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Rice University Athletics
Monday Press Conference Transcript
9/24/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 24, 2007
Opening Statement
"You watch that video, and obviously Texas is a great football team. At times we really looked like we belonged. At other times we played as bad as a football team can play. We've watched it. We've extracted from there what we've done well. We're going to build on that. Some of the things that we did do bad, some was execution, some was misalignment, sometimes we just have to make plays when we're positioned to make them.
"Offensively, I thought Chase really did a good job. The two interceptions, one was a deflected pass, the other one was just a great play by Texas. I think he continues to improve each week. I think our offensiver line continues to get better each week. It was a shame that we pulled the redshirt off of Tyler Smith. I thought he was doing well, then he got banged up a little bit and couldn't play. It was nice to see some of those receivers. We threw the ball to ten different people. I thought that was great that the offense distributed like that. Obviously, looking at stats, we couldn't run the football. They manhandled us up front where even when we had them blocked they just closed to fast.
"Defensively, I thought the first quarter there were times where we really looked good. We executed, we flew to the football. Some of the guys we were playing it was their first time, and no matter what you call coverage-wise. If you can't get pressure on the quarterback it turns into man at some point. We didn't do a good enough job of getting pressure on Colt, and they were able to make some really big plays on us.
"Special teams, I was excited to see Tyler Smith with a 40 yard kick off return. We take a redshirt off of someone and see him produce the way he was producing. We've got to continue to work on that. After four ball games, I think we know where we are as a football team. We've given the team the day off, and told them to come back tomorrow ready to play for conference. I know the guys are going to show up tomorrow, and all they're going to do is work hard because that's the kind of young men they are."
On what he hopes to gain from the challenging non-conference schedule
"You're going against the best, and when you're going against the best that's going to help you in the long run if you get out of that healthy. We're not going to see too many more Limas Sweeds. We're not going to see too many more Crabtrees. You see a lot of people who schedule early in the season a bunch of teams they can beat. Other teams schedule tough. We're in a tough schedule. You take what's dealt with you, and you try to blend this into a football team. I think we're going to be better for it. I really do believe we'll be better for it. We've gone toe to toe against the best. Tech just passed for 636 yards against Oklahoma State. Believe it or not we can build clear back on that because we didn't give up 600 yards passing. There's indicators out there that if we just keep working hard good things are yet to come."
On positives he saw on film in the defense
"You look at the way we walked in there and played some of the young men who played or got their first starts in college football I think they really accepted and met the challenge. There's other times that it's a technique problem, and those are the things that we can get with our corners on and we can get better. It was a very physical ball game, but you could see the defensive line working bad angles at times, and we'll get better at technique. Those guys force you to get better. That's what they do. The difference in the clubs, for us to get pressure we have to blitz; for Texas to get pressure they have to rush four. That's just where we are right now. We're going to get better each week. Talking to the players after that game, we'll have a tremendous attitude this week in practice."
On playing true freshmen
"There were a lot of young men that we had hoped to redshirt this season that we've had to pull the redshirt. We've either needed them for offense or defense or we had to play them on special teams. We're down to six freshmen left that have their redshirts still intact."
On bouncing back from 0-4
"These young men were here last year. It's not like they have not lived this and seen the results. We've just got to start getting some players back. We need to get Joel Armstrong back. We need to get Corbin Smiter back. We need to get some guys back, and that's going to help us. Hopefully with this layoff before the Southern Miss game some of those guys who haven't played this season will possibly be able to play this year. That's going to help us a lot."
On injuries
"That's why we were pulling redshirts and why you were seeing some of the guys you were seeing. We gave them the day off so they can rest and hopefully we can get some of those guys back. Right now from the game, we have to see where Tyler is, we've got to see where Justin Hill is. We anticipate Jarett Dillard will be back by the Southern Miss game. We anticipate Dietrich Davis will be back. I think we really just have a lot of guys out right now, but the good thing about the ones at Texas that couldn't finish the game is that none of them were season ending."
On conference play as a new season
"That's what we were talking about in the dressing room immediately after the game. Lesson learned from these first four, and lets apply the lessons learned heading into conference. We've got eight football games left. There are eight opportunities left in this season. We need to give it our best shot. And these guys will. This football team will. This coaching staff will. We know the path we've been on, and we know the caliber of teams we have played. It's been a learning experience, a growing experience. Some of these guys that started the season freshmen we've told them they're now hardened vets. We can't make freshmen mistakes anymore. Where we are too, and I've said this each week, misalignments and misassignments gets you beat faster than mismatches. At some point we've done enough reps where the alignment and the assignment will become second nature to them. When you install a new defense, and even though the offense is similar there's still learning. Those guys need reps. They need full speed game reps before they really know what they're doing. I think we've made a leap defensively. Last week Andrew Sendejo was here. If you watched him play he had an absolutely phenomenal football game. Phenomenal what he's accomplished, and he's been a free safety now for two weeks. You see enough encouraging things on this football team that I think we'll be fine."
