Oct. 21, 2008

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EASTON, Pa. - Fordham Head Coach Tom Masella
On 2007 Rams vs. the 2008 team: "It's the same group of kids but it's a totally different team. I thought we gave our best effort Saturday against Yale. I thought our kids played extremely hard. I thought we dominated the game but we didn't play particularly well on offense as far as execution. I thought we played hard and really we've been an up and down team all year. Saturday was a great example of it. I thought we played extremely well on defense and moved the ball up and down the field but turnovers have killed us all year and Saturday was no different. The only real difference was we found a way to overcome it."

On playing "must win" games: "I think the history of the league is our backs have been up against the wall since Colgate and we have to play well. That's the one thing we're talking about to our kids and preaching is that we have to get a little bit better each week and play well and see if we can get back in the mix. It's more important for us now to get on the plus-side of .500 and put two good games back-to-back, which we haven't done all year."

On Lafayette's defense: "You look at it year in and year out and they're one of the best in our league if not in the country (at the FCS level). It's going to be a great challenge for our kids. They have players all over the place, they're big, they're athletic and play extremely hard. The other thing when you throw all that in is that they come from different angles. They give you a million different looks so we have to cut back on some things and recognize their blitzes and where they're coming from and really put together a solid game not only from an effort standpoint and execution, but from a mental standpoint. We have to cut back and do certain things well and eliminate the big plays that they're going to make and eliminate the minus yardage plays. We have our hands full. It's definitely the best defense we're going to see up to date. I thought Yale's defense was very good but I think Lafayette's defense is better."

Head Coach Frank Tavani
On Liberty win: "It certainly was as good a win as I've been involved in in my 23 years here, just in terms of going up against No. 14, on the road like that, and into what was really a pretty hostile environment and a great energy crowd, their second largest crowd in the history of their program. Huge game for them--they're looking to make a mark nationally in terms of the playoffs knowing that potentially our conference, with us being one of them, maybe have a chance at the automatic bid and their conference doesn't, so much was made of that going into the game. We knew we were underdogs going down there. Saw some of their players walking around the field, in and out of their building at the end zone and they looked like a size mismatch but where I think the mismatch ultimately came up was the mismatch in heart. That's what I give credit to our kids about. I challenged them before the game. I told them we were going to find something out about ourselves; win or lose, we were going to find out about who we are, what we are and what we're capable of and could everybody just play all out for four quarters, in all three phases of the game--offense, defense and special teams--and I think it came out much better than I would have asked."

On Fordham: "We're well aware of the talent they have--preseason pick and defending champion, going up to their place in the Bronx is always a tough place to play. They're coming off a terrific football game with momentum, as well, beating a very good Yale football team where they had to shut down as good a tailback as there is in the country. Obviously having two league losses I'm sure they're very bitter about that considering no one has shared a piece of the title or even been involved in the title once you have two league losses. But, you never know, anything can happen in this league and there's a lot of games to be played yet. There are five weeks of league contests coming. As we always do, it's one game at a time and it's Fordham. We're going to have to come up big. A year ago they made two big plays. We have to be able to bounce back from those things. Our defense will be stretched to the limit and offensively we're probably going to see as good a front four as we've seen defensively all year."

On Liberty's second half adjustment, especially of Shaun Adair: "They definitely double covered him and took some things away. The other thing I think you have to look at in all those games is we've lost people and then suddenly there's people in the game that you're not thinking about. I think it certainly makes you a little bit more conservative. A lot of those situations in the second half you don't want to put yourself in a tough situation. I'm not saying we pulled back, but we were satisfied playing with field position and putting our defense back out there. We definitely were trying to score but I'm not nearly as wrapped up in it as long as the end result is what we want. I thought we played well in the second half offensively. We did score, just happened to be off of Andy's (Romans) blocked punt and great momentum there and now you're up 35-14 so you're definitely not opening up the playbook and spreading it out and taking chances and giving the game away. I've seen people do it all year. I can't understand sometimes why people call the things they call. Not that you want to sit on a lead, but you have to be intelligent about it. That allowed them to gang up a little bit on the run, knowing we were playing field position, but I'm not nearly as concerned about it as some might think."

On playing freshmen: "I wasn't comfortable until that clock finally said all zeros. We're playing young men just as we talk about all season--it's going to be those players that didn't line up as starters in the beginning of the year that have to make a huge difference down the stretch and you're seeing it. For some reason it's a matter of fact that at the tailback position we're going to be using a number of people. This year seems to be no different than a year ago but that's the idea behind building a program--to be able to overcome those things and good football teams overcome those injuries and guys come in and the expectation isn't just to stay status quo, we want them to play better. Those kids that have that opportunity are excited about getting it and they're doing something with it and it's a great example to our younger kids. We're going to prepare the guys we think we need to get ready to play the football game and whether they're freshmen or whoever they are, that's kind of how we do it. We said last week, we felt that Jerome Rudolph, through watching him and watching tape at practice and watching what he's doing to our first defense--making Andy Romans miss and stand still at practice, I'm going if he can do that to our defense, he needs to be down at the other end getting prepared to play on Saturday and that's what we did. That kid wasn't nervous. I went over to him before the game and he had a big smile on his face, just ready to go. Didn't faze him one iota. Maybe that's part of being a freshman, doesn't get to you. Had a great attitude and went in there and didn't flinch and I think you'll certainly see more of him."

On comparing Fordham's receivers to Liberty's: "It's tough to compare people one week to the next, but they're certainly in that category in terms of speed. We saw it a year ago, the same kind of play on a rocket screen and the guy takes it to the house. We saw that Saturday and we saw it a year ago against Fordham, one of the bigger plays against us. We'll have to play every bit as well. They get the ball, it's what their offense is about--getting the ball in their playmakers' hands and they have one in the backfield and they certainly have the two wideouts. We're well aware of what's ahead of us and I don't think we'll need any added ingredient to charge us up. It's a big conference football game on the road and you got to have it if you intend to be standing with the trophy at the end."

On Liberty saying they were "out-coached": "I don't think you ever want to admit that. Again, we have a tremendous staff and as you guys know, I give our offensive and defensive staff tremendous credit in preparation. I don't know about `out-coaching' somebody. This game is only as complicated as we make it, terminology-wise. I think we were well-prepared. We might have caught them with some things. I don't think they were prepared special teams-wise to handle our punt safe and have us come blowing through there and block the thing because we were lined up in regular defense. They're a heck of a program, they've got it rolling. They're doing something right."

Junior QB Rob Curley
On if he knows why offense has struggled in second half: "No, not really. I think execution in the first half has been great. The focus is there in the second half so it's not like we're dropping off in terms of focus. The plays are being called just like any other time; there's not much of a difference in terms of play calling. Our goal is to score every time we touch the ball."

On if Liberty changed coverage in the second half and Adair's involvement in second half: "A little bit. They tried to stop things we were doing but all teams do that in the second half--they try to make adjustments. It really wasn't as much stuff they were doing as much as it was we weren't doing the things we needed to do to be as successful as we were in the second half. We have to get better every week."

On offensive performance vs. Liberty: "I think coming off the last week at Columbia, the offense felt we had not moved the ball as well as we could have. I think after our first series that they recovered the punt on, we came back in and didn't have a chance to feel badly about ourselves or anything, we had to go right back on the field and punching that in was huge, I think, for the whole offense, especially the o-line. They had played well and for them to get a touchdown run in makes everyone pumped up and I think early on that kind of momentum can definitely carry over."

Senior Defensive Back Nigel Bryant
On major, classes: "I'm a Philosophy major and a Religion minor and I'm taking classes towards both. A pretty interesting class I have is Death and Afterlife. We explore different religions and how they approach death and how they approach the afterlife. I'm a very religious person myself so it's something I'm naturally interested in."

On the feeling on the sidelines after first Liberty score: "We knew they were an explosive team coming into the game. We made some mistakes but that's all that was--nothing we could do about it. We had to just dust it off and get focused on the next play."

On the mentality of the defense on goal line stands: "Coach Loose puts us in great positions and we just have to execute. We just play hard and keep fighting and never give up. A lot of teams would give up because they think a team has a first down inside the five-yard line will score automatically, but we know that's not the case and that's not our mentality so we just keep fighting."