Sept. 20, 2005
Head coach Frank Tavani
On Fordham:
I thought they played a real good football game against a very good Rhode Island team that's making some noise in the A-10 with a win over William & Mary last weekend. Obviously they're a very tough opponent, and now they're coming off a game where they had the lead and then lost it on their home field. They're going to have a pretty hostile week of practice, and for them and us it's the start of the `real' season in terms of opening up the league. It's their opportunity to change their season around and take a step toward competing for the league championship. We are in the same situation. If we came out of that game a week ago successful and were sitting here at 3-0 and Fordham coming in at 0-3, it might have been even more difficult mentally to prepare your team for.
We're coming off a tough loss, and we're smarting over it. I don't think I'll have a challenging job to motivate our team to take a step forward and get ready for the weekend. In terms of how we approach it, we'll approach it like we would any game. We'll actually feel better prepared since we have three games of game tape to prepare on. Look for us to come out and certainly be playing at a much better pitch than a week ago.
On the availability of quarterback Brad Maurer and tailback Jonathan Hurt:
Jon is cleared and can play with a knee brace. He injured the lateral collateral, which if you're going in injure a knee ligament, that's the best one to do. We'll have to see how he does in practice. He'll be available, but whether we use him or not depends on what I see in practice. Obviously the quarterback situation I will be watching even closer. We will practice Brad and Pat with even reps today and tomorrow, and I will likely make the firm decision on Thursday. Hindsight is always 20/20, but I have no regrets about starting Brad last week. My only regret is I should have pulled him as soon as I saw the first ball float out, realizing that he just couldn't put the velocity on it. I put him in a situation that he shouldn't have been in, and I take the blame for that. It's my responsibility to do that and it's mine again to make the decision this week. I will point out, however, that you don't lose your job by getting hurt. Brad's our quarterback.
We just have to move forward and take something out of that game last week. Hopefully it was a wake-up call that you can't just show up with a little bit of swagger to you. Everyone's going to come after your all the harder, and this is a league game coming up. It's as important for Fordham as it is ourselves, and I anticipate a heck of a tough, physical football game again.
On senior center Robert Stroble:
He probably got that concussion in the first series and was kind of out of it. He will be cleared, but is not going to practice, for Saturday. We'll probably more than likely just hold him out this week. He'll be dressed and ready if needed, but we're certainly going to go with Joel Miner at center.
On the second half vs. Princeton:
The important thing is it's not necessarily how you start, it's how you finish. We didn't fold the tent, and I was anxious to see how much fight we had left in the dog and how much pride, purpose and passion we could muster. I said we're going to go out and take that first kick-off and score, and then be down 20-14 going into the fourth quarter. When I looked up, we missed it by a minute, 48 seconds. We had them right where we wanted them, with a chance to make a stop and get the ball back. We knew what we had to do, but in the end it was just short.
On Rick Ziska handling kicking and punting:
It depends on the field position situation. David Yankovich is such a young kid and he showed a little lack of game experience out there. We want him to kick away from Greg Fields, and he didn't on that first punt and he got a returnable kick. So, after that Coach Hachmann said we're just going to use Rick today. Dave's got such a strong leg that we don't want him thinking about taking something off of it. We'll get him back out there, it just depends on the situation.
