University of Toledo Athletics

Head Coach Jason Candle
“I think a lot of our young kids grew up. Our quarterback grew up today. In a lot of ways, this felt like our first football game; we had two weeks off and had to get in the routine of getting ready for a Noon kickoff. There was a lot of newness and things that our young guys haven’t experienced before. It’s not like we didn’t prepare for these moments, but you never know how guys are going to respond. Lots of guys responded in a positive way, but some guys didn’t.”

“The score isn’t what we wanted, it’s obviously not what we planned, but there were some moments where we were taking some punches from a heavyweight opponent and staring them back right in the eyes. If we can continue to do that then we have plenty of reasons to be optimistic this season.”

On the crowd at the Glass Bowl
“It was awesome. We should be striving for consistency, the same consistency we strive for with our football program. Let’s make the Nevada game look like today. It was an unbelievable atmosphere. I’m really happy with the way our community rallied around our football team today and I hope they can continue to do that the rest of the season.”

On what he saw from his younger players, specifically quarterback Mitchell Guadagni
“I’m not sure I knew what to expect from some of those guys. But that’s what’s really cool about playing these games and playing these types of opponents. When the chips are down and stacked against you, you find out whose ready for that moment and who’s not. I thought Mitchell was ready to roll today. Maybe he didn’t get off to the kind of start he wanted in a perfect world, but in adverse situations he really rallied. He moved the sticks with his feet a bunch of times when we didn’t have good protection and made things happen, broke the pocket and extended drives. We haven’t had a quarterback like that here for a quite a while."

On the offensive line and Miami’s defensive line
“We’ll have to go back and look at it. There were a few things in the protection, I don’t think we handled some of Miami’s twists or movements as well as we anticipated we would. The difference between a top-10 program and another program is a really good defensive line. Guys that are 6’5” and 300 pounds and can really move. There aren’t very many of them and they tend to go to those elite programs. That’s no disrespect to guys on any other football teams across the country, but there were some really good defensive linemen on that football team today.”
  
Diontae Johnson
“At times we were really rolling and everyone was doing their jobs. We just need to take care of the mistakes we made in the second half and get ready for next week.”

Mitchell Guadagni
“I think we found a good rhythm, especially right after halftime. We got together with the coaches and identified what Miami was doing on defense and we tried to find things we could exploit.”

On the touchdown drive in the second quarter
“We needed to score there, especially with them up 21-0. We were just able to capitalize on some throws, our receivers got open and our line gave me great protection, and that led to us getting in the end zone.”

Tuzar Skipper
“They’re a good team and we’re a good team as well. We just had too many self-inflicted wounds. They didn’t do anything too spectacular or anything outside of what we normally see, we just made a few too many mistakes."

Miami Head Coach Mark Richt
“We beat a really good team. Toledo is outstanding and well-coached. They are used to winning and it was a good battle until it got a little out of hand at the end. I have a lot of respect for Coach Candle and his team and how they go about their business. I know they’re going to take a run at the MAC Championship again.”

 “We just battled and were trying to win a game. The same thing happened a year ago when our lead was cut to eight.  We knew we had to answer their touchdowns just like last year.”

“Malik made some very big throws and I thought he played well. I was proud of him. I thought about putting  in N’kosi in earlier, but we knew we had to keep scoring especially against a team that can score like Toledo.”

Senior quarterback Malik Rosier
“We knew coming into the game that there were some one-and-one matchups we could exploit. Jeff Thomas and Lawrence Cager made some phenomenal plays. This isn’t just a one or two game wonder. Our offense should be scoring 40 or 45 points every game.”