University of Pittsburgh Athletics
Pitt vs. Grambling State Quotes
9/8/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 8, 2007
Recap |
Notes |
AP Photo Gallery 
PITTSBURGH -
Pitt vs. Grambling State Quotes
September 8, 2007
Pitt Head Coach Dave Wannstedt
We're happy to be 2-0. We should be 2-0. That was the goal that I told the players back in January.
Last week, I thought we did a good job with penalties and turnovers. Today, if we do that again against Michigan State next week, we'll get run out of the stadium.
The quarterback situation, it is what it is right now. In a game like this you don't come in planning to throw it 40 times. Our plan was to throw it 25 times and that is what we did.
Kevan Smith's numbers were decent. The interception he threw was a great play on their part. The one fumble he had, there was no excuse for that. Pat Bostick got out there and you hate to see anybody start off that way, throwing an interception. But, he's got to learn sometime and he'll bounce back. That's all part of it.
Defensively, we did some great things today. We stopped them three or four times, including going for fourth and goal. We really overcame some adversity. We found a way to play good defense the whole game.
We've got a lot of work to do. Next week is going to be a whole new ball game. We'll see what it takes as a team to find a way to win a game.
A couple of guys got banged up. LaRod Stephens-Howling will be okay. We held him back in the second half with bruised ribs. Gus Mustakas banged up his knee. He will be checked tomorrow.
The penalties and turnovers today take away any positive feelings from things that happened with the offensive line. I thought we came out well, but we are nowhere near where we need to be to beat Michigan State.
LeSean McCoy just needs to play more. The way he started off, I thought he was ready to break a couple of big ones. I thought overall he did a nice job. He's ready to expand his role.
We felt like the game was in hand. You just don't want to give it away. The only way you lose a game like today is through turnovers.
I give Grambling State a lot of credit. They came in here and played hard. They played until the final whistle. They've got tenacity. They have some good players. Their coaches do a very good job of coaching.
Pitt Offensive Lineman Mike McGlynn
I played ok today but I have to get a lot better. In order to get our running game going we can't take any penalties. When you're 2nd and 30 there's not a whole lot Coach (Cavanaugh) can call. We need to cut down on the holding penalties so we're in positions like 2nd and 6.
I think the biggest and most important thing for us is to get into a rhythm. The penalties don't allow us to do that so we need to improve on that especially for next week against Michigan State.
Pitt Quarterback Kevan Smith
I can't give this offense enough credit for what they did for the team today.
I knew I was going to come in as the starter today and I was expecting to do what we did today and that's get a win.
LeSean (McCoy) did great. Every time you looked into his eyes you could tell he was ready to run the ball and I think he and I are meshing real well and I'm excited for how our run game is going to go because the more strides we take at the running game, the less pressure on myself and the passing game so we can get more big plays and more yards.
The fumble kind of surprised me but it was definitely my fault. It was supposed to be a little flare pass but it didn't work out like we expected to. Those mistakes come with experience.
I felt great in the huddle. I'm starting to build a great familiarity with our line and the entire offense. They have full confidence in me and I believe in them.
Pitt Wide Receiver Oderick Turner
I wasn't worried at all about having Kevan Smith as our quarterback today. He did real well. He's going to continue to get better. He has a real strong arm...a real powerful arm.
I have complete faith in Kevan (Smith). I was talking to him before the game and during the week and I told him that the offense is on his shoulders and we believe he can take us to where we want to be.
We feel pretty confident right now. We're 2-0 and everyone's making plays. Everybody's stepping up and I feel comfortable going into next week.
I think once we really get the running game going then they can't just key on one thing and we'll have a good balance and opportunities to both run and pass.
Pitt Linebacker Scott McKillop
We had a lot of adversity in the second half with us being so close to our own goal line but we had a bunch of people step up and make plays. We had a sound defense against both the run and the pass and we kept them out of the end zone the second half and that's really important.
Running Back LeSean McCoy
Kevan's (Smith) a great quarterback and hopefully the game plan of running the ball for short yardage eased his transition a little bit. Kevan's a good guy and a good quarterback and he's going to do well for us just like he did today.
Whatever I get in terms of carries or passes I'll take. Whether I'm running the ball or catching screens I just want to help this team. It's about working as a unit and a team.
Actually I had no idea I ran over 100 yards, somebody just told me. It's nice to have 100 yards, but I'm not really concerned about the yards and the touches. Whatever they called in we ran and the offensive line did such a great job today giving me an opportunity to make something happen. The wide receivers--everybody did a good job.
Grambling State Head Coach Rod Broadway
Congratulations to Pitt; they played an excellent game and I take nothing away from it, but we helped them a great deal. When you have three passes intercepted, a punt blocked and get the ball inside the 20 yard-line four times without scoring then you've got a problem. Pitt's a very talented team but I though we missed an opportunity to close the gap a little bit. We need to do a better job of coaching.
We always try to have balanced play calling. The way the game went, we may have passed a little more early and then run later on to set up play action, but Pitt defended both well. One of our goals was to spread the field, but Pitt has good athletes and that makes it very tough to do.
I thought our defense actually played pretty well. We gave up 34 points and 280 yards, but most of that came in the first half when Pitt had the ball on our side of the 50 a lot. When you're playing against a good team, that's not something you can give them and expect to win. In contrast, I thought we did a poor job of capitalizing in the second half when we had the ball on their side of the 50 a good amount of the time.
When you play a team that's better than you, there are usually two areas where it's immediately evident and that's in tackling and in special teams. I thought Pitt had a big edge in both of those today, not only on the blocked punt, but also on some of their long returns that gave their offense a short field.
Grambling State Quarterback Brandon Landers
The Pitt defense came out to play today. They did an excellent job of getting in my face and forcing me to make decisions a lot quicker than I wanted to.
Pitt's secondary and linebackers did a good job anticipating my throwing lanes and reacting once I let the ball go. They have very talented, very athletic guys, who were running around playing good, hard defense today.
We have to get better at converting in the red zone. That's one thing that coach really stressed to us after the game, and we know it's true. You have to convert those kinds of chances if you're going to be successful against a team like Pitt. We'll keep working on it. We have two more weeks before our next game to get it right.
