University of Connecticut Athletics
Meet The Press: UConn vs. Louisville Press Conference
9/23/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
STORRS, Conn. (Sept. 23, 2008) – The University of Connecticut held its weekly football media luncheon on Tuesday for Friday's game against Louisville. Here are selected quotes from the event.
Head Coach Randy Edsall
How does this Louisville team with the new quarterback differ from their past teams?
“They’re very similar to what they did before. Hunter (Cantwell) has got a very strong arm and he’s very accurate, but I don’t think he’s as mobile as Brian Brohm. He’s been very aggressive with his accuracy from watching him on film, and we played against him two years ago.”
On Donald Brown getting the majority of carries.
“He gets in a rhythm and he doesn’t want to come out—he wants to play every play. There are things that we will have in our offense that Jordan (Todman) and Andre (Dixon) will do for us that will give him a spell and keep him fresh. We’ve got to utilize all of the parts in the best way that we can. I think we have to give him a little bit of a blow, a little more so than we did a week ago.”
How does Desi Cullen feel about returning to his hometown for the Louisville game?
“I told him yesterday, ‘Desi, you don’t need to prove anything special.’ He just needs to go down and play within himself. He just has to relax and treat it like any other game. I think he’s mature enough to do that now, maybe last time we went down there he wasn’t, but I think he understands now.”
Have you talked to the team about the importance of this game?
“Yeah, we’ve talked about it and they know. It’s a conference game, and all the games are important but the conference games are a little bit more important because of what goes with the prize to win the conference. Our guys understand that this is just game number five in a 12-game season and we need to prepare like we did the past 4 weeks and we need to go out and try to execute better than we did in those previous games.”
On sophomore CB Jasper Howard.
“I’m very happy with what Jas is doing as a punt returner and as a defensive back. He’s making great decisions and when he does have the opportunity to return the ball he’s shown some elusiveness and quickness to be able to gain field position for us. Jas is someone that takes a lot of pride in what he does and he wants to do well. He’s a worker and he’s got a great attitude and great demeanor.”
How concerned are you with Tyler Lorenzen’s numbers?
“It’s not a concern for me at all. Numbers are numbers, and you can take them and do with them what you want to do. The only thing I know is he’s our QB and we’re moving the ball, we’re scoring points and we’ve got four wins. The only thing that we need to do is cut down on interceptions.”
Senior Center Keith Gray
How are you using your experience to help the younger guys on the offensive line?
“It can be the simplest thing. If the whole line is doing a shift left or right I’ll tell them left or right. If we’re doing a double team I’ll tell them who we’re working on. Every play I’m talking to them so they know what they’re doing.”
On the offense working together.
“For offense it takes 11. One guy can mess up on offense and the play is busted where on defense one guy can make a play and the whole defense looks great. It takes all of us, the wide-outs are blocking, we’re blocking, Donald (Brown) is running harder, and Tyler (Lorenzen) is even throwing blocks in there.”
