Richmond football coach Danny Rocco talks with reporters after the Spiders’ 37-20 win over UVA on Saturday.
On Richmond’s win: “It was a great win for our program, and for our team and our staff. These are hard wins to get. There were a lot of dynamics that went into this week in terms of having a mature and experienced team, a team that has been to battle together and won some key games. We were battle tested. We had a few things that really were in our favor. We responded extremely well to adversity and we answered really every time we had to over the course of the game. Our team expected to win when we left Richmond yesterday, and we expected to win when we took the field at the start of the game, and we consistently made plays throughout the game. I am extremely proud of my coaches and our student athletes for getting the job done. I think there is a reality that coming up here and playing well and playing a close game, you can leave saying ‘we’ve got a good team,’ but that wasn’t going to fly with this group. We were committed to winning this thing. Nothing else would have felt good. Nothing else would have felt right. So coming in here and doing what we did validates that we are in a good spot. I challenged our players in the locker room to move on from this and to accept the next challenge and to start consistently giving our best effort and best performance regardless of who we are playing.”
On the running game: “We really didn’t scrimmage a whole lot during camp, so I did have some uncertainty as to how we would be able to run the ball coming in. It was extremely satisfying though to see us running the ball and controlling the line of scrimmage. All four backs were able to show what they can do, which was exciting to see.”
On the passing game: “Kyle (Lauletta) has gotten confident with the receiving core and they got their timing down. Our line did a really nice job at protecting him. He took some shots and got hit a couple times, but when we are in sync like that we have a chance of being pretty good. There were moments today where we looked really good out there.”
On where this sits in terms of biggest wins of his career: “I think the hard thing about offering it as the biggest win is that it is early in the season, it is non-conference, and it does not lock up any kind of a championship. We have won a number of conference championships over the years, and those are usually the games where you’re walking off the field and you are pounding your fist saying ‘we did it’. This is one game in an 11-game season. I tell my kids all the time that we need eight [wins] and we got one, but it’s a good one to get. Having said that, I don’t want to marginalize it either. This was a huge win. We throw these words around like FBS and BCS. There is a huge difference. When you are playing a BCS or Power 5 programs, that’s a whole new ball game. To step up and play like that and get a result like this speaks an awful lot about our program, staff, and student athletes.”
On the importance of turnovers on the game: “When you watch games, all you hear about is how turnovers really dictate how the game is played. I came in saying, ‘why can’t we just be plus four today,’ and sure enough, we were there at one point in the game and we thought, ‘this is our day.’ To our credit, we have more continuity, experience, I think our players knew what to expect from each other and from their coaches during the game.”
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