Head Coach Charlie Strong:
On how his team competed: “I like the way we competed today. Defensively we were able to get some key stops and get a touchdown on a turnover by Gaines. Offensively it was great to see Teddy go 25-29 and then watch Dominique go rush for 100 yards…We can always improve. We’ve got an open date coming up where we can improve on our fundamentals and techniques and get ready for the next one.”
On USF bringing the pressure early: “Lattimore did a great job to bring pressure. When they brought pressure we weren’t picking up the pressure.”
On Damian Copeland coming back to his hometown and scoring a touchdown: “It is good that you come back and with him being from here…and him being a team captain it was good to see him go to school.”
On bouncing back after their loss to UCF: “It is all about your mental toughness and being able to bounce back and we were able to bounce back and it’s always good to see your team come together. We knew what we needed to accomplish and we were able to accomplish it.
On not letting last week’s loss beat them: “You can’t let one game beat us twice and we weren’t going to let that game last week come and beat us again.”
On how Willie Taggart is doing at USF: “It is always tough when you get a coaching change. Last year he had a large number of seniors and a lot of them graduated out of the program, but he is doing an outstanding job here. He is a good football coach.
On how they can improve through the bye week:“We still have to get better with everything; the fundamentals, the technique. There’s a lot of improvement that has to be made with this football team.
Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater:
On the way the Louisville Cardinals played... It was a great performance. The guys responded well after last week and we did what we said we wanted to do. It was a great performance overall.
On the physical play early in the game... You try to stay clean the entire game but things happen throughout the game and you just have to get back up, brush it off and move on to the next play.
On adjustments made in the second half... We made some adjustments. We have a great group of guys up front, our offensive line. Those guys work their hardest to keep the quarterback clean.
On the aggressive play of the USF defense early in the game... They weren’t blitzing, really. They were just showing different looks. We felt like we had to prepare for them in two different ways. The past two weeks against UCONN and Cincinnati they played a totally different defense than they played against Miami, and early in the season they played this defense. We came into this game prepared to face a different defense.
On the touchdown pass to Gerald Christian... Thats a play thats been working for us all season. It's a play action and those guys just execute their assignments.
On what the win shows about his team... It's a sign of maturity. We hate to talk about the past, but last year we lost to Syracuse and came right back and lost to UCONN. We told ourselves that we didn’t want to let what happened last year happen this year. The guys responded well and played great football.
On the distribution of the ball to 12 different receivers... The defense was defending everything deep so we just had to beat them underneath.
On the performance of the Louisville Cardinals defense... They responded well. If you look at the scoreboard [there's only] three points. Those guys are a reliable group of guys and they live up to expectations.
On playing in his home state... It's special. It's not all that often that our families get to visit us up in Louisville, so for them to attend a game and make the away game feel like a home game it's pretty special to us.
On fans chanting his name at NFL games... This is my first time hearing that. It's pretty exciting to hear, but knowing that you’re appreciated throughout the country lets you know that you're hard work is paying off. But right now we are just focusing on what we have here at Louisville and will continue to play our football.
On facing the rest of the season after their loss to UCF... We know that we let one slip away, but we still have five more opportunities to win and we took care of one today. We'll continue to fight and take it one game at a time.
