I was shocked at how blatant it was. I had done nothing to him. ... I don't buy that he got overexcited.

It's fun. It's one of those games that will test your ability. I was watching that '60 Minutes' piece about Michael Jordan. And I understood what he was saying about wanting to go out on a limb, and then you want to win. . . . You've done everything you can in your career to prepare yourself to play in games like this. This is where you want to be.

I'm confident that I'll be back by Virginia Tech. I'm definitely going to push to be on the field. But there's no fighting with the head man. ... He obviously has the last say. I trust his judgment.

It was something we were focusing on coming into this game. We wanted to put together the best game possible because together we knew if we did that then it'd definitely be within our reach.

Honestly, we thought it was unfortunate, but it didn't change the mind-set of the team. I think it'd take a little away from the game and from them if we came out and played soft or anything just to cater to them, so it didn't change our mind-set at all.

I definitely want to come out and play strong every time. Not to make them out to be something they're not, but last year they came out and played us pretty tough, and so I just wanted to come out and do the best that I could.