Marshall University Athletics
Marshall Football Postgame Quotes
9/7/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
Doc Holliday, Marshall head coach
On overall game
"I thought the defense did some really good things. We have to do a better job when we get that second group in there. We can't be a drop off like we were today. I want to get some younger guys in there in that second half. They did not play the way they needed to play so we need to get that fixed offensively. There is no question that we move the ball extremely well but we can't turn it over. So, we need to eliminate the turnovers. If we do that then we have the chance to be a pretty good football team."
On the Herd's offense
"The only issue I have is turning the ball over. If you turn the ball over three times against a good team then you are going to get beat. You have to take care of the football. If you don't do that then at some point you are going to lose. So, we need to do a better job at handling the ball."
On offense taking what the defense gives
"Our offense has done a good job the last couple years at taking what the defense gives us. We did so today. [Rakeem] Cato thinks he's a running back now. It's good to see Stewy [Butler] run around a little bit and we got some young kids in there now too. We had some good guys have the ball in their hands but we have to take care of it. We can't keep putting the ball on the ground."
On the upcoming game vs. Ohio
"We have all the tape on them a year ago and a few games from this year so you know it will be a lot easier to prepare. We are getting a heck of a football team coming in here. It's going to be extremely well coached and will play extremely hard. We should have a great week."
Senior WR Tommy Shuler
On the offense in the second half
"We can't start out slow like that. The coaches are always telling us we have to start out fast, because people are going to come in here, ready to play us. We have a bullseye on our back, so we have to start out fast and play Herd football."
On dealing with adversity two games in a row
"It's always good to go against adversity and see how our team gets up. We're 2-0 with adversity on our backs. We just have to keep overcoming it and play our game."
On longtime teammate and friend Rakeem Cato's yardage tonight
"When he kicks it into gear, he can go. When I saw him run, I started chasing him. It was just awesome to see him run and see him compete. It was a fantastic run."
Redshirt freshman WR Angelo Jean-Louis
On his first home game and first career touchdown
"It was definitely good. It was loud, energetic, and I came out there and saw that everybody was ready to play. On that play, we drew it up on the goal line, and I went for the vision route. I was pretty open, and I just had to catch the ball, it was just as simple as that."
Senior LB Raheem Waiters
On the defense creating gaps for the offense to rush
"Credit goes to that D-line. They're up front; they go hard every play, and it shows. They get movement and just allow us to go behind them and make good plays."
On the inclement weather before and during the game
"It felt good- I liked it. It cooled us down and let us play hard. It slows down the passing game of course, and makes it hard on the running backs to hold the ball, but it definitely played to our advantage."
Redshirt junior LB DJ Hunter
On next week's Battle of the Bell
"We already know who's coming to the Joan next week. It's a rivalry game. If that doesn't get you ready, I don't know what will. We just have to practice hard, watch our film, do our thing."
Senior QB Rakeem Cato
On the growing hype surrounding next week's rivalry game with Ohio
"There always is. We can talk about that all the time, but it's not a secret what we want to do with that game and how we want to approach that team. They're rivals, we have to get after it. Now that this game is out of the way, we have to focus on Ohio."
Jim Fleming, Rhode Island head coach
On Marshall's playability affecting the game
"Their big playability has an impact, but our lack of performance is equally to blame. It could have been a heck of a lot worse if we hadn't been resilient enough to at least knock some balls out. There were some expectations, and we had some first-game type of things that happened tonight. We took three delay-of-game penalties, which is easy to correct. We have to be more attentive to those things. We did not turn the ball over a whole bunch, which was a good thing."
On forcing turnovers
"That's huge. You want a better performance. You want to keep the point total down. You want more on the offensive side, but anytime you're able to get some takeaways, that's great. We had some goal-line stands and a couple were knocked away at the 1-yard line, which I think took an edge off the point total. Our guys did what we asked them to do: go hard, finish every play and move on to the next one."
