Transcript From Charlie Strong's AAC Conference Call

Video is available here.

OPENING STATEMENT

"Just going on the road and winning the first conference game was so critical. We played really well against an outstanding Temple team. It's always good to watch us play well in all three phases of the game with the offense, the defense and the special teams. Overall, I was very pleased. I would have liked to have seen us play better in the second half, but we were just happy to get out of there with the win.

It's a short week this week against Rutgers. My first season, we had to go up there and win on a Friday or a Thursday to get bowl-eligible. My second year, we came in and played against a really good Schiano team. And then last season, we had to go to Rutgers again. Kyle has done a great job with that team after taking over for Greg and it's been a battle and it always has been a battle. We're looking forward to the matchup and to play on Thursday night and to play at home."

ON THE RUTGERS RIVALRY COMING TO AN END

"The last few years has been a great battle, great matchup and yeah, we have so much for respect for their program and I know they feel the same way about us. You look at the tremendous job these programs have done. You're going to lose that now that we're going into different conferences. That's going to happen when you start moving all these teams around to all these different conferences, you lose all of these rivalries."

ON A TOUGH LOUISVILLE DEFENSIVE LINE VERSUS THE RUTGERS OFFENSIVE LINE

"You just look at them offensively, they give you great balance with the run and the pass. They give you so much play-action, and that's how they slow down the rush, because they don't let you to just tee off and just go sack the quarterback. It's a veteran group and they do a great job with protecting Nova, and Nova is getting rid of the ball, so he's not taking sacks."

ON LAST YEAR'S LOUISVILLE-RUTGERS GAME AND TEDDY PLAYING HURT

"I it was impressive, we came back with a victory after being down 14, but Teddy was banged up. He had a wrist and he had an ankle, but we had Will Stein, so we were able to use two quarterbacks and Will did a really good job on first and second down, and then Teddy would come in on third down. That night we were down and we fought back and showed great resiliency in a very hostile environment."

WAS THAT THE GAME WHERE BRIDGEWATER'S POPULARITY STARTED?

"It was just his performance. When you think about it, a lot of people would not have played in that game because of what he had. He had a wrist that was heavily taped, then he had an ankle, so he really couldn't scramble around. Just to watch that performance and watch how he competed, that just truly spoke to who he is."

HOW FRUSTRATING IS THE STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE TALK?

"It's all about us. Our schedule, it is what it is and what we have to do is just go out and compete each and every week, and just try to prove to everybody that we're a good football team. And that's what we'll continue to do. It doesn't matter who we play, our focus is on the task at hand. It's on ourselves to make sure we go out and compete and give our best each and every week."

HOW MUCH DOES THE ATTENTION TEDDY GETS BENEFIT THE PROGRAM?

"He's just a special person. He carries himself the right way, he's a total teammate and he's never about him and he never wants to make it about him. It just peaks volume to his character and who he is. Any recognition with him, he wants the team to be involved in it. With the recognition he gets, everyone is benefitting from it. All across the country when people are talking about Teddy Bridgewater they're also talking about the University of Louisville."

ON DEVANTE PARKER

"Right now DeVante is gonna be day-to-day and on Thursday we'll re-evaluate him and see if he's gonna be able to go play or not. DeVante's gonna get the treatment and then our training staff will make that decision."

ON NACHO GARCIA AND THE OTHER INJURED PLAYERS

"All those guys, we're just gonna treat them and evaluate them later in the week. All those guys came in for treatment this morning so we'll just continue to treat them and see exactly what they can do as the week goes on."

ON THE SHORT WEEK

"You're just missing a day of preparation. You miss Monday, so Monday's out now. Monday will be treated like a Tuesday, a Tuesday will be treated like Wednesday and a Wednesday will be treated like a Thursday."