Eastern Michigan Post-Game Quotes

2021 LendingTree Bowl – Eastern Michigan vs. Liberty

Eastern Michigan Post-Game Quotes

Head Coach Chris Creighton

Opening statement: “First I would like to say congratulations to Liberty. They are a really good football team and I thought they played very well tonight, so congratulations to them. It was a tough night for us, there’s no good way to say it. It’s not what we had expected or had come here to do. Back since December 13, we’ve been working on trying to be different from other teams in Eastern Michigan football history and had a chance to do that with a bowl victory tonight and get to eight wins. That is really disappointing. At the same time, having not had a chance to do it yet, in talking to the whole group – we have a group of guys who played their last college football game; I can’t tell you how much those guys have meant to me and our football program. I really wanted to send them out with a fun locker room and bowl victory. We weren’t able to do that, but I love those guys and we’re going to miss them.”

On the Liberty pick-six in the first half: “It is obviously a huge play. They brought pressure from what was our back side of the RPO and front side of the run. I just didn’t see him, and the guy made a great play. The kid who knocked the ball is the one who caught it and ran it all the way back. It was obviously a huge swing. Offenses were working differently; we’re by smaller chunks and working it down the field, and not the big plays like Liberty. That was a big play.”

 On Liberty quarterback Malik Willis: “He’s good. We have some pretty good athletes, and it was really hard to bring him down. It wasn’t even bringing him down as much as getting to him and actually getting hands on him. He throws a beautiful ball, and just the little bit of time I was able to be around him he seems like a class act. He’s super talented.”