Shane Montgomery Quotations

Now you see MAC teams playing a lot of Big Ten teams tough. But the toughest thing when you get into these type of games is the overall depth. Recruiting-wise they still get, most the time, who they want. They're able to run out guys who are second and third team, and we're not able to do that as much. Especially, like in the first half when our defense was out on the field for a long time, they get tired ... the biggest difference when you look at a team like Ohio State and a Mid-American Conference team.

I was pleased with the effort, for the most part, especially in the fourth quarter ... and hopefully it'll carry over this week. We're facing a tough, athletic team that's playing with a lot of confidence right now.

I was pleased with the effort (against Ohio State), especially in the fourth quarter when things could have gotten out of hand. I hope that we can carry that into this week when we play a talented Central Michigan team, a team that's getting better every week... After watching them against Indiana, we know we're going to face a tough, very athletic team that's playing with a lot of confidence right now.

From opening the season at home versus the Big Ten, to closing the regular season by renewing a Thanksgiving weekend tradition (Ohio, Nov. 24), this is a great schedule for Miami football.

For us to play a team like Ohio State, it's better that we play them in the first game of the year rather than in the middle. It gives us the opportunity for working the kinks out. This week is more important on paper than last week.

This was a game we've been looking for. We really hadn't put a complete game together yet.

I think we had more dropped passes (Saturday) than we had all of last year.

I think I'm disappointed not in the effort of our team, but in making plays.

Most of the pressure we saw Saturday we had seen before. We just had some mental breakdowns. You see that sometimes in your first game.

Mike has done a tremendous job over the past two seasons as a graduate assistant on both sides of the ball. His familiarity with and loyalty toward the program make him a great asset to Miami football as he takes over as our tight ends coach.

With the way the facilities are going and with the positive movements we're making all around, I think that's going to be able to attract more quality student-athletes. We have to keep upgrading recruiting every year.

We gave up too many big plays. We didn't tackle.

We'll have a little bit of a better idea coming out of the spring. We want to go into the fall giving everybody reps.

We did not tackle well today and we gave up too many big plays.

We play, it seems, like every day of the week.

We shot ourselves in the foot in the second half, I thought. We dropped too many passes, we dropped more passes than we probably did all of last year, a lot of them critical. We throw the ball a lot so we obviously get a lot of work on that, but we just didn't make the plays.

We run out the clock or don't let them score and we're down 13-0 at the half. Obviously that was a huge turning point. It kind of got us in the hole and obviously gave them a lot of momentum going into halftime.

When you have to come to work every day and see them on the wall, you realize the people that have been here. Everybody knows Miami as the Cradle of Coaches.

When you play against a guy like Ted Ginn, you kind of hold your breath. You know what you're going to do on defense, you have your schemes for him, and we did do a good job. We did a good job on our punt team.

Even though I was here (as an assistant), any time there is a coaching change, sometimes it takes a little longer than you would like to.

This game had a lot of momentum changes. We had chances to grasp control early, but we let them hang in there, and they made some plays. We shot ourselves in the foot in the second half.

They are similar to us in that they lost an early season game they thought they'd win. It's the same type of game for both of us. If you lose another game, you could be out of it.

I told my players in the locker room, though, that whatever happened today was not going to affect our goal this season, which to win the MAC championship. That goal is still in place. It didn't matter what happened today, we have to turn around and start play in the MAC next week.

It's the first time on national TV (ESPN2), and with them moving up to the Big East, they're trying to elevate their program to where we've been the past few years. It's one of those games nobody else in our league has.

I knew it was going to be on national TV, so the buildup was pretty good. Obviously, I was pretty excited about how the players reacted to it. It was a moment you'll never forget.

If Jared gets healthy, I would feel comfortable with any of them out there.

In a big game like that, you have to make big plays when you have your chances.

He's fast, but he's quicker than he is fast. He makes cuts that most people don't make. But at the same time a tough, durable kid for his size. He hits the holes, and we joke sometimes he doesn't break as many tackles as you would like. At the same time he's a threat to go all the way on every touch.

The difference in it is there are no open weeks. After the first game on a Thursday, we play on nine straight Saturdays.