Ken Hatfield's Monday Quotes
11/21/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 21, 2005
Opening Statement -- "UCF is as good a team as there is in the conference, and we could have beaten them. That was disappointing. We told the team before the game that there were three keys to the game. One, we had to run the football, because teams that rush well usually win. Second, you have to have fewer penalties, which we did. Third, you have to have fewer turnovers, which we did not.
"(UCF's) whole key to winning was turnovers. They had gotten 23 turnovers and had given up only 10 in their other conference games. In our game, turnovers were the difference in the ballgame. The biggest play of the game was the first interception. The other, which was like a turnover, was the punt return for a touchdown.
"In our games with the teams winning the divisions (UTEP and UCF), it came down to one play in both. I told the team, 'To win a championship, everyone in this locker room has to want the ball on fourth-and-one, or to make the play that wins the game.' When we get to the point that everybody on the team believes that, that's when we'll win the championship.
"We took the lead when Mike Falco made a tremendous play. I don't know yet how he got into the end zone. Two guys had leverage on him -- all they had to do was tackle him -- and he gets by them. Then he gets by another one. Just a tremendous effort. You can see how important it is to get some people back, and how important it is when you have key injuries to playmakers. When you get them back and they make plays like Mike has done for two weeks, you can see how important it is to have playmakers on the field."
On Houston -- "This is a game you enjoy playing. It's for the Bayou Bucket, that beautiful thing that sits in our office right now from last year. It has a prominent place in our facility.
"They know what they're playing for, and we know what we're playing for: a lot of pride in winning that Bucket and keeping it around for another year."
On Rice's pass protection -- "All the passing starts at any level with pass protection. If you're able to protect and hold them out three or four seconds when you can throw the ball deep, you naturally have a better offensive situation passing. We did a much better job of it (against UCF).
"We weren't always able to get the ball to open receivers, but we got it to them enough of the time that some good things happened in the passing game. The last two weeks, we've had more big plays, longer yardage plays, in our offense. (Against UCF), we didn't have good field position; the best starting field position we had was our own 30-yard line. We had about 70 yards to go every time we got the ball, and it's hard to drive the length of the field on anybody consistently. But we did it four times for scores. The offense did a pretty good job of moving the football."
On Rice's motivation against Houston -- "We let everything out in the meeting (Monday). They are playing for an opportunity to be bowl eligible. There are four teams playing to become eligible this week in the conference, and if they all win, seven teams will be eligible for five slots. They're playing at home, playing their last game for their seniors.
"Understanding what the mindset for the opponent, then we'll talk about what we have going for us. We'll see if that won't help motivate us."
On Rice's 10-7 win over Houston in 2004 -- "Our defense had an excellent game plan. Roger Hinshaw and the same staff coaching our defense put in a heck of a lot of work over the summer, preparing something for that game. Probably the hardest game to play every year is the opening game, especially if you're equal. Playing UCLA this year, that wasn't exactly equal.
"But when you play someone you know a lot about, like Rice and Houston playing in the opening game, you've got a long time to study what somebody's personality is and what they like to do. We did an excellent job defensively of executing that plan. We put a lot more pressure on (UH quarterback Kevin) Kolb than we had the year before. It's got to be our top defensive performance since I've been here. It was a heck of a game."