Miami Post Game Quotes

2020 LendingTree Bowl – Louisiana vs. Miami University

Miami Post-Game Quotes

Head Coach Chuck Martin

Opening statement: “You hear these stories that besides the Final Four the bowl games are stupid and that we don’t even need these bowls, that they are unnecessary, but those people haven’t spent a week in Mobile.  What this meant for our team, players, coaches, families, fans and alumni, what we experience this week was as fun as it gets, it’s an unbelievable reward for college athletes who entertain us all year round.  These bowl games are awesome, and then it ends with an unbelievable football game.  I got to sit on the sidelines and watch two teams absolutely get after each other’s ass for four quarters.  It was fast, it was hard hitting, it was fighting for every inch.  There were disappointing plays that when we’ll watch it again we’ll say that quarterback was pretty good; we should’ve got him on the ground but part of the reason we didn’t get him on the ground is because he’s a damn good football player.  I’m disappointed in the loss, we felt like it was there for the taking.  They got us in the third quarter when they put two nice drives back-to-back on us, credit to them.  They are really good, I thought we defended the daylights out of them.  We didn’t do some things we are normally capable of, there will be some plays we’ll be kicking ourselves over tomorrow, and there will be some plays where we tip our hats to them.  We had two turnovers on offense that hurt us, but I really thought it’s the best our offense has played all year against a really, really good defense.  We ran the ball and threw the ball all game, we used clock to shorten the game; as a two-touchdown underdog we needed to control the game and they did so many good things.  But we’ve won all year because we’ve won the turnover margin and we didn’t do that tonight.  Credit to them, they got the two turnovers and we didn’t.  And they made more plays than we made, they deserved to win the football game.  I would’ve loved to punch the last one in to get it to 27-24 and then who knows, there was plenty of time left.  I am disappointed in the outcome but not disappointed in anything to do with Miami football.  I am in awe of my football players, how hard they play and prepare and how much they want to play for each other.”

On defending Louisiana’s offense: “We played cover three, the defense we ran all year.  We didn’t defense the pass as well as we are capable of, we missed some of their sneak routes and a couple of over routes.  We weren’t selling out to stop the run.  They did some nice things, but they had 40 days and Coach [Billy] Napier and his staff are good so they knew where we were going to be because we’re pretty systematic.”

On the team’s offensive performance: “I thought we came out and played really well on offense start to finish, we really had a good rhythm.  Our receivers were running fast, crisp routes and getting open and if they’re open Brett [Gabbert] is going to hit them.  We  ran the ball against a team that is stingy to run against, we weren’t gouging them but we were getting into second-and-short.  We went on a six minute scoring drive and ate up a lot of time, there weren’t a lot of possessions in the first half  If you take away those two turnovers we might get 30 and win the game.”

On Louisiana: “They have plenty of good players and are very well coached, they’re very disciplined and play the game the right way.  The play really, really hard and really fast.”

On UL quarterback Levi Lewis: “To me he was the difference.  There were a couple of times when the deserved to run or throw the ball well and they and you give credit to them, but there were a couple of plays that he made that changed the game and changed drives where we had him defensed.  He can wait so long because he knows how quick he is.  Twice we blitzed him and he beat us, and I have good players coming off the edge.”

Freshman QB Brett Gabbert

On the rhythm of the passing game against Louisiana’s defense after having a month off: “We definitely executed our game plan pretty well, and the run game helped us out. We were able to run the ball successfully all four quarters, which set up the pass game. We had a long time to prepare for Louisiana and that helped our pass game as well.”

On the fumbled fourth-and-goal snap: “We were running tempo and trying to catch them off guard. We were going to run the ball and they were moving around at the line. I hiked the ball and I think it just slipped off [center] Danny’s [Godlevske] fingers. That stuff just happens sometimes and you can’t control it. I’m never going to blame him; he’s a first-team all-MAC center and it just happened. That play didn’t lose the game for us. Turning the ball over twice and not getting first downs lost us the game.”

On what was different in the second half offensively: “That’s kind of been a theme for us all season. When you get into a game, you are trying to get adjusted [early] on what the defense is going to against your offense. We started clicking in the second half and were able to complete balls down the field. We really ran the ball well and set up the pass game. Everything just started to click for us.”

Senior DL Doug Costin

On trying to get Louisiana quarterback Levi Lewis on the ground: “He’s a very good player who is shifty and smart quarterback. We knew coming into the game that that was one of his skills that he relies on. There was one play where I came clean and thought I was going to be able to sack him, but he was able to roll out and get away. He’s the type of player that if you don’t with your eyes, he’s going to make you pay for it.”

On the job the defense did on Louisiana’s running game: “We really credit that to having the month off to come in and prepare more than usual. We were able to come in more than usual and watch film and prepare ourselves. We had seen some keys that weren’t 100 percent, but things we could key in on. Once we saw those, we kind of let loose from there.”