Ohio Head Coach Tim Albin

Opening Statement: 
"Great start at Peden stadium, the electricity, the crowd. Very, very loud and energetic. It was very difficult to hear on the sideline with the guys. For the love of the university and the amount of people in the stands on a Holiday weekend was just phenomenal. So, hats off to everyone. I couldn't be happier for the football team. Hats off to Willie Taggart and his group. They fought back."
 
On what he told the guys at halftime to get that second half result:
"Very easy. The staff did a great job giving them a few a few adjustments without getting too technical. We started settling down the last eight minutes of the second quarter, not missing as many tackles. You make your biggest jump from your first game to your second game. We've got nine super seniors and twenty-three other seniors. Told them, gentlemen, we're making it right now. Beginning of the third quarter. We're going to make our jump; we're going to play our best football in the second half of this game. You get the ball, first challenge them. They went out there and executed."
 
On Kurtis's big step tonight:
"I thought he's made some special plays today. In my football mind I can take you down all of them. I really like where he's at. I got a little frustrated with him on a couple of things. But he had great answers and last year that was not the case. So, he took a big step. He saw some things I didn't see that he saw. The conversations, good or bad, that he is going to take off. So, we're very excited with his play along with many others."
 
On what it was like to win on the new field:
"It's a great product. We talked about it as a team. It was wet out there and we had one slip from our kicker.  I'm super excited but winning the first one with coach's name on it is special."
 
On the defensive changes made this off season:
"First off, Coach Nowinksy has done a great job. The staff has done a great job moving personnel around. Ben Johnson played safety and I think he had double digit tackles if I saw the stats right. Keye Thompson and Bryce Houston were great on the sidelines. We got pressure in the second half. Again, I think the couple adjustments that Coach Nowinsky did was huge. And really on the end zones keeping guys calm, and probably talking to myself. We've had a lot of conversations since his time here about how our offense is going to feed off his defense. We were able to get some bombs, some drives. I thought we'd have some in the in the first half but we didn't, but we certainly did in the second half. It was just an overall good win."
 
On how Kurtis's leadership translated to the team:
"Curtis has been very open about talking about the confidence he has and the weapons around him. Sieh Bangura had over a 100 yard tonight. So, upfront, you have 100 yard rushing to get some upfront defense. Curtis and his leadership is comfortable with the weapons around him. I finally thought he utilized it. He's where he should be after starting every game last year. Hagen Meservy also must be better than last year and that's how we challenged him in the offseason. We're 1-0 and very excited about 24 hours with this one and then we'll get to the next one tomorrow."
 
On what it's like to start off this season winning a type of game that we lost last year:
"That's a great question. We got a group of over believers. They were challenged since the last game against Bowling Green. The guys have kept investing and gone through a lot. I think the staff has pushed them and raised the bar. The guys have responded to that."
 
On the defensive areas that needed improvement from last season: 
"That's an easy one. We only had eight takeaways on defense for the entire season, minus seven is what I heard coming up the elevator. We were plus two today. We didn't have turnovers, they had two. That was a three-point win. So, you can start with that. Then, I think making them one dimensional. They ran the ball in the first half typically in the first quarter. We missed some tackles but the second half they did not. The pass rush got going. It caused a huge turnover. The middle is our strength and it showed."

Kurtis Rourke, Bryce Houston and James Bostic III

On what went into his off-season preparation:
Kurtis:
"We have some really great athletes and a lot of our receivers and running backs took a leap in the offseason. We have some great guys. James is one of those guys that just stepped up from last year and we have some new guys— it's not necessarily about me, it's more about how great the guys around me make me."
 
On what went into getting the ball quickly down the field:
Kurtis:
"I think just repetition and trusting our guys are going to a get there. We had those plays called in the past, but the execution wasn't there. We really put an emphasis on making sure we can get those big plays to balance everything out. We were able to capitalize on some looks that we had tonight and hit the big play which is really crucial."
 
On what Bryce liked from the team's performance and what they can do better going forward:
Bryce:
"I liked our intensity. I like the way we came out and approached the field. We battled the ups and downs and kept steady as much as possible. I think that's just typical with every defense. We just want to stay as consistent as possible. I was really proud of the way we stepped up, especially when it was crunch time when we needed to stop, we got to stop. When we needed a couple of turnovers in order to change the game up, we got those. I'm proud of the way we played today."
 
On how Kurtis felt about setting the record for the eighth most passing yards in a game:
Kurtis:
"We were going to do whatever it took to win. We were able to throw the ball pretty well and get open. Whatever it took to win that's what we were going to do. Hopefully keep that going."
 
On how Kurtis is going to keep making history throughout the rest of the season:
Kurtis:
"I'm going for the wins more than the record books, but just keep going for those, too."
 
On what it's like to finish the game with a fourth quarter stop:
Bryce:
"It's a great feeling. That's what we focused on in this offseason. And we knew that it was going to always come down to the defense and tight games. We knew that we were going to have to go on the field and get a stop in order to win. So, we took that every single day in practice. We took that mentality, and we kept building on it every single day. It was built in spring, built in fall camp, and now it's on to the season. So hopefully we're going to continue practicing or continue going into the film and trying to figure out ways we can keep being progressively better."
 
On what they did to start doing better defensively:
Bryce: 
"We tried to switch some things up a little bit more, try to send some more pressure and put some different personnel in there. Coach Nowinsky, he does a great job with trying to switch it up and trying to make sure that offense is on their toes— he did an amazing job today. We kept building on the energy from Keith Thompson and Tyreke and Casey, Rodney, those type of people, they were really encouraging on the defensive side of the ball. We were able to feed off that energy and that was important for us today."
 
On how the offense looks difference from last season:
James:
"Well, I got here in 2021. Speaking for offense last year, we look way better and we practiced so many situations. That helped us."
 
On what they are trying to focus on more on offense this season:
James:
"We're putting more past concepts to go against other defenses. We have this new coach [Brain Smith] from Washington State. He came in and put a great package."
 
On what goes into calling a 54-yard passing play on third down:
Kurtis:
"We wanted to take a big shot. We didn't get the look that we wanted every time. We weren't really sure what to do on that third down. But it was definitely a moment of trust between the coaching staff and the players, as well as myself and James. I knew that he would be able to get open and be able to connect. It all goes back to the trust that we have with the coaching staff. Trusting that we'll be able to execute and get it done. And that's what we did."
 
On how the momentum at the end of the game carries into the Penn State game:
Kurtis:
"[The] job's not finished. We still have a long way to go. We'll take a look tomorrow and Monday and see what we can do against them. They're a great team. It's going to be a great atmosphere to play. It's one of the most exciting things that you can say [playing at Penn State]. It's going be a lot of fun and I'm excited to get there."
 
Bryce:
"I would say continue to build on the energy and the building blocks and the things that we learned from this past game. Fine tuning those things, and of course we got to look at the film and see what Penn State does so we can how we can attack them. But building on what we did from last week, this this past week, and trying to take it to next week."


Florida Atlantic Head Coach Willie Taggert 
 
On initial thoughts:
"Again, disappointing loss. We have talked about playing on the road vs. playing at home and you can't turn the ball over, you know, we turned it over on our side of the field twice. And then they got points out of us for having eight penalties for 90 yards. You know a lot of those people came in at costly times when we needed it, especially towards the end."
 
"We know we must learn that we can't beat ourselves up, you know when you do those things. So that's what happened. Our football team got to learn not to make those silly penalties when we don't need them, you know, and that really hurt us." 
 
"We just didn't execute. You know, we came out I think we had like a throw and out the first time and then the second time out. We probably got a first down, but we got out quick again. We didn't execute there in the third quarter at all. You know, we were just, I don't know, we just didn't execute. You know what? I was proud of our guys fighting there at the end and finding a way to get back in the ballgame."
 
On the second half:
"We gave up too much. In the past I thought we played soft, and we didn't put our hands on people and let them run through our zone freely and you just can't do that. When you run through the zone freely it's going to be too much time and somebody's going to eventually get open. I thought that happened quite a bit there especially in the third quarter, you know, but I got them regrouped and made some plays from there. Especially in the fourth but the third quarter it was just bad for us offensively and defensively."
 
On running the football:
"We didn't do a good job of running the football. You know, I thought in the first half we did but in the second half, we didn't establish the run. I think we had three and then we came back out. They scored and we came back and got out again and he scored, and we got behind and needed to throw the football, but we didn't establish the run especially the second half like we needed to. I thought the first half we did a good job of running the football and in the second half we got away from it. We got down and had to throw the football because in the third quarter we didn't have the ball as much, you know. Then it became the fourth quarter, and we want to be able to run the football well because we're a good offensive team, you know, and we didn't do it in the second half because we had to throw the football." 

#OUohyeah