Aug. 30, 2008

PITTSBURGH -

Pitt Head Coach Dave Wannstedt
"To say the least, I can't tell you how disappointed our football team is considering how much work and effort was put into the start of the season. I thought our players came out and were ready to play."

"In the first half, we felt like we did what we had to do to win the game. Then, we made some mistakes. They gave us some unusual situations which we knew they would do and we had a tough time adjusting to them. We had some mistakes due to inexperience which is going to happen and that was the difference in the ballgame."

"Working hard just gives you a chance to win. It doesn't guarantee anything. I told the players this is the lesson to learn from this game."

"There was consideration to go for it on fourth down in the first half. I thought we were playing good defense. We played a field position game. I didn't want to give the ball to their offense. With their history, they are a veteran group and they know what they are doing."

"I think Austin Ransom being the leading tackler shows what kind of young man he is. When Shane Murray got hurt, we had not been pleased with where we were at with a couple of young linebackers. Austin is a smart guy and the right guy against this style of offense. He gave us a chance to cover players since he could run a little quicker than some of our other linebackers. They attacked the weak side of our defense, where Austin was at, obviously, since he was having his first start."

"Bill Stull made his first start (since last year's injury). You hate to have a young quarterback put in the situation he was in at the end of the game, having to run two-minute drills and make plays. That's not the best environment for the first game out of the chute for your quarterback. I thought he played solid and did everything he could do. I thought his inexperience showed up, and there is not anything anyone can do about that. He's just got to play. He needs the playing time. It was his first full-time game."

RB LeSean McCoy
"We made a lot of mistakes today especially by putting the ball on the ground. I'll take the blame on that. Their (Bowling Green) defense had my number. Give them credit."

"We were really excited for the season, the fans and having a healthy roster. It's tough. A loss like this is tough."

LB Scott McKillop
"We came out in the first quarter and played well. In the second quarter, Bowling Green came out with a little more flash to their offense. They went to a quick hurry-up offense and caught us off guard. We have to come up with big stops."

"Our offense didn't perform as well as we'd like to today, but there are two sides to that. When adversity hits, the entire defense along with myself personally as a leader, needs to step up and make plays."

"We can't let them score like they did today in the red zone. If we played better in that aspect of the game, I think the result would have obviously been a lot better."

"To be a good defense we need to keep teams out of our end zone and not give up more than three points. We need to come in tomorrow, look at the film and see what we did well and didn't do well and improve on that."

"We were a minus-3 in turnover margin and we've been saying all preseason and even last season, whoever wins the turnover margin is usually going to win the game. It's something we need to work on."

Bowling Green Head Coach Gregg Brandon
"Our players came out fired up from the start and played hard the whole way. It was really hot out there and I think it turned into a war of attrition. We were cramping up, they were cramping up and at the point you just have to think about how much you want it. In the end, we were able to make the plays and come out on top. It was a true team effort."

"It was a bit of a struggle for our offense in that first quarter, but I thought if we could hang in there on the scoreboard then we could get some things going. We had a lot of stuff in our offensive game plan, easily the most ever for an opening game. With all the new motions and formations, I think it took a little time for our players to get in sync. But once that happened we really got on a roll."

"We had a lot of motivation coming into today. That bowl game loss lingered in our minds for the last eight months and I think we knew that some people doubted how good we were. I hope everyone realizes how hard it is to win on the road against a BCS program. This is the kind of game we relish getting the opportunity to play."

"It wasn't anything specific in their defense that we were looked at coming in. We just felt that we had some strengths that matched up well against them and we did what we could to exploit them."

"LeSean McCoy is a very talented back and we knew we had to shut him down in order to have a chance to win. Early on in the game they made some big runs on us, but I thought we had players positioned there. When we stopped missing tackles, we were able to get into his cutback lanes and prevent him from making a big play. I give a ton of credit to our defense today."

"Our defensive strategy wasn't using four down linemen and three linebackers. We blitzed on almost every single play. Give a lot of credit to our defensive coordinator. He was down on the sideline dialing up new schemes and formations for our guys and I thought that was really the difference in shutting down their running game."

"I give a lot of credit to their defensive line. That's an immensely talented and physical group. I thought our offensive line did a masterful job against them, especially after the first quarter. I think there might have been some opening day jitters at first, but after that we were really able to step up and handle what they threw at us."

WR Jimmy Scheidler
"First and foremost I'm just happy for what this win means for our program. I thought our defense stepped up and played tremendously. That I was able to contribute to a game like this just makes me feel that much better."

"When I heard my number called on the first touchdown, I was ready to go. You always have to be ready to step in and play and I was confident in myself. Everything went right on that play; it was a great call by our coaches, our line made some great blocks and it was a great throw to get me the ball."

"At halftime, we were all just thinking that we need to stay together. The way we finished the second quarter gave us some confidence and we felt like if we just kept our heads down and continued to play our game, we would have a good chance to win."

LB John Haneline
"We were really talking to ourselves after those first two scores. Both of them were the result of some bad mistakes on our part. We knew that if we stayed focused, we would be on the right course. After that, we settled in and just did our jobs."