Comments from the Nova game

[mat1992 2,234]

I've been doing this for a long time, about 17 years as a blogger and I can't remember covering a bigger road win. Didn't see the playoff wins at E. Washington and E. Illinois. Didn't see the incredible ODU road win. Saw a few good road wins at Delaware, W&M and Richmond. Also a nice road win over Nova a few years back but beating a top 10 team that had defeated Temple, who crushed Maryland today takes the cake. And the way we did it, coming from 14-0 down to score 35 unanswered points.

Was asked by Spiro at halftime about Grant Enders comparisons with Tom Flacco and I'll say this. Grant was terrific and was more than a game manager. He was great as a runner and on short and intermediate passes. But he doesn't have Flacco's arm. Or Tom's accuracy downfield. That throw to Leatherbury near the end of the game might have been his best throw, that Shane dropped near the sideline. Or the throw he made when the ball was snapped over his head to just get a 1/2 yard. Most QBs would fall on the ball (his brother would) or wisely run with it and throw it out of bounds. But he's not like most QBs. 

Whether you like Rob or not, you have to give him and his brother credit for the play-calling today. Like the jet sweeps (not necessarily to Sam) and using Stover as the QB on short-yardage situations is brilliant. Don't let Flacco continue to get hit and let Ryan use his bigger frame to get the short yardage. Wasn't sure what they were doing with Yeedee on that first drive of the second half. I think he's a short-yardage guy and nice change-of-pace bruiser to Shane. But Shane needs to be in there when Flacco runs the tug or throws to him in the flat. This was his breakout game. Though how about that hit by Yeedee! OMG. The kid can also play safety apparently.

Same with DeBerry, who I thought was having issues at DE. He think he's more than just A DE, but also a LB. He can cover some TEs or put his hand in the ground. But Bryce Carter and Zain had the two sacks. I wish I had a stat for pressures or QB hurries because I think it was at least 5 if not 10. We had one last week at Wake.

I think we did ok injury-wise. Knudson, Clark, Reaves, Greaves and Ventemiglia were all out off the top of my head. I think Clark returns along with Greaves and a healthy Dorsey by the Citadel game. That will only make the offense better. 

Here are the comments now. Flacco was getting the typical questions about his brother. Hilarious that he cursed twice in the interviews and his brother is about as plain as you can be. But he can curse the entire press conference he continues to play like that.

[TSU88 1,073]

No doubt, the biggest regular season W since 2013. I think you might have to edit your top-50 list to shoehorn this one in.

[TUTigers 119]

Mat, did you forget to post the comments?

[mat1992 2,234]

Sorry, now to the quotes

Rob Ambrose opening statement

Hats off to Villanova, man they're good. As proud as I am of my guys, this guy got won in January. I'm grateful to the 1,000 to 2,000 people that drove up here from Towson that believed. That the Towson family is very strong and they got to see one of the best wins in the last 10 years. It's a great day to be a Tiger.

On key to the game

We came here. I'm dead serious. I have complete and utter faith in these guys and they earned it. They were committed to playing six seconds at a time relentlessly and they were not going to fear their opponent. The history of Villanova was not going to scare them. Them beating Temple was not going to scare them. We've been waiting a long time to get back to this spot. It wasn't a play. It wasn't anything. It was what we did in the offseason and that we believed in each other. We forced turnovers, didn't commit many. Controlled the line of scrimmage. Made big plays, gave up big plays. Had adversity and handled it well as a team. That's what good teams do.

What did he mean by January?

We were all beat up at the end of the year and squeezed a couple of wins out. We still found a way to win. It wasn't about what we had done schematically, it was what kind of team we had decided to be then. Whatever we did then, we jacked it up more in January. I said I only felt this way one time about a team and it was after the 2010 season.  Those guys acted like we won 10 games instead of losing 10 games. We went out win passion in 11. These guys are just like that but they might be a little tighter.

On being down 14-0

We stopped making mistakes. Nobody said anything. Villanova has a tremendous offense. Zach is a great quarterback. He's going to be mentioned for player of the year. They have all kinds of great tools. Their offensive line is huge. We knew they were going to score. It's about not getting upset and not getting banged up. The game takes 60 minutes to play. You can't score 14 points in one play and we just went out to do our job.
 

On going 5 for 5 in the red zone

Villanova is good but they are not Wake Forest. We did some good things with the ball and schematically against Wake but we were a little overmatched. We were back on our level. Last week, shined a little on all the things we didn't do very well. We worked very hard this week in practice at getting better. It's what we'll do every week. Work at getting better.

Tom Flacco on shootout

Every game I go into, I have that mentality. I trust our defense but the worst-case scenario, I know that our offense can score every time we get the ball. I'd love for that to happen though we didn't do that this week. My mentality going into the game is shootout and anything better than that is awesome. I'm always prepared for that.

On Tom outdueling Joe

I didn't know if (Joe) was here tonight. I didn't get many requests for tickets but he might have stuck up on me. He's in the NFL. 

On what his brother taught him about coming back?

I'm the youngest of six, shit, Joe is the oldest. We had five boys and one girl. I learned everything from all my brothers and my dad. They guy I go through is my dad. He talks to Joe. I don't really talk to Joe that much about football to be honest. We're just brothers. We talk a little football but not about coming back or anything like that. Being the youngest of six. I'm just excited about coming out with these guys, the f-ing guys...I curse all the time. It's a credit to this team, we faced adversity well today.

Rob on the adversity

They're a good team. I said at (CAA) Media Day and I looked up and we were picked 10th. And I smiled. And that's ok. It's not about that. The history of these guys is that there were so many that got hurt, that everybody played. When kids come out of high school, they think they know what college football is about. They really don't. Not until they experience that. Once they get it, they have an idea of who and what they are as an individual and what we can be as a team. We grow that, we foster that. They believe in themselves and in each other. Bad things happen all the time. Take football out of this. We're raising these guys to be great men one day and understand that bad stuff is going to happen. It's how you respond. One day, the family is not going to be the football team. They are going to be husbands, fathers. They will respond well because they understand this. This is a very good day for all of them.

 

Tom on being close to home

It was awesome. I grew up pretty close. One of my brothers graduated from Villanova so he was there. I had a lot of people in the stands for me and Shane (Simpson) did. He's from PA. 

On the kick return hit from Yeedee

One of the awards we have is a belt and Yeedee says he wants the damn thing. To score, to kickoff and to force a fumble the next play. That's a rarity. You don't see that in college football too often anywhere. To say that was a momentum-changer, that's like seeing the prettiest girl in the entire bar walking up to you out of the blue and saying, 'hey, I'd like to hang out with you'. That's a momentum changer. I didn't see that coming but I enjoyed it.

Shane Simpson 

It definitely felt great to be back (healthy). This time last year, I was in a brace. I wasn't able to play with my brothers. We were able to establish the running game today. Credit to the O-line and the receivers on the edge.

 

 

 

 

[mat1992 2,234]

Finally, when anybody questions about us getting too many transfers, because our recruiting has been subpar or guys are transferring, just think that getting the RIGHT ones helped today.

Leatherbury, Greenwood, Flacco, Yeedee on offense and special teams. Chris Clark didn't play tonight but he will be a big target after the bye.

Deberry, Shuman, Gillette, Troy Vincent, Reaves (didn't play tonight but did have a pick against WF), Garrett (in the rotation, will start next season). Four new starters on defense who are transfers.

 

[TuTigers2012 1,063]

Didn’t See this one but let’s be honest odu was when the caa was good. Road wins are tough to have especially down 14-0. Kudos to the team and staff, nova is solid. Follow this up with some good play and we got something. 

[mat1992 2,234]

You might not believe it, but we got something. His name is Tom Flacco.

[TSU88 1,073]

Mat, were there really 1-2K Towson fans at the game, as RA claims? 

[mat1992 2,234]

Probably close to 1,000. It was a very good turnout 

[tualum 108]

11 hours ago, mat1992 said:

Finally, when anybody questions about us getting too many transfers, because our recruiting has been subpar or guys are transferring, just think that getting the RIGHT ones helped today.

Leatherbury, Greenwood, Flacco, Yeedee on offense and special teams. Chris Clark didn't play tonight but he will be a big target after the bye.

Deberry, Shuman, Gillette, Troy Vincent, Reaves (didn't play tonight but did have a pick against WF), Garrett (in the rotation, will start next season). Four new starters on defense who are transfers.

 

Well for once the transfers did work out after being stuck in the rut for a few years. Still recruiting wise we are subpar. Would like to see some growth, maturity and talent from guys right out high school...