AUDIO: AL GOLDEN RECAPS MONDAY NIGHT'S 31-13 LOSS AT LOUISVILLE

Q: What do you make of the way Brad Kaaya played tonight?

A: "He's a tough kid. He's courageous. Tough environment for him to open up his career. I don't think we did a good enough job protecting him. Obviously, he made some good throws, and some that, clearly, he would want back. So again, it's a tough position for him to be in, but I think he's going to make a lot of progress in the next four or five days. He's going to learn a lot from that -- being in that environment, being in that experience. Again, we didn't do a good enough job protecting him. We did not do a good enough job protecting a first start quarterback."

Q: With the veterans on the offensive line are you surprised that they didn't protect Brad enough?

A: "Again we go right to the offensive line. There's more to it than that. There's a multitude of reasons. Whether its running backs, the offensive line, maybe just a couple different times calling a different play. Secure protection a little bit better. As I just told the team, too many errors in that game against a good team in a tough environment to win. That starts with me. Everyone has to be accountable. We all have to look in the mirror, take care of business, watch film and take care of business."

Q: They were putting eight, sometimes nine guys in the box. That had to make a difference correct?

A: "We knew it was coming. Obviously, they were going to go after Brad with that. We were starting to find some cracks in there. We just didn't finish good enough. And then they started to get the lead and move ahead. Defense got us the ball twice within the ten. We didn't convert there. Then we had an illegal man downfield on the play that Duke gets us inside the five. Then they return a kick. So it's tough to overcome those errors, plus some of the other penalties. Plus we weren't good enough on offense."

Q: How much did the coaching staff have to squeeze the playbook because Kaaya was young?

A: "There are no excuses. They played better than we did. We didn't execute and the thing that's disturbing as the head coach are just errors that we haven't seen -- like the illegal man down field on the Duke pass. On Brad's lateral throw. Again, he's a very bright kid. So he just saw man uncovered out there and he kind of rushed the pass and ended up throwing it backwards. Again, really bright kid. Sees it. Just made an error on the throw. Obviously we had a chance to score points there and we did not do that. That was tough."

Q: Third down conversions continue to be a problem.

A: "It's just a totally different scenario and a different team now so I think we need to focus on what we are doing now with Brad. Again, I thought that they did an excellent job of stopping the run early in the game and forcing us into some third and longs. Then we got behind and you're playing catch-up. It's hard to convert in those situations. We didn't convert in the short yardage play. That was disappointing. Again, no excuses. We have a lot of things we need to fix starting with me and the coaches. We'll start on that here tonight on the way back and get with the guys on Wednesday. We don't have a lot of time to sit around. We have to get better."

Q: Duke and the running game got better in the fourth quarter.

A: "There were stretches on defense too. Again, when you talk too much after a loss like that you end up saying the wrong things. That's the truth. There's a lot things in here we can build on. But, just too many errors to overcome in an environment I don't think they've lost but once in the last couple years."

Q: How is Denzel Perryman doing?

A: "It was a cramp. He should be okay. I think right now we're healthy. But we'll see."