Rice University Athletics
Monday Press Conference Transcript
10/22/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 22, 2007
Opening Statement
"It was a football game we had a lot of opportunities, that we could have won. We've got to figure out ways to win those at the end and to not come up short. When we onside kicked that's one where all you're thinking about is getting that ball, driving down field, and getting out of there with a W. You talk to the players and they say, "Coach, last year that would have gone down, their quarterback would have fumbled, we would have got the ball, thrown it to Dillard and won." We've got to get some of that magic going again, but as that game started, I thought we played with great effort. I wasn't sure our passion level was where it needed to be, and to win in college football it can't just be effort, it's got to be fanatical passionate effort. I thought it picked up as the game went. "Offensively, I'm just proud of those guys. They keep getting better each week. Our running game, although we didn't have a lot of yards, averaged 5.2 yards per carry. I thought Jarett Dillard looked like the Jarett Dillard of old with his three touchdown catches. What's even more impressive about him is how he blocks downfield and carries himself. He is just the total package. It was great to see Chase. I thought he ran the offense very well. He threw four touchdown passes and ran for one. He continues to get his confidence. I think he's really playing confident with a little swagger about him now. "Our special teams, our kickoff coverage and kickoff return actually had their best days of the season, but we've got to do something defensively where we can get a three and out. We continue to struggle on defense. A lot of that is just because of the youth, and we can't use that as an excuse. We've got to get those guys where they know what to do every snap. They need to play like they're experienced players. A lot of them have been playing long enough. We've got to eliminate those mistakes in alignment and mistakes we've been making. "It's no fun to lose. Total focus has got to be beat Marshall. We've got to try to roll into Huntington, and that's a tough place to play just like it was at Southern Miss. I know this, our guys are going to come here today and they're going to be ready to play and they're going to practice hard and they'll be focused. We're going to give it our best shot Saturday."
On the defense
"Some crazy things have happened to us like we didn't know until game time that Brian Raines could play. We were down Brian Raines, Calhoun, Garmon at linebacker which forced us to move two safeties to linebacker, Abt and White, to try and teach them what to do in a crash course at linebacker. Then at game time, Brian gets cleared to play. We had Brian all game which was an unexpected event. We were excited. He's our defensive leader, and he played a really good ball game for watching all week and studying film. It shows you what a veteran player can do if they just stay into the game mentally. When Sendejo went out, we've got to move Chris Jones from strong to free which puts Randy Kitchens in the game who has been playing some. That's been the hardest thing is just having any continuity in the lineup. It hasn't been just in the secondary, it's been on the defensive line, we've been affected everywhere. Like this week we'll probably have a couple of other guys who aren't going to play Saturday. Some of them aren't starters, but they're second team and that changes what you do defensively, and it changes what you do on special teams just trying to find people that can play the roles we want them to play."
On the adjustments needed for replacement players
"One of the things you have to do is you have to simplify things. When you get some guys in there that don't have great experience there's some things that to me might be simple adjustments but to those guys aren't. It's not important how much I know it's important how much we can teach those guys that are playing. You look at that power pass that they scored on. I think they threw it three times. Those are things that are easily defended by guys that have seen it. You put the Z across in motion, we check coverages over there, and it ought to bracket outright, but it wasn't. You draw it on the sideline, show them how to fit it, and you do it again and it didn't fight right. We have to keep educating them and show them where they have to be to win."
On young players playing on the road
"Some of these guys played at Southern Miss too. That's what we have to do we have to create takeaways. This week we only had one. At Southern Miss we had seven and that's why we won that ballgame. We had an opportunity for two others and we didn't get them. They'd have been tough catches, but those are the plays we've got to make when you get those opportunities to keep us in a game right now."
On the youth of the team
"Every rep those guys get better. One time the lights are going to go on here, hopefully sooner rather than later, and they're going to be experienced veterans. Most of those guys we were counting on redshirting and now they're playing. It is what it is, and we're going to coach them hard and try to get them better. It limits what you can do."
On the feasibility of creating turnovers
"We work all the time on takeaway drills where you try to hold them up and you strip and you punch. You work those things. You can see a lot of times where technique is the difference in a takeaway, so there are times where you create them sometimes an offense creates them for you. A lot of those things are created just by fanatical effort to the football and an explosive hit at the tackle. It's something we work on. You can get those things too when you get tendencies on plays and where balls are going that you try to pack a zone over there. There's different ways you can try to create those things."
On how dangerous it is to play a winless team
"Hopefully it's as dangerous as playing a team with one win. We want to win too. That's all we talk about is what it takes to win football games and the effort it takes. We're hungry too. We've been in two close ones two weeks in a row that we could have wont. We're aggravated, we're frustrated, we're going to learn to get better, and become a better football through these games. These guys get better every snap. They'll come over here today and practice their tails off because they want to win."
On what stands out about Marshall
"You really can't believe they're 0-7. You watch them offensively and they move the ball. They've got a great quarterback. He's very athletic. He's very dangerous. They've been in some close ones too. Even last night they rallied back there at home to make that a tight ball game. Southern Miss scored late where it didn't look like it was, but they put some points on the board in a hurry."
