Transcript: Bobby Petrino talks Miami win

Opening statement: It was a great win. The first thing that was really impressive to me was Card March, to see all our fans and all the support they gave our players. It was unbelievable. I've never seen anything like that before and I really appreciate all of their support. I thought it would be a real battle and we would have to work extremely hard. Obviously we made some mistakes on offense and on special teams. I thought the defense really did a great job all night long, especially on third down.

We found a way to win the game. We grinded it out in the fourth quarter and that's a great way to win a game. To be able to take the ball and drive it for 15 plays and about eight minutes and take time off the clock ... I'm just proud of our players. They did a great job in their preparation. Like I said when I first got here, this team has a great attitude and has a great work ethic. I'm just proud to coach them.

On the defense: I thought our defensive staff had a great plan going in and really worked hard at it. They got our players to really understand what we were going to see and what they were going to do with their stack sets. It took a lot of work but they had a great plan and they played really fast. I think that's the thing that I really noticed -- how fast our defense played. We tackled well and we got a lot of guys to the ball. I feel like our crowd helped us a lot on third down. We were able to get after the quarterback and get off the field on third down.

On Corvin Lamb's 97-yard kick return for a TD: The kickoff return was a huge play for us. We were sitting right there and he was able to get it and take it to the house. He's a guy whose speed shows up every day in practice. I think we've just got to find a way to get him the ball and get him involved in our offense, as well as special teams. He's coming off an injury and we didn't get to see him a lot in the spring, but he keeps getting better every day in practice.

On James Sample's interception: I thought that was huge. It started by us being able to pressure the quarterback a little bit. James did a really nice job of playing the ball in the air. To see him out there competing -- we got him here late in the summer -- he did a great job the minute he arrived here to really get to know the defense. He's really mature. He understood that this was his chance to get back involved in football. He did a great job with it. I'm also really proud of Pio (Vatuvei). He came in and played a lot for us and really did a great job for us, as well as everyone else on the defense.

On U of L's red-zone defense: That's as big as it gets in the game. The first one, we got the turnover. We would've liked the touchdown, but we got the turnover. That was huge. When we turned it over again, our defense did a great job holding them to a field goal, which allowed us to maintain the lead, get some momentum. Our offense responded well. We got the ball back in good field position and we were able to respond.

On Will Gardner: I thought he did a good job. He had a really nice job there in the first quarter, where we executed and went right down and scored. He had a couple mistakes not taking care of the football. You always wonder, 'Should we have hit him in practice?' It's been about three years since he's been hit. We need to get him to get the ball against his body, keep his elbows in and not carry it the way he did when they pressured him. A lot of them they got us with a call. They had an unblocked guy. You still have to get the ball against the body and protect it. He's gonna learn from that.

But you talk about poise and competitive spirit and the way he came out and played after those mistakes, I'm very proud of him.

On U of L's pass rush: I think we did a good job of being gap-sound and our guys using their hands to get off blocks. I like the way our linebackers played coming downhill, and our secondary was involved in being where they needed to be. It really was a great team effort. Everybody on defense did their responsibility and their job to help stop the run.

On Dominique Brown: It was right where we wanted it to be tonight. He's a little worn out. He really, really played well for us. He really grinded. He came to me said, 'Keep giving me the ball, Coach, and I'll find a way to get it in the end zone.' I respect that and he certainly did. He's tough and big and physical, and we need to get other guys involved. It's always hard to do that in the first game with so much at stake. I was actually talking to the TV crew yesterday and said, after my first game here the last time, Michael Bush was really mad at me that he didn't get involved more in that first game, but I made sure the second game that he got over that right away.

On what was at stake: Just a big, nationally televised game. Lots of recruits that were watching it. Lots of recruits that we're both recruiting. A conference game. It's a great opener. It's one that we like playing because it means a lot all winter long and summer long on how you prepare.

On the long first- and fourth-quarter drives: I really liked the one early. I thought Will did a nice job of understanding what they were doing. He made a couple of really, really good throws. We were able to get Gerald (Christian) involved and Eli (Rogers) did a nice job. And then the late one, to be able to finish the game like that ... We always talk to our offensive line about run to win. In fact, we have a period on Thursday practices that -- that's what we call it. So (O-line coach Chris Klenakis) was on the sideline in the fourth quarter talking about it: 'Run to win. Run to win.' It was great to do that. But we also threw some play-action passes in there that Will executed perfectly. I think 3 for 3 on the play-action pass as you're running the ball, and the last one for a touchdown. I thought that it was a great group effort.

Biggest difference between this game the last time he was at U of L: The biggest difference is Card March and the excitement. Obviously the stadium is bigger. It was so exciting. I was probably more nervous for this game than any game I've ever coached. I haven't slept a lot lately. But it was so exciting once we got to the stadium. And then to watch our players out there and play the way they did ...

On slowing Duke Johnson: I thought out defensive staff had a great plan and our players did a really nice job of understanding it and being gap-sound and tackling well. You always worry about how you're going to tackle in the first game, but they went out and they tackled really well. We didn't give them a lot of room. That was the big thing -- we didn't give a lot of space. They had one big run when they actually drove the ball down there, but other than that, we didn't actually give a lot of space.