22 Quotes by Tom Jurich

We spent many years in the same league with Tulane and Southern Miss and still consider them members of our family, ... Many of our fans visited New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast while we were competing against those schools and have been struck by the images of the devastation in those areas. I hope this can help.

We've said it from day one, that if this arena was going to cut into anything at the university then we weren't in favor of it. We reluctantly went downtown to be a team player and to be on the river to go in accordance with the task force and to be a full partner.

Rick has continued to exceed all of my expectations and we look forward to even further heights, particularly with our move into the Big East Conference. I hope we can add Rick for another nine years in 2010.

If we're not going to be on campus, we need to be on the river. That's the place that makes a statement to recruits. Why would you spend a quarter-billion dollars to hide a building?

I'm all for giving people a second chance, but not on our dime. I wanted to see him go through a year and see his character. So far, he's been much more than I anticipated. I'm very, very pleased with him so far.

If anything, our being here really validates how good the move to the Big East was for us. And I know there are better things ahead.

We looked at it very closely. I probably used more due diligence on this hire than anyone I've ever hired before.

I was always trying to share our story with Mike and the members of the Big East, telling them what our vision was and where I wanted us to go, ... That paid some big dividends later, because when the time came to pull the trigger, they already knew a lot about us.

I think he's worked very hard at it. He's grown and matured as a coach dramatically.