Reno Saccoccia Quotations

Our defense played a great game. I felt, coming in to this game, that we had to win this game with our defense. And that's what we did. You can't ask for much more than two fumbles, an interception and a blocked punt.

We sputtered but we didn't turn the ball over. We played about six or seven backs and a lot of lineman. That's what made us sputter on 'O.

I feel we've improved each week and tonight, I was happy with our effort. Our kids played hard and they played smart tonight. They played Big Red football.

Our kicking game has definitely been a blessing this year. We kicked well on kickoffs, punts, extra points and field goals. Honestly, I think we played well in all three phases of the game, tonight.

I can't say anything negative about Wheeling Park because they played hard. We were the better team. We don't have the best players and we don't have the best coaches but we have the best team possible at Big Red.

It was a beautiful way to open. It doesn't get much better than that. I'm proud of the way my kids played tonight.

You could say it was a test, but every game is a test. Every game is just a horse of a different color. We'll be tested again with the next team on our schedule. There's no rest for the wicked.

I subbed too early on offense. In that first half we played 34, 35 kids. It was nice to get so many kids on the field, but sometimes a positive can turn into a negative and I think that's what happened tonight. We sputtered a little bit and got out of sync. Football's all about timing and it's hard to get timing down when you play five or six different backs.

That's bad. There's no excuse. That's unacceptable. Our kids played hard. We didn't play smart. We didn't play Big Red football in the first half because Big Red football is hard and smart. I didn't coach smart and we didn't play smart, but we played hard. I think we played very well on offense. We just made some dumb mistakes that's all, including myself.

I was really happy with how our first group of guys performed, but was disappointed in our second group. We stopped them a couple of times, but they're coached better than they performed tonight. If you play Big Red football you have to be ready to play against anybody.