Tulsa verses Rice Quotes
11/24/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 24, 2007
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Rice Head Coach David Bailiff
"It is hard for the guys and coaches when you put everything into it and come up a little bit short. I am so proud of the football team and the plays they made. We have to step up and make some plays and when we do that as a football team we're going to be fine around here. Great things are going to happen.
What a game Chase (Clement) played. (Rice) had 700 yards of total offense, moving the ball up and down the field. We just have to get some more stops. Even without stops the defense tries their absolute best every snap. I am amazed at the effort and spirit that never dies on this team, and the type of young men that Rice has at its University. It's an emotional lockerroom right now because it's the last time the seniors will ever be in the Rice Owls uniform. It's hard on them and it's hard on those coaches."
Rice not giving up after getting down by 18
"It absolutely impresses you. You can look in their eyes and know where their determination is and where the true grit is. You can look in the eyes of the guys on the sideline and know where they are. They're more determined when it gets to that point. They are amazing young men. They give it their all every week."
On fourth down play with 12:12 left in fourth quarter
"It was fourth-and-two and we wanted to win the football game. I was very confident that we could pick up two yards. Two yards for us is usually pretty easy for us to pick up.
"When we get the ball on special teams we have to execute. We didn't execute. We will make a point of emphasis on that this spring to improve on special teams."
Tulsa Head Coach Todd Graham
Was this a pretty win?
"It looked pretty to me. We knew we were going to have our hands full coming in here. Chase Clement and Jarett Dillard are really special, and I want to say something to Joel Armstrong from Rice. He walked up to me before the game. He hugged my neck and said, "Coach, thank you for that bowl ring you brought here to me." I really appreciate that. What great class that showed. My heart goes out to those kids. They played hard. You can tell they've been trained well, and Coach Bailiff did a great job.
"I'm so proud of our team. No matter how you slice it up, a great team with great character. Also, I'm really proud of how our team conducts themselves with great class and great character. Not only winning games on the field, but how they conduct themselves off the field and how they handle success. I'm really proud of our team and I'm really proud of what we did tonight. We are Western Division champions, and now we head down to Orlando to play Central Florida for the conference championship."
After first quarter, did you think that Rice had the ability to come back?
"Well yeah. They came back from a twenty-point deficit against UTEP and SMU. Actually, I know those guys well. I know they fought extremely hard. And I knew that. I was coaching the entire game. It was a handful for us. They were prepared and executed a great plan. We had to do an awful lot to stop those guys. They really had a great plan and did a great job preparing. But give a hats off to our kids. I mean we are Western Division champions and that speaks volumes this being our first year, and we aren't done yet. We're on to the conference championship. That's our goal and that's what they've been striving for all along. So it is going to be a great week and we've got great focus on what were doing and go win the championship."
On the play of Tulsa quarterback Paul Smith
"You know what's amazing about that? I didn't even notice. That's what's ridiculous. I didn't even notice he had five touchdowns. That's what kind of a player he is. That's what's incredible. (He has) unbelievable character, and he's our leader. We couldn't have a better one than him. What a story book year. We need to bring that championship back home to Tulsa next week."
On the play of Tulsa receiver Brennan Marion
"Marion is a guy that is outstanding. He is a very, very fast receiver. He is definitely an all-Conference receiver in my mind. He is a guy that has extremely big time burst when the ball is in the air. He did what he does today and he did very well."
On the progression of Tulsa's season
"It is a product of training. We train our guys extremely hard mentally and physically. We had some bumps and bruises along the way. You're going to have those. A season is like your life. Your going to face some adversity, and that's when you find out what your team is made of. And this team is made of a whole bunch of character."
Rice Player Quotes
Nose Guard Jonathan Cary
"The biggest thing that happened tonight, like we've been saying all year, is that we were our own worst enemy. We gave them a head start, and then we had to fight back and we killed ourselves. We couldn't get off the field on third down, we played with a short field, and we gave up the big plays. When they made the big plays, that's when they got the momentum.
"On one level it hurts to lose this game. I wanted to win this game. This was our bowl game. I know our seniors and our football team wanted to win this game. But the thing that gives me confidence and the thing that makes this loss easier is the fact that my teammates didn't give up on me, and I didn't give up on my teammates.
"This wasn't about Tulsa, this wasn't about coach Graham, this was about Rice getting better.
"We've got the part down about not quitting. If we would have given up at 27-9 then it would have been a blowout. But everything in life's not going to go as planned, and you have to fight back."
On his Rice playing career:
"I will forever be a part of Rice football. It's been five years of ups and downs. A lot of things that could go wrong went wrong for me here at Rice. But the thing that didn't go wrong is that I'm a better man for coming here, I'm a better person, and I've got a bunch of brothers that I'll never forget. We're better people leaving Rice University."
Wide Receiver James Casey
"This game wasn't against Todd Graham We were just playing a game just like we play any game. I try to play as hard as a I can on every play, regardless of what game it is. Like Coach [Bailiff] says, if you weren't do that before, you were letting the team down before. So really it was just another game."
On what Todd Graham said to him after the game:
"He just said I was a great player and keep working hard."
On whether it meant anything on a personal level:
"No, not really - not any different than other coach would say."
Cornerback Gary Anderson
On Tulsa's success passing against Rice"
"I think it's all correctable. I believe a lot of it was ourselves playing bad technique, our getting beat deep or not reading the right read. I think it all can be corrected just with practice, watching film, and concentrating on doing your job, not trying to do more than you're asked."
On Tulsa's offense:
"We knew going in that they have a lot of formation and a lot of motions. It definitely was a complex offense. But we practice hard during the week. We've just got to make plays. I feel like we knew where to be, we just have to be there."
On Tulsa QB Paul Smith:
"He's a great quarterback. He's very accurate with his passes. Hat's off to him. But we've just got to make plays when we're in position."
Quarterback Chase Clement
On Rice's offensive performance:
"We did so many good things, but when you don't pull out the win, it doesn't matter if you put up a thousand yards or one hundred. I am excited about what we're going to be able to do here in the future, but without that win it really means nothing."
"It's been one thing here or there on each drive, whether it's one penalty, one bad throw, one dropped pass, one misread. It's just one play that will get you. We've got so much talent on this offense. We've got the ability to be unbelievable. But it's just those little things, putting it all together. That's on us having to work harder and be more focused on those things."
On his interception:
"I tried to force that. I tried to throw it over him [Tulsa LB Alain Karatepeyan] and he made a good play. Looking back at it obviously I wish I hadn't tried to take a chance there. That's something that I've got to learn from."
Wide Receiver Jarett Dillard
On Rice's season compared to the 2006 season:
"I think it was exactly what Rice probably needed. Last year we just got a bunch of lucky breaks. This year we're able to go back into spring ball and see what we actually need to do. We can see what we need to work on. We didn't go those lucky breaks this year, but we showed a lot of heart and a lot of fight. So this season to me goes more in the books than last year's. This year we had to dig deep and play.
"The level of emotion was higher just because it was the last game for our seniors. And we were playing a team that we haven't liked much since we moved to Conference USA. So the level of emotion did rise."
On playing against Todd Graham:
"It was just another coach I was competing against. I did not take note that that was my ex-coach over there. It was just another coach on the other side of the ball."