Nov. 24, 2012

Recap |  Final Stats |  Notes

UCF HEAD COACH George O'Leary

His thoughts on the game:
"A win is a win. (It) wasn't very pretty. Anytime as a defense you give up 600 yards, it's pathetic in my opinion. There was poor tackling and poor coverage and we better improve before we head to Oklahoma next week. Offensively, I thought we did what we had to get done and we had some opportunities we didn't take advantage of. Other than that, it's a win and another division championship. It makes the senior class the winningest senior class in school history. I'm very happy for them."

On the UCF offense:
"Our offense had a third and one that we didn't get, which has been happening too often lately and then on fourth and two we take a sack. Those are things that can't happen. Other than that, I think UAB sent a lot of pressure and with seven minutes left we decided to run the ball and move the chains. Our defense was on the field for a lot of time. I thought we had opportunities for a couple of picks we didn't get and give UAB credit. I thought they made some plays. Our pass rush was non-existent again and we had to bring some pressure ourselves to get to the quarterback."

On the progression of the offense over the season:
"I think we still lack some consistency. As far as when we have to make first downs, we need to convert them. I thought Blake threw the ball extremely well and we got some key third down situations today. He made good quick decisions today. We're still not sustaining the line of scrimmage like we want to. We're getting six, seven yards a crack but we'd still have to get to the second level. I think we rushed for close to 300 and (were) throwing the ball well. I thought it was a good day offensively and special teams had a real good day on the return game. We stood still waiting for the ball instead of attacking the ball on the onside kick. Other than that our special teams played very well today."

On the reason why UCF won the game:
"We didn't play well enough. It's the only reason you lose because you don't play well enough to beat a team that's really hungry, that has a vision, has goals and knows exactly what their target is. It's hard to beat a team that is focused; pinpoint razor-focused like that."

On the importance of redzone-efficiency:
"It's always a factor in a game when you move the ball into the redzone. One of them I went for it on fourth down just thinking we needed some momentum. We weren't able to run the ball and get the yard, but it's always a factor when you move the ball and don't come away with any points."

On Lyle Dankerbring's interception return:
"Austin [Brown] just threw the ball to the other guy. He handed the ball to one of their guys which is a really bad football play."

On the need to be focused against a team like UCF:
"Ultimately, I don't know if we played the game well enough to beat a team that is that sharp and that focused at this point. That was a factor in the game. It's the reason we fell behind in the game and had to play catch up the rest of the game. What we're learning here, what I hope our team is learning, is that when you compete against a team that's razor-focused, that you have to be on you're A-game to have a chance. When you're on your A-game [and] the other team's on their A-game, it's still going to come down to the wire. So, the only chance you got when you're competing against a team that is going to fly around, make plays, play hard is for you to play your best game."