Sylvester Croom Defense Quotations

To play as bad as we did in the first half and only going in (down) 14-0, I felt like if our defense could come back and make plays, we had a chance.

I expect us to get more opportunities offensively this year because our defense is going to give us the football. They do a great job of forcing turnovers. And we practice those things.

I thought the defense did a great job of getting turnovers. They came up with tipped balls, fell on loose balls, and ran to the football. The only thing I got on them about was that they did not stop the offense a couple of times in short yardage situations.

We came out on the plus side on all of them, ... The defense did give up the touchdown in the red zone, and that's something we'll have to correct.

We were sloppy today. We got another great effort out of our defense. They're making plays and getting turnovers. Loose balls, tipped balls, they're making plays.

The defense has to get off the field. They did play hard and were on the field for a long time. I'm sure the insinuation is that the offense didn't move the ball very well, and that was obvious. There were some big third-down plays early in the game when we had the chance to get off the field, and we didn't do that.

The defense did a great job of getting turnovers. The only thing disappointing to me about the defense is at times we were unable to stop the run.

The most impressive thing about our team right now is that we understand our schemes. We've been in it two years now, and the younger guys have grown up in our systems, and they understand what we're doing from a technique standpoint on offense, defense and in the kicking game. One big emphasis of the spring was that we really wanted to pay attention to details and do the little things right. We continued to work on being physically and mentally tough and on being a team that finishes plays and plays physical football. I think you saw that out there today.

The key to our defense will be our defensive line. Last year, we held our own against some very good football teams. I think we gained some confidence. Titus has really made some plays in the spring.