Despite the 33-17 loss to LSU on Sunday, junior LB Shaq Quarterman felt the team still won the “physical war.” What exactly does that mean?
“The physical war means there’s a lot of one-on-ones on football on every down,” Quarterman said. “When you’re playing against an LSU team that likes to run the ball, physical means dominating the offensive line, their fullbacks who come up to block the linebackers. That’s the physicality we’re talking about. When I say we won the physical battle, that means that we usually smash them before they smashed us, usually.”
Manny Diaz said earlier in the day that LSU’s 50 yard TD run to take the lead seemed to break the team’s spirit and Quarterman expanded on what he saw on that play.
“It was really good play-calling on their part, to be exact,” Quarterman said. “We had new guys in, but you can’t really fault the new guys. It was a collective effort. The play could’ve been made. It just wasn’t.”
The Canes have had some players-only meetings in the days since the LSU loss and Quarterman said it’s only had a positive result.
“Oh, we have had a lot of forthcomings, people getting stuff off their chests, things like that. It was all positive just to get the team better… We don’t have time to sit and sulk about this game. We have a game in a couple of days and we have another game after that. The games just keep coming, for weeks to come. In a couple weeks, this Game 1 will be all a blur. That’s how I see it.”
On the importance of players speaking up: “It’s very important,” Quarterman said. “This school came from people who did the same thing before us. It can’t be the coaches. A coach-led team cannot win a championship. It has to be a player-led team. It has to be people on the team willing to step out front and be the one to say, ‘enough is enough.’ We have a lot of those guys on the team.”
**Sophomore DE Jon Garvin also thinks Miami’s defense outplayed LSU’s offense.
“It was no question,” Garvin said. “We just went out there, did what we did. … We went out there and did what we were doing in practice. They were filling their gaps right and we were holding our blocks right.”
How does he explain falling into a 33-3 hole if Miami was winning their matchups?
“I can’t tell you exactly,” Garvin said. “But a lot of people were doing their job and some people weren’t at certain times. And at those times it was only a few big plays we gave up.”
On the LSU 50 yard rushing touchdown: “I guess for any play that broke down, it was the same story,” Garvin said. “There were a lot of us doing our job and there were a few guys that didn’t. Sometimes there’s a breakdown. We understand that it’s not acceptable to have those breakdowns, especially in a big-time game like that. That resulted in that play.”
Manny Diaz said earlier today that he felt the team folded after the 50 yard touchdown run, but Garvin said he was one player that was trying to keep the team motivated.
“More than anything, just encouraging everybody and letting them know it’s not over,” Garvin said. “It’s one run. That was difficult, especially as they kept rolling on. But eventually, as time kept on, we kept chipping away at it and making sure their confidence came back. At the end of the game, we almost pulled a comeback.”
On freshmen DE Gregory Rousseau’s first game: “I told him, basically he has to know his assignment, but more than anything I’m proud of him,” Garvin said. “He goes out there, gives effort and we’re all one in the same, pretty much all the defensive ends. So he goes out there and gives effort and does what they tell him to do. There’s nothing better than that.”
Garvin plans on putting the LSU loss behind him and focusing on Savannah State for this weekend.
“We’re hard on each other. The coaches are hard on us. We’re just practicing hard and working hard like it’s the same game [as LSU].”
**Senior CB Michael Jackson felt the team did not play as poorly as the score indicated against LSU.
“I grew up with a saying `You didn’t play as bad as you think you did, and you didn’t play as good as you think you did’,” Jackson said. “So after the game I was like `We played real bad.’ But once we got all the stats it was we didn’t play as bad. Now don’t get me wrong, there’s things we could have done better, but we didn’t play as bad as we think we did.”
The Canes had a players-only meeting in the few days since LSU and Jackson said he had a message he wanted to relay to the team.
“Just do your job. Don’t get so caught up,” Jackson said. “I tell them we have different type of leaders. Everybody doesn’t have to make a Hollywood speech to be a leader. But then you do need some guys to make those types of speeches. But everyone just needs to do their job. Leaders lead and followers follow. You can’t be a leader and not be willing to follow another.”
On freshman corner DJ Ivey, who saw a lot of reps after Trajan Bandy was ejected: “He stepped up,” Jackson said. “I was proud of him after the game. He didn’t have that same look in his eyes that he did in the spring. At the spring game, there was a big crowd, you’re a freshman…he was on a totally different stage. He just looked calm and relaxed. On the sideline, I’d just catch him, he would just look and would just follow me. He stayed calm and relaxed and I loved that.”
How does the team prepare going from playing a top 25 LSU team to playing a lowly FCS opponent in Savannah State this week?
“That doesn’t really mean anything,” Jackson said. “Those guys are going to come out and play hard. Just imagine if they come out and beat us. For the rest of their lives, they can say, ‘I beat the Miami Hurricanes’.”
“The physical war means there’s a lot of one-on-ones on football on every down,” Quarterman said. “When you’re playing against an LSU team that likes to run the ball, physical means dominating the offensive line, their fullbacks who come up to block the linebackers. That’s the physicality we’re talking about. When I say we won the physical battle, that means that we usually smash them before they smashed us, usually.”
Manny Diaz said earlier in the day that LSU’s 50 yard TD run to take the lead seemed to break the team’s spirit and Quarterman expanded on what he saw on that play.
“It was really good play-calling on their part, to be exact,” Quarterman said. “We had new guys in, but you can’t really fault the new guys. It was a collective effort. The play could’ve been made. It just wasn’t.”
The Canes have had some players-only meetings in the days since the LSU loss and Quarterman said it’s only had a positive result.
“Oh, we have had a lot of forthcomings, people getting stuff off their chests, things like that. It was all positive just to get the team better… We don’t have time to sit and sulk about this game. We have a game in a couple of days and we have another game after that. The games just keep coming, for weeks to come. In a couple weeks, this Game 1 will be all a blur. That’s how I see it.”
On the importance of players speaking up: “It’s very important,” Quarterman said. “This school came from people who did the same thing before us. It can’t be the coaches. A coach-led team cannot win a championship. It has to be a player-led team. It has to be people on the team willing to step out front and be the one to say, ‘enough is enough.’ We have a lot of those guys on the team.”
**Sophomore DE Jon Garvin also thinks Miami’s defense outplayed LSU’s offense.
“It was no question,” Garvin said. “We just went out there, did what we did. … We went out there and did what we were doing in practice. They were filling their gaps right and we were holding our blocks right.”
How does he explain falling into a 33-3 hole if Miami was winning their matchups?
“I can’t tell you exactly,” Garvin said. “But a lot of people were doing their job and some people weren’t at certain times. And at those times it was only a few big plays we gave up.”
On the LSU 50 yard rushing touchdown: “I guess for any play that broke down, it was the same story,” Garvin said. “There were a lot of us doing our job and there were a few guys that didn’t. Sometimes there’s a breakdown. We understand that it’s not acceptable to have those breakdowns, especially in a big-time game like that. That resulted in that play.”
Manny Diaz said earlier today that he felt the team folded after the 50 yard touchdown run, but Garvin said he was one player that was trying to keep the team motivated.
“More than anything, just encouraging everybody and letting them know it’s not over,” Garvin said. “It’s one run. That was difficult, especially as they kept rolling on. But eventually, as time kept on, we kept chipping away at it and making sure their confidence came back. At the end of the game, we almost pulled a comeback.”
On freshmen DE Gregory Rousseau’s first game: “I told him, basically he has to know his assignment, but more than anything I’m proud of him,” Garvin said. “He goes out there, gives effort and we’re all one in the same, pretty much all the defensive ends. So he goes out there and gives effort and does what they tell him to do. There’s nothing better than that.”
Garvin plans on putting the LSU loss behind him and focusing on Savannah State for this weekend.
“We’re hard on each other. The coaches are hard on us. We’re just practicing hard and working hard like it’s the same game [as LSU].”
**Senior CB Michael Jackson felt the team did not play as poorly as the score indicated against LSU.
“I grew up with a saying `You didn’t play as bad as you think you did, and you didn’t play as good as you think you did’,” Jackson said. “So after the game I was like `We played real bad.’ But once we got all the stats it was we didn’t play as bad. Now don’t get me wrong, there’s things we could have done better, but we didn’t play as bad as we think we did.”
The Canes had a players-only meeting in the few days since LSU and Jackson said he had a message he wanted to relay to the team.
“Just do your job. Don’t get so caught up,” Jackson said. “I tell them we have different type of leaders. Everybody doesn’t have to make a Hollywood speech to be a leader. But then you do need some guys to make those types of speeches. But everyone just needs to do their job. Leaders lead and followers follow. You can’t be a leader and not be willing to follow another.”
On freshman corner DJ Ivey, who saw a lot of reps after Trajan Bandy was ejected: “He stepped up,” Jackson said. “I was proud of him after the game. He didn’t have that same look in his eyes that he did in the spring. At the spring game, there was a big crowd, you’re a freshman…he was on a totally different stage. He just looked calm and relaxed. On the sideline, I’d just catch him, he would just look and would just follow me. He stayed calm and relaxed and I loved that.”
How does the team prepare going from playing a top 25 LSU team to playing a lowly FCS opponent in Savannah State this week?
“That doesn’t really mean anything,” Jackson said. “Those guys are going to come out and play hard. Just imagine if they come out and beat us. For the rest of their lives, they can say, ‘I beat the Miami Hurricanes’.”
