Marshall University Athletics
Marshall Football Postgame Quotes
9/6/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
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MARSHALL
Doc Holliday, head coach
Opening statement:
"I thought our team showed a lot of heart and came out in the second half and played extremely well. Our strength program and the way we practiced was the reason we won that football game. I thought the second half showed we were in great shape. We played extremely hard. The defense played well.
The number one thing I'm proud of is our fan base. How about that crowd. That's what happens with great programs and great teams and your fans show up like that. The biggest reason we won that game was because of the people that showed up and showed off and I can't say enough how proud I am of our fans."
On performance of Tiquan Lang:
"He's a tremendous player. He's got 'it.' You talk a lot about the 'it' factor and he's not extremely big, he's not extremely fast, but he's a hell of a football player. He makes plays and he sure did today."
On defense overall:
"I think the defense played well over 90 plays, which is too many. For those guys to go in and play the way they played on defense and special teams, it's just a great effort on their part."
On performance of quarterback Michael Birdsong:
"We won, number one. Any time you can start a game as a quarterback and win, that's what it's all about. I thought he was tremendous. We have to take care of the ball, we had a few turnovers there that we can't have, but I thought for his first start in this environment, against a much improved Big 10 team, I thought he played extremely well and I'm proud of the way he took some shots and then came back in the second half."
On team potential:
"I think the most improvements a team makes comes between games one and two. There's no doubt that we can get a whole lot better. We made a lot of mistakes out there today, but there are a lot of unknowns in a first game with a lot of first time starters and a team that's just starting out too. I think we made a lot of good adjustments in the second half, offensively, defensively and on special teams."
On kicking game:
"I thought Nick Smith played a very good game there at kicker. To be honest, he wasn't our kicker a week ago and then he had a great week and became our kicker and made every kick and that was huge. Amoreto Curraj went in there and did extremely well on kickoffs, which was huge. Then our punter, with exception of one time, kicked strong as well. So, I thought our kicking game was solid.
On defensive ends:
"Gary Thompson can be a tremendous pass rusher. He has to be. I noticed him out there. I said in camp sometimes it looked like we were playing with nine guys on defense, but they showed up today and played extremely well. We played a lot of people today and I was happy with our performance today in the second half."
Michael Birdsong, Junior Quarterback
On Purdue's physicality
"Hats off to our defense. Everything we've done in the offseason, Coach Sinclair really pushed us and it showed today and we were able to outlast them."
On being back on the field after not playing for a year and a half
"Yeah it was pretty good, I definitely have some things to clean up. It was a really good feeling to make it happen when it counted. We as a team have a lot of room for improvement. Like Coach [Holliday] said our biggest improvements will come from the first game to the second game, so we have some stuff we have to work on."
Tiquan Lang, Junior Safety
On what he saw on both interceptions
"I just saw the ball; he threw them right to me. On the first one I saw it in his eyes, he looked right at me. I think he may have thought I was in man coverage but I was in zone so he just threw it right to me. On the second one I knew somebody had to make a play on defense and I went out there, made a great catch and ran it in to put the team back on top."
On becoming the first player in Marshall history to have two interceptions returned for touchdowns in a single game
"I didn't know that, but it feels really good."
Clint Van Horn, Redshirt Senior Offensive Linemen
On the expectations of Purdue
"We knew who they had. No. 54 [Jake Replogle] is a very active player. We got to watch their film which was good so we knew what we were up against and we were able to game plan pretty good."
On the offense
"It's good to be two-dimensional; they weren't really able to cut us down that easily. [Michael] Birdsong and Devon [Johnson] came through for us when we needed it and so did our linemen and their blocking schemes, also our pass protection picked up tremendously in the second half and I think that was really evident."
PURDUE
Darrell Hazell, head coach
On Purdue's performance against Marshall:
"I think Marshall did a good job down the stretch. They got us off the field offensively and then we couldn't get our defense off the field. We shot ourselves in the foot a couple times with those turnovers. It's always hard to come back from pick-sixes. The character of this football team is the good character of a football team, they come back and they strike hard. I don't worry about these guys. They're hungry. Obviously this one stings a little bit but they'll fight back. We missed a field goal and we didn't convert some of those third-and-mediums that we needed to convert"-on missed opportunities in the third and fourth quarters.
On what Purdue can take away from the game:
"We didn't finish. When you're up with seven minutes to go you have to finish. But we'll learn; we'll learn how to finish. You know how it is after a loss. They're down. Which they should be. If they weren't you'd be a little bit concerned."
Austin Appleby, Junior Quarterback
On the team's morale following the loss:
"First off: we fought very, very hard. I'm proud of us. I think we did everything necessary to win the game but we just didn't finish it. The ball didn't bounce our way. We've got a lot of reasons to still be confident. We're not going to apologize for anything. We've got each other's backs."
On Tiquan Lang's first interception of the game:
"That one's on me. I'm not sure what happened. I may have seen a ghost there. Hats off to that kid; he made a great play."
Frankie Williams, Senior Cornerback
On whether he thought the mood of the team changed following the loss:
"I know for a fact this is a different team. It's everybody on the outside that I don't care about, or we don't care about at all that have their opinions. So we're going to move on and get it corrected tonight and focus on next week. I got full belief in everybody I'm with, and in my leadership to turn it around, and that's what's going to happen."
