University of Houston Athletics
Monday Morning Quarterback
10/15/2002 12:00:00 AM | General
Oct. 15, 2002
Can we get a quick evaluation of the UAB game from your perspective at quarterback.
It was very disappointing especially from an offensive point of view. When you put up 28 points in the first half and then to put up six in the second. In the first half we felt really good, we were running the ball, we were passing the ball, we were play action set up the pass like we have been working on. Then in the second half we had a couple of turnovers and they got some momentum going and then we got away from our game plan and started throwing drop back passes. UAB just sat back and covered two and played the pass pretty well. We abandoned the run, but we were at a point that we kind of had to because we were down. We were just really disappointed to be up big and then to let that one slip away especially against a team that we felt we were stronger than.
Question from an old lineman Reggie Rockamore: What do you think will be the key to beating an Army that doesn't make any mistakes?
We have watched some film on them already and they like to twist and blitz from all different angles. They are not as good as they have been in the past but they are real scrappy and aggressive on defense. So we are going to have to be real solid up front and make no mistakes like we have all year. We have made just one or two key mistakes that have lost us the game. We just have to eliminate that one or two mistakes, we could be 5-1 easily.
How do you perdict you are going to do against Army as a quarterback?
From an offense standpoint I think we are going to do well, we can take the positive from last game that we had over 100-yards rushing in the first half, if we could just do that and be consistent throughout the whole game. I think we have a real good chance to be a great offense, by being able to throw that play action off of the run game and being able to light up the scoreboard.
This is about you development from high school to junior college and then to division I-A football. What do you see the biggest adjustment going from high school to junior college and now to the University of Houston?
The biggest adjustment is who you play against. I went to a really small high school and the competition was not good. Then at junior college we played some pretty good players Seneca Wallace and players like that, it was different but it still felt like a top-level high school. In division I football all the players are good, they are all faster and stronger. You can't do some of the things that you got away with at junior college, you can't force in balls and it is a lot harder to read the defense. The speed of the game and the talent is the most significant factor.
With the big plays capability of Brandon Middleton how do you get him to be a more active part of the offense? I.e. are there specific plays designated for him?
The past couple of weeks we have had six or eight deep shots plays and most of them were for Brandon Middleton. We are trying to get him the ball at the same time we are trying to spread it out also, we don't want to focus on just one receiver and throw to him all the time. It is nice to see the big plays but those are hard to get when you don't have that consistent run game or short pass and the defense can just play off the long game. We have to have a more balance attack on offense, run the ball, and throw the short stuff in order to open up the long pass.
