean I ran the ball but I can't take away any credit from them. I have to give it to them. Judd [Altman], Tim Silver and those guys work really hard. I'm really blessed to have them as my offensive line."
On the team's confidence level:
"The good thing about today is like I said, being the underdog team it's easy to come out with intensity but when you're the highly-favored team it's difficult to come out as tough. The defense definitely had the intensity and as an offense we controlled the clock and controlled the game. We're continuing to come together as a team and starting to get even better."
On the play of quarterback Eric Ward:
"Eric's been great. Even last week at Duke he stepped up and played well and today he did well again. He watches a lot of film and studies his assignments. He's playing like a mature quarterback and not a redshirt freshman. So he's doing well, offensively we're doing well, defensively we're doing well so we just have to keep preparing like we've been preparing, working like we've been working and good things are going to happen."
On the play of Justin Forte:
"I'm happy for him. The running backs are like a family because we all push each other in the offseason, in the weight room. When one of us succeeds it's like all of us succeed. I'm happy for him. He got the opportunity and played well. That's just a small glimpse because he has a bright future ahead of him."
Johnny Campbell
On having an extra week to prepare for VMI's option offense:
"I think it helped us. The option offense is usually tricky but with two weeks we saw pretty much everything. We were ready for what they brought to the field today."
On the importance of picking up a win to start a long stretch of games:
"It felt great. It was a good off week even though it was early. We're ready to start the long haul."
On the defensive approach in sticking with the assignments:
"We have a lot of confidence in our secondary and I think it's the same way with them having confidence in us. I think it's just the confidence through practice. If you don't step up and make a play, somebody else will. The confidence thing is real big and we've played together for a while now so that helps too."
On pulling for the younger players who got extra opportunies:
"It was great. I remember when I was a redshirt freshman and I didn't get to play much. In the time that I did get it was really special. Seeing the older guys cheer me on back then was great so I made sure to do the same for them today."
Justin Forte
On getting his first touches, yards and touchdowns:
"It was great. When the coaches told me they were going to work me into the game I really started to get into the right frame of mind during the off weeks. I just tried to visualize the plays and my teammates were great in encouraging me and the atmosphere was great out there."
Richmond Head Coach Dave Clawson
On the play of VMI:
"I've been in that situation before when I first became coach at Fordham. We had some tough times and we were on the other side of some of those scores before. We were certainly aware of what it feels like to be there. Those guys from VMI played very hard. I thought the effort was tremendous. I'm sure Coach Reid will do a great job recruiting and upgrading the talent on that side."
On the progress of the team and comparing it to last year's squad:
"I thought we did what we needed to do. We came out and I thought our intensity level was great. I thought our execution was good. I'm just proud of the way our team played today. I thought we handled it just the way we should."
On the head coach at the other end of the field, Jim Reid:
"Coach Reid is a guy who I have a great amount of respect for. He's a tremendous coach. He's a very good person. I've always admired how hard his teams play and how well coached they are. In a way I was the outsider this week. He had recruited and coached some of these guys. I certainly never worked with him here at Richmond. He had the first connections with some of these players. I just tried to keep focused on the game and get our players to do the same and I thought we did that."
VMI Head Coach Jim Reid
On the game:
"I think our guys tried hard, and we are a ways away. I think we ran into what I think, or I hope, is the best team we have faced thus far this year."
On Richmond:
"Last year I was disappointed I didn't get to make it down to the Furman game. Those guys know how I feel about them. I was extremely proud of them last year. I promised them all a (championship) ring if they came (to Richmond) -- that was accomplished last year. Their Duke game was just a great win for the Richmond Football program."
On VMI's play:
"I am not sure we did much of anything good. We couldn't get on track right from the very beginning of the game. Offensively, we had penalties early which hurt us. We were just swallowed up by their offensive line. We tried to move, we tried to blitz, we tried to play base defense. That is a big group that can move their feet. They have a talented quarterback, very good wide receivers and a couple great tailbacks."