Central Michigan University Athletics
MAC Championship Game Quotes
12/1/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
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Post-Game Quotes
Central Michigan Chippewas Quotes
Head Coach Brian Kelly Damien Linson Mike Ogle Dan LeFevour Ohio Quotes Todd Koenig: Jameson Hartke: Brad Bower: Kalvin McRae:
On First MAC Championship since 1994
“This was the culmination of a long season and these kids fought hard to come back.”
On Freshman Quarterback Dan LeFevour
“I’m not ready to put him in the Hall of Fame, but he’s obviously the story of the game. He took the reign of our offense and the trust of everybody and has developed every week. He’s done some really good things and he’s going to get better and better because of who he is. He wants to get better, and that’s the luxury as a coach because you’ve got a kid who wants to get better.”
On MAC Championship Experience
“It’s a classy event and that’s the way our kids played today. They played great football. We made the plays when we needed to. Ohio came in with a game plan to put a lot of pressure on our redshirt freshman quarterback and he made some great throws, but his receivers stepped up big. Damien Linson was unstoppable today. He got man-to-man coverage and he exploited it every time. When they double teamed him in the fourth quarter he made a great catch.”
“It’s about players making plays when you have two really good football teams. Frank’s team is what you saw. They’re physical and play hard for four quarters. We got some big plays on them and forced them to do some things they don’t like to do and that’s throw the football.”
On Breaking Records, national TV
“We wanted these opportunities. We talked about this all the time with the guys that if you get these opportunities, you have to take advantage of them. There’s no sense in getting that shot in this venue and coming up here and not playing your best football. They write a lot of stories about people not making the best of opportunities, but these kids, when they get the opportunities, they make the best of them.”
On the game
“It was great. Coach told us before the game that we would have a lot of opportunities to make some great plays, and he trusted me and gave me my shots, so I just tried to make every play that I had the opportunity to make.”
On winning the MAC Championship
“It feels great, you know, but we knew in August that we were going to be here. We just had to show up and make it true.”
On the excitement of playing, winning, and his thoughts on the future
“It’s fun when I have the players I do around me. I have at least four All-Conference players around me, so it’s a lot of fun. We have a lot of guys returning next year not to mention Coach Kelly, so you can’t help but to be excited. It’s a great feeling to be coming back for the Motor City Bowl. We know how great of a place Ford Field is now so it’s going to be fun.”
Head Coach Frank Solich:
(on game): “We played a very good football team and they were on top of their game. We knew we had to cut back on allowing them to make big plays and we were not able to do that.”
(on Lefevour): “He is an outstanding player and it has been shown all season long. He put the ball exactly where it needed to be all game long and I think he showed a lot of poise throughout the course of the game.”
(on quarterback situation): “Central Michigan took us out of rhythm and it was difficult to have three different quarterbacks in the game, but we were beat in several areas and it wasn’t just the quarterback situation which caused us to lose this football game.”
(on CMU offense) “They made big plays, we let them get 20, 30 yards at a time and that kills your moral. We would stop them three or four times in a row and then give up a big play really hurt us.”
(on Ohio’s season): “The loss hurts right now, be when we look back it was great to get here and we did have a great season. We just didn’t finish what we started and we just have to carry this on into next year and get it done.”
(on Ohio defensive play) “We knew coming in they liked big plays and if you play good defense they aren’t use to having long drives, so we tried to limit their big plays. When you play good defense and then give up one play like that momentum builds on their side.”
(on offensive play): “We had some good drives, but couldn’t finishing anything off. We also had three big turnovers which really hurt us. Coach always says turnovers are key, whoever wins that battle is going to win the game and we lost that battle tonight.”
(on CMU defense against the run): “They just played great defense and played great ball, you have to give them credit. They stopped us from running the ball like they have against others all season.”
