University of Houston Athletics
Football Postgame Quotes from the Oregon Game
9/1/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 1, 2005
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
HOUSTON - 2005 Houston Cougars Football Oregon Ducks (1-0) at Houston Cougars (0-1)
Thursday, September 1, 2005 * Reliant Stadium * Houston, Texas
Postgame Quotes
Houston Head Coach Art Briles
Opening Statement
"I thought Oregon had a pretty good football team coming in. I thought I probably made a coaching mistake there in the third quarter by not kicking the field goal, and going for the touchdown. We were up 21-20 at the time. We actually prior to that had a first and goal at the one, but a penalty called it back. We're riding a little bit of confidence there. We missed a good scoring opportunity in the second quarter. We had a second and three on the 31 yard line, and never converted. Other that that, I thought our guys played well. Without a doubt, I think that we are a better football team now than we were last year at this point, but only time well tell. I believe that right now in my heart. We had a few guys get banged up tonight, and that concerns me with our depth right now. I think that everyone else is going to be in the same boat as the season goes along. "
On Evans and Koehl Injuries
"I know that Anthony (Evans is out for a while. I'm not real sure about Wade (Koehl), but he's out for right now. I know it's his hip, but not quite what the damage is. He tried to go back out there. Anthony pulled his calf muscle; a different one from a year ago.
On Riding Momentum
"I think with our team, and a lot of teams it requires momentum for you to excel. That's the point that we have to get away from. We have to be able to excel whether or not the offense or defense is playing great or not. Even if the special teams are making big plays or not. We have to excel all the time. I thought we got caught up in a deal where we got real hot in the first quarter. Everything was clicking on both sides of the ball for the exception of one special team miscue. I think we rode the wave of momentum for a while, and then kind of fell into a lull. We have to understand that we have to be good on every play. We can't wait, and mess around hope for something good to happen before we start playing. "
On Oregon
"Oregon has a good football team, and we knew that coming in. I think that everyone could see that tonight. Kellen (Clemens) is a ball player, and he's been doing it for three years. He's got some good people that go real well with him. It was an offense that we really didn't have a chance to study. It was a little bit of a concern. They have some pretty good offensive linemen. They weren't the second winningist program in the Pac-10 over the last 15 years for no reason. They have good folks, and it's hard to get pressure sometimes with the three man front without bringing linebackers and safties. We were able to do that some, but when they can slide one way or another it's tough to get through.
On Scoring Quick
"We only ran eight plays in the first quarter. At halftime, we were only up to 23 plays. At that point we should have around 40 plays. We kind of altered our play calling in the second half because we knew we weren't getting Oregon defense tired. The two sides that were tired were Oregon offense, and our defense. We thought we might come out, and try to control a little bit. We felt like if we got Oregon's defense kind of tired we could do some things. We were scorning, but we were scoring quick. That was great, but it's a 60 minute war. In the end, I'm proud of our guys. I'm proud of the way that they prepared, and proud of the way they played."
On If Anything Good Comes Out of Not Winning
"There isn't anything good that comes out of not winning that I've been able to find out. If I had anything in my stomach, I think I would be throwing up. It's part of the business."
Looking ahead
"There were too many mistakes against a good football team. We had a couple of critical penalties at critical times. We felt that our best chance to win was to throw the football. We liked our match-ups, and felt that we could take the ball down the field on them. IT proved pretty good early, but we just couldn't sustain it. We had some good plays that I think we can take home. In the end, I think there are a lot of things that are correctable. We're going to be more balanced as the season goes along, but that depends on the people that play."
Houston Quarterback Kevin Kolb
"I wasn't real consistent. We put a few drives together. We just couldn't get it in there when we got down there. That was a problem for us last year. We would get down in the red zone and couldn't score. We came out knowing we had our speed, and we used it. That worked, but they started backing off. We tried those quick screens; they just came up the field so hard. We had some stuff; we just didn't execute well. From an offensive standpoint, that's what is so frustrating. We had some stuff in the middle; I missed some passes tonight. It's frustrating to not execute not like that when it's open and you're in the ball game like that in the third quarter."
"You can practice for 60 days if you want to. When you get into a game and a big-time atmosphere like that, it's going to be a lot different. Some of that stuff is so hard. Number 96 ain't small. You can't find Vincent (Marshall) in there. I didn't put the ball where I needed to. I can't blame anybody else."
I've been saying the entire spring and fall. We have five running backs. Jackie (Battle) did a good job tonight. We have guys that can fill in. All of them are threats.
Postgame Quotes
Oregon Head Coach Mike Bellotti<>/b>
On the Game Being a Tale of Two Halves
"Yeah I thought we came out there and sleepwalked a little bit on defense there in the first quarter. But at half time we said we lost the first half but were going to win the second half. I think that we were the better conditioned team, and that showed a lot. I was proud of the offense, they took advantage of key opportunities. Our defense came back and stopped the big plays that hurt us early. Special teams also gave up big plays early but came back in a big way. Overall, its nice to win a game on a road against an opponent that showed us a lot of things that we've never seen before. Were 1-0, but there is a lot of room for improvement obviously."
On Patience after Giving up Big Plays to Houston in the First Half
"Well I felt like they only ran 22 offensive plays, but in the second half our offense flat out made their defense tired. I was pleased overall, our offense moved the ball around a lot and got some points, and with our kicking game, that ended up being a positive for us."
On Kellen Clemens
"He's very comfortable, and he'll get better. With this style of offense, he's working very hard on every play. "
On pressuring Kevin Kolb
"I was disappointed in our pass rush. Houston gets the ball off quickly a lot of the time and our defensive line guys were having to run sideline to sideline to cover the screens. I haven't seen what I wanted to yet out of that group."
On A.J. Tuitele
"He played a lot of plays, and he did a lot of good things."
On Penalties
"They don't hurt as much when you win, but that is definitely and area we need to improve on."
What to Look Forward to Next Week
"We need to improve in all aspects of the game. Montana was number one that year in their division. We get an extra two days to prepare which is always nice."
