Everything Mike Norvell said about loss to No. 3 Miami + Q&A: Tommy Castellanos, Luke Petitbon, more

MIKE NORVELL: You know, just to start off, for our fan base, you know, our university, you know, I'm sorry for the outcome. You know, I know how much it means, this game means to our team, to the individuals, coaches, players, everybody involved, past players, you know, to our program.

And this is a game that there is so much excitement around, excitement for. To come up short in this one is just utterly disappointing in every way.

You know, I thought our guys, they battled. We just had too many mistakes. Miami did a good job. They did what they needed to do to win the game. They protected the football. Hit some explosive plays.

You know, and then I thought our guys just we fell behind early. Whether it was just untimely penalties, some mistakes that we made that was just a little too much to overcome there in the end.

Thought our guys battled in the fourth quarter. I believed throughout that we would get a spark, that we would start to put it together, and they did. Unfortunately it was too little, too late.

Weren't able to come out on top. But it's a locker room that is hurting. Been a lot of work and investment like I said throughout the week. This is a 365-day-a-year game. When you come up short in this one, it just -- I mean, it hurts.

As a coach I have to be better in helping continue to assist our guys, eliminate some of the mistakes, that we're better in some of the key situations, and just continue to lift them up and push them forward.

We will respond from this. Nobody want to have to go through it, but these guys, they're going to fight and they're going to continue to get better. We have an opportunity here this next week to go make progress and showcase all that we are. We've shown to be a talented team and a team that's very capable, but we made some mistakes tonight that definitely cost us.

Q. The fourth and eight decision early on in the game, can you reflect upon it? Obviously Miami turned around on the next play hits a bang play for a touchdown.

MIKE NORVELL: Yeah, it was kind of on the brink of the thought process of where to go with that. I mean, wanted to be aggressive. Felt good about the opportunities that we could have there. We been good on fourth down situations. A little outside the field goal range. Potentially trying to pin 'em. But it was just distance-wise felt good about what we could accomplish.

Obviously don't want to have the interception and the big return and the next play they scored, so that didn't go how anybody wants it to. But these are decisions that are made throughout the course of a game when it comes to what you want to do, and it was one I made.

Q. How would you evaluate Tommy's performance? Seemed like he had to settle in for quite a bit of the game. What wasn't working early on and what did work when it started to?

MIKE NORVELL: Yeah, you know, the game of football, you go through the ebbs and flows. They did a good job. I thought the first drive we were able to move the ball down the field, couple good throws. Unfortunately not being able to finish in the end zone there.

You know, kind of got a little off rhythm at times and there were some opportunities. And you got give credit to them. They created some pressures and it's a challenging defense in that regard. Thought they did a nice job with what they were trying to do and accomplish to get him off the point.

And then I thought he did settle down there later in the game and he showed tremendous heart, tremendous fight, was leading this team. Tommy, I believe in him. I believe in who is and what he's about. He went in and told the team right after that he takes ownership for all things that he does and I respect him so much for that.

He's going to be pushing with the response of this team, but it's not all on him in any regards. Everything we can do, we can all push and be better.

He's a competitor. He wants to do it all for this team. You know, it was just some times where he wasn't quite in rhythm like he's been. Some of that you got give just credit to the opponent.

Q. You guys obviously did a pretty good job against their running game, but how much of their big plays in the passing game is a result of the emphasis on stopping the run or is it not?

MIKE NORVELL: Yeah, obviously there is -- we knew we had to be aggressive in the run game. That's something that he wanted to establish. We also realize there will be vertical shot opportunities. It comes down to discipline with your eyes, trusting technique. Had a flicker that we were pretty confident we would see at some point there tonight, but unfortunately just they were able to execute and they made the play.

But you can't -- in a game like tonight, I mean, you know, you look at turnover margin, No. 1, something we talked about throughout the course of the week. When you're minus three, 14 points off turnovers, it's a killer. We knew the run game, that was something we had to try to establish. We had to try to stop it.

Then obviously the explosive play component of it. We didn't have enough of them and they got -- they had two or three that were kind of daggers throughout the night when you look back upon it.

But it's things that we expected we would potentially see, but just didn't do a good enough job of stopping.

Q. Two straight games you mentioned with the self-inflicted wounds in some of the turnovers. When you talk about response, what do you expect to see from the group when you guys go into practice and throughout the rest of the regular season?

MIKE NORVELL: It's something that's being emphasized. With emphasis there has to be application. We can't lose the turnover margin. Two straight games we've had three turnovers; got get that fixed.

It was clearly a clearer understanding and expectation for what we needed to get done, but unfortunately that didn't -- we didn't apply that well enough. Yeah, there is a lot of things that can show up, and especially when it comes to an interception. There is a lot of different factors that go into that. Just protection, it's location, it's route sometimes. It's all different aspects that come to what -- any time there is a pass intercepted.

We had a couple balls that got to the ground. One that was a fumble that was a turnover. And then another one that got to the ground. So we got to be better there. It's the -- it is the application of the things that are being emphasized. We have to take a step there.

Q. The impact of losing Micah, I guess how difficult that was to lose him and do you have an update on whether that's short-term, long-term?

MIKE NORVELL: Don't have an update. Not excepting anything long-term when it comes to that. Obviously you don't want to lose anybody, but we had a plan in place, and in tonight's matchup it was magnified that much more just because of who you're going against.

You got two of the better ends in the country that we were able to create a little bit of pressure. I thought Adrian did a good job being able to go out there and fight and compete and obviously Rizy coming in.

But that was -- it definitely added to the challenge of what we were trying to do. You know, we'll see where it all progresses with Micah.

Q. How much of the I guess the moment do you think impacted the offense in the first half? Just seemed like out-of-character mistakes, whether it was a personal foul or interceptions or Duce trying to fight for extra yardage. It's a good thing, but seemed like mistakes that hadn't been happening. Any attribution to nerves or the game, the moment itself?

MIKE NORVELL: Yeah, this game carries a great deal of weight. Everything you do is to prepare you for this. You got to be able to manage and handle that. I can't sit here and say that's why this or that happened, but I thought like even with the first drive, we moved the ball down the field, put ourselves in position. I thought there was opportunity down there, but unfortunately got held to a field goal.

Then there were some spots within each of the next drives that, like I said, there were plays for the taking and just things that we didn't -- we weren't just good enough. There is obviously things I'm sure players, coaches, everybody involved would like to have back.

That's why you practice the way you practice, train the way you train. So within those big moments, in those times with great pressure or playing against talented opponents, that you rise above that.

So you can figure -- try to find a million different reasons of why. It's our job to get it fixed. There has been -- there is a heavy push for expectation here, and that's every day. That's on practice field, the weight room, nutrition, classroom, everything; social life. All things are challenging guys so in these moments our best shows up. Unfortunately that didn't happened to the level it needed to, and so we just got to get better.

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