University of Houston Athletics
Weekly Football Press Luncheon Quotes
10/18/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Complete Transcript in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
Oct. 18, 2005
HOUSTON - Quotes from University of Houston Football Head Coach Art Briles
Tuesday, October 18, 2005 * Houston, Texas * Athletics/Alumni Center
Entering Mississippi State game and following Memphis game
"I have been through a lot of football games for a long time, and that was as funky, is the best way to say it, football game as we have been through. A lot of the bad things that happened are very correctable. That is good from our part as far as the coaching staff and the football team, and bad that we aren't on top of things for those things to happen.
"If we take care of business like we had the opportunities to, then we are all real happy and feeling real good. Otherwise, we still have a lot to prove and a long way to go. We have to have to a good determination to get there.
"The one thing I do know is that we have five football games left, and those five games are going to determine our season. That's the encouraging part of it. We have tough players on a tough team. A lot of the things that happened the other night are because we are a tough, physical football team, and we are going to remain a tough, physical football team. That's our trademark. That's the way we are going to carry ourselves. That's the way we are going to play, toughness with intelligence. We will take care of the things that need to be taken care of.
"I said it in August, and I will say it again today. I am proud of this football team. I think we have a very good football and I think good things are going to happen. Now, we just have to take care of our business the rest of the season."
On looking ahead to rest of Conference USA season: "Where we are at in conference is yet to be determined. We are still in the hunt. There are a lot of things that can really play out over the next few weeks. There is still a possibility that we can end up in a tie for the West Division. That is our best-case scenario. We know that UTEP and Tulsa still have to play so one of them is going to come out of that with two losses. If anybody stubs their toe the rest of the way, there could be three of us with two losses. That's the way we are looking at it.
"The main thing that I am focused on right now after assessing where we are at and where we want to get to is that I want to be a better football team every time we step on the field. I have thrown all that stuff out the window. I know it is out there, and that bowl implications are out there. I want to be a dang good football team every time we step on the field. I want to be better this week than we were last week and to be better the next week. My only goal is to be a good football team, play our butts off and represent well. If we do all that other stuff, the rest will take care of itself. That's where my drive and passion is right now. I want us to keep improving and keep getting better."
On areas that his team is focusing on: "You can always improve individually, physically and mentally. Your mental approach determines your physical performance about 95 percent of the time. We all have to be on the same wavelength, have the same attitude, the same determination and the same passion. If we have those, then we have an opportunity to perform better on the field. That's what it is all about. We have one mission and one goal, and that's to be the best football team that we can be. IF we do that, everything else will fall into place. The first thing we have to do is make sure that we are right mentally, which carries over into physical performance"
On challenges ahead: "All of our focus right now is on Mississippi State. In our sport, in our season, every week is a new season. You devote all of your time and energy into one opponent. Once that opponent is gone, you go to the next one. The only thing that we are concentrating on now is going to Mississippi State in Starkville and playing this Saturday. It's probably not good to say, but I care about one football team and that's ours. That's why I don't pay a lot of attention to anything else going on. We have our people, we have our coaches and players that we are concerned with and our University, and that's really where all of our focus is at."
On adjustments in practice this week: "Those are little things to where we might have had one person take a step the wrong way or not at the right time that it should have been. I didn't good job of making people aware enough of certain situations that are involved in the game how you need to handle those situations. It's just little things like that. If one or two things go our way in certain situations, then we probably don't even notice those things. We don't critique at that level unless it seems pretty dramatic. This turned out dramatic.
"That's part of it. That's why you play. That's why you love coaching and why you love playing. There ain't no guarantees. The only guarantee is that you have a chance to do is make a positive play or have to fight to make a better play. I don't like to use the word negative. I don't like to use the word loss, and you'll never hear me say the word loser, because I don't think in those terms. That's why you coach, that's why you play and that's why you keep working to get better.
"We ain't dead. We're bouncing around here 2-2 in Conference and 3-3. It ain't like Memphis can't play a little bit either. They have a pretty good football team. We battled our butt off and had a good chance to win the game. It didn't work out. I wanted to have hair when I was 50 years old but that didn't work out. Some things just don't work out. You live with what you got and make the best of it. It ain't like we're going to roll over, kick our legs up, start screaming and crying and ask someone to feel sorry for us. What we are going to do is get up, get our butt to work, be tougher and better and learn from it. That's what we are doing. We are learning from it."
On Mississippi State: "They are a very good football. They have four losses. Try Auburn, LSU, Florida and Georgia. That's four pretty good football teams. That's who they have lost to. They beat Murray State and Tulane. It will be a good test for us from the stance of mental toughness and physical ability. They are a physical football team that is well coached, well disciplined. Fundamentally, they are sound on both sides of the football schematically. It will be a good challenge for us."
