Nov. 23, 2004

Final Stats |  Notes

Head Coach Tom Amstutz

"That was a great game and we've had some exciting ones here. I thought back to the MAC Championship Game against Marshall when we had a great comeback and we were down by 23 points at halftime. That's what we talked about and just kept believing. You have to do that to win a game like this.

"We knew we had to execute at the highest level possible in the second half. This is not the first time we've faced adversity but when you believe in each other and stay close great things can happen."

"My hats are off to Bowling Green and I think they're a great football team and deserve to go a bowl. They're just about unstoppable but our players battled hard and got the job done."

(on what he said to the team at halftime)

"The player's heads were down in the lockerroom and I went in there with fire and told them I wasn't quitting. I told them you have to believe and told them we've done this before. Some of our seniors stood up and they didn't want to finish their season like this. They wanted to battle the whole way and see what happened. I thank god for our senior leadership."

(on the 4th-and-9 play that resulted in a TD to start the second half)

"That was a huge play and a high risk play. We believed we had to make plays to get back in the game. We took a chance and let our quarterback throw a pass to our best receiver and our line blocked well and we scored."

(on the defense's performance in the second half)

"We were able to slow them down. I thought they played their hearts out and Bowling Green's offensive line is good and that makes it difficult to get to their quarterback. We came up with a huge fumble recovery that gave us the momentum we needed to finish the job."

(on Scooter McDOugle)

"He did a great job running the ball and he's a big, rugged back. He's tough and he wanted the ball at the end of the game. He fights for the extra yardage and he's a real special football player.

Senior WR Lance Moore

(on stopping BG's momentum after the first half)

"The first half was definitely rocky for us and we came in here at halftime and knew that we were hurting ourselves. We knew there were certain play that we could hit them with quick touchdowns and that's what we did."

(on beating BG after losing to them in the final game last year)

"Losing at BG last year was something I didn't forget about. After this win I can hopefully forget about it since we're MAC West champs and going to the championship game."

Junior QB Bruce Gradkowski

(on the comeback)

"We were just missing plays in the first half and we knew we could come back in the second half because 20 points isn't that much to make up. Some of our defensive players told me if we scored on our opening drive of the second half we're going to win. This is a great team victory and with a win like this the whole team keeps believing."

(on the 4th-and-9 play for a TD to start the second half)

"Coach Amstutz is going to go for it and we needed to make a big play like that. That was a big momentum swing right there and Lance (Moore) made a great play."

"Anytime you can come back and win a game like this for a championship it's awesome. It's just unexplainable. Now we have one game left to win the MAC Championship."

Senior Whip Michael Broussard

"We fought hard and I've never been in a game like this and this is by far the biggest game I've ever been involved in. We tried to keep the faith and told Bruce (Gradkowski) that 20 points wasn't a lot to make up but I didn't have any idea we would score 28 in the third quarter. I told him if you get a touchdown we'll get the ball back."

"The crowd was tremendous and this was one of the best crowds I've ever seen with the yellow sticks banging. I couldn't even think on some of the plays."

Bowling Green Head Coach Gregg Brandon

(on the offensive struggles in the second half)

"I don't think it was really anything that UT did. I thought our ineptness and Omar not being real sharp in the third quarter that was the difference. It was the first time in a long time that he hasn't been as accurate as he's been. We couldn't convert some third downs and missed some throws. We come to expect those plays and we didn't make those plays in crunch time."

(on UT's pressure)

"I don't think their pressure was any different than we've seen all year. I thought he had time to throw but our guys were struggling a little bit to get open. UT had a good plan and played tight coverage and we had to work to get open."

(on what was said at halftime)

"We said that we needed to finish. We still had 30 minutes of football left and we didn't get it done. We didn't weather the storm and we couldn't get a stop on defense. If we would have made one more play it could have a different story. I'm very proud of my football team and fought their tails off against a very good football team in a tough place to play. We won eight games and we deserved to be in a bowl game."

(on UT scoring five straight TD's in second half when BG settled for two FGs in first half)

"That was in the back of my mind at halftime. If we could have scored a couple of touchdowns instead of field goals we could have put them away. But we let them hang around. We gave up the big play to start the second half and that really hurt. Some of the guys thought we shouldn't have taken the penalty to force them to a 3rd and 18 but you should be able to stop a team on 4th and 8."