“I thought that the offensive line, at least the first group, did better. They played better. We didn’t have the penalties, we didn’t have the motions, we didn’t have all the things that set us back.”
— Paul Johnson on the offensive line
“It was good that he got a pitch and got a touchdown because he’s been blocking well. I was happy for him that he was able to carry it.”
— Johnson on A-back Synjyn Days, who scored on a 4-yard run for the game's first touchdown
“I just look out and see how they’re playing and call the plays. I don’t have any preset notions that I’m going to throw it X amount of times or run it X amount of times. It’s just kind of what it was dictating. We really didn’t have that many third downs.”
— Johnson on the run-heavy play-calling, particularly in the first half
“All week, we kind of worked on going on two, and guys were focused in. If we had mistakes, guys were punishing themselves and were kind of enforcing it a lot harder on ourselves.”
— B-back Zach Laskey on the team not committing any false-start penalties
“When you have a guy who’s taking off after his first read, you can’t get out of your pass lanes rushing. That was the biggest thing for us because we watched the previous game and how well they rushed the ball.”
— Defensive end Jeremiah Attaochu on defending the run threat of Syracuse quarterback Terrel Hunt
“I’m not sure we did, but I think we were definitely more aggressive on defense.”
— Attaochu on if more blitzes were called than in previous games
“Not really. You just kind of get in a rhythm. I don’t know how many passes we had or how many passing yards we had, but as long as you’re moving the football, whether it’s running or passing, you don’t really know. You just get in that rhythm.”
— Offensive lineman Will Jackson on if he was aware of the run-pass ratio
“I was waiting for it. Sometimes with this offense, the run game is just so good, you kind of don’t need to pass the ball at times. I’m glad we did capitalize on the three passes.”
— Quarterback Vad Lee on his first called pass, a play-action touchdown pass to Darren Waller in the third quarter
“It’s something that we needed because the last couple games, we’ve been killing ourselves with penalties and turnovers and things like that. We needed to just come out and everybody just be focused.”
— Lee on the penalty-free game
“I told everybody before the game, our time is winding down, the seniors’ time is winding down. I really like this team, and I really want to make it special.”
— Lee
“Coach Johnson is definitely 1-0 against coach Shafer. I’m disappointed in myself. I really am. We went into it, and we thought we had a really good plan, but, really, we got our butts kicked today.”
— Syracuse coach Scott Shafer
“All I ask of the kids is that we need to solidify and clean up the penalties. Those are the things that we need to do a better job controlling.”
— Shafer on Syracuse's nine penalties
“I can really say it has to be my best game. I had fresh legs today. I just felt good moving out there on the field.”
— Linebacker Quayshawn Nealy, who had one interception, one pass breakup and one fumble recovery
