The first time that he's going in there in front of 100,000 people and be on TV, it's a different experience for him. Sometimes they handle it well, and sometimes they don't.

The first thing that comes to my mind, I feel this is the worst defeat we've endured in the seven-plus years I've been here.

He?s an awfully good quarterback that happens to also be an outstanding athlete.

Before we even played any games this year, I said I think we'll be a better football team than we were last year. We're a year more experienced, a little bit bigger, a little bit stronger, so we should be better.

I guess you don't appreciate going to a bowl until you don't get to go to a bowl.

I'll greatly miss them and more because of the type of people they are rather than the type of players they are. It was fun. It was an honor for me to go to practice every day and joke around with those guys and talk to those guys. They're in my estimation what college football's all about.

I haven't been very emotional about this thing. The emotional side of coaching is dealing with the kids. I've been a college coach for 34 years. I understand the business side. I might not like the decision that they make, but that is their prerogative.

I knew we only needed a field goal to tie it and put it into overtime, but I thought it was a great time to take a shot. More often than not, from the defensive perspective, the offense gets that ball.

I told them in the locker room after the game ... we're the first bowl-eligible team in country, and they just kind of laughed. We've kind of gone past that level as saying we've reached success, it really didn't mean that much.

It really hurts. It hurts more than when you get killed.