Post-Game Quotes

Coach Cubit

On the game-

"I thought we looked as good as we have in the series. We ran the ball, and you want to do something like that to get our kids a little bit in there, and we didn't get it done, and that's discouraging.  I think they thought it would be a little easier, but that's a good thing. I told them at half time that I thought this was a good game for us because we were in a battle, they played hard, for those guys that's a big, big stage for them, and for our kids, as much as you want to talk to them, at the same time everybody else it talking about the same thing, the next big stretch. I didn't think that we reacted as well, but I really like what happened. I know it sounds crazy, but the fumbles I'm not too happy about, but the other things where we had to be physical, and that was a physical football team. They'll come out and hit you, they'll stone you. And they weren't going to back down. They enjoyed the atmosphere and they did a heck of a job.  I think the big key is probably the 80 or 90 yard drive right before half time. I think Tim made some great throws, I think the wide outs made some good plays.  Just yesterday we suspended Doug Wiggins for conduct against team policy, so that's why he didn't play, and we just did that yesterday. He's got some work to do and we'll just move on.  He made a mistake and he's got to suffer the consequences."

On Hofstra-

"This group was a lot more physical and we knew that going in.  What people don't understand is these double A teams, especially back east, these guys don't leave.  East coast guys, they would rather go to a school close to home than get a division one scholarship somewhere.  When I first got here, we lost some guys to that.  I thought they did a pretty good job.  It's much more physical than the other two that we had. And I'd even go back to Southern Illinois and say they were more physical than them when we played them."

On playing Alex Jagels-

"It's good that Alex got in there. That kid deserves everything. It was the proper time and we weren't going to run another play.  You don't run up the score on a good friend.  So it worked both ways. I thought Hofstra, they walked out there and they played hard.  There was just no use in trying to get another one in, and it also helped out that we got Alex in there.

On underestimating the opponent-

"I was a little disappointed in his first fumble, that can't happen. And I think he went out there thinking it was double A, and they came out there and they stoned him. But he came back and he made some nice catches, and I thought Caleb really played well.  He doesn't catch too many underneath balls.  I'm a little surprised that we rushed for that much, but if you look at that loss yardage, 31 yards, that's not good, it's hurting us."

On Tim Hiller reaching another level-

"Yeah, he's going to get better. I think there were a couple times he could have gotten rid of the ball for a touchdown, he would have had another touchdown when we had two verticals going on one guy. I think when you saw him scramble, and gain some yards, I think that helped out. We're asking him to be perfect, and the responsibility he has in this offense, there probably isn't another quarter back out there scheme wise and mentally that has to do what he does for our football team. So when he does make a mistake, you just see that he's human, but I think he's going to keep on getting better.

Brandon West

On Hofstra being physical-

"Yeah, I think we went in the game looking at the fact that they were double A and we could take it easy.  And they came out and they played good, and that's what we needed. We needed that extra push and driving. The second half we bounced back and we played as a team.

Tim Hiller

On if Tim believes he can reach another level of playing-

"We just did little things to get in sync. I felt as an offense we had a pretty good continuity going at times, we were moving the ball, and it really felt pretty good. The first drive felt great in rithym. We maybe missed a block or I missed a throw and we were real close and just didn't finish.  There were probably 9 or 10 plays where we got all the way down there and didn't finish."

David Lewis

On Hofstra's Offense

"They brought a lot of different designs and formations at us, but mostly they were a lot more physical, probably more so than any of the teams we've played so far. We came out with the light hand, but the second half we came out with the head we needed. Offensively formation wise, we looked at what they were going to run, and executed.

Hofstra Head Coach Dave Cohen

On the overall effort:

“Happy with the effort, disappointed with the execution in general. We showed a lot of heart, and the kids played hard for four quarters.” “Quite frankly, I think the kids were a little embarrassed with our play a week ago. All the credit goes to the players, they came out a lot harder today, and I think if we have this effort a week ago and in future weeks we'll be a more competitive team that we've been.” “I think we now know how to prepare for a football game and how to come out of the locker room after halftime. However, we're still doing enough things to hurt ourselves that's going to prevent us from beating Western Michigan, Richmond, James Madison, some of those schools.”

On turnovers: “We talk about defense all the time. The result of turnovers defensively are how hard you compete to whistle. We have not been playing hard enough, and tonight we did.”

On Tim Hiller: “He is very powerful, very strong, probably more mobile than we thought he was. I thought in some of the situations we had gotten him into during the week, we thought those would have been sacks or something where he had to throw the ball away. We have all the respect for him.” “As strong as as his arm is and we knew it would be, he was even more agile than we expected. We thought that some of the situations we had him moving out of the pocket he would have to throw the ball away or we would trip him up, and in some cases that was not the case.”

On Bill Cubit: “First of all, Bill Cubit... I've worked camps with him, we have a lot of similar backgrounds with Delaware. I mean, he's a great offensive coach, I'm sure his son Ryan who was a very good football player is also very bright. They do a great job on offense.” On the offense: “I honestly thought we were going to put up more points there than we did. They did a very good job, they're a very good team. I thought we were going to score more points.” On the defense: “That's for Luke Bonus, he's a coach on the field. He's the heart and soul of that group.”

On the goal line stand: “We're very proud of that. I thought they were maybe going to throw a fade to that taller receiver. Nonetheless we were very happy to get out of there without a score.”

On penalties: “Those are some of the things I'm disappointed in. Our general execution can improve. And some of the penalties were crucial, we were going for a fourth down and we had illegal procedure. First of all we scored a touchdown... instead of it being 10-3, it should have been 14-3.” On the crowd: “We did not respond great with some of the crowd noise situations... It's certainly not something we draw up. We gotta communicate better, and take control.”

On Aaron Weaver: “I think Aaron Weaver's one of the best players in the league... he's got a lot to offer.”