Louisville 38, Boston College 19: Postgame Quotables

Boston College head coach Steve Addazio opening statement...

It was a disappointing loss out there today. I feel like we had momentum and we lost momentum. We lost momentum before the half and we had an opportunity to recapture it in the second half, but we were too herky jerky. We had too many penalties and too many turnovers. That was very uncharacteristic of our football team. That's what happened today. We had four turnovers and five penalties which didn't allow us to get into any kind of rhythm.

We felt at halftime we would comeback out and we'd be in good shape. They went, at that point, on a seven-and-a-half minute drive, but we still battled back. With seven minutes left in the game, we are on the one yard line with a chance to bring it back within a one-score game.

We have a lot of resiliency. I think we play hard and tough but we were just playing sloppy. That sloppiness against a good opponent put us where we are right now which is losing the football game.

At times I thought we played well on defense, at times. I feel about the same way about both sides of the ball right now. At times on offense I thought we played well. But at times I thought we played poorly on both.

Addazio on the momentum in the game...

I felt we had great momentum at one point in that game. I felt terrific about it. Somewhere, I'm guessing right now, in the mid to late second quarter we started to stumble a little bit. I said to myself, 'We're going to be ok.' We get to halftime with the lead and we're going to be in great shape here. I uncharacteristically decided to be a little bit more aggressive before the half and got it stuffed you know where. So that's me. I made that call. It didn't work out so good.

When they went on that seven-and-a-half minute jaunt to open up the second half it concerned me because you are eroding a lot of clock and field position. That bothered me at that point in time.

When we brought it back down to a one-score game there, momentarily, I kind of felt pretty good again. I felt like we were going to get back on top of this thing. Then we went into this series of penalties and we weren't protecting the quarterback and we were having penetration. That was garbage.

Addazio on the team's effort...

We played hard. Our whole staff felt like our guys were so ready to play this game. We had great preparation during the week. Even today, the walkthroughs we had today, the focus, I really felt like our guys were really locked in

I think our team played with a lot of juice and a lot of energy and really kept fighting through the whole game.

We played a really good football team. We played one of the top-three most talented teams in this league. We played a really good football team. They are one of the top defensively, statistically. That was one of the elite teams in our league, let's not forget that.

Boston College QB Tyler Murphy on the loss...

It's real tough. You're supposed to take care of the ball and that's something I didn't do today, and it was costly. It led to a lot of points for them and good field position. That's something I have to go back and watch the tape and figure out where I went wrong. They did a good job of having guys peel back in the coverage and make a guy look like he's open, and bait you into throwing then pop out of nowhere. I just have to get back to square one and figure out what I did wrong and go from there.

Murphy on losing at home...

It's disappointing because you never want to lose home games. All of your family and friends and the BC community are there to support you and when you lose at home you feel like you let all those people down. We have to figure out what we need to do and what we need to do to get going and win some home games. Today falls on me. Any time you have a quarterback who throws four interceptions, you're not going to have a chance to win.

Murphy on the interceptions being induced by pressure...

I thought the guys up front did a good job. Louisville is a great defense and no matter who you play you're always going to have a hand or two in your face, but as a quarterback you have to deal with that and make the plays and I didn't do that today. You can't use it as an excuse. The quarterbacks who win make those plays. That's something I've done before but today I didn't make it happen. I was careless with the ball. If you take those four interceptions away it's a different ball game.

Murphy on the last possession of the first half...

We tried to see if we could get things going with a first down and see if we could steal some points. We had the penalty, which falls back on me. I tried to make a check but I didn't the line before I did that. You're not supposed to do that. You have to get them settled so they don't move. On the run, I wish I could have stayed in bounds to keep the clock moving. We had to waste a timeout and it set them up to be successful right before the half and steal momentum. If I could go back and change it those are two things that I could have controlled and would do it differently. When they blocked the punt, you just think of what you did wrong. I started thinking about the stuff I wish I could have went back on, but you have to get over it because you still have another half to play. We were able to drive a little bit but I just couldn't finish. Little detail things on my part that I have to get back and fix. We all work so hard all week and you feel like you let guys down. We have a bye week and it couldn't come at a better time.

Boston College fullback Bobby Wolford on his touchdown...

It's kind of a bittersweet thing when you score your first touchdown in a game where we would gain a little momentum and then it got taken away from us. You can score a million touchdowns but, if at the end of the day you don't win the game, it doesn't mean anything.

Wolford on the momentum swings...

There were definitely times in that game where I felt like we had a lot of momentum. We just didn't come through in the end. I know I didn't do my job well enough. We move on from this and learn from it.

Boston College defensive lineman Brian Mihalik on giving up a TD to start the second half...

That really hurt us. Coming out of the half we were down four points and we really needed a stop at that point. We had really good field position and just let them go down the field like that. We had a couple missed opportunities, a couple missed tackles.

Mihalik on overall execution...

We made some big stops early on. The blocked punt really hurt us. But the second half is where we really failed to execute. We made some big stops, but we let it get away from us. That's really all there is to it.

Mihalik on moving to Florida State...

We need to play better defense. We obviously haven't really looked at Florida State at all. We just have to go forward and prepare as best we can.

Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino opening remarks...

First and foremost, the way we practiced and the attitude we had all week in practice, in preparation, I thought showed a lot of character. We came out tonight and competed extremely hard. Left some points out there early when we were down on the one-yard line. I thought our assistant coaches did a great job staying positive down on the sideline, and we just kept working on it and certainly made some great plays on defense. (Gerod) Holliman with the interceptions, the pressure on the quarterback, and then we're able to get the ball in the end zone and finish the game.

Petrino on keeping focus after a strange first half...

The one thing we wanted to make sure we did was stay positive and stay working at it and we understood that it was ourselves stopping it. And we kept telling them we can move the ball, we just have to get it in the end zone when we get down there. It really helped at the end of the half when we got the blocked punt and then made a great throw and catch to get the touchdown right before the halftime. I think that was a critical time in the game.

Petrino on backup quarterback Reggie Bonnafon...

I was really proud of his confidence. He went in there and he was very confident. He knew what he was doing. He's done a great job in practice. We give him a little more reps than you normally give your backup quarterback, so to have him come out and play like that and throw that nice touchdown pass, run one there at the end when the game was still on the line, I was proud of the way he played... And I remember Coach (Garrick) Magee telling him one time on the sideline is that this is easier now. You've been in the games, you've got the experience. Just go out there and play and play your game.

Petrino on the status of quarterback Will Gardner...

What I got the report was he has a lower extremity issue and he could come back out in the second half. He was stiff so we decided to go with Reggie (Bonnafon) and the fresh legs.

Petrino on safety Gerod Holliman...

He should've got that fourth (interception). We're going to have to work on his hands a little bit! Nah, he just did a great job. He's got a good pass rush in front of him, but he's always in position. He plays the ball in the air and he makes great catches in the air. So, to have the type of year he had is very special.

Petrino on the team's schedule...

All year long - when we looked earlier in the year and said, "Hey man, we've got four conference games, some of these guys have only played one." It's been a little different conference schedule for us, the eight straight weeks and then we went five weeks only playing home one time, so I think it's been a good grind for our players and they've done a good job handling it. Give them a little time off now and then have a big game on the road against Notre Dame.

Petrino on the team's performance after an up-and-down first quarter...

It showed great poise. We didn't get down. Coaches did a great job staying positive on the sideline. And our guys competed extremely hard, which is something I'm very proud of.

Petrino on wide receiver DeVante Parker...

He's amazing. His ability to catch the ball, run after the catch, get open. That touchdown catch that he made right before half, that was one of those where you just stand there and go 'Wow, what a play.' It's great to have him back. It certainly helps our defense.

Louisville quarterback Reggie Bonnafon on coming off the bench...

I just give credit to my coaches and teammates for giving me confidence. Every time I go in, the team is always right behind me just as if I was the starter. Playing earlier in the season gave me a lot of help and confidence.

Bonnafon on the time spent on the bench...

Yeah it helped me work on my fundamentals more from the beginning of the season. What I worked on really helped.

Bonnafon on coming out in the second half...

We were never down about looking at the scoreboard. I can't even put it into works. [Devante Parker] always makes plays. It's always good to have someone out there like that be a play maker and make a play for the team.