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NEW ERA PINSTRIPE BOWL: SYRACUSE v WEST VIRGINIADecember 29, 2012Prince-Tyson GulleyDoug MarroneNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK SYRACUSE – 38 COACH MARRONE: I was here when we first arrived, and I want thank Mark Holtzman and Randy Levine and the Yankee organization, the Steinbrenner family and New Era really did an outstanding job for us. And I can't tell you how thankful we are as a university and football program that we are able to play here, very important for our fans and very important for our players. With the game today, everything's fine, people want to make things about the field, but it's football and it's for both teams. Changed a little bit of the plan, when we started to play. Challenged our defense the night before. Prince is sitting next to me; Prince was there, and our defense came up big, Coach Schaeffer, those players, told them all of the hype that was going on with the game and I really challenged them to play well and I think they did a good job. I think right off the bat, the first play of the game, Deon Goggins comes through and makes a great play for a tackle. That sets the tempo. Offensively, if we lose here‑‑ we say Prince listened to coach Wheatley today and finally came through. But Prince has been a player that really worked hard, played with injury, has really come a long way in our program and I couldn't be prouder of him sitting next to me. He's a well‑deserved MVP trophy and really proud of this football team. THE MODERATOR: You want to give a few thoughts on the experience today. COACH MARRONE: You never give up an opportunity for the mic, I know that. PRINCE‑TYSON GULLEY: I thank Yankee Stadium, all of the Yankee people, for the good situation coming here, and I want to thank the coaches for believing in me, and you're right, I have came a long way and just going on believing in me and everything. Q. You said you changed things a little bit because of the weather. Was it a lot towards the run game? Did you have the flexibility to go to the game plan? Did you run and pass more? COACH MARRONE: I think with the system that we run, we have the flexibility to go either way, whatever is working for us. It wasn't that things weren't working for us. I think it was a difficult time for not only Ryan but also Geno, he had the ball coming out a little bit. I think the officials did a good job trying to get the balls in and out, with the system that we run, put it on Macky and Ryan whether we wanted to get a new ball or not. Then Prince and Jerome and the offensive line and the receivers on the perimeter were doing a nice job.  We kept running and just kept trying to hit a couple of different things, made a couple adjustments and made some big runs. Q. Not to pick a pun or anything, but was there a snowball effect when the run started working and you went to it more? COACH MARRONE: The footing on one end‑‑ and we felt very comfortable. We have done this before. It's not like you can look at us and say, wow, they totally shifted gears or they totally went the other way. This is a part of our game was able to take over and it's been very successful for us. The players, you know, that's the one thing I'm proud of about the offense. And everyone knows that the end of the year, we started to become more balanced, it really helps us out. It gives you the opportunity when you become balanced to when you get into situations and you get into environments or elements, whatever it may be, you can stick to either running or throwing. We were ready to go into today to do either/or, whatever we had to do to win, we were going to do. Q. Seems like you were clamping down on third and fourth down conversions‑‑ COACH MARRONE: What do you mean by "clamp down"? Q. They didn't convert at all? COACH MARRONE: They didn't? Well, I think that, again, when you're put in a tough situation‑‑ if you look at ours, our third down, we made a couple critical ones third‑and‑long earlier in the game. And then after that, we kept everything in sync and we were able to convert. There were times we didn't and we had a penalty and we didn't convert. I think that without throwing, I think our defense did a good job, keeping them in long distances. I think backed up a little bit might have changed their plan when were coming out and ran the ball, and we were able to make plays. Q. After last season ended with the disappointing losing streak, you come back this year and go 6‑1 down the stretch, to win on the road, to win close games, how do you put that change in perspective from going straight losses down the stretch to winning whichever game you needed to? COACH MARRONE: I don't know if I put it into‑‑ the leadership that we have, I really think that it was important out there to really appreciate what the men and women of our military do. But I don't know‑‑ I can never find words about what you feel about what they do for all of us in this room and I don't think I can put into words for what they did for us and our experience. You know, that experience, passed along to our players and our players communication between them and how close this team was ‑‑ and Michael, you know, I've said this before, out of all the teams since I've been here, this was the closest team that I've coached. Q. What do you think about the holes you had to run through and the play of the offensive linemen in front of you? PRINCE‑TYSON GULLEY: Our linemen came out to play, opened up a lot of good holes and made me and Jerome, made it very easy for us to pick where we were going and they did a good job for us. Credit them for that. COACH MARRONE: You really have come a long way. Q. Just for you being from here, what's the significance of this stadiumand this borough? COACH MARRONE: You're right, I should play more games in the Borough of the Bronx. It's does, it's very special to me. But for me to talk about what's special for me today really does not put into perspective how I feel. We have a lot of players from this area, a lot of players whose families can't make that trip up to Syracuse for games, but they were able to come. You know, I think it's special. It's become‑‑ winning the second one, it's become a special place for all of us and it's always been a special place. Q. Knowing your history in this conference, what's your feeling now knowing this is your last‑‑ COACH MARRONE: I've answered this before. When I played it, we were not in the Big East. We were a major independent and we played pretty much the same teams every year. So I'm not going to hash or rehash my personal feelings about what I feel good northeast football. That's well documented. But I would like to say that Nick Carparelli, Terry McAulay in the Big East office, I thought they did a really good job of being professional in our last year, keeping me informed of things that were going on with rules and officials and Bowls. And I give them a lot of credit for that, and we look forward to going to the Atlantic Coast Conference. We really haven't talked about it as much as a team, and I'm very happy that we have, you know‑‑ we are going into a conference that's both competitive, not only athletically in all men's and women's sports, but also very competitive educationally and academically. Q. How would you compare the two experiences? COACH MARRONE: Well, it's two different experiences for us totally. And that's a credit to the Yankee organization, really. You know, because I've done this before, going to back‑to‑back Bowls, when I was at Georgia Tech, and won the first year, it was great, all the kids were excited. The second time coming around, we didn't play as well. Myself personally, I can't speak for the head coaches or the other coaches that were involved. But none of the players are like here we go again, doing this, doing that, like the same thing. That's where I give a lot of credit to this Bowl. I really think that from the first year to this year, in my eyes and my perspective, this Bowl's really stepped it up. I mean, this is outstanding, really, what they are doing. And I'd put it on level to any other Bowl I've been to, and I've been to an SEC Championship Game, I've been to a couple of them; I'm impressed. Q. I know Prince addressed this a few minutes ago, but this offensive line playing together after Justin missed the first four games, how proud are you of them, especially considering your former offensive line? COACH MARRONE: Well, a couple things happened. You're correct, Justin came back and he brings a toughness not only to the offensive unit but also to the team. He's been a very, very good player for us. Then we were able to move Sean Hickey over to right tackle and that upgraded line. And Rob Trudo was getting better as the year went on, first‑year player. And Macky has been as solid as solid can be and Zack Chibane has played a lot. So you're talking about a bunch of guys that are very proud to block for guys like Prince and Jerome and Ashton and to protect people like Ryan and the receivers. So there's a lot of pride. There's a lot of things that go on and I don't think people on the outside can ever really understand and I don't mean that in a disrespectful way. They truly like each other. They truly believe in one another. They pull for each other to be successful. And I think that when you have that going on, that type of culture within that unit, you have a chance to be successful. I was very proud of that. Q. I know that it's a challenge when it snows coming down, the field is a little uncertain, but on some level is it kind of sheer fun playing a game like this? PRINCE‑TYSON GULLEY: Well, like Coach said, it's just like playing at home, so it was basically‑‑ Q. Have you played like this at home or in school or in your backyard or at the park? PRINCE‑TYSON GULLEY:  In Pee‑Wee's I played in some like this, but not in high school or anything, but it was fun. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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