Head Coach David Bailiff Press Conference Quotes

Sept. 1, 2008

HOUSTON - Members of the Houston media met with Rice football head coach David Bailiff Monday afternoon to recap the Owls 56-27 win over SMU and preview the Memphis game this Saturday at 7pm on CBS College sports.

Below are Coach Bailiff's quotes.

Opening Statement
I was absolutely thrilled with the victory over SMU and the home field advantage that we had. Our athletic director (Chris Del Conte) and his team did a phenomenal job of turning that into an event. It's fun to play in-front of a crowd like that who is loud and you could tell they were pulling for us. We got down early 13-0 but nobody hit the panic button. That's a sign that we're growing and that we have great senior leadership. We showed strength in our resolve to get back into the game and lead 14-13 at the end of the first quarter. We ended up scoring on four possessions in a row but missed a critical field goal right before halftime. Coming out of the game, that's one thing that we have to improve on. We had a chance to get up by 18 points and we have to take advantage of those opportunities when we get them. Then in the third quarter, we had scoring on offense and (forced) turnovers on defense. Brandon King ran one (interception) back to the one yard line. Andrew Sendejo took an interception back for a touchdown and scooped up a fumble. Those situations allowed us to get the ball in the red zone and accumulate those points. That's what it's all about-offense and defense working together. Our special teams have to improve. It can't be Rice beating Rice anymore. We have to make people beat us and keep working on eliminating those mistakes. I'm proud for this football team. I'm proud for this university. I thought we played passionate football for four quarters and that what it takes.

On the difference between first game mistakes and mistakes that are a concern moving forward
"The one thing is (even though) how thrilled I was about how the defense played, I want to see that be consistent. We're going to have to replicate that effort. The things that bothered me the most were that we have to make those two field goals. We have to get our kickoff team to get that ball inside the five-yard line. We were too short at that at times, but we'll get those things ironed out. It's unbelievable that we only had two penalties, a procedure (false start) and a delay (of game). That's the best first game mechanics I've ever been around especially having to deal with the new 40 second clock. We just have to continue to get better at what we do. Some of the touchdowns that SMU did score were a direct result of missed assignments. We've just got to make sure, like I've said before, alignments and assignments get you beat faster than mismatches. All of those people have to be doing their job for this to work. I thought that overall defensively we eliminated a lot of those alignment and assignment mistakes that we made a year ago."

On the pressure provided by the front four of the defense
"One of the things that run and shoot does is that they want to get rid of the football in 1.8 seconds. It doesn't matter if someone is not blocking you, the ball is gone. So I'm not concerned about that, that's part of the reason that they do that. Back when I started playing football they used to tell you, you had four seconds to get there. Then they got it down to two seconds and now their telling them they need to be there in 1.8 seconds. That's how fast a quarterback can get rid of the ball."

On the play of the defense
"That's one of things, I think they are going through some growing things at SMU too. There's a freshman quarterback, there's a new scheme offensively, new scheme defensively, but I would also like to think that that's us doing what we're supposed to do. There's a lot of times that we make big plays defensively, that you know a year ago we wouldn't have made. If you go back to Baylor we had six dropped interceptions (last year), you know, this year when we had opportunities, the defense made the play. One of BK's (Brandon King) was a big time, I thought he was going to swat it down but somehow he came up with the ball, when he was in the pass coverage, I was pleased with that."

On the play of the offense line and the ability to run the ball
"For an offensive line, first off, with what we do on offensive, that's tough. We're going on two and looking to the sideline, I mean they have to be really focused to pull that off. For those guys not to have that many jumps or procedures, I'm proud of them. You look at Tyler Parish, a red shirt freshman, playing tackle, I mean he had an outstanding game for his first start. He's a big athletic young man. I think that our offensive line played very solid tackle for tackle. And we rushed the ball for more than 200 yards and most of those were designed runs and not just Chase scrambling, and that's exciting to see. One of the things too, our defense got tired. We told the offense we were going to slow it down and give the defense a break. To be able to move to James Casey and run over 6 minutes off the clock on one of those drives was huge. A bunch of guys (on defense) all of a sudden got hurt and they were going to be out for a period of time. That was nice to know that we could rely on the offense to do that when needed. We needed to burn time to keep the defense fresh and we were able to do that. And like a said, a year ago, most of our rushing yards were scrambles and this year they were designed plays, we are improving as a football team."

On Memphis this week
"I think Memphis, if you watch that Ole Miss film, defensively, it's a lot of zero high-pressure defense. They are trying to create negative yards plays, and offensively it's very similar to last year. Instead of just looking at the tight end on the line of scrimmage, they'll move him around where they have more of a two-back look. The quarterback is new, and I think they have some growing things with him. But overall they almost have their entire football team back. They outgained Ole Miss (in yards). It was a good football game. That's why we are going to have to prepare. We can't look ahead. What we need to do from now on is Memphis. I've watched so much Memphis film that I've had to go back and read my notes on the SMU game because that was last Friday. We're onto the next opponent now."

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