1999 Flashback - W&J1

1999 Lycoming College Football

Division III Playoff Press Conference
Washington & Jefferson 14 - Lycoming College 7
November 20, 1999

Lycoming College Press Conference

Coach Frank Girardi's view of the game against W&J:
"First of all, let me say somthing about our defense.   Our defense was great today.  If you would have told me coming into the game today, if we could have held W&J to 14 points I would have bet the house on it.   Our defense played great, I thought our special teams played great.   Offensively, in the first half we moved the ball, but we were not able to take advantage of the things, and thats what hurt.  We just could not take advantage offensively of the things we had there then when we did get it going late, we had two 15 yard penalty calls that put us back, but that is part of the game.  We were not able to covert, we were not able to get the ball in the end zone today and that was our problem today."
Coach, talk about the two big breaks, the punt return to the twenty and the fumble at the nine, was that the turning point in the game?:
"[Chuckle] I thought it was a turning point, but if it wasn't a turning point, the blinkers we on, I can tell you that.  It was tough, it was tough to swallow.  Gettin it in, we were just not able to get it done.  We had gotten it done down there most of the time.  As I said, we had the opportunities and not getting it in there hurt big time, no question about it."
Do you think the rain played a factor in Lycoming's performance?:
"I don't think so. The field is in good shape. I thought both teams were able to run the ball fairly decently ... I did not see a lot of slipped balls ... Either team might not have had the volicity we might normally have on the ball, but no I don't think the wet field was a factor to tell you the truth."
Was W&J doing something special to throw Lycoming off balance?:
"I think the fact that W&J is just a heck of a good football team and when you get into the playoffs, it's run and gun and I think that they do a few more things that they had to do to win the ball game than we did.  I thought both defenses played very well.  I thought our defense was by far the outstanding group on the field today.  They did more than we did offensively.  Our special teams did a great job too.  I don't know if it was any one thing other than their outstanding football program.  They have a very very good football team.  John has done great job with those guys."
Was W&J doing something different to cover your receivers?:
"Early on they played us very tough and played us as tough back there as anyone we've played all year, but I think after we started some crossing routes and some things like that to get them free, we ran our tight ends enderneath a couple times in some of our routes, but I thought their people did a very nice job on our guys, but again thats sort of typical. You know Tim Dumas gets two on every play virtually, some over the top and we get guys free, but sometimes is tough to get them imvolved when there is pressure on you.  I think it was a combination of those guys doing a great job.  They did throw us off our routes, they did a nice job of bumping us off our routes and we had to re-adjust."
Ryan Swailes talks about what happened out there today?:
"We made some mistakes in the red zone, when you are down in the red zone, you can't make mistakes down there.  I think that was the biggest thing.  Little things like holding, off sides a bad check by me, a bad throw and it was wierd because we are usually pretty golden in that area and I just did not convert today."
This team is not used to loosing I know you really like them, what did you tell them in the locker room?"
"Oh yea, I simply told them that they had nothing to be ashamed of, they had a great year.  Our seniors have never lost a regular season game.  Our seniors are 36-0.  They are part of a great tradition here with four undefeated seasons, that gives us seven undefeated seasons in the 90's and sure we don't want to kid anybody, it hurts when you loose.  You are not a competitor if it dosn't hurt you no matter what. I told them how much they meant to us and how much they personally mean to me.  They are a great bunch of kids."


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