Nothing I can say that you don't already know, other than Fritz believes Corey Dauphine will be fine and could have gone back in tonight. Here are the quotes from Willie Fritz, Chase Kuerschen and Darnell Mooney:
FRITZ
"You know, there wasn't a whole lot of good to take out of it. I thought they did a good job in the kicking game. I thought they played well offensively and they played well defensively. I thought we were ready to play. That's my job as the head coach to get us ready to play, and obviously we weren't."
How taken aback were you by what happened tonight?
"It was disappointing. I told the kids in there I didn't see it coming. There was a point in there we were kind of going back and forth a little bit and we didn't get a couple of breaks early. But when you play a team like that and you're covering them and they're getting the catch. Heck, early in the game we had a third down and long incomplete (pass) and we get a hands to the face (on linebacker Marvin Moody) and they get a touchdown. We just didn't start very well, and they just kind of steam-rolled from there. You gotta fight through that adversity."
They converted a ton of third downs and two fourth downs early and then it got a lot easier for them. How tough was it for the defense to not be able to get off the field?
"When you get a chance to get off the field against an offense like this, you gotta get off the field, whether it's three and out or four and out. There were just too many times we didn't."
What about offensively? It seemed like that was tough sledding, too.
"They did a great job blitzing. They ran some corner blitzes and four to a side and then we got behind and threw it a little bit more than we normally would. They just did a nice job pressuring."
Even when Kenneth Gainwell was corralled, the defense could not get him down.
"We didn't tackle very well. It will be interesting to see, but this appears to be the worst game that we've tackled. The three things I talked about at halftime were No. 1, our kickoff coverage needs to do a better job, No. 2 offensively we got to stop shooting ourselves in the foot and No. 3 we gotta tackle. There weren't all these elaborate things we needed to do, but we didn't get any better at it."
You sacked Brady White seven times last year and zero times tonight. How big a factor was that?
"They did a good job. I thought we had a good game plan, and maybe too much of it was from last year. They saw a way to change up a little bit from what they did last year."
How do you keep these guys from letting this one linger?
"Oh, we've just got to move on. We have to learn from this. Last year at this time we were 2-5, so we're 5-2 right now and there's a lot of football out there to play. We've got to lick our wounds and come back to work and see what we need to improve on. Navy's not going to take what we did on this film and do it against us. They are a totally different animal, but we are going to see a lot of what these guys did against us defensively next week."
What is Corey Dauphine's status with his wrist?
"I think he's going to be OK. He might have been able to go. I didn't play him."
Justin McMillan threw a couple of interceptions in the first half. Do you feel like the whole team lost a little composure after getting behind.
"Yeah, we got behind and that's when you've got to really lock in and do your one-eleventh and not try to do too much. There were a whole lot of guys who didn't play well and a whole lot of guys who didn't coach well, myself included."
How curious are you to see how this team can respond because it's been a long time since you lost like this?
"It's humbling, there's no doubt about that. We have to bounce back. This is part of it. Fortunately I've had a couple of games like this. You've just got to bounce back and fight through it. That's all I know to do. There's nothing else you can do about it. When we get done watching the tape on Monday, we'll flush it down the toilet and move on."
FRITZ
"You know, there wasn't a whole lot of good to take out of it. I thought they did a good job in the kicking game. I thought they played well offensively and they played well defensively. I thought we were ready to play. That's my job as the head coach to get us ready to play, and obviously we weren't."
How taken aback were you by what happened tonight?
"It was disappointing. I told the kids in there I didn't see it coming. There was a point in there we were kind of going back and forth a little bit and we didn't get a couple of breaks early. But when you play a team like that and you're covering them and they're getting the catch. Heck, early in the game we had a third down and long incomplete (pass) and we get a hands to the face (on linebacker Marvin Moody) and they get a touchdown. We just didn't start very well, and they just kind of steam-rolled from there. You gotta fight through that adversity."
They converted a ton of third downs and two fourth downs early and then it got a lot easier for them. How tough was it for the defense to not be able to get off the field?
"When you get a chance to get off the field against an offense like this, you gotta get off the field, whether it's three and out or four and out. There were just too many times we didn't."
What about offensively? It seemed like that was tough sledding, too.
"They did a great job blitzing. They ran some corner blitzes and four to a side and then we got behind and threw it a little bit more than we normally would. They just did a nice job pressuring."
Even when Kenneth Gainwell was corralled, the defense could not get him down.
"We didn't tackle very well. It will be interesting to see, but this appears to be the worst game that we've tackled. The three things I talked about at halftime were No. 1, our kickoff coverage needs to do a better job, No. 2 offensively we got to stop shooting ourselves in the foot and No. 3 we gotta tackle. There weren't all these elaborate things we needed to do, but we didn't get any better at it."
You sacked Brady White seven times last year and zero times tonight. How big a factor was that?
"They did a good job. I thought we had a good game plan, and maybe too much of it was from last year. They saw a way to change up a little bit from what they did last year."
How do you keep these guys from letting this one linger?
"Oh, we've just got to move on. We have to learn from this. Last year at this time we were 2-5, so we're 5-2 right now and there's a lot of football out there to play. We've got to lick our wounds and come back to work and see what we need to improve on. Navy's not going to take what we did on this film and do it against us. They are a totally different animal, but we are going to see a lot of what these guys did against us defensively next week."
What is Corey Dauphine's status with his wrist?
"I think he's going to be OK. He might have been able to go. I didn't play him."
Justin McMillan threw a couple of interceptions in the first half. Do you feel like the whole team lost a little composure after getting behind.
"Yeah, we got behind and that's when you've got to really lock in and do your one-eleventh and not try to do too much. There were a whole lot of guys who didn't play well and a whole lot of guys who didn't coach well, myself included."
How curious are you to see how this team can respond because it's been a long time since you lost like this?
"It's humbling, there's no doubt about that. We have to bounce back. This is part of it. Fortunately I've had a couple of games like this. You've just got to bounce back and fight through it. That's all I know to do. There's nothing else you can do about it. When we get done watching the tape on Monday, we'll flush it down the toilet and move on."
