The Syracuse Orange completed a thrilling comeback Saturday night, the biggest in school history, to defeat the South Florida Bulls 37-36 in Tampa. Here are the quotes to prove it:
Doug Marrone on the whole she-bang:
We made some plays and worked together tonight. All three phases contributed to us getting ourselves in trouble, and all three phases helped contribute to us winning this game. At halftime, basically that’s what I told them. We can’t go back and worry about what happened in the first half, about this play and that play. Hopefully we've learned from it. The three units seemed to work together. I thought Ryan Nassib was outstanding down the stretch. I thought he really had a good game.
Marrone on whether this is the most exhausted he's ever been after a game:
Mentally, I’ve always been exhausted. After games it is very difficult for me. I always think that when we lose, I try to do a good job of overcoming the mental fatigue and physical fatigue. And when we win, I just want to get the heck out of there and let you guys talk to the players.
"I’m exhausted. Physically. Mentally. Drained. It’s very difficult for me to . . . a question might inspire me to recall. But for me to recall is very difficult right now."
Marrone on B.J. Daniels and South Florida:
"He always hurts us. As I've said before, it’s not a surprise. This team was picked second in Big East. To this point, outside of USC - which is a very good football team - this South Florida team might be the most talented team we've played to date."
Marrone on what he did to get the team back on track at halftime:
It’s just like rallying. You've got to rally them up. You go in there and scream and yell and everything, that’s not going to help. With other teams it might, but not this one.
"At halftime, I said, ‘Hey, we can’t go back. We can’t worry about what happened in the first half. We can’t worry about this play or that play. We’re going to go out there and get the ball first. And . . . whatever happens, happens.’"
Marrone on how the team succeeded on the last drive:
"Your good players have to play well for you to win, and that’s what happened."
Marrone on the timeout granted to USF just before the final touchdown:
"I don’t know if he’s in...I don’t know what’s going on. And we try to hurry up. And we try to run another play. And then I see someone run on the field. I see a flag go up. I see someone calling a timeout. And I was trying to say . . . I don’t know. I was trying to say, ‘Wait a minute. We scored twice.’ And, ‘Why was he granted a timeout?’
"My argument was, ‘We snapped the ball already.’ And they said, ‘No, they had the timeout.’ I’m OK with that. I was just trying to argue our side. Me? I didn’t realize they put six seconds back on (the clock). I thought there was a second. I really didn’t realize that. That’s my fault. I was caught in the moment of arguing."
Ryan Nassib on the almost-touchdown before the touchdown on the final drive:
"I thought we were in. I thought we were on the mark, we were on the one, I kind of called my own number and I thought I was in. We got lucky."
Durell Eskridge on his blocked punt that helped SU continue it's comeback:
"My team, they told me that I changed the whole game around. It felt wonderful. It felt like, I don’t know, it was a wonderful feeling."
Sir Alec Lemon on his rushing touchdown:
"I was pretty excited about that...That was really cool."
Floyd Little on this Syracuse football team:
"I'm at practice a lot and I know that this is a good team...I said at the beginning of the season that if they played to their potential nobody could beat them.
"Good teams find ways to win, and they did tonight. They're moving in the right direction. They showed their grit. They showed their will. I'm really proud of these guys."