Steve Sarkisian and Ryan Day top college football’s best Week 10 quotes
Winning matches is the most important thing in sports. But there’s such a thing as winning press conferences, too.
In Week 10 of the college football season, as is the case every other week, several coaches won both — or at least offered some fiery words to reporters. From Rhett Lashley’s thoughts on SMU’s now-torn goal posts to Dabo Swinney’s anger over a controversial pass interference call, the wit and emotion ran high on Saturday.
Here are some of the best quotes from around the college football world in Week 10:
“It gives me something to rip their asses off about.” – Texas coach Steve Sarkisian
It was a “Put up or shut up” Texas had a matchup against a top-10 team, Vanderbilt, and the Longhorns made the most of the opportunity in Austin.
However, the win wasn’t without some late tension — after Texas built a 34-10 lead in the fourth quarter, Vanderbilt came back with three straight touchdowns to cut the Longhorns’ lead to three with 30 seconds left. It produced the ensuing onside kick More chaosBut Texas survived in the end for a huge win.
Speaking of the anxiety of the last game, Sarkisian looked on the positive side – the final quarter will give him and his staff the opportunity for some constructive criticism before next week.
“I hope there’s one in Deep Ellum and one in downtown Dallas.” – SMU coach Rhett Lashley
SMU pulled off its biggest upset of Week 10 against Miami on Saturday, forcing an interception on Carson Beck in overtime before finding the end zone to seal a 26-20 win.
The win, as is usual in such upsets, led to a field storm by the Mustang faithful. Fans also opted for the extra step of knocking down the goal post. In addition to talking about his team’s performance, Lashley made some fun comments about the possible future location(s) of the stolen goal post.
“If there are two better receivers in the country, I would like to see them.” -Ohio State coach Ryan Day
Jeremiah Smith’s greatness was well established entering the season – the sophomore was No. 1 in ESPN’s preseason rankings. But Carnell Tate has been excellent for the Buckeyes as well this fall, as Ohio State’s Week 10 game against Penn State was the third time in four games that the junior has topped 100 receiving yards and found the end zone.
Day shouted his wide receiver voice after the Buckeyes dispatched the Nittany Lions in Columbus, Ohio.
“This is one of the worst calls I have ever seen in a game in my entire coaching career.” – Clemson coach Dabo Swinney
The early afternoon showdown between Duke and Clemson proved to be one of the most exciting matchups of Week 10 – the two teams combined for 91 points as a late Blue Devils score and two-point conversion helped them to a 46-45 win.
Clemson seemed to have the game sealed with a fourth stop on Duke’s final drive but He was called for pass interference To give the Blue Devils a new set of touchdowns. After the game, Sweeney admitted his side had other chances to win the game, but remained glowing at the flag.
“He ran possessed today.” – West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez
Before his team’s trip to take on top-ranked Houston on the road, Rodriguez had some advice for running back Dior Hubbard: “Make them deal with you.”
Rodriguez wanted physicality in his defense, and he got it. The Mountaineers ran the ball 53 times for 246 yards in their win over the Cougars, with Hubbard — who accounted for 29 carries — accruing 108 of those yards (plus a touchdown). Rodriguez said his back was under a spell while he was bruised.
“The problem was every time we kicked the ball it didn’t go through the field goal posts.“- Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman
The Fighting Irish Kickers didn’t have a good time in their 25-10 win over the Boston College Eagles. Notre Dame attempted four kicks — one field goal and three extra points — and Noah Burnett (missed extra point), Marcelo Diomede (missed extra point) and Eric Schmidt (missed field goal) failed on three of them. Schmidt scored the extra point after Notre Dame’s final score of the game, but you can still understand why Freeman was upset.