Head Coach Mike Riley
On the loss - “I think it at least should have been a
better game than it was.”
On Cincinnati - “They are a good team. They are talented on
both sides of the ball. Their quarterback was extremely poised. He stepped out
of a lot of trouble, made a lot of plays. They have some good athletes, and
their quarterback made a lot of really good plays.”
On the first three series of the game - “It is very obvious
to all of us now that two field goals instead of two touchdowns early make a
major difference in the game. We’ll look back at a lot of stuff and not
like it.”
On Justin Kahut’s performance - “He came back from missing
an extra point by making the game-winning field goal, and came back tonight
strong. I think that’s a good sign. Every football position is ‘you
have to have this,’ but there is nothing like a kicker as far as mental
toughness is concerned. He doesn’t have to make many tackles or hits hopefully,
but he has to go through a lot in that mind and go out and blank out what happened
last week. I thought he kicked strong.”
Wide Receiver James Rodgers
On his performance against Cincinnati - “I think we
did real well. We still did not execute as well as we wanted to. But we need
to keep our heads up high for next week’s game.”
On what to work for in preparation for next week’s game against
Arizona - “We definitely need to execute more. Working with the staff
to keep up the communication. We come to practice to have our coaches coach
us, and we the players just do that they need us to do.”
On catching passes in the red zone - “Any time we are in the
red zone, it is very important to get at least the six-to-seven points out of
that. We were down there many times and couldn’t score, so we settled
for a field goal. That is something that we harp on every single day in practice.
We don’t want any more field goals; we want the touchdowns in the red
zone.”
Quarterback Sean Canfield
On coming out in the second half - “It seemed like in the second
half they didn’t bring as much pressure. We jumped out in the first quarter
and it was unfortunate that we weren’t able to get touchdowns.”
On the Cincinnati defense - “They were fast, big, and we knew
that coming in. It really was a matter of that second quarter, we really didn’t
do anything. Their defense was playing well all day.”
Running back Jacquizz Rodgers
On the difference in the second half - “Well we had
a balance of running and passing and through the day the running game wasn’t
working very well. It’s hard to get things going when the running game
isn’t working.”
On his ankle - “It was a little tender. My ankle held up well.
I got prepared during the week with therapy and things like that to help me
be ready for Saturday.”
On Cincinnati’s defense - “They did a great job keeping
everything in front of us, and just not having big plays get on them. They did
a great job stopping the run, penetrating and closing off gaps. I think they
did their job.”
Linebacker Keaton Kristick
On the close outcome - “Yeah there were a couple of times where
we thought everything was going for us, the fumble for instance. We had a lot
of stuff going for us and in the end it didn’t turn out in our favor but
hopefully next time it will. We respect them as a team and they were obviously
a pretty good team. They threw the ball a lot and in the end that really helped
them.”
On how difficult it was playing against their offense - “We
practice all week and we are ready for it. We thought we could handle anything.
They got a couple of plays against us and we thought we had the game the whole
time. Then they just pulled out in the end.”
Cornerback Tim Clark
On going against the Cincinnati Offense - “It was very difficult.
Any time you have a spread like that and you spread us out and you can pick
out weak points and make us tackle one space and you can take advantage of mix
matches like that and they did a good job of doing that today.”
On OSU’s performance - “Our performance was mediocre.
We know were better then what we just did and we just have to take it for what
it’s worth. We need to get back in the film room and correct the mistakes
we made today and take it for what it’s worth. It’s a learning experience.”