Key quotes from ECU HC Mike Houston after loss to Michigan
On Michigan and the loss
Congratulations to Michigan on a solid win today. Very good football program, very good football team. Very talented, old, experienced. They look like what their preseason ranking is. I thought (Coach) Jesse (Minter) did a good job in the interim today. I thought they had a really good plan defensively. Obviously, they were the better team today. I felt good about the way our kids competed most of the day. A little disappointed in the lull we had in the third quarter. But I thought from a competing and physicality standpoint, I thought we held our own at times. Too many missed opportunities, too many mistakes. And we talked about it all week that a team like that - they take your mistakes, and they capitalize on them. And our missed opportunities is the reason we weren't able to get down in the red zone any more than we did in the first half and we weren't able to get points on the board in the first half. So we got a lot of work to do as far as corrections. We also did a lot of positive things too. That was a big-time setting. A lot of our kids have never played in a setting like that. I looked at the pregame meal this morning - and we eat pregame meal by eligibility. So your kids in the last year of eligibility go first, kids with two years left, go next. And, you know, the bulk of the guys that got up to go eat are the kids with three and four years of eligibility left. So we got to grow up pretty fast because come tomorrow, we gotta get ready for Marshall, we gotta get ready for a home opener. So nobody's getting time to hang their head or feel sorry for themselves or anything like that because we good big ball game next week.
On J.J. McCarthy's performance
I think he's really good. I think they have some really good receivers. I think we had some mistakes in secondary — had a couple of times we'd have a coverage called should have allowed us to be a highly contested throw or possibly a turnover and we did not execute. So I think, you know, we got some things we could execute better within the secondary and both times I'm thinking of its young guys in their first college starts. So, you know, there are gonna be some growing pains here early in the season.
On taking solace in holding Michigan to under four yards per carry
We got beat 30-3. I don't know how much solace I can take, you know?
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