Sept. 15, 2012

Recap |  Box Score |  Notes

Head Coach Dave Doeren

Opening Remarks
"Obviously my hat goes off to Army. I thought they had a great game plan, I thought their kids played really hard. It was a heck of a football game. Our guys overcame a lot in that game to win. We turned it over three times and had a lot of tough flags go against us that a lot of people could argue, I guess. We found a way to win.

"The bottom line, we talk all the time and I said it to these guys in the fourth quarter, defensively it doesn't matter how many yards we gave up in the first three, there's 13 minutes left and if we play great no one will remember it. And they found a way to get it done. Offensively they responded. Jordan (Lynch) and Martel (Moore) got in the groove today. Martel made some great catches, Jordan gave him a chance.

"I'd just like to see us get rid of the turnovers. It's something I can't tell you I've ever preached it more in my life than I did this week and it didn't come through. That's something we have to get better at. Excited to be able to run and pass the ball. Offensively the balance we had, and I thought our defensive coaches, although statistically doesn't show it, made a lot of adjustments throughout the game and the kids did a good job understanding them, they finally came up with the right answer there at the end. It was big."

On changes to the triple option this season
"They started running a double-team scheme where they were loading two backs outside of the quarterback, kind of a student-body option you could say. We went into the game thinking we could take the quarterback away with a certain call, and they eliminated it with the blocking scheme, so we had to adjust throughout the game.

"We started out with our edge players playing cornerback and as the game went on we widened them and started filling our safeties inside of our edge players and I think that was a great correction. It just took us too long, probably, to get to it.

"I thought the first half we did some really good things, except for the final drive. If we don't give them a score there, we're playing pretty good defense. We come out offensively and let them stop us in three plays and then they go down and score. I was hoping we'd get a touchdown in that first series and get things going, but it just didn't go that way.

"Like I said, I think the mental toughness, the resiliency, the fourth-quarter mind football team that we have, the fact that nobody flinched, they stuck together. Tyrone (Clark) and Sean (Progar), both times I went over and asked them to get the defense going, they had a great look in their eyes, and that's what it's going to take to win big-time games.

"This stadium is a place not many people come in and win. I told Coach Ellerson it's a shame you don't get to play all of your home games at home. He has to go play at Yankee Stadium and all these other venues so that he doesn't get Michie Stadium to be his all the time; this is a great place to play a game."

On the final statistics
"I looked up in the third quarter and saw how many rushing yards they had on their jumbo-tron and went to the defense and said `Don't look at the scoreboard, no one is going to remember what it says if we win so just play.' I really could care less about it right now, all I care is that we got a `W' and we have to go home and start playing normal football again. Army is a very unique team and they're a much better team than they showed in Week 1, I told our team that. They were a young team last year; they returned almost all of their guys, a four-year starter at quarterback. They're going to have a good season."

Sean Progar, Senior, Defensive End

On solving the triple option
"As coach said, first off give them credit because they did a great job. It was pretty much what we thought it was going to be. They had some different blocking schemes for us that we weren't ready for, but as coach said, we adjusted well eventually. We missed a few tackles that we should have made, I think that was the biggest thing. But we rallied at the end and that's all that matters."

Jordan Lynch, Junior, Quarterback

On whether he thought it was going to be a shootout-style game
"Just like Coach Doeren stressed the turnovers all week; if we turn the ball over more than once it's going to be a tough battle and we knew that coming into this game. All the credit goes to Army, they played hard. We just need to limit the turnovers."

Tyrone Clark, Senior, Linebacker

On Army blockers
"First, like everyone else said, credit goes to Army. It was a battle, it was a fight, we didn't expect it to come easy, but it's a game of swings and we had to stick it out."