University of Richmond Athletics
Postgame Quotes: No. 9 Richmond Beats Wagner, 21-6
Richmond Head Coach
Wayne Lineburg
Opening statement
"We're never going to apologize for getting a win. We played hard. Obviously there are some things in the game we need to do better. Protect the ball, first and foremost. In the end, the kids hung in there. In the first half, we struggled. In the second half, we bounced back and got the run game going which really helped us. We had to give our hats off to the defense. They held us in the game."
Halftime talk
"The obvious is to protect the football. That was a big point of emphasis in the second half. We told the defense to keep playing like they're playing. We also told the team not to panic. We've been in these situations before. We have to be ready to step up and the kids responded to that. It certainly wasn't perfect, but we'll take a win anytime."
Running game
"We thought we could wear them down some if we got our run game going. We had a mentality to go after them. We wanted Kendall Gaskins to get some momentum going. I think it's more about attitude than anything else. We felt we were running the ball effectively and chewing up the clock."
Lesson to take away from game
"We have to go back and have a better week in practice. We have a lot of things to clean up. Again, the kids hung in there. We did win the game. It's always better with a win."
Bouncing back from turnovers
"We just needed to relax and take care of the football. We have good players. We just need to work on fundamentals. We'll just go back, work on fundamentals, relax and we'll be fine."
Redshirt senior QB Aaron Corp
Turnovers in the first half
"Game was really tale of two halves. We had five turnovers in the first half. We were just lucky the defense stepped up and got as many stops as they could."
On early touchdown
"Anytime you get a big score early, it's really helpful."
On the halftime talk
"Cut out the turnovers. It wasn't really any big pep talk. We knew we had to take care of the ball. We knew if we could take care of the ball, we knew things could take care of themselves."
Running game emphasized to cut down on turnovers
"It was just about being physical. The offensive line did a tremendous job on those first two drives. We ran the ball a ton and I really think that helped get our offense going."
Adjustment from Duke to Wagner
"Our goal this week was to go 2-0 and that's what we were focused on. We accomplished our goal and now we move on next week to VMI."
Redshirt Junior LB Darius McMillian
Defense's mentality
"We're all one team. If the offense has any type of struggle, we're there to boost them up. Last week the offense saved us, so this week we went in with the mentality we had to respond with anything."
Overall performance
"As a defensive unit, we just wanted to fly around. Put our schemes up against their schemes. We wanted to have our offense's back any time they needed it. Next week, we have to look to get better and move on."
Junior FB Kendal Gaskins
"The early touchdown helped a lot because it got the crowd in it and we showed we had the chance to get points early. The touchdown early was key for our confidence."
Running game
"We said we were going to run behind Richard [Muldrow] and Ryan [Goss]. We had that mentality that no one was going to stop us in the second half. I just credit the offensive line. They did a tremendous job. We kept running the ball and they didn't say they were tired. We were fortunate enough to get some good runs in the second half."
Wagner Head Coach Walt Hameline
Impressions of Richmond
"They are a real good football team. Physically, their defense pretty much man-handled us. That was probably the big difference. Our defense hung in there while they ran the football, we were just on the field too long defensively."
Long touchdown taken away
"We came into this and we got them to turn the ball over, we just couldn't capitalize. The score got called back because of a penalty, which is part of the game, but that touchdown would've helped us."
If Wagner had capitalized on Richmond turnovers
"The game would've been different. We could've moved the ball a little bit and kept them out of the endzone. At that point, anything can happen."