University of Houston Athletics
Coach Dimel Reflects on the UAB Game
10/15/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 15, 2002
HOUSTON - Coach Dimel Reflects on the UAB Contest, Looks Ahead to Army
Where the football program is right now
"When I took over the program, there were a lot of flaws. The two major problems were people being pessimistic and negative. I think we came into a situation that was very much barren." "There was no young defensive talent in the program. Right now we have two players that were on defense when we got here. Right now when I look at our team we have two three-year starters, a handful of second-year starters and the rest are first-year starters. At times the football team plays well and at other times we play like we are inexperienced."
UAB recap
"In the first half of the UAB game we had four touchdowns drives with over 70 yards, which is the first time the University of Houston has done something like that since 1989 when they beat SMU 95-21. Going from playing at that high of a level to losing the game in the second half shows our inconsistency and inexperience on offense. I have been very proud the way the defense has played -- they are the least experienced group we have on the team. However, they didn't play well enough to win in the second half either."
"Allowing UAB to score at the end of the first half hurts us because they won the coin toss, giving them the ball and enabling them to score three points. We made another mistake by throwing an interception which they returned to our one-yard line and scored on, then we gave up another turnover at the 25-yard line."
Looking ahead
"We have to eliminate the turnovers in order to win games. On a positive note, I see our young team playing completive football. In order to win on Saturday we have to play like a winning team during practice this week."
Did you feel like you left the rush game a little bit to early?
Yes, we did abandon our running game. Our passing is not where it should be right now. I thought we would get into a four-wide set at one point and try to catch UAB off balance, but we were unsuccessful and the drive was halted. In retrospect, we should have continued to run the football and eat time off the clock.
What is your aspect on the defense?
Defense is playing pretty well. The offense has put the defense in some hard positions, which reflects in the score of the game. Momentum swung against us toward the end of the game and defense could not hold up to win. There was nothing dramatically wrong with our defense; we just need to play with more intensity.
To what do you attribute the trouble we had in the second half to UAB?
We went into the first half being mentally prepared and fired up for the game. However, we entered without the same intensity that we had the first half.
