University of Houston Athletics
Coach Dimel's Quotes
8/28/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 28, 2001
Houston, Texas - "With Five days 'til kick-off. We are looking forward to a great month of football ahead of us in September. The excitement is really increasing around the program. Along with fan excitement and ticket sales for these first few games. But as you know our attention right now is on the Rice game. We know how much momentum it can bring us if we start off well. In this game our goals will be to eliminate mistakes, this is that will be critical for us. We need to eliminate unforced errors. This year more than any other year we have had scrimmages to try to eliminate mistakes before our first game. The thing that we risk with this is injury, but after our fourth on Saturday we a virtually unscathed."
"What we want to accomplish with this program is to become a very disciplined program. As of strategy with offense we will try to be very balanced between running and passing. We are a passing football team, but we know that we must run the ball with more efficiency and more success and that is a major focus this season.
Coach Dimel on Defense
"As far as defensively, it will be critical for us to eliminate Rice's big plays. Mostly it is their passing game that we are focusing on. The next thing is to make sure that we bend but don't break during their running game."
What is the single most important thing for your team to accomplish with Rice and throughout the rest of the season?
"I think the biggest thing, David, is to gain confidence with what we are doing. Last year we were real close and then the set-backs in the Rice game occurred. Those mistakes carried over to the LSU game. It shows us how close we were in those games and the lessons to be learned in how to win football games. The biggest thing is to believe in each other."
"I feel that this year's U of H football team is much more talented. And is one that has the characteristics that a team needs to win football games."
You said that you feel more confident in this years team than last years team. Why is that the case?
"This years team understands what I expect out of them, especially the little nitpicking things that I think are important to winning football games. Those are the things that I think will make a big difference later. The commitment of this years team is outstanding."
Coach Dimel on special teams:
"We hope going into the first game that special team have improved immensely. The emphasis has definitely increased on that unit, but we just have to wait and see. Hopefully the proof will be in the pudding and we will come out and do some good things."
Coach Dimel on Kelly Robertson: "The biggest thing that Kelly brings to the (quarterback) position is that he understands the system completely. I feel comfortable that he can get us into the plays that we need to get into. The thing that you have to be careful with in a quarterback is can he do EVERYTHING well? As we go into calling the game on Saturday, there is nothing that we will be reluctant to call, because I don't think he can execute it. So we can be very versatile in the calls that we do make."
Coach Dimel on The defensive line:
"Lee Ingersol will be the leader of the line, because we expect him to have an outstanding season. He has good size and he can run. Our defensive line will be a strength of this years football team. We have a lot of depth on our defensive line and have moved a few younger players around to different positions because we feel that we have adequate depth at that position."
Kelly Robertson on Rice:
"We are excited to get out and play someone besides ourselves. Looking at the Rice films we think that we have a shot at getting our first victory. Like coach said, last years Rice game set the tone for the season. It has been proven that for the most part the winning team is the one with the least turnovers. We made some mistakes on special teams and that put us on a negative path. We need to turn that around."
How do you stay aggressive yet not make the mistakes that we have seen in the past?
"I don't think that you can worry about possible mistakes. You have to just go with the plays that are called, make your reads and throw the ball through."
How excited are you to get out and take over this teams offense?
"I'm just excited to get out and play football for the first time in 4-5 years in front of people. I want to get out there and show them what I can do."
