Sept. 19, 2009
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
UCONN (2-1) 30, BAYLOR (1-1) 22
FLOYD CASEY STADIUM • WACO, TEXAS
SEPT. 19, 2009 • ATTENDANCE: 40,147
BAYLOR QUOTES
HEAD COACH Art Briles
Opening statement...
"As good as Wake Forest felt, this certainly felt much worse than that felt that day. The disappointment is there of course, beginning with myself. We had an outstanding crowd. Who came here to be fulfilled and we didn't take care of that. We didn't take care of things on either side of the ball. When you're at home, you have to let your crowd get involved and we never let that happen and that's our fault as players and coaches for not using that to our advantage."
On problems in the first half...
"I'm not really sure, I'll have to look at the tape. We had 18 plays in the first half but we didn't do a good job of developing any kind of consistency to give us an opportunity to counteract what they were doing. That's my fault, but we'll get better. We need to look at what we've got to do and how to do it and we'll get that done."
On what went wrong with the offense...
"I think the momentum changes were the two back-to-back turnovers to start the third quarter. At the half we were still in the middle of the football game, a 13-7 football game might as well be a 0-0 ballgame. You have to fight through it. What you can't do is go and give up 14 points. You'd like to not turn it over. We'd like to feel that if we get it on the other teams 20-yard line you're going to get points. If we wanted to point fingers, all I have to do is get in front of the mirror. I need to do a lot better job of making sure our mentality and execution are where they need to be."
On coming back from this tough loss...
"We understand that we'll be judged in December and not in September. We have a lot of football in front of us. This is why you play the game because you don't know what's going to happen. We need to learn from this, re-group and have to get ready to play Northwestern State next week."
On the decision to call an onside kick when down by 8 in the 4th qtr...
"It was a 50-50 call, to me that's right in the grey area. We felt if we could get it at the 40 we could play right there. We would have to play defense either way. We had a chance and that was all we could ask for."
QUARTERBACK Robert Griffin
On disappointment of the loss...
"It is disappointing; players make plays. Coaches are not out there playing. Coach Briles, he likes to take the fall for a lot of things, but players have to go out there and make plays."
On Connecticut's defense...
"I don't think anybody can stop us but us. So with that being said we stopped ourselves today, early. We picked it up there a little bit at the end and in the middle, but you can't keep hurting yourself and expect to come out with a win."
On the second half...
"We came out in the second half ready to get things going and we shot ourselves in the foot twice. Things just did not go our way today. We just have to rebound for that and make sure it doesn't happen again."
On bouncing back from the loss...
"It is football. You don't get all your goals all of the time, so we are 1-1 now. We will be judged on the rest of the games this season, not just this game."
INSIDE RECEIVER Kendall Wright
On the two turnovers to start the second half...
"It was a momentum changer because we were expecting to start fast in the third quarter and make some plays and get ahead. The turnovers killed us."
On the difference between this game and the Wake Forest game...
"We started fast against Wake Forest. We came out with a fire."
On bouncing back...
"We are already focusing on the next one, but it hurts, it hurts a lot."
LINEBACKER Joe Pawelek
On the game...
"It's real disappointing. We didn't expect something like that. We had a good couple weeks of practice and you have to give them credit. They came out and ran the ball well and that's something real hard to stop. At the same time we can't be giving up so many penalties and turnovers."
On UConn's offense...
"I think coming in we knew what kind of offensive line they had. They have some big boys that can play football and we just got in first down situations only getting four or five yards on a carry which makes it tough to put up points."
On the defense being put in tough situations...
"We were put in some tough situations but as a defense we have to step up. On the 20, we at least have to force a field goal or get a turnover. We have to capitalize on those opportunities. It was a real physical football game and their running game wore us out in the first half. We need to step in and make that big first down stop."
UCONN QUOTES
HEAD COACH RANDY EDSELL
On the game...
"It is a good win because we came on the road, down in the Big 12 and the Big East doesn't get a lot of respect. We beat a team that a lot of people had a lot of promise for. It just feels good."
On Andre Dixon...
"I am so impressed with Andre (Dixon). I told the offensive coaches that we were going to grind this thing out and that we were going to put number two in there. He has a will to get it done. He has been a leader and he is a guy that gets everyone going more than anyone else. He was special today."
On the UConn defense playing physical...
"They don't like to get hit. Quarterbacks don't like to get hit. Skill guys don't like to get hit. What we wanted to do was to turn it into a physical game. We wanted to turn it into a street fight. The more hits that you get on people and it shows on some of those fumbles. We didn't turn the ball over and we did what we needed to on special teams, defense and up front. We turned the game into a street fight."
On creating points off of turnovers...
"Getting the ball down there (off of turnovers) is huge. If you get field goals then it is not as tough on Baylor. To come out and get the two turnovers right away, that was big. This week we were able to sustain drives and that was the difference."
QUARTERBACK CODY ENDRES
On the offensive line...
"Our offensive line did a tremendous job today. They did a great job moving guys off of the line. When we needed a big first down, they came through. We were just getting yards and we owe it all to them."
On the turnover battle...
"I try not to turn the ball over because when we have the ball in our hands we have a good chance of winning the game. I tried to be as careful and concise with the ball as I could be."
SAFETY ROBERT VAUGHN
On the defense playing physical...
"We came into the game with our motto being to `out-physical' the other team. Every time we had a chance to hit them we hit them to let them know that we were coming all day. I think we let them know. We hit them pretty hard today."
On the offense...
"The offense stepped up today. That was what this win was all about today. It was a great team effort."
DEFENSIVE END LINDSEY WITTEN
On shutting down Robert Griffin...
"I don't think (Robert) Griffin likes to take hits too much, personally. We got him early a couple of times and made him think twice about running. That is what we tried to do coming into the game, try to put hits on him and put him down as many times as we could, legally. That is what we did."
RUNNING BACK ANDRE DIXON
On his performance...
"My number called a lot of times and when your number gets called you have to be able to make plays. I came through and made the plays that my team needed for us to be successful."
On the offensive line...
"I felt like the line came off the ball really well and opened some holes that gave the running backs chances to spring runs today."
