Sept. 14, 2004

Head coach Frank Tavani

on last week's win over Georgetown:

I was extremely proud of the way our football team played and performed. We talked about that the night before about walking into adversity, and the things that happen when you're on the road you certainly have a little more adversity. We created some of that ourselves, when you turn the ball over five times and you still win, some people might think that you're lucky or your opponent isn't very good, but what I've seen is heart out there. When your offense turns the ball over five times most of the times in scoring territory for Georgetown and our defense held them to two field goals, that's just a monumental effort on their part and everybody just kept hanging together. We talk about playing the next play and the next play might be the ball game. Then you look at Drew Brown, the epitome of how our defense has started this season with the relentless pursuit effort, doing pursuit drill after pursuit drill, and he was the backside end on that play that got tipped by Witherspoon. He was on the complete backside of the play but he kept running to the ball and got a touchdown.

on this week's match-up with Princeton:

To us, that was simply goal number two, and now it's on to goal number three. It's one goal at a time and so far we don't take any evaluation, we'll sit back and evaluate how we're doing once all 11 goals are completed. What better could you ask for than a Saturday night game at one of the premier venues in the country to play football, against a top academic university such as Princeton. It's as good as it gets in college football and we're extremely excited to go down there and play a night game. This is what our kids grew up with, playing night games in high school, so they're pretty excited. We have two games under our belt which could be to our advantage, but we don't have any film on them at all since it's their season opener, their home opener, and we beat them last year so I'm sure they're pounding that into their kids. The bottom line is, to go down there and block, tackle and make plays.

on the play of Lafayette's quarterbacks:

Brad Maurer has really taken some hits out there, I'm surprised he's still walking today. We had some internal line problems at the last minute, a couple of things that happened and then you go out with a line you haven't practiced with. We made a lot of mental errors particularly in our protection which is uncharacteristic for that group. Brad had the last turnover and then of course we put Pat Davis in and he has his first pass tipped and intercepted, but we don't worry about that. We have full confidence in both of those kids. I have no intention in changing anything, we're moving forward. Brad's our starter and Pat's going to play, we have two quarterbacks and that's how we're going to do it.

on the play of the defensive line:

We felt one of the biggest changes we had to make defensively was in our defensive line play. Looking at the tapes in the offseason they made very few plays and weren't creating many situations for us. This year they're creating things for us and making that push, letting the linebackers make plays and that's what your defense is supposed to do. It's also an attitude of our defense overall, they've got a real attitude about themselves and we're utilizing that in a positive way.

on the final touchdown drive against Georgetown:

I just watch the flow of the game and where Joe is energy-wise. He's working his way back into shape, he's doing a heck of a job, and he's pounding people. They're paying a price for hitting him. Our idea is to keep him fresh down the stretch, and he wasn't quite ready. In fact, I think he got sick on the sidelines, he had some salt tablets at an untimely moment, and it made him pretty sick on the sideline. I heard from some others it was quite a show, and fortunately he felt better after that. We want to keep him fresh, and we have a lot of confidence in Jonathan Hurt. He's something special now, and Alfred Belton also. When these kids get the opportunity they're doing something out there.

We thought about things and we knew as soon as Joe got in there they were going to look at him, and you know me too well to know that I'm not one to be conservative in those situations, so we went to the play-action and Pat found Joe for the touchdown.

Junior receiver Joe Ort on his touchdown reception:

Earlier in the game (Brandon) Stanford had run a curl route and faked to the inside, and the corner jumped inside so I just ran the same route, then went to the fade and left him behind.

Senior punter Mike Davis on the special teams:

Coach Hackman does a great job with special teams, he emphasizes every day before the game that we have to make game-changing plays on special teams, and that was just another opportunity for us. Give credit to Larry Johnson and Chris Williams, they're the gunners for us and Larry made the play.

Junior end Andrew Brown on his interception and touchdown:

It wasn't just me, I'm just representing everybody in the play. Mike had a great kick and Larry Johnson downed it at the one. Dion (Witherspoon) hit the quarterback as he was throwing, Mo (Maurice Bennett) got to the ball and tipped it up in the air, and I caught it so it was a long list of guys involved in that play. I knew we were close to the end zone and when I turned around I just tried to cross the first line I saw, so when I crossed the line I didn't know if it was the five or it was the goal line. I fell down and looked around, and saw the referee (put his hands in the air) and just started celebrating with my teammates.

Coach Tavani on Wes Erbe's recovery from injury:

I hope Wes is closer to being ready, I think we're pretty good now and with Wes we're even better. That's not to take anything away from Dion Witherspoon and Justin Stovall, but Wes is a heck of a ball player, he's a senior and he's a captain and he'll be leading the way. I can tell by the look on his face if he's ready or not, and I think he's real close.

on Princeton's offense compared to Georgetown:

Princeton has a guy like that (Georgetown's Kim Sarin) in Veach and then Benson is 6-2 and 230 pounds. He's a back who can pound you and I'm sure they'll be doing that in their running game. A guy like that, you have to hit him all the harder and take him low and he'll slow down a bit.

on Rick Ziska's 48-yard field goal:

When Rick made the kick the referee came back to me and said, "Coach, I think that ball's still going." His confidence and getting healthy this year put Rick in a great situation. I keep coming back to this, but I think the experience he had this summer pitching in Legion ball has given him some confidence and we're using that to help him with his kicking. It's just a confidence situation, these kids are young, there are full scholarship kickers who miss chip shots. But we're really happy with Rick and he's doing a great job for us right now.