Louisiana Post Game Quotes
2020 LendingTree Bowl – Louisiana vs. Miami University
Louisiana Post-Game Quotes
Head Coach Billy Napier
Opening statement: “First of all, what a terrific week. I thought Lendingtree was a great sponsor. The bowl staff and the city of Mobile provided us an outstanding week for everyone involved. Our players, staff, administrators, fans and all the families involved had a really first-class experience. Miami was a great opponent and were coached by one heck of a football coach. You can tell that Chuck [Martin] is a really good coach and has a great understanding of how to win. I have a lot of respect for how his team plays in all three phases of the game. The discipline, the detail, the fundamentals that they play with. I think they are really sound in what they do and there’s no mistake that they are a league champion. They played really well tonight and gave us some issues.
“This group of seniors on our team is a product of a lot of work. We started a long time ago last January. We benefit from having great leadership in our administration, having great investors in our community that support our athletic department and the RCF. They support our football program and our athletic department. We’ve been given resources to go hire a tremendous staff and hats off to our coaches. I thought they did a great job with this team. This is a team that I felt went through a lot of adversity. We had to adjust and patch up issues the entire year and I thought our staff did a great job of positioning out players for success. Tonight our guys were at their best in times that it mattered the most. We weren’t perfect tonight. Miami [Ohio] had a great plan and played a great game and made it very competitive. It was a great team win.”
On the way the game was played by both teams: “I thought it was a really great game. We had a few undisciplined and uncharacteristic penalties at times, but for the most part I thought we played well. We didn’t turn the ball over and I thought we tackled well. Outside of the one fumble we had early on, I felt we had good ball security and we had some really good practices leading up to the game. We made progress as a team. I thought the bottom half of our roster got better with their opportunities to practice. A lot of that had to do with the fact that we were playing against a really good opponent. Each team had a really good identity and I think that led to a really good football team.”
On the play of quarterback Levi Lewis: “I thought Levi’s ability to make plays with his feet was the difference in the game. There were times where there were critical plays where he made some plays, like the naked touchdown. That wasn’t how we drew that play up, but he made the cornerback miss on the blitz and then he made the great throw on the back line of the end zone. Those are the type of plays that you might not expect and don’t draw up on the chalk board. He does a really good job of making decisions that help win the game. He does a good job of taking calculated risk. He takes care of the ball. We ask him to do a lot. He’s a really good student of the game. He always tries to put the team in a position to win and really isn’t concerned with the numbers at the end of the day. I thought he was really good tonight.”
Redshirt senoir K Stevie Artigue
On the field goal to put them up two scores: “Well Bam saved me on that play. I was set up a yard too far back and he kept telling me to retake my steps. So I recounted and set up for seven yards instead of eight, thank God he is a heads up guy.”
On his two field goals tonight and finishing his career with a win: “It means everything. As you know I am from Lafayette High. We never did very well in high school but ending this year with an 11 win season was worth it. It was worth losing for ten years straight.”
Sophomore DB Eric Garror
On the adjustments after Gabbert found a rhythm: “Coach Robinson started calling different plays. Then at halftime we went in and changed some of our looks making the necessary adjustments.”
On the Miami (Ohio) passing attack: “It wasn’t surprising to us coming into the game we knew that their quarterback was talented from watching film. He is a really good player and a good quarterback. He is like Johnny Manziel. He can run, he can throw, throw on the run he can do it all so we knew he was a good player we just had to try and contain him.”
On them continuing to throw to his side: “I was like seriously. We were playing cover three and they kept throwing comebacks my way, but I told myself I need to find some way to get a stop.”
Junior QB Levi Lewis
On the passing attack tonight: “I would start by giving a big shout out to our offensive line and how well they blocked today. It all starts with them up front and giving my time to get the ball down the field. When they do that like they did tonight our wide receivers are able to make plays and get open down the field. ”
On spreading the ball to multiple wide receivers: “It was part of the game plan and the plays that we called tonight. Coach Nate does a great job of setting us up to succeed and all I had to do was make the correct reads. It doesn’t matter who’s out there for us. Any of those guys that get an opportunity they make plays.”
