Head coach Shane Montgomery (first game as UMass' head coach)
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Opening statement…
“I'll tell you what, I told our guys this was a tough task today, coming in and playing a team like it's week 11 when you're a little bit banged up. But I really was proud of the team. We gave ourselves a chance in the first half to stay in the game, which was huge. They just kind of, at some point start to wear you down a little bit on both sides of the line. But I was really, you know, really proud of the way that we ran the football today against a great defense. One of the best in the country, and our defense ended up putting some points on the board. But, we gave them obviously the touchdown on offense and gave them another short field on a fumble. Our defense battled and had a big fourth down stop. But I think we competed really well today. I'm proud of the guys.”
On the Jakobie Keeney-James’ touchdown…
“Individual coverage…it was a heck of a play. A great throw and a great catch. We kind of went to a dead count where we were going to see what they were in and the corner was off to start with, and then when we checked the play, the corner came up and pressed. So I wasn't really sure. I saw the ball thrown, and I saw about three bodies go up for one of ours and two of theirs, and the next thing I know, he's coming down with it. Great job of staying in bounds, too. I couldn't see how close he was there. I think that cut it to maybe 31-21 at that time. So it was a big play. And against that team, the big thing about their defense, they don't give up a lot of big plays. We did have some huge plays. We had some chunk plays today that I wasn't sure we were going to get. But we did a great job of creating some of those.”
On what he would've liked to see from defense…
“Well, again, when you're going against a team like that, they're going to get their yards on offense, so I think the biggest thing was the second half we slowed them down a little bit. We didn't give them as many big plays, touchdowns…quick touchdowns. We were able to move the ball on offense and eat up. I think we maybe had the ball 20 out of the 30 minutes in the first half, which helped keep our defense off the field. And then the second half kind of flipped because we had a two-play scoring drive, and then they had two huge plays that ate up the third quarter. So, again, you're going against a team like that, you're just trying to control both lines of scrimmage, and it was tough. But, like I said, I'm proud of the way our kids fought today.”
