Postgame Quotes: 2025 SERVPRO First Responder Bowl
UTSA
LB Shad Banks Jr.
“Everybody is just so close and it was so easy to connect. It;s fun being at other places. You don’t have the love we have here.”
“After a slow start, everybody came together. We knew what we had to do. We knew they made those plays because of what we didn’t do.”
QB Owen McCown
Not the overall record we want. Like coach said, we showed a lot of resilience. This game was a true reflection of the season.
Hit that knocked off helmet: “I think all the hits are going to look bad Just trying to go make a play, i get to talking so much presnap and I forget to buckle it. Team leader, or anybody, you get knocked down, you get back up, that;s the message we preach - physical toughness.”
“It’s huge testament to our program. We didn’t blink, good or bad.”
“3-0 in bowl games? It's huge. Looking back I wish we were taking championships. We got bowl games. Three and 0 sounds good.”
Head coach Jeff Traylor
“The game was kind of an epitome of our season. We got off to a rough start and looked really bad. These kids are resilient, I thought the play of the game was when it was 14-0. Owen get his helmet knocked off. We came back and scored a few plays later.”
“Other than a punt return and a lot of penalties on defense that’s about as good as we can do it.”
“They had a really great opening series planned. We just had to weather the storm. We knew they would have to get back into their regular offense.”
FIU
Head coach Willie Simmons
“It was a tough loss. A tough way to end the season. We don’t want this to define us. To see those guys reel off four straight wins in December I’m proud of them. My hats off to UTSA. They’re a really good football team. This is the sixth-straight bowl game and our first bowl game in six years. It hurts tonight. The 24-hour rule will last a few months.”
“Obviously bowl games are tricky. They settled down and started making plays. We didn't play fundamentally sound after we got up 14-0. They hit an explosive play, tied it up and momentum swung their way. It was just one of those deals trying to piece together a football team. You’re not going to beat a great football team when you don;t play great football.”
Punt return TD: “It was one of those deals when he kept backing up I said, ‘no, no, do.’ He made the first guy miss and I said yes yes yes. We knew this spring he was one of those guys who just showed up. He’s a really good football player. He did it on the biggest stage of the season.”
“It takes all 11 guys to execute for plays to work. Part of growing a program is making plays to win those games. We have to channel all the practices and preparations to play good on game day. Tonight a lot of the time we didn’t play great football and it starts with me.”
On QB health: “He started practicing this week to move around. We went to Dallas and he was able to start to move around. You could see the timing was off, the rhythm was off In the end there are no excuses.”