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UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 26, 2015

Mark Whipple

South Bend, Indiana

Massachusetts - 27
Notre Dame - 62

MARK WHIPPLE: Their varsity was better than our varsity and their JV was a little better than our JV. Brian did a really good job. They got their guys ready and we kind of put a little shock into them and woke them up I guess at the end of the second quarter.

We just couldn't handle their offensive line. Their offensive line just manhandled us. We lost a couple guys early in the game, and then they just played better than us. It's hard to -- we took care of the ball on offense. We didn't make enough plays. Had some one-on-one shots we missed. We knew we had to make a couple of those, and they just -- they're better than we are. We'll take the money and run.

Q. (No microphone.)
MARK WHIPPLE: He seemed all right. He was on the sideline at the end, so we didn't bring him in, so he seemed all right.

Q. When you had it to 21-20, how much (inaudible)?
MARK WHIPPLE: I think it had a more to do with their guys than our guys. I mean, they've got real guys. Not that we don't, but they're line is really good, and then their backs are good. We didn't tackle very well. We didn't have quite the energy that we had last week, but I credit Notre Dame. They end-of-the-half play was a big play. They did a nice job of downing at the 1 and then I got aggressive, and I felt like they were going to press us, and I thought we needed a shot to Tajae, maybe get 99, and you've got to make a decision there and we backed up and they run it in and kind of took the wind out of our sails. And then I made a bad call on a fake punt, trying to just get something going.

But I don't think all those things would have mattered. They were just better than us.

Q. (No microphone.)
MARK WHIPPLE: I don't know. I don't tell them to look at the score. I mean, are we going to take a picture with their iPhone? Let's just go play the next play, that's all. That's all you can do in these things.

I'm just glad I don't have to go through it until I go to Florida next year because it's a hard deal. It's a hard deal. It's like your little brother -- we've got to play better, and we will, and I'm happy about the disappointment on Fro's face and Tajae and Rodney Mills. We didn't have him. He's a really great leader. I feel so bad for him getting off on a tangent, but the kid is crying in the locker room because he couldn't play. We've got some good leaders, and they've got to step up, and we've just got to move forward.

Q. We saw a couple of flashes out of Young. Just talk about him.
MARK WHIPPLE: Yeah, he hits a 79-yarder. I think that kind of woke him up. We've seen him do that. He's working all the other things. He's fast. I honestly didn't know he was that fast. But he likes to play, and just cleaning up his footwork and all the other things. He's a great kid. He's just a super, super kid that we're really excited -- Marcel Shipp did a great job of recruiting him last year, and he got hurt in spring, so the two freshmen I think will get better, and we're better at that position than we were last year.

Q. While it's still fresh (inaudible)?
MARK WHIPPLE: I don't know. I don't know. That's not for me to make a decision. It's already done. I mean, yeah, it was good. I just don't like losing. I don't care who it is to. I got beat bad, too, before at New Haven a couple times. That's not fun. But you know, as I said, we're back in our element now, and we've just got to get our guys prepared for Florida International tomorrow.

Q. What were your impressions of their offense?
MARK WHIPPLE: Yeah, I mean, they got better. Kizer got better. We knew that Wimbush could run around and make some things happen. Tried to take Fuller out of the game, which we did a pretty good job. He didn't get the big one. I think they played good. He had the one turnover that Trey made a good play on. That was about it. They ran it a little bit more than maybe we expected, but he's got a chance to be really good because we've got an offensive line like they have and you've got Prosise back there and you've got a guy on the outside, you've got to double him, they have one guy short in the box, and you want to stop the run. They've got what it takes to be a really good offense.

Q. (No microphone.)
MARK WHIPPLE: Yeah, I made a decision. Yeah, I made a decision. I'm not sure the other guy was -- he wasn't Pete Gogolak, but he did all right. He was 3 for 3, so we'll look at it. We're just going to let Blake kick off from now on. That's the least of our worries. I didn't think extra points would help us in this game anyway.

I appreciate that the Notre Dame people were tremendous. I've been a lot of places, and I thought that the fans were really great. I thought that the people really had a lot of class. To our kids and to everybody that was here, I've made a lot of trips around, and I was really, really impressed with the way that Notre Dame handles their business. It was really a class operation. We would come back any time because of that, okay. Best of luck to you guys at Notre Dame. Thanks.

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