Sept. 13, 2014

Recap | Final Stats

Head Coach Terry Allen
Opening statement …

"You couldn't have written a better script for the day, it was wonderful. I actually came up here with a game ball, and I don't carry them off the field very often, to have Coach [Bill] O'Neill and all that and the ability to share this great day with him made it very, very special. I thought our students were fantastic, and [I'm] very appreciative of the people in Springfield, the way they turned out."

On the defensive effort …

"Our defense did a great job. Cecil Bratton gets a touchdown. It's poetic justice that the first touchdown scored on the new turf is by the defense, but they did a great job shutting them out. That was an incredible interception by Alexz Jones - he stuck up there with one hand and got it and tore it down. We played well defensively. They rose up after our turnovers. Fortunately, our backs haven't lost a fumble this year, but … for us to play in the Valley, we can't turn the ball over. We can't have fumbles like that."

On young receivers stepping up …

"What a great opportunity for Willis [Chambers III]. He comes up and makes a pretty good catch on a pretty good throw and then LeMarcus [Stewart] gets one. It was neat for Gannon [Sinclair], too, with a good touchdown reception after he's been doing such a nice job run blocking."

Senior Safety Caleb Schaffitzel
What were your emotions like tonight?

"Oh, my goodness. It was awesome. Just walking to our gameday locker room was just incredible. Everybody was pumped up, excited to see us, and then making that walk was unreal."

What has University President Clif Smart's enthusiasm meant to the team?

"It's awesome. I meant to tell you earlier, I haven't played with my family's name on the back of my jersey since I was in sixth grade and it makes me really proud, so I want to thank him for that. Just the support that's he's given us in this program. You can see the way people came out to our game. The energy on campus was awesome through the whole week. We had people coming up telling us that they are looking forward to coming to our games, and then just sitting outside the locker room before the game, people were just pilling in to tailgate and just have a good time and watch some football.

Senior Quarterback Kierra Harris
On the defensive performance …

"Our defense, they're awesome. You have to have a good defense to win championships, and that performance that they showed off there was a championship defense. They scored the first touchdown so the offense could breathe a little. They just kept making play after play, and they really made our job easier."

How important will the young receiver be going forward?
"Extremely important, but our motto is when one goes down, it's the next man up - always be ready. Coach Christophel does a great job of preparing ones, twos and threes. So those guys really did step up and they delivered. "

On scrambling ability …
"The defense can't just gameplan against us. We have to keep the defense guessing, but the O-line, our wideouts, or backs - they make it tough on the defense, not just me. Like I've always said, they make my job easy, so when the defense goes man-to-man, it's kind of easy just to take off running."

On turnovers …
"We can't turn the ball over. Luckily, we had a great defense that caused turnovers to give the ball right back to us. But turnovers are a no-no. I'm pretty sure coach Allen will hit on that pretty heavy tomorrow evening.

On Marcelo Bonani's 49-yard field goal …

"That was big time. To tell you the truth, I didn't know Bo had it in him. I thought at 48, 49 [yards], 'OK, maybe coach Allen is just taking a shot, but that was big time. That takes some pressure off the offense to know that if we get the ball to midfield, we have a field-goal kicker who can kick it that far."

Sophomore Linebacker Dylan Cole
How well do you think the team executed the gameplan?

"We didn't think they were going to stretch the perimeter, so I didn't think the outside guys were going to have a big game. It was a lot of up-the-middle-type running the offense and exactly what we thought. I think we played well, we had a lot of people flying around, a lot of young guys flying around, too, so that's great to see. I think we executed well."

Redshirt-Freshman Running Back Calan Crowder
On the running game …
"In the beginning it was a little tough, but as the game started going on, the passing game started getting better and opened up the running lanes a lot better."

On the multiple-back running game …
"It's always great to have another person step up and run even harder and get a break and come back and then get back at it."