The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Central Florida game quotes
09.16.2007 | Football
TEXAS
TEXAS HEAD COACH MACK
Opening statement: It was a great football game. If you are sitting in my chair and both sides of the ball did some great things to help us win on the road when we had a tremendous amount of adversity, then you go back and say that we made a lot of mistakes on both sides of the ball that could have cost us the game. It was definitely a team win. It would have definitely been a team loss, if we had lost because I have never seen that many things go wrong since the time that we got to the airport yesterday. It was hot. It was really humid. I felt like our guys were in good shape, we had them...they were out there 52 plays to our 28 in the first half. We just did not score touchdowns on a number of times when we were down to give us a chance to put them away.
And the same thing with our defense. We are third and 18 and we blitz, hit the quarterback, he throws it up ad hits the guy right in the chest for a gain of 25, which leads to a score. On third and 10, when we are ahead 27-10 and then they go three and out and out and then all the sudden we hit him out of bounds for a late penalty twice and give them more yards to give them an opportunity to get back in the ballgame.
On Kevin Smith: Their back is really a good player. Kevin Smith, we stopped him in the first half. He had 36 yards at halftime, but I do not know what he ended up with, but he is really a good player. What he was doing is that he was cutting back against us. Our guys were in the right place, we felt like we were playing good defense, he was making really good runs, and then was the time where we missed way too many tackles late in the third quarter when they went ahead.
On Bright House Networks Stadium: That is a tremendous environment for them. Give them credit, this will help them a lot. I told the kids today that I did not think they understood what they were about to get into. It was a trap game for us and a buzz saw. George did a great job. They had two weeks to prepare and George is one of the toughest coaches I have ever seen or ever coached against. When he gave them off last Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I knew that we were in trouble because he never gives anyone off. These kids were going to be fresh.
QB COLT McCOY
It was a tough environment for us to play. I give them credit, they stuck with it and we never finished the game. We did at the end. There were a lot of opportunities and chances for us to score points. We have to figure out a way to get the ball into the end zone when we are down in the red zone.
CENTRAL FLORIDA
CENTRAL FLORIDA HEAD COACH GEORGE O'LEARY
Opening statement: Give Texas credit, they made more plays than we did. You can't give a team like Texas good field position. I was proud of our players. They hung in there. They came back. I asked them to do three things before the game: play with great effort, play with enthusiasm and play to win. I thought we did that. I think we played a very good football team. They made plays when they had to make them.
On never giving up: Our football team is a solid team and they have good chemistry. They did what I asked them to do and that was play a full 60 minutes. I think the turning point in the game was that fumble that made it 17-10. That swung momentum there. Tough loss, but we start conference play next week so hopefully we'll regroup.
On Bright House Networks Stadium: I think the fans were outstanding. I think the dynamics and what is going to take place here is great. I think the fans were into it the whole time. I think I am proud of our fan base and our university and what they've done. We have a great future in that stadium. I told our players I don't want to ever walk off that field again without protecting our home.
RB KEVIN SMITH
On UCF's performance vs. Texas: I wanted this one... personally I did. I think we played with great effort. We played all 60 minutes of football. I think we answered when we had to answer. We were down some points and we came back and we scored. If anything, I think we'll take that to practice.
