Quotes: Virginia 38, Duke 7

Duke Head Coach Ted Roof

The penalties and the kicking game gave us poor field position. The turnovers offensively -- you can't make those mistakes and beat a good football team. I was proud of the way we fought, but the execution wasn't there.

When you look at the run game, I thought that was a telling statistic. We got worn down, and some of those tackles that we were making for one- or two-yard gains in the first half turned into six- or seven-yard gains in the second half. You've got to get off the field on defense and our offensive has to execute to keep our defense off the field.

(On Tom Santi's TD reception) It certainly set the tone for the second half. I surely don't want to say that was the only play that affected the outcome of the game, but we've got to be able to get off the field on third and long.

Zack Asack made some plays. When you get thrown in there as a true freshman quarterback, it's a growing process. I thought he did some nice things today. He took care of the football and he finished a (touchdown) drive. He's not going to do anything but get better and better as time progresses.

(On QB Mike Schneider) He's fumbled a couple of weeks in a row. He's got to get better at that. I'm not down on Mike Schneider, but he's got to take better care of the football.

Virginia Head Coach Al Groh

The special teams were terrific today, starting with the kickers. They did a real good job for us. Kurt and Chris got good distance and kicked the ball where we wanted it. We got really good coverage with our coverage teams, especially on kickoffs. Mike Johnson stepped up with a great individual play when Duke decided not to kick to him. That's got to be part of our M.O. We have to be good on special teams. Every guy who participated on one play on special teams today deserves a lot of kudos.

Defensively, we had good intensity today. I thought Al did a terrific job managing the game. The game changed a lot. It went from a power game to kind of spread out, shotgun, ride-option game, back to a power game. We had to get in and out of a lot of different schemes and communicate those to the players, and he really did a good job.

I thought Marques did a terrific job. He got the ball to the right guy and put it right where it needed to be. The pass to Tom Santi on the real long yardage situation - that's either going to be a touchdown or a punt. That gave us a lot of juice and a lot of momentum. It was a terrific throw and an excellent catch by Tom.

We kind of kept grinding. These things don't happen automatically. You've got to have a grinding mentality. If you're against good competition and good competitive players, and Duke players played hard today. They had a good scheme. They're going to make it sticky on you for awhile. You can't get discouraged. You've got to keep grinding. I was pleased with that.

(On response to injuries to offensive line.) It was very pleasing to see. That's what a team has to do. Jordy Lipsey had to go in and play for the first time ever when the game was still on the line. Our production with Jordy in there was good. Eddie Pinigis did the same thing. Brad Butler had to move to the left, and that was the first time he'd had any significant playing time on the left side. And we had the two new guards. So three games from the end of last season, we had a completely revamped offensive line. That's a credit to their resilience, and Ron did a good job of getting them organized at halftime. They can feel proud of what they did tonight.

Quotes: Virginia 38, Duke 7

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