Mike Bloomgren Press Conference Quotes (UTEP)

Opening statement
"Saturday's game was one we really have to learn from. We continue to build this culture and this program but we've got to learn how to finish games. I thought we did a lot of good things and played well enough to win for about 47 minutes but that's not how long a football game is in college.

We talked all week about starting fast and we did that. We've got a freshman quarterback (Wiley Green) start, take us down in 11 plays 75 yards and get one in the box for a 7-0 lead. For whatever reason our team plays much better when we're able to get that early score. I don't think that should be essential to us starting fast. As a football team we should be able to do our jobs regardless of early outcomes. But that's what we like to see from the offense.

Wiley played a really solid game. He did a lot of things with his feet and improvised on a couple. He protected the ball to the best of his ability with the one turnover, which we've got to continue to eliminate. He really did a good job with some throws that are pretty big time and showed off his arm talent. It's a bright future that we all got a sneak peak of. Austin Trammell had a career day for us with 10 catches. Freshman running back Juma Otoviano had a great day. It was not our intention to get him 19 carries but he ended up having a really hot hand. We saw him play physical and break tackles. He's also someone we know that can be in that wildcat package, but he has the ability to throw the ball down the field as well. We can see more of Juma as the season continues to go.

On defense we did a much better job of getting pressure on the quarterback, something we've been stressing to our guys. Mason Fine is an outstanding quarterback and we hit him 10 times and sacked him three. Anthony Ekpe had those three sacks and he was pretty unstoppable on some of those third downs. It was really exciting to see him dominate a game like that and I thought those hits paid dividends as the game went on. It stinks what happened in the fourth quarter but you saw him (Fine) in the third and he pushed the ball earlier than he needed to on some of them. Some of the times we were getting sacks or flushing them off the spot. Rush and coverage have to work together and it was really good to see our front seven get after them the way they did.

As the old saying goes, Jack Fox is a stud and it was true again on special teams this week. He averaged 47.3 yards on punts, five of those inside the 20-yd line. On the year he has 12 punts inside the 10-yd line, which leads the nation. Oh and by the way he had a 76-yd career long punt on Saturday. In addition to that, we talk about Jack doing Jack things. On the first kickoff of the second half we have two people go down there and put their hat on the ball, it comes out, and who recovers it? Jack Fox. Once again, for the fourth time this season he's on the Ray Guy awards 8 List. We think he's very deserving of it and that he's a deserving candidate for that award as well.

Moving onto UTEP, I can't underscore this enough; it's a huge game for our football team and our program and we are working as such. We are attacking this week, no different than we have other weeks. Yesterday was a great day of practice. I thought our defense was flying around and enjoyed hitting people. You look at what we've done with the run of good teams in this conference and the way we've played them and try to grow every week, and you look at UTEP and they've played a lot of those same opponents and have had some good results against them as well. Coach Dimel and his staff are doing a good job rebuilding that thing. You look at the toughness they're instilling in their guys and at how hard they play, it's different than watching the film from last year. They are a much better team than on film of how they played Rice last year and I hope that we are too. That's what we're planning on showing this Saturday.
I know a couple things about this game. I know they (UTEP) will not come here and just lay down because that's not who they are and that's not what we want either. I know this is going to be an absolutely physical football game from start to finish. It's our Homecoming, we hope to have all our letterman and alumni back. We want out lettermen to know how important they are to this program as we're building it back. So I hope they all come back and watch it and we can put on a show for them."

On challenges UTEP poses at quarterback
"It's an interesting situation for them. They've had some injuries at quarterback as well. They're also going to run some wildcat. It looks like No. 8 (Brandon Jones) is going to be their guy. But when they go to wildcat they don't mind living in that world. And I remember Dana (Dimel) doing that at Kansas State as well. That's what I expect to see from them no matter who the quarterback is. I think the wildcat will be a big proponent of it and it's going to be a very physical game upfront."

On the defense gaining confidence vs. North Texas
"I hope it's huge. And honestly, we put a lot on the defensive line last week. We said, 'Hey, this is on you'. We're sick of the secondary getting blamed, which we've all got a job to do and in this great game of football somebody's going to have a tough job. We told the D-line that they've got to be the ones to get pressure and attack this thing the right way. The other thing we've said for a couple weeks now is when we call for pressure they have to get home and they have to get hits. And on Saturday they did. We didn't just run into people and get blocked. Blaze Alldredge absolutely trucked a running back and knocked Mason (Fine) off his spot right away and then of course you saw Ekpe, doing a great job on the sacks he got."

On the decline in production from the running game
"I wish I could point to it's just this or that. Because we are giving the opportunities to the backs and trying to do the best job we can up front moving people. We've had some things blocked clean that haven't popped, but we've had a lot of situations when we couldn't get back to the line of scrimmage also. There is no one problem with the running game in terms of it being where we want it to be, but we're going to keep grinding. We're going to give the running games its chances. Like a lot of things right now in our program, if we can pop one early it probably boosts our confidence. But if not we're going to keep trying to stay ahead of the sticks, whether that's three or four yard runs, and then trust Wiley (Green) to deal the ball on third downs to get us a new set of downs. We'll just kind of be us. But I wish I could tell you it's this guy's fault and such, but it's been a mark of an offensive line transitioning, whether not being on the same page to losing one-on-ones. We're struggling to get explosive runs. I don't think we had any two weeks ago and we had one last game."

On the offensive line going forward
"I think this offensive line, with the five guys we've got right now, is the best five guys we can have on the field. That's Sam Pierce, our senior at right tackle who's playing really great football. I think he's improving week to week and trying to be more physical. Joe Dill is the right guard, Shea Baker is our redshirt freshman center who I think is becoming a master in this system. He's coming on the right way and really putting the time in to be great, and I think he will be great in this conference. Then at left guard we have Cole Garcia, and at left tackle we have Clay Servin, and both of them are true freshmen. So three freshmen starting together on the left side of the line and our lone senior (Pierce) is doing what he needs to do, challenging those guys."

On things he liked from Wiley Green
"Just having the ability to go out there and trust in his training, from the first play of the game on. We had a run/pass option play called, he just knew it was the right look so he pulled it and threw it he continued to do that all game. Also on that first drive, can you imagine your first start the coaching staff is going to ask you to fake a fumble and throw the ball 50 yards down the field and then he completes it? So that was huge. Then you look at the touchdown, and I would have never guessed his first TD would be rushing, but he pulled it at the right time and ended up in the end zone. There's a clip I showed the team yesterday, we talk a lot about being a predator and imposing your will on people. At the quarterback position you don't always have the opportunity to go knock someone's head off, but he had an opportunity knowing there was a free running blitzer coming at him and instead of backing away or falling away from the throw he stepped into the throw looking into the barrel of the blitzer and completed that pass and it was a huge play for us with a first down to Aaron Cephus. Those are the types of things normal freshmen don't do, matter of fact there's a lot of seniors that down do them. So I'm proud of what he is. I'm not going to do anything to put a ceiling on him, just going to talk about what he is today and that's all I want him to be is the best version of himself today and then a better version tomorrow."

On guys seeing more playing time down the stretch
"I don't think it's fair to put anybody on a college football field until they've earned it. I don't want to do that to any of our upperclassmen either. There's some people that are starting to earn that right at this point and some great competitions. We know that if someone can help us on special teams, especially with our injury situation, we're going to let them. I would love to use that rule. Mack Brown used to say if you can only do 15-20 plays a game with a true freshman it's worth burning a redshirt. And now we can do it without having to burn a redshirt so that's pretty outstanding."

-RiceOwls.com-

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