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CHICK-FIL-A KICKOFF GAME: AUBURN v LOUISVILLE

September 5, 2015

Bobby Petrino

ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Auburn – 31
Louisville - 24

BOBBY PETRINO: You know, we had a lot of mistakes early in the game. In the first half we had some opportunities where we could have got some points on the board, and weren't able to do that. Turned the ball over and then gave them seven points.
I am proud of our team and our coaches and how hard they competed and how we got back in the game and played extremely hard in the second half. But against a real good team like Auburn, you can't give up those early opportunities and give them seven points.

Q. Coach, what did you see from Lamar as the game went on? Did you see him progressing?
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, I thought he did a nice job for us. He made some really good throws. He's got a quick release and a strong arm, made some dynamic plays with his legs we felt like in the first half. We were having a hard time protecting. They were getting pressure on us, and he would give us the best opportunity to move the ball, and he certainly did that. We were able to mix it up and get some good run plays in there with Brandon, and we just ran out of time.

Q. Can you just talk about the first play of the game and then was the plan to play Lamar at some point?
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, we were going to play him, and what we did there, and it's a package we worked on all week, was Reggie was going to go in motion and the center is supposed to wait for the signal from Lamar to snap the ball, and we snapped it a little bit early. That's when as a young quarterback you just have to have poise and run and run out of bounds or get a couple yards and get out of bounds, and he threw it up in the air and they got the interception, not at all like we planned or how it worked all week in practice.

Q. You want to talk about how well your defense played today?
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, I thought we struggled a little bit stopping their run. I thought that I expected that we would stop their run a little bit more. They really pounded it at us in the second half and tried to use up the clock, but we did get turnovers. We did keep us in the game, and we made a lot of good plays, but we just weren't consistent enough against the run.

Q. You got within seven that final possession as the clock ran down. What was going through your mind?
BOBBY PETRINO: Well, we were working to try to stop them on 3rd down and call timeout and force them to have to punt the ball, and then when they got the 1st down but had a holding penalty, we had no choice but to call the time out, and they ran the clock out. It's unfortunate.

Q. Would the clock have started after‑‑
BOBBY PETRINO: They would have started it right away.

Q. After the holding penalty?
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, and I asked the official that on the sideline. I said now because he's tackled and it was a run play, the clock starts immediately, and he said, yeah.

Q. And with the way that Lamar played in the second half and the exciting plays that he was able to make, do you anticipate him being your guy kind of moving forward?
BOBBY PETRINO: You know, we'll wait and see, but I thought he really did a nice job, competed extremely hard, and we saw that in practice. Like I said coming into the game, we knew we were going to play him, and he did compete extremely hard out there. I thought it gave us the best opportunity to get back in the game and find a way to win.

Q. Talk about your offensive line and what you saw from the guys you had out there, and I don't think you rotated a whole lot.
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, we stayed with the same five, and I thought in the first half we did some good things, but we did give up some pressure on the quarterback, and that was really the decision that we made to get Lamar in there and felt like his ability to scramble and move around. But then I thought that they got better as the game went on, and that's really what you're looking for in the first game is to make sure that as the game goes on, everybody improves and gets better and gets used to the speed and how fast the game is. So I felt like we improved as the game went on.

Q. You had a lot of young receivers, a lot of freshmen make plays. Can you comment on that group, and also if you have any idea of the extent of the injury to Quick?
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, it's a young group, there's no question about that. They did get fatigued. We did try to rotate guys in and keep them as fresh as we possibly could. I think it's going to be a really good group of receivers. You know, we played three freshmen out there today, and Emonee Spence actually was doing as good if not better than those guys in practice and tweaked his hamstring a little bit, so we made a decision that he wouldn't be able to go.
As far as James goes, I haven't talked to the trainer yet, but I don't think it looked good. I think it was one of those non‑contact injuries and looked like an ankle injury to me. But I don't know the extent of it.

Q. You talked about the team getting better as the game went on. How much does a game like this help you grow up because it's a tough early schedule? What do you take from this and do you feel like it was a positive?
BOBBY PETRINO: Well, it's never a positive when you get beat, but what we need to build on is our competitiveness, on the fact we did execute and compete hard in the second half, and we did move the ball better on offense and got it in the end zone and that our defense did some really good things. It's hard, they really ran the clock, they did a great job of running the ball and being real patient. For the most part except for one play, we stopped the big play, the big pass. I guess one holding play helped us on another one. But that was one of the things I was concerned about going into the game was how well we would defend the deep ball.

Q. (No microphone.)
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, I mean, I thought it was pressure. When you get pressure on a quarterback, especially a young quarterback, things change, and decision‑making becomes harder. Josh got in good position a couple times, made some good plays, and you know, gave us a chance with the turnovers to help us win.

Q. I was wondering what was the decision to start Tobijah and put Pedro at guard? We didn't know who was going to start ‑‑
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, it was just the execution in practice, and we felt like that group gave us the best chance to execute and perform well. We got some guys that were right there, but as the game went on, we felt like we needed to try to keep the same group in and try to continue to get better and work harder and block better. It was just the decision to keep all five in the game.

Q. I guess it seemed like Pedro was probably going to start somewhere.
BOBBY PETRINO: Oh, yeah, he was definitely going to start at either guard or center, and we felt like Tobijah's experience and his ability to call out fronts, his ability to get protections set from all his experience last year gave us the best opportunity.

Q. What did he say after the first play? You said he snapped it quickly?
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, I'm not really sure what he said. I'm not sure I listened to him.

Q. You watched a lot of Auburn defense obviously leading up to this. What was different about this group with Will Muschamp and the first time out than what you watched previous?
BOBBY PETRINO: You know, they've got great players. They're big and physical up front, they've got a lot of experience at linebacker. I thought their corners did a good job for them. We felt like in the first half we were moving the ball but we kept hurting ourselves.
They're a good defensive squad and they're very well coached.

Q. Jamari didn't play. Did the extent of what happened in practice, I assume, and then I think Cole, the whole second you didn't have him, either?
BOBBY PETRINO: Yeah, we got a couple guys banged up, but Jamari unfortunately sprained his knee. I think we'll have him back, but I'm not sure what time period that will be, and then Cole had a shoulder injury, and the trainers and doctors said that he wasn't ready to go back in.

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