Sports Radio Interviews

Tony Sparano: “These guys just don’t say quit”

After an 11-5 season last year, the big question for the Dolphins was, is this a fluke or do they have a good team in Miami. Tony Sparano coached the Fins from a 1-15 team to an AFC East champion playoff bound team. It sure looked like a fluke with an 0-3 start and the team losing Chad Pennington. Let’s resume this story shortly after that and the team has went 5-2 in the last seven weeks and gotten right back in the playoff hunt. Before Thursday’s game against Carolina the team learned Ronnie Brown was out for the season and now there was a lot of pressure on the team that relied on the Wildcat offense led by Brown to respond. They sure did and in a big way Thursday night.

Even missing Brown in the backfield couldn’t stop the Fins run game, cue Rocky theme song and bring in Ricky Williams. Ricky all of a sudden became the full time starter and showed a little “Old” Ricky running for 119 yards, two touchdowns and even caught a TD as well. Plenty of people stepped up in the game for the Fins and Tony Sparano after the game was drained of all his energy because of the win. A draining win for the Fins on a short week in Carolina, but I am sure an easy flight home back to Miami.

Tony Sparano joined WQAM in Miami to talk about the big win Thursday Night versus the Panthers, the way guys stepped up to help win the game and the pressure that was on Delhomme Thursday night.

Asked if he has ever been apart of a win when so many guys had to step in and make plays:

“I have never been involved in anything like this Joe, I really haven’t. We had a lot of players step up in this situation tonight. We had a bunch of guys getting hurt , people running in and out of there. I was would say that everybody on the roster that was out there got some work. Everybody contributed at different times during the course of this game.”

“I think it’s really a tough decision, I mean no question about it you can try the field goal at that point. One of the things that came into my head and into play was 39 seconds left in the game and no timeouts. So no timeouts where we were in the field, knowing what out field goal team was like, patched up out there. My feeling was it wasn’t a gimme kick, if it got blocked, if we missed the kick, they get the ball in better field position then if we run the play. I just felt like at that point that was the best thing to do , we put the game in the defense’s hands , I just didn’t want to risk a blocked kick or a missed kick and give them the ball in better field position.”

“They practiced really well this week in the short turnaround. They were focused and did a great job of putting the Tampa Bay game away. Yeremiah did a tremendous job on that play, but we have been getting that play all season. These guys just don’t say quit, they are a mentally tough bunch of guys. We talked a lot about finishing games and in some of those situations tonight we were able to finish on both sides of the ball.”

Listen to Tony Sparano with Joe Rose on WQAM in Miami

Tags: Carolina Panthers, Jake Delhomme, Miami Dolphins, Ricky Williams, Ronnie Brown, Tony Sparano, Yeremiah Bell