OPENING STATEMENT:

“It’s hard to win a game when you turn the ball over as we did early in the game. Going down to Virginia, we needed to get off to a better start going on the road. We moved the ball pretty well there in the first quarter, but got stopped on downs inside plus territory, got intercepted inside the red zone and then fumbled in the tight red zone, so didn’t help ourselves. We gave up way too many big plays defensively in order to get a win. Our kids fought, but we just made too many mistakes to win on the road against an ACC team. We’re looking forward to getting back on the field this Sunday. We appreciate all the help we received from the AAC office, the Presidents and Athletic Directors that made it all work and we just need to continue to work to get better and clean up the things we need to clean up to make ourselves better.”

EIGHT DIFFERENT PLAYERS CARRIED THE BALL ON SATURDAY, WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN AT THAT POSITION?:

“One of the biggest things we’re still trying to do is figure out the personnel on this team and find out what they can and cannot do. Any time you go play an opponent, there’s certain things those opponents will do defensively where you might have certain guys carry the ball in the game so that you can be productive with what you want to do offensively and moving the ball. That’s something we went in with in the game plan in terms of knowing the QB might have to run the ball a bit more based on what they were doing defensively, but again, we’re trying to figure out our personnel. Kevin Mensah will get a few more reps moving forward. He’s a true freshman that got hurt a bit during preseason camp and he’s shown the ability that he has the most speed and biggest burst that we have on our football team. It’s just a matter of getting your personnel figures out and seeing what other defenses do. As we move forward now, we’ll get into more of a pattern of playing certain guys because we have a better idea of what guys can contribute on certain down and distance situations, as well as how many carries per game we’ll allot based on what defenses will do against us.”

WHAT HAVE YOU TAKEN AWAY FROM QB WITH HAVING SEEN BOTH DAVID PINDELL AND BRYANT SHIRREFFS PLAY?:

“It’s the same situation as the running backs. You try to figure things out and you see things out of our guys and with all of our guys, not just the quarterbacks, just do your job, play within yourself and if you do that, you can stay on the field. I think we have two quarterbacks that can go out and execute the things we want to do, but if there’s somebody that is more ahead of the other guy then he’s going to play. If that guy is not being productive and not doing certain things, then you’re going to look to somebody else, that’s just the way that it’s supposed to be and then you’re being true to your team.”

ABOUT TO START AAC PLAY, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE CONFERENCE AFTER BEING AT UCONN THE FIRST TIME IN THE BIG EAST?:

“This will be the first conference game that we have, but just having the opportunity to watch guys on film, it’s an outstanding league, outstanding players, very good coaches and it’s one of those things where you need to make sure you go out and compete, prepare properly each week in order to give yourself an opportunity to win. That’s something that we have to do, continually get better in terms of personnel. The league is a very sound and solid league and you see what’s happened with what some of the teams are doing out-of-conference with Power Five schools and that’s just a testament to the strength of the conference.”

ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH ANY OF THE COACHES IN THIS LEAGUE?

“I’m the old guy. I don’t know a lot of these guys because they weren’t in the league before, they were assistant coaches. You might run into some of them on the road, but Charlie [Strong] and I have a relationship because we’ve competed against each other before. I’ve been impressed with all the guys when we go to meetings. It’s a really good group that works together on issues, so I’ve been very, very impressed with the group of coaches in the league.”

MATT SCHONVISKY / SITE CREATOR