Quotes: Duke 28, Virginia 17

Head Coach David Cutcliffe
Opening statement:
"I am really proud of our entire operation. That was a complete football game, but certainly not an easy game. My hat is off to Virginia - they were well prepared, they played extremely hard and they made it difficult for us on offense. They were a tough match-up for us. The best part of it was that we were relentless. We kept playing. I told Kurt [Roper] to just keep throwing it, we gave up (six) sacks, but the end results were good. I knew we had a tough match-up in the red zone, and I was too prophetic. I said to our coaches earlier in the week that when the field gets shorter and we are physically mis-matched, their secondary is really powerful and quick and it got a little tough for us down there but our offense kept playing. Our defense played a complete football game. They had a lot of big hits, did a tremendous job of stopping the run, and a tremendous job of competing and challenging every pass. Our kicking game - five field goals, wow, what can you say - it was huge. We still have things to shore up in the kicking game as we continue to move forward, but I could not be more proud of a group of people."

On looking back at the game and the fact that Duke was trailing with four minutes left:
"It all was an explosion. When you kick field goals like we did in the first half, you just know, experience tells you that you are going to have to overcome a deficit. So I was not surprised when Virginia came out, did a good job and took the lead. So I was not overly concerned, but it was a pretty amazing finish on our team's part. It does not happen just because you want it to. It takes a lot of courage against a front like that coming at you at quarterback, an absolutely perfect route run by Conner Vernon, focus to catch it - when you are playing zero coverage there is nobody else there. So tremendous execution on the touchdown. The fumble return for a score is not an accident either. That is pressure, persistence in rush, and awareness to quickly scoop and score. Our defense was tremendous at that point."

On Thaddeus Lewis' ability to hang tough in the pocket:
"Thad Lewis knew he was going to have a tough day of pass rush. End on end, we talked to him about it, but he is a tough son-of-a-gun and does a good job of keeping his eyes down field. They are so big up front that they are very difficult to see through sometimes. They got their hands on the ball a little bit too much, we did throw an interception, but we were fortunate. But Thad was tremendous in never faltering, never backing off - he kept it full throttle. He is one of those guys that has a lot of talent, and if he just keeps keeping on he is going to make big plays."

On Duke's performance and momentum from three and out after the interception:
"That was a big stage in the game, and we had them back on the 20-yard-line. They did the natural thing to try and run the football, and they really did not have a ton of success running the ball so our guys responded. It was huge. When they threw the touchdown pass to take the lead I went immediately to the defense and said, 'guys, that is OK. We are going to score a touchdown somewhere in here.' I kept telling them it is the next series that they had to focus on. They needed to energize for the next series. And they did a good job of it. I think our conditioning really paid off, and our front continued to play really fast defensively."

On the Duke players as fighters week after week:
"It is consistency of practice habits. We have great young men that buy in to what we ask them to do. They have never questioned how hard we practice, how much we run and how much we push them. That is a great tribute to the kind of young people they are."

On Thaddeus Lewis' success in three straight weeks against veteran quarterbacks:
"Our guy, if you look what he has done over the past four weeks, tell me a quarterback that has played better. The guy we have never gets mentioned, and that is OK if that is what you want to do, but show me one playing better. We just do not get the highlights. I was talking to Sean Renfree as the game was going on and telling him to just keep competing - what a great lesson for our young quarterbacks to see."

Senior Quarterback Thaddeus Lewis
On overcoming the deficit late in the game:
"We know whatever situation we are in, we can come back. We are fighting every play, no matter what the situation or the score is. We know when we have to step up. We look into each others' eyes and motivate each other. We know what we are capable of."

On reactions to the interception in the end zone in the fourth quarter:
"You know that there is a lot of time left on the clock and I believed that my defense was going to get us the ball back. The next time you go down, you have to score."

Junior Placekicker Will Snyderwine
On tallying five field goals in the game:
"I was pretty busy in the first quarter, but anything I can do to help. I'm excited we got the win in the end - I'm pretty happy."

On anxieties on the field:
"I don't really feel anything when I'm out there. Hitting field goals feels pretty good and I've done it about a thousand times in my life at this point, so I don't get nervous."

On sneaking up on teams:
"Honestly, I'm not really sure if we are sneaking up on people - maybe you'll have to ask them. We are pretty happy about ourselves; we've been doing pretty well. We will just keep working to get a big win next week at Carolina."

Senior Defensive End Ayanga Okpokowuruk
On the transformation of the Duke program:
"We are enjoying every minute of it. This is why we came here - to turn it around. It feels great."

On forcing a fumble in the fourth quarter:
"Coach [Marion] Hobby was just telling us to finish our rushes. We had plans on how we were going to pressure the quarterback. I just did a spin move. I didn't think it was going to work really. I turned around and the quarterback was right there and when I tackled him, I went for the ball. I didn't even know it came out. I looked up and I saw [Charlie] Hatcher bringing it up in the endzone."

On emerging as ACC Championship contenders:
"It feels good; we just thank God it worked out this way. We just played every game game-by-game, taking it one day at a time. For us to be in this position, it helps us to see the big picture, but we still have to focus on every day working hard and the things that got us here. We have to focus on that.