Qadree Ollison, Running Back
Achieving 1,000 rushing yards
“It’s good. It’s a great accomplishment. Congratulations to Darrin [Hall] on his achievement. This is a testament to the offensive line as well. It’s a little bitter-sweet feeling, it coming with a loss. It’s still great though. It’s great for the program, for him, and for us.”
Positives from tonight’s game
“We’ve got a ton of guys that won’t quit. A ton of guys that never show any quit. We fought all the way until the clock hit zero every single play. A bunch of guys that just don’t give up, they just continue to persevere. I think we started something. We didn’t win the Championship, but I think we started something here at Pitt for the future, for next year. Sometimes tough losses like this can really spark the next year or even the next game. I am really proud of how everybody competed. Everybody played all-out and gave it all they’ve got.”
Assessment of the season
“Like I said, I think we’ve started something. I’ve seen it happen. For me personally, it was in high school. My sophomore year, we were 4-7 and the next year we went 11-0, but we lost the Championship my sophomore year. I’ve seen it before where you’re so much hungrier the next year to get back and finish it. The younger guys, underclassmen they’re going to be hungry next year.”
Darrin Hall, Running Back
Giving up an interception before halftime
“Anytime you turn the ball over, you have a less chance of winning. One of our keys to victory was to hold on to the ball and we didn’t get that done.”
Overcoming a 14-point deficit
“When you’re playing the No. 2 team in the country, you can’t play from behind. You’ve got to play your best game and we didn’t do that.”
Positives from tonight’s game
“As a younger guy, this is a start. You’ve got a chance to build on this. If you come back next year, you’re not underdogs. You’re used to this, you’ve been here before. We went somewhere we’ve never been and now they’ve just got to take this moment and the way this feels and take it in to the offseason.”
Kenny Pickett, QB
On what happened tonight…
“We didn’t play a great game offensively, I love the way our defense played, they played great, and I am proud of the way they played tonight. We just need to be better offensively. I didn’t play well myself, I didn’t play well at all. It was probably my worst game, definitely. But I am not going to let this game define me, I am going to bounce back and move on.”
“It’s a tough game, but I am not going to let this game define me. I am confident in my abilities. I am going to put the work in. I have about a month left to get ready for this bowl game and I am going to do everything I can to be ready for this bowl game and help these seniors go out the right way.”
On the interception before halftime…
“The ball just got out of my hands honestly. It was tough all night with the ball. Water on the ball you can deal with, but mud you can’t. I was just trying to improve given the conditions. It slipped out of my hands.”
“That was a crucial point in the game no doubt, it can’t happen and I can’t make that kind of play.”
On making strides this year as a team…
“Absolutely, I think we grew as a team. Obviously it wasn’t the outcome we wanted, but we have one more game to go. I am 100 percent focused, and I am going to do everything I can to make these seniors go out the right way.”
“I could talk to you for an hour about how much I learned this season. I learned a bunch and I am going to continue to learn and just get better.”
Thoughts on Clemson and controlling with their defensive line…
“They are the number two team in the country for a reason. They did a lot of good things.”
“But also that fourth down conversion, and penalties that pin us back deep. We had terrible field position trying to get drives going. A lot of the things that happened tonight were on us.”
On last drive of first half…
“Yeah, we play to win a game, you don’t play not to lose. I made a bad play.”
Thoughts on upcoming bowl game….
“These seniors have put so much effort in, they’ve put so much work in…they have to go out the right way. So I’m going to do everything in my power to help these guys go out the right way.”
On the root of the issue regarding penalties…
“New guys and communication, honestly. We have to talk better. Guys need to know the snap count. We need to get the right personnel in the huddle so we aren’t rushing to the ball.”
“A lot of things got jumbled up that we need to have, so that we aren’t rushing to the ball with ten seconds left on the clock where we can’t get our checks in or our play count right. It was all things we definitely need to improve on for this next game.”
Oluwaseun Idobu, Linebacker
What Pitt needed to win
“Yeah, I feel like there’s a lot of things we were missing. Basic fundamentals. There wasn’t really anything necessarily special we needed to do. We didn’t execute the way we needed to. That was really the big difference for us. It wasn’t really anything too crazy. They’re a good team, they’ve got good players. So do we, but we didn’t execute to the point where we would like to.”
Assessment of season
“I mean, at the end of the day the goal was to get here and win the game. We didn’t necessarily do that, but there is progress there. There’s always something to be learned from games like this. We have to take it as a lesson. We made it to this point. That’s not going to stop us from driving and making that a goal again. To get to this point and really know how to handle the situation. Really looking at the goal, it wasn’t necessarily what we wanted, but there is progress and stuff to be learned.”
Importance of a Bowl game
“Any game is just as important. You kind of want to win any game that you can. You see guys on the schedule, the goal is to win, win, win. You take it game by game. After this game and looking ahead, we’ve just got to win the next one. It’s just as important.”
Alex Bookser, OL
On the root of Pitt’s issues tonight
“Our biggest issue right now is probably just communication. I think teams are taking advantage of that. It’s rough when the general of the line makes all the calls, he goes down it’s the responsibility of everyone else to pick up the pieces. That falls on every single one of us. I take the brunt of the blame as the guy who has experience… It’s our responsibility to kind of make sure everybody knows what’s going on. It falls on all of us, we all have to communicate better. Communication right now is what we need to fix.”
On the season ending with two losses
“I never want to end a season with a loss. The season isn’t over. We still have a bowl game. Right now, obviously, it’s really tough, but we have a few weeks going forward. We’re going to be able to go out the way we want. This isn’t the last game that we’re ever going to play. I think there is time for us to fix what we have to fix and we’re going to go out the right way.”
On step forward in the run game
“It’s hard to say it’s a step forward because we’ve had so much success. Our goal was to be able to run the ball on whoever we play because that’s good football. I don’t know how many rushing yards we ended with, but I guarantee it’s not as many as we wanted.”
On 14-0 deficit early in the game
“I can’t tell you what everybody else was thinking, but I was thinking that it was nothing we haven’t seen before. We’ve dug ourselves out of a hole before. I don’t think anybody got down from that. We knew who they were. They have an explosive offense. We know how good our defense is, we knew they would be able to make adjustments. Them going up 14-0, personally, that’s not something I look at as a huge play.”
On satisfaction from Darrin and Qadree being the first 1000 yard tandem for Pitt as an offensive line
“You love seeing those guys have success. It’s really easy to block for them. They’re awesome, so selfless. They share it all season. Whoever is hot, they gave the rock. That’s just the way it was. I love blocking for those guys.”
On Clemson compared to Notre Dame
“They are really good up front. They give you a lot to deal with. You have to play mistake-free football.”