.png&type=webp)
Rice University Athletics
Mike Bloomgren Press Conference Quotes
10/29/2019 5:22:00 PM | Football
Opening Statement
"I want to start off by saying that I don't feel much different than I did after the game. Our defense and special teams played at a really high level. After watching the film, I still feel that way. They are playing good football and improving week-to-week. Offensively, we didn't play good enough to win. Obviously, there's no secret about that. But, I thought the defense was outstanding. They held an explosive Southern Miss team to about half of what they've been averaging passing on the year. They held them to 20 points when they average 35 points per game. They really did a heck of a job creating another turnover. They're doing a lot of what we ask and really making some great strides. I think Coach (Brian) Smith and our defensive staff have a done a really good job keeping that side of the ball focused and striving to get better. Not just every day but every game and finding new ways to challenge them. Again, I'm really pleased with that.
Special teams-wise, (Southern Miss) had the No. 1 kickoff returner in the nation. They have a dynamic punt returner and they had two yards in punt returns. Kickoff return-wise they had one for 18 (yards). So, that's a great job by all of the guys on our units covering those and our kickers and punters doing a super job.
The offense, it's not good enough. Not even close. We're still having problems protecting the ball. It's really frustrating. I feel bad for the rest of our team that the offense is playing that way. I have to keep encouraging all of these guys. The guys on defense (and) the guys on special teams while we continue to have the offense work and try to get out of this rut that we're in. The biggest thing, again, is protecting the football. Very simply, we have to protect the football. We've said it a million different ways. The bottom line is ball security is job security. If you can't protect the ball, you can't play. Everybody's livelihood is in your hands when you have the football. That's what we're doing in terms of what we're emphasizing on offense. We've made a few changes in terms of how we're going to prepare. I don't feel like we're getting the message delivered to the players in the right way, I think, by our assistant coaches on offense. We're going to take away the gaming telephone. Coach (Jerry) Mack is going to talk to the entire unit when he talks and they watch film together. He's going to treat it very much like an NFL operation in that regard and we're going to make sure that we are all singing out of the same hymnal because they are hearing one person deliver the message and that's going to be Coach Mack. All of the issues where we're having people not be able to do simple things that we're able to communicate to them of how we want it done, there will be no confusion going forward. Coach Mack will deliver the message and I believe that's really going to help our guys clean this up.
It's my job to keep everybody going on this team and put them in the best situations possible. Whether that's in the building, whether that's at practice or of course in games. That's what I'm going to continue to do. I'm going to continue to work with them and keep them positive. We realize that we still have a third of our season to play. It starts this weekend with a Homecoming Game, having Marshall come in here. I'm excited about that. They're a great team on the top of the Eastern side. Doc Holliday does a heck of a job coaching them year-in and year-out. Their consistency is really outstanding. The whole time he's been there, he's done a great job.
Offensively, their running game is the deal. They have an outstanding running back in Brenden Knox. He's a bigger back than you think he is. He runs through tackles, but he's nifty on his feet as well. They've got tight ends, some of them run a 4.5 (40-yard dash). They're not your normal tight ends that you see. They're certainly not a Clydesdale type tight end. They catch the ball and can do things with it. It will be a great challenge for our defense to stay locked in on their assignments.
Their defense is led by Brad Lambert. He was the head coach at Charlotte last year. He does a heck of a job with their defense right now. They're doing a great job of making things messy at the point of attack. They're physical at the point of attack and they are doing a good job in the pass game. The reason, I think, more than anything is that they are getting hits on the passer. They're getting sacks and some of it is his ability to run some Cover-Zero stuff and outnumber you. It's going to be a great challenge for our football team and as always, as every week, they have a dynamic returner back there that our special teams will have to take care of. We're still really looking for that big, explosive play in the return game that we really want. We're working towards. We've got a lot of people working towards. We're close where the return is just right there. So, we're going to keep working in all three phases and try to give ourselves the best chance to win this week."
On the quarterback situation heading into this week:
"Last week, Tom (Stewart) was taking all the reps with the ones. He ended up having a back issue during our walk-through and wasn't able to play. Right now, he's still working through it. If you've ever had one of those muscular things where your back locks up, I don't know if anybody knows the exact timetable, but it's getting better. He's improving and we're optimistic that we'll have him for this weekend."
On if he's thought past if Stewart can't play:
"Oh yea. I've thought about every possibility out there. We've got some things that we're going to kick around this week and give some people some opportunities. We're going some things this week to simplify the offense so we can play a little bit faster and not let anything be limited by age or experience in the system right now. I believe in the West Coast offense. I believe that pounding the rock is the way we'll win championships here. Right now, I'm not sure if that's exactly our best way; just to go with someone that can get us to the right play because we're not executing at a high enough level. Right now, we're going to kick everything around. We're doing a few different things, like I mentioned, in terms of how we meet and how we prepare. But, more than that, we're going to see how the week turns out in practice. We've got to let it play out on the practice field. We can't just say 'We want to see this,' and put somebody in there. It has to play out the right way when we give people those opportunities."
Would you say that you're tailoring your scheme to the ability of your athletes as opposed to taking your athletes and putting them into a scheme?
"Maybe the opposite of that. I think what we're saying is we're going to simplify the system so it won't matter if somebody is experienced in the system. If they have the ability to help our football team now, we want to make sure we give them that opportunity to be on the field. I look back at some of the quarterbacks we had at other places. They were Year Three in the system, the stuff was easy for them, and they would use their athletic ability as well. Right now, I'm afraid that we can paralyze some guys and their athletic ability could get stunted if you will by having them think too much at the line of scrimmage. Whether it's thinking too much about the protection call, whether it's thinking too much about making sure they get to the perfect play or it's a full field progression. Sometimes, those things are very hard. You look at a lot of offenses across America in college football right now, guys aren't asked to do a whole lot of full field reads. They're asked to read this defender, one to two (and) get your feet. So, we'll see how this goes this week. We've got a great plan in place. I talked to Coach Mack for a while last night (and) I really like where this plan is going."
On it being Homecoming:
"It's awesome. One of our big donors has actually become a friend of mine and this is his 30th Homecoming. I know that there are going to be some great people come back and come to watch us play. Hopefully, we can put on a great show for them and find a way to get a 'W' for them to help them with their celebration Saturday."
"I want to start off by saying that I don't feel much different than I did after the game. Our defense and special teams played at a really high level. After watching the film, I still feel that way. They are playing good football and improving week-to-week. Offensively, we didn't play good enough to win. Obviously, there's no secret about that. But, I thought the defense was outstanding. They held an explosive Southern Miss team to about half of what they've been averaging passing on the year. They held them to 20 points when they average 35 points per game. They really did a heck of a job creating another turnover. They're doing a lot of what we ask and really making some great strides. I think Coach (Brian) Smith and our defensive staff have a done a really good job keeping that side of the ball focused and striving to get better. Not just every day but every game and finding new ways to challenge them. Again, I'm really pleased with that.
Special teams-wise, (Southern Miss) had the No. 1 kickoff returner in the nation. They have a dynamic punt returner and they had two yards in punt returns. Kickoff return-wise they had one for 18 (yards). So, that's a great job by all of the guys on our units covering those and our kickers and punters doing a super job.
The offense, it's not good enough. Not even close. We're still having problems protecting the ball. It's really frustrating. I feel bad for the rest of our team that the offense is playing that way. I have to keep encouraging all of these guys. The guys on defense (and) the guys on special teams while we continue to have the offense work and try to get out of this rut that we're in. The biggest thing, again, is protecting the football. Very simply, we have to protect the football. We've said it a million different ways. The bottom line is ball security is job security. If you can't protect the ball, you can't play. Everybody's livelihood is in your hands when you have the football. That's what we're doing in terms of what we're emphasizing on offense. We've made a few changes in terms of how we're going to prepare. I don't feel like we're getting the message delivered to the players in the right way, I think, by our assistant coaches on offense. We're going to take away the gaming telephone. Coach (Jerry) Mack is going to talk to the entire unit when he talks and they watch film together. He's going to treat it very much like an NFL operation in that regard and we're going to make sure that we are all singing out of the same hymnal because they are hearing one person deliver the message and that's going to be Coach Mack. All of the issues where we're having people not be able to do simple things that we're able to communicate to them of how we want it done, there will be no confusion going forward. Coach Mack will deliver the message and I believe that's really going to help our guys clean this up.
It's my job to keep everybody going on this team and put them in the best situations possible. Whether that's in the building, whether that's at practice or of course in games. That's what I'm going to continue to do. I'm going to continue to work with them and keep them positive. We realize that we still have a third of our season to play. It starts this weekend with a Homecoming Game, having Marshall come in here. I'm excited about that. They're a great team on the top of the Eastern side. Doc Holliday does a heck of a job coaching them year-in and year-out. Their consistency is really outstanding. The whole time he's been there, he's done a great job.
Offensively, their running game is the deal. They have an outstanding running back in Brenden Knox. He's a bigger back than you think he is. He runs through tackles, but he's nifty on his feet as well. They've got tight ends, some of them run a 4.5 (40-yard dash). They're not your normal tight ends that you see. They're certainly not a Clydesdale type tight end. They catch the ball and can do things with it. It will be a great challenge for our defense to stay locked in on their assignments.
Their defense is led by Brad Lambert. He was the head coach at Charlotte last year. He does a heck of a job with their defense right now. They're doing a great job of making things messy at the point of attack. They're physical at the point of attack and they are doing a good job in the pass game. The reason, I think, more than anything is that they are getting hits on the passer. They're getting sacks and some of it is his ability to run some Cover-Zero stuff and outnumber you. It's going to be a great challenge for our football team and as always, as every week, they have a dynamic returner back there that our special teams will have to take care of. We're still really looking for that big, explosive play in the return game that we really want. We're working towards. We've got a lot of people working towards. We're close where the return is just right there. So, we're going to keep working in all three phases and try to give ourselves the best chance to win this week."
On the quarterback situation heading into this week:
"Last week, Tom (Stewart) was taking all the reps with the ones. He ended up having a back issue during our walk-through and wasn't able to play. Right now, he's still working through it. If you've ever had one of those muscular things where your back locks up, I don't know if anybody knows the exact timetable, but it's getting better. He's improving and we're optimistic that we'll have him for this weekend."
On if he's thought past if Stewart can't play:
"Oh yea. I've thought about every possibility out there. We've got some things that we're going to kick around this week and give some people some opportunities. We're going some things this week to simplify the offense so we can play a little bit faster and not let anything be limited by age or experience in the system right now. I believe in the West Coast offense. I believe that pounding the rock is the way we'll win championships here. Right now, I'm not sure if that's exactly our best way; just to go with someone that can get us to the right play because we're not executing at a high enough level. Right now, we're going to kick everything around. We're doing a few different things, like I mentioned, in terms of how we meet and how we prepare. But, more than that, we're going to see how the week turns out in practice. We've got to let it play out on the practice field. We can't just say 'We want to see this,' and put somebody in there. It has to play out the right way when we give people those opportunities."
Would you say that you're tailoring your scheme to the ability of your athletes as opposed to taking your athletes and putting them into a scheme?
"Maybe the opposite of that. I think what we're saying is we're going to simplify the system so it won't matter if somebody is experienced in the system. If they have the ability to help our football team now, we want to make sure we give them that opportunity to be on the field. I look back at some of the quarterbacks we had at other places. They were Year Three in the system, the stuff was easy for them, and they would use their athletic ability as well. Right now, I'm afraid that we can paralyze some guys and their athletic ability could get stunted if you will by having them think too much at the line of scrimmage. Whether it's thinking too much about the protection call, whether it's thinking too much about making sure they get to the perfect play or it's a full field progression. Sometimes, those things are very hard. You look at a lot of offenses across America in college football right now, guys aren't asked to do a whole lot of full field reads. They're asked to read this defender, one to two (and) get your feet. So, we'll see how this goes this week. We've got a great plan in place. I talked to Coach Mack for a while last night (and) I really like where this plan is going."
On it being Homecoming:
"It's awesome. One of our big donors has actually become a friend of mine and this is his 30th Homecoming. I know that there are going to be some great people come back and come to watch us play. Hopefully, we can put on a great show for them and find a way to get a 'W' for them to help them with their celebration Saturday."
WBB: Rice vs. Marshall Postgame Presser
Wednesday, March 09
VB: Rice-Texas Postgame Presser
Saturday, December 04
VB: Rice-San Diego Postgame Presser
Thursday, December 02