University of Houston Athletics
Football Press Conference Quotes
10/17/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 17, 2006
HEAD COACH Art Briles
Opening Statement:
"After viewing the tape, I think the Southern Miss game was the hardest our football team has played since I have been here. From that aspect, it was a very inspiring effort because we had people across the board playing as determined and as hungry as any team we have put on the field in the last four years. It's a little discouraging when you can't come away with a win when you play that hard but there aren't many guarantees prior to a game. I am very proud of this football team. I am very proud of the players that are on this team and the way they have battled hard this entire year. Right now, we are just grinding it out for a victory and we are going to grind hard and get us a win and move forward. We are certainly not thinking about UCF, Tulsa, SMU or Memphis. Our concentration is on UTEP. We are excited to be back home. The cougar faithful need to get back in the stands and help support our team and give us every opportunity to have a great victory on Saturday. The opportunities increase tremendously with the energy in the stadium so we need our students and our fans to come out and support this football team."
On the match up of quarterbacks Kevin Kolb and Jordan Palmer:
"They are both really good players, but from a coaching standpoint I am just as concerned with Sterling Doty against (UTEP's) Zach West in the interior line. As far as for the fans, it's (Kolb vs. Palmer) is a pretty good match up."
On the defense in third down conversions:
"We have made some changes and turned the heat up a little more on third downs in the last week. It comes down to distance and making a play. It's just like a third down on the offensive side of the ball, and if you are 50 percent on that you are usually doing pretty well. It's a big play on either side of the ball and we have to have confidence in our belief that we have guys who are going to make plays when we get into that position. We have converted a few and we have had a few converted on us in the last week."
On improving the running game:
"It's not something that we are unaware of. It's something that is a priority because I would much rather rush for 250 yards and pass for 150 yards every time out because I like running the football. I think it helps the mentality of the football team. Circumstances dictate what happens on the field. It's an area that I am confident we have seen improvement on. We expected it last week and we banged around for a little while and then we had to take productive plays. The bottom line is you have to do what makes your team productive to give you the best chance to get the ball in the end zone."
On the team's urgency to win the rest of the games this season:
"They are all must win games but it depends on how you look at it. Every time we tee it up it's a must win for us. Does it destroy us if we don't win? No. Do we still have high hopes for the season if we don't pull out a victory? Yes. Can we still get bowl eligible and win a bowl game? Yes. Could we still possibly win the West? Yes. Tulsa played for the (conference) championship last season with two losses. All I know is what we have in front of us Saturday. We have to play our tail off and beat UTEP. We are holding one more card than they are in the deck and that's being at home so we have to take advantage of being at home."
On the crowd at UTEP last season:
"They (UTEP) rallied up. They had over 50,000 people in the stands and there was a lot of energy in the stadium and our guys played their tail off up there. We are going to do the same thing this week. We are going to play hard. That's one thing I know about this football team. They have a lot of pride and they give great effort. We have a lot of good football players."
On the play of Jeron Harvey:
"Jeron came in here last August. It's hard to develop personalities during the season so we had to get through the spring and the summer. With the availability of all the people we have on offense it's hard to single up on any of our guys and it allows us to make plays. We have quite a few threats on the offensive side of the ball. That in itself has allowed people to make plays and Jeron has certainly done that in the last few weeks."
