UVA football coach Bronco Mendenhall, running back Albert Reid and special-teams coach Kelly Poppinga talk with the media after the Cavs’ 13-10 loss at UConn on Saturday.
Opening Statement
“Congratulations to the University of Connecticut. That was a hard fought game right to the very end. A great college football game. I’m lucky to be at the University of Virginia and lucky to be the head coach of this team. I’m proud of the way my team played today. They fought hard from beginning to end and I think they took a step forward again today. They were clearly prepared to play today and believed they could win and it went right to the end. And that is one of the first steps of a change effort. Significant improvement and that might not be a strong enough word for our defensive performance today.”
On last second FG attempt:
“We were playing for hurry-up field goal from probably just before that fourth down play. Knowing that we might have to go to that strategy. Thought that a good chance that quarterback draw could work, Kurt (Benkert) is tough and threw his body right in there, but we knew exactly how much time we needed to get the kicking team on and other guys off. We played to use that strategy at the end but it just didn’t happen today.”
On Alex Furbank kicking in his first career game:
“Alex kicked for us all week in practice. He did a really nice job to the point where we put all kinds of pressure on him in situations and he withstood it. I don’t remember him missing a kick all week. I’m sure he will feel like he was the `one’ but there were a lot of plays out there. His play was just one. It’s the most visible and there is no way around it. And the brutal fact is he’ll have a hard time moving past it until he does something stronger. We had plenty of chances today, his was just one play.”
Senior Albert Reid
On tough loss:
“It’s painful, that’s all I can say. There were plays on the field that we didn’t make. We have to if we are going to win. I always feel like we are the better team, no matter what. There is nothing that hurts more than losing like that. Especially when you are winning the entire game until the end. We have to come out on top. We’re going to go back to work on Monday.”
On getting stopped on fourth down:
“There wasn’t really anything there. In the future we have to convert that if we are going to go for it. We have to believe in our running back that we are going to convert there.”
Special Teams Coach Kelly Poppinga
On last second FG attempt:
“I can’t tell you how many times we practiced that situation in preseason camp. We got in that exact situation, we have no time-outs, we have to run the field goal team on and get the offense off. I thought we transitioned really well. I thought we could have gone with two or three seconds left there. Probably could have gone a little faster. We practiced it and we made the field goal every time. Now, obviously, practice and a game are completely different. With Alex, he kicked all our field goals this week and I don’t think he missed one. A guy who didn’t know he would even be on the team at the beginning of the season. To be in that situation, hey it’s not one play that decided the outcome of that game. But it is something to learn from and the next time he is in that situation he is going to make it.”
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