Quotes from Head Coach Art Briles' Weekly Football Press Conference
9/6/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 6, 2005
HOUSTON -
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Quotes from University of Houston Football Head Coach Art Briles
Tuesday, September 6, 2005 * Houston, Texas
Entering Sam Houston State game and following Oregon game
"It seems like it's been a day or two since we played, but it's almost been a week. We played well against a really good football team. Oregon was a very experienced team. Two years ago, when we strolled into Ann Arbor and Michigan beat us, two weeks later, Oregon beat them with eight starters off that team that played against us the other night. Michigan actually lost two games that year, that one and USC."
"They were a good team, an experienced team. We came out very intense, very focused, very ready. That was evident by the way that we played early in the football game. As the game went along, we weren't able to put any body shots to them. We threw a lot of punches but we didn't connect on many. We couldn't get them to wilt, to lose faith. When you play a team that has had winning records in 15 out of their last 16 seasons, they are a hard team to break. They have a lot of good memories. We didn't do a good job of taking it to them and getting them to falter.
"I am proud of our guys. I love our football team. I love our players. I like their attitude, and I like their toughness. We're a good football team. Now, we have to be determined this week. We have to be intense. We have to get our first win of '05. I told the team a couple of days ago that the win against Sam Houston (State) counts just as big as a win against Oregon towards being bowl eligible. Of course, that's one of our goals every year. We get one right here and then we take it from there, but we need to get our first win and get rolling
On kicking game: "Honestly, I thought we were pretty good the other day. We had the one bad snap; (Justin) Laird made a great play on that. We made the field goal late. Our extra points went through. They might not be the way that you choreograph them, but the referee threw his arms up. We had the great kickoff return. If you had turned the TV on this weekend, there were some first-game problems for a lot of people. Ours are going to be a little bit of concern early throughout the season with a snapper, holder and kicker that are all new. We are looking at two or three different kickers. There is always going to be a little bit of concern at this point of the season. As far as kicking off, coverage and return, we feel really good in that part."
On philosophy change in going for it versus kicking: "That might have been evident. You have to take those things into consideration. At the same time, you have to have faith and confidence in the people that you have and I do. The other night, we were going to come after them hard early. We didn't come to play close or have anyone say that we're getting there. We came to win the football game. I felt like we had a chance to put them away in the third quarter if we could have scored a touchdown. We had a first-and-goal at the 1 two plays earlier. That and not converting there and them taking the ball down, was a critical point of the football game."
On health of Anthony Evans and Wade Koehl: "Neither one of them will play this week. We actually have a couple of others who are doubtful. We had a lot of new people on the field, especially defensively. They really played well early. We had some guys that hadn't played in a while that were out there for the first time. Against a team of that caliber, against a three-year starting quarterback like (Kellen) Clemens... I am proud of the guys who got on the field, and the guys who will replace them will do a good job. We have our guys intact where if I stroke out and die this evening, we are going to play the game Saturday, and we're going to win. We're in good shape with the people we have on board."
On play of offensive line against Oregon: "It's hard to find any positives or bright spots out of not winning the game because the bottom line for us is always to win, but I was really played with our offensive line because of how good Oregon up front defensively. They are hyped as the best defensive line in the Pac-10, possibly the nation. Our guys really took it upon themselves and did a great job up front. We had the one sack. In hindsight, which always seems to be pretty accurate, we probably should have run the ball more against them because we could have. If you had seen the tapes that we watched all spring and summer, you would have thought we have to throw the ball on them too, because they just decimated people in the Pac-10 when they tried to run the ball."
On run-pass expectations against Oregon: "We had four or five guys returning plus some other guys that were coming in making plays. Since last season to now, they have worked extremely hard on making themselves better football players, helping our team be better and giving us a chance to win. Our offensive line coaches have done a great job schematically of keeping things where everybody understands what we are doing at the same time. It's a combination of those things."
On watching Sam Houston State film: "It's really hard for us to evaluate Sam Houston (State) at all. That's the only tape we have. We can try to get a feel for their personnel, possibly some alignments, and go from there. The game of football is about adjustments. We will have to do that Saturday. It was not a really good film for us to grade and evaluate."
On deciding pas-run: "Every game you go into, you try to play to your strengths against what you feel like might not be theirs. We try to figure out what will work best for us as far as attacking people from an offensive standpoint."
On running the ball more: "We always want to run the ball. That is something we are going to be good at as the season progresses. We have a good line and great running backs. We can run the football. Whatever we have to do to win is what we are going to do. If we have to control the ball and try to run, we will do that. If we have to throw it and win, we will do that also."
