Post-Game Quotes
9/16/2000 12:00:00 PM | Football
Sept. 16, 2000
Toledo Head Coach Gary Pinkel
"Eastern Illinois played a remarkable game. I thought they pretty much outplayed us in every aspect of the game. Fortunately for us, we got some turnovers that helped us and proved to be very critical. Also, our field goals with France were obviously very critical and Andy Boyd's great play at the end of the game was huge. Overall, I thought we got outplayed in every area of the game and I think you have got to give them (Eastern Illinois) credit for that."
"At halftime, I told our team that this is not the first time that we are going to be down at that point of the game. That type of thing is going to happen. This team has never been in that situation for quite a long period of time. You can't do anything about the first half, you need to come out and play strong in the second."
"We are very fortunate to come out of tonight's game with a win. Good teams find ways to win. I am not pleased with the performance of our team on either side of the ball, but anything I say in critiquing our football team will take away their (Eastern Illinois) great effort and I am not going to do that."
Toledo Senior Linebacker Kevin Rollins
"I don't think we looked past them. But I think maybe we started thinking we're a little better than what we really are."
Toledo junior safety Andy Boyd
"Games like this check you. They check what you have inside you."
(Game's final tackle) "It happened so fast. Coach (Matt) Eberflus has us practicing open field tackles every day and it paid off tonight."
"Eastern is a very good team. They took it us. We're fortunate to win."
"I won't say we took them lightly. But after we scored a touchdown on the interception on their first possession, we may have thought it was going to be an easy. I don't know for sure if that's the case, but it's possible."
Toledo senior tailback Chester Taylor
"This was a good learning experience for us. This might help us. We should learn from this."
Toledo junior quarterback Tavares Bolden
(Problems with passing game) "It was a combination of things. I did not have my best game."
"It helps us to know we can't just come in and blow people away."
Eastern Illinois Coach Bob Spoo
"We had a chance. I thought our guys played a heck of a football game. The third quarter did us in. We made some mistakes that cost us in the end, but I'm certainly proud of our effort"
"We can hold our heads up high. We left everything on the field. If you do that, you let the chips fall where they may. It didn't come up our way this time. Our team played a fine football game."
"The effort to come back and almost win it at the end was a great thing for us."
"We didn't have good field position in the third quarter. They are a fine team and they have an outstanding defense. We didn't execute and we dropped balls. I was upset about that."
