Texas Bowl Coaches Press Conference Transcript

Dec. 10, 2008

David Bailiff and Western Michigan head coach Bill Cubit met the Houston media at Reliant Stadium on Wednesday to kick off the pre-bowl promotion for the 2008 Texas Bowl. (Transcript courtesy Texas Bowl)

Rice University head coach David Bailiff

(opening statement) "This is the bowl Rice wanted and we are so thrilled to be here and have an opponent like Western Michigan that's 9-3. I mean, our team's excited. I know how you treat the teams here and we're thrilled to be here.

"As far as Western's concerned, you know, you find out that that's who you're going to play, you run right to the Internet to try to find out about them, and the first thing that jumps off at you is that they have a top 10 passing offense in the country, and then you put some video on and you also see that they can line up in "22" personnel - two tights, two tight ends - and come downhill at you, so they're very multiple offensively. Defensively, they play very hard. You can tell coach (Western Michigan head coach Bill) Cubit's done a great job there of getting his team ready week-in, week-out. That is a tough conference. Much like C-USA, there is a lot of parity in that conference, and for his team to go 9-3 makes them an opponent that we are extremely excited about playing. We wanted somebody that was a good football team, and that is exactly what we got. (Texas Bowl manager) Heather (Houston), thank you very much."

Western Michigan University head coach Bill Cubit

(opening statement) "I echo coach's (Rice head coach David Bailiff) statement's there, too. I was on the All-American coaches selection committee, and the first name that came out of our region was (WR Jarett) Dillard from Rice, and all of a sudden we realized that this was our opponent and now we've got to go face him and everybody else there that they've got. But this was our choice by far by our kids. We had a couple of opportunities and I think our kids, I know our athletic staff, our administration and the football staff wanted to come down here. And it's really an honor to come down here to such a great city and play such a great team like Rice. We know how good they are and we're really looking forward to the challenge. We've had to play a lot of good teams, but this will be one of the better football teams that we've played since I've been there. So we're looking forward to it, coming down here with our kids and playing such a classy football team like Rice."

Coach Cubit

(on the similarities between Conference USA and the Mid-American Conference) "Yeah, I think this year, our conference has been as good as it's been in the last few years with Ball State and Central Michigan and Buffalo, so we had a good year in the conference and it was a real competitive league for us this year. And of course, Conference USA, they've been around. I think they're a better football league than we have been the last few years, but this year I think the MAC has done itself proud this year."

(on Western Michigan's fans' reaction to the Texas Bowl) "I think for us, it's a big-time situation for our fans and for our people. They kind of feel like they've arrived. The MAC, in the past, it's been hard to get bowl games, and then when this opportunity came for us, our fanbase is looking at it that we actually got the best bowl situation in the league. And so I know our people are real excited about coming down. You can hear the chatter on campus, you could hear the chatter with the alumni at our banquet when it was announced. And our band, what are we? 360 strong in our band? So they're looking forward to coming down also. It's a great setting for us."

(on what his team knew about Rice when the pairing was announced) "Oh, they know around the country. I think our guys look back there and they're averaging 472 yards on offense, and our league, it's kind of an offensive league also. We threw a ton of passes and I know Rice and what they've done offensively. I walked in to my defensive guy and said, `We're playing Rice. Good luck,' and I walked out. The defensive guys right now, they've got to prepare for really great players. And so for us, we could not be happier than coming down here to Houston to play such a great team and a classy team like Rice."

(on who Rice reminds him of after watching them on film) "Well, to be honest with you, I haven't (watched film of Rice). I've been on the road recruiting. But our quarterbacks coach has looked at it and he verified everything we think - great players, good people that can do a lot of good things."

Coach Bailiff

(on his feelings after being named Conference USA coach of the year) "You know, what it means is I stayed out of a lot of people's way and that we have remarkable young men at Rice that have a lot of character, and all they have done since the day that we got there is want to win. Everything that we have asked them to do, they've done. It means the assistant coaches have made unbelievable game plans; it means our administrative assistants have worked extremely hard getting everything prepared for us; it means Ricky, our custodian, has done an unbelievable job of having pride in that building, with keeping everything clean. The award may say `David Bailiff,' but it is an award for Rice athletics."

(on whether he envisioned being 9-3 after going 3-9 last season) "You know, I really thought we could win six (games) this year, but it's amazing what young men can achieve when they do it together. And then you start stringing some wins in a row and they start believing in themselves some more. It's just a tribute to our senior leadership - the ones that we've talked about all year. Chase (Clement) is an amazing leader at quarterback, (WR) Jarett Dillard, on defense (LB) Brian Raines. He was hurt a lot, but he came back at all the right times, but his influence was felt all year on that team. You know, it's remarkable to have three young men who are going to be three-year captains."

(on his reflections on this season) "Really, there's no time to reflect yet. We'll probably have to do that after signing day. Fortunately, I've been recruiting, too, but we're in the great city of Houston where there's four million people, so I've been able to get out on the road to recruit and still get back to bowl practice just because of the amount of recruits that we have here. This has been the busiest time of my professional career of trying to prepare for a bowl game and recruit and everything that's involved with being a head football coach."

(on the impact of a nine-win season on recruiting) "Well, I tell you what, it's always been easy to walk in because of what our degree represents, but you know, now a young man truly knows that they can come to Rice and leave with a very prestigious college degree and also compete for championships and go to bowl games, and I think that's what young men now want to do. They want to know that they can go to a school and do both, and that's what we offer to them."

Coach Cubit

(on the Texas Bowl essentially being a road game for Western Michigan) "That's what we are in the MAC. We've been to West Virginia, Missouri, Florida State, Iowa, Virginia. That's the way it is in our (league). I think, coming down here, what I like about it is the ticket sales that they've done so far. It should be a great crowd, and we know there's going to be a lot of the Rice crowd, but at the same time, that's just what we're used to. So I think the venue, for us, is a lot more important than having to be the so-called visiting team coming down here."

(on the excitement of traveling to Houston for the bowl game) "Yeah, I really am. We're indebted to (Texas Bowl manager) Heather (Houston) for inviting us and to (Western Michigan athletic director) Kathy (Beauregard) for what she did to secure this bowl bid here. When Kathy called me on Sunday, to us it was just a dream come true for us for this season here because I don't know if you'll ever see it again, you know, for a team from the MAC coming down here. We're just thrilled to death to come down here and represent the MAC."

(on if the defenses feel slighted by all the attention being paid to the two teams' offenses) "For me, no, because I think it's just hard to play defense anymore with all the wide-open sets and the talented quarterbacks you're seeing out there and the wide receivers. So I tell our defense, `Guys, hopefully you can just hold them to one less point than what we score.'"

Coach Bailiff

(responding to the same question) "That's exactly what you tell them. Your goal is to hold them to one less point. You used to tell a defensive lineman they had four seconds to get to a quarterback. Now you have 1.8 seconds and the ball's probably gone anyway. I mean, it's just changed, you know. It used to be that your defense had to be in the teens to win a football game. Now, if you can hold somebody to 28, you're probably in pretty good shape, you know, in the fourth quarter. Football has changed. The quarterbacks are so much more intelligent on reading all the different coverages. They know where the soft spots are. It's a wide-open football game."

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