University of Richmond Athletics
No. 1 Richmond Downs VMI, 38-28: Postgame Quotes
Sept. 26, 2009
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VMI Head Coach Sparky Woods
Opening Statement:
"I'd like to start out by congratulating Richmond and Head Coach Mike London. They're a great team. It was a great opportunity for us to play a defending national championship team. I am very impressed with the whole Richmond team. I'm really proud of our guys, we competed very hard, we have a lot of players out with injuries and the younger guys stepped in so I think that they played very hard and I'm proud of how we compared. They did everything we asked. We're going to learn a great deal from this film. We obviously have to play pass defense better and do a better job covering kicks. I'm really proud of how we protected the football, it gave us a chance to get in the game and not give away any points."
Evaluate pass defense:
"I think that obviously the long ball is where we struggled, we're playing a lot of guys before they are ready to play; we have a young roster. Several times when I thought (Eric) Ward did a great job staying in the pocket he would throw it a long way, and that's a long way to cover. It makes it harder to defend those guys. We've got to rush pass better and get closer to their guys. We played a better pas defense this week than we did last week so we're making progress but we've got to keep it up."
Running game:
"Our boys really stepped up. We ran one play 66 yards against the defending national champions, so I think we ran pretty well."
Patience with offense:
"Our offense isn't play from behind offense, we don't want to get behind, but when we watch this film we'll better be able to analyze how we played today."
On playing physical:
"Our practices are physical; it doesn't matter what team we're playing against. But this team is physical. If you look at Richmond roster, they have one sophomore and nine redshirt seniors; their team is just older than ours and ready to play more physical. But we come out to every game playing physical."
Head Coach Mike London
Opening Statement:
"First of all, my hat goes off to Sparky Woods and the VMI Keydets. They did an excellent job of playing hard and staying in the game. They executed their offense well and we made sure we had every assignment on every play. We missed a couple of tackles and they played well enough to win. I was happy Eric Ward stepped up and managed the offensive and managed the game. We seemed like he was in sync with everything except that one turnover. I told the guys VMI is a great effort team. They play four quarters and if they're hanging around your going to get their best. We saw that today. It feels pretty good to be 4-0 and enjoy a win like this."
Responding to their offense:
"They're a good football team. They have a good offensive scheme and their a physical team so we had to respond. They hit you, you have to hit them back."
On VMI's unique offense:
You learn that you have to tackle. We won't necessarily dissect this offensive schemes in terms of what we do of what we do against other teams but it is a good learning tool. Offensively, they play a defense that we will probably see again so that was good for our offense.
Junior DE Martin Parker
Dealing with VMI offense:
"All we had to do is play assignment football. So as long as everyone gets their guy, and stops the offense the defense should be good. All in all, it's just assignment football."
"We returned to the game with the mindset we had to stop the option. Even though we were up by 10 points, we knew we had to go back out there and make a stance. All in all, as a defense we came in and did what we had to do."
Sophomore WR Donte Boston
Believing in Richmond's ability to pass against VMI:
"All season, we've made a goal to get Eric Ward his 300 yards, so today we had mindset to do just that. We believed in [Eric] Ward's ability to read the defense, which he does extremely well."
On Eric Ward finding the open receiver:
"If he has time, he will find the open man, which he showed today. We just get open and he throws it to us. It's that simple."
Senior QB Eric Ward
On throwing downfield:
"I think it just worked out that way. Guys just got open. Coach (Mike) Faragalli did a great job of calling the plays he did. I thought we did a good job of keeping them off guard."
On the offensive goals for the game:
"Our goal is to put ourselves in good field position. I thought we did a good job of that today. We just have to keep it up."
The O-line and ability to stay in the pocket:
"I can't say enough about those guys and the job they're doing right now. They also opened up a couple of holes for Justin [Forte] today. They're just doing a great job we just need to keep it up every time we take the field."
On pressure in the pocket:
"Just watching them the week before, I knew they weren't a huge blitz team. They brought it a few times and our running backs did a good job of picking up blocks for protection."
On continuing to improve as an offense:
"That was one of our goals we set as a team. We wanted to get better every week. I think we've done that as an offensive unit and a defensive unit. As an offense, we have to build upon this game as we have a tough opponent in two weeks. We're ready for it, we just need to prepare these next two weeks to go up to JMU."
On his receivers:
"Donte's always had the tools He's doing all the right things and he's getting an opportunity to play and we got to see what he could do out there. That whole receiving unit has got so much depth and each one of those guys can make plays. We're stacked at that position and give them time each guy will be called upon to step up and make a big play."