Post Game Quotes From Ohio State vs. Miami – Ohio State Buckeyes
9/16/2000 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 16, 2000
Recap| Box Score| Notes
Head Coach John Cooper Quotes
On today’s game
“It’s always good to win a football game. We beat a quality well-coached team. We played a sound game against this Miami team.”
On Ohio State’s defense
“We settled down quite a bit in the second half and played well. Our special teams just made too many mistakes.”
On Miami’s defense
“I have to give Miami credit. They put a lot of pressure on Steve (Bellisari) today.”
On Ohio State’s possession
“I’m concerned about our possession downs. Miami did a good job of maintaining possession.”
On what Ohio State needs to do to prepare for Penn State
“We need to make sure that we have the best guys on the field. We’re trying to cut down on penalties and get some consistency in who we play.”
“We have to have a good week of practice to get ready for Penn State.”
Miami Head Coach Terry Hoeppner Quotes
“I am very disappointed we lost this football game. We made way too many mistakes to win against a team like Ohio State. I give Coach Cooper and his coaches and players all of the credit. They out-coached us and they out-played us today. We expected to win this football game. I don’t want to hear anything about a ‘moral’ victory-that is not what we’re about. It was a total team loss for us, we were out-played in every phase of the game-offense, defense and special teams. We had our moments but we did not take advantage of all of the opportunities we had, especially in the first half. They came back in the second half and got some points on us early. We got in the red zone, first and goal at the three and didn’t convert late in the third quarter. That was a key time for us and this was the third game in a row we’ve done that.
“Chuck Stobart and George Belu are doing a great job with OSU’s offense. I’ve known those guys for a long time and I have a great amount of respect for both of them. Ohio State has a very physical offense. Our guys came to play today and I liked our plan but we just didn’t execute it. We had a crucial error late in the game when we roughed the kicker and they took three points off the board. I was hoping we’d make them pay for that but we didn’t. We gave up too many yards and too many points to win this football game.
“Mike Bath had some great throws. Until you’re in the pocket, until you’re the guy behind the line of scrimmage with everybody coming at you and everything going on out there, you cannot criticize Mike Bath. I wish we could have connected on a few more passes. I really felt we should have been up two touchdowns at halftime. We let this game get away from us, regardless of who our opponent was. The quality of the opponent and the atmosphere were definitely factors, but for us, it’s still just a football game that we lost but could have won.
I’m proud of our effort, I thought we played hard. I thought our guys were confident coming into this game and I thought our play showed it, but you have to execute. I’m very optimistic we’ll get better. I think we have a great football team but we didn’t play as well as we could have today.”
