Houston - UTEP Postgame Quotes
10/21/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 21, 2006
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- 2006 Houston Cougars Football Postgame Quotes
UTEP Miners (4-3, 2-1 C-USA) at Houston Cougars (5-3, 3-1 C-USA)
Saturday, Oct. 21, 2006 * Robertson Stadium * Houston, Texas
HOUSTON HEAD COACH Art Briles
Opening Statement
"First of all, I would like to thank our students and fans for coming out. We said all week that home field advantage was the one card we held over them. It definitely made a difference tonight. Our fans were outstanding, our student section was unbelievable and we took advantage of that. It hurt their production, their rhythm and allowed us to gain a lot of momentum."
"I thought the difference in the ball game was field position in the third quarter. Our defense played outstanding, especially in the second half. That was as good a half of defensive football as we've played all season. We were productive on offense, that's the thing about it. That was our goal this week, to be productive on offense, stingy on defense and consistent in the special teams. Ben Bell made two big field goals when we needed them. It was a complete team win and a much needed win. I can sleep one night now and feel decent about myself for 12 hours, then we'll go to work on UCF."
"It was a good win. We just need to put it in the win column and move on. Our D-line was outstanding. They did a good job of putting pressure on UTEP. That's a good offensive line they have."
On holding UTEP to 33 yards in the second half
"It's an unbelievable effort. A total team win. This year, we might have scored a bit on offense, but not held on defense and vice versa. Tonight, the defense was three-and-out and the offense scored. It all comes down to momentum, field position and turnovers. That's how you win football games."
On the running game
"We've been trying to run all year. We're starting to understand our people up front a little better. Anthony (Alridge) gives us a different dimension. Jackie (Battle) and Roshawn (Pope) are very good backs too. We challenged Kevin (Kolb) to run tonight and he did an outstanding job tonight making some big plays running the football. Jackie can come in late in the game and help take it over. He's a big strong runner and helps us get first downs. First downs are like touchdowns in that situation."
Looking forward at the rest of the season
"We've set ourselves up to do what we want to do. We still control our own destiny. This win doesn't guarantee us winning the rest. Anytime you step on the field in conference play, anything can happen. Look in the paper tomorrow and you'll see that. UCF will come in here, no matter what they have done, and play their tails off. We have to battle hard, as a University, student section, fan base and football team if we want to win the rest of our football games."
HOUSTON QUARTERBACK Kevin Kolb
Opening Statement
"We really found our groove tonight. We felt like we played well in the first half. Just a few little things got us off our rhythm. We were confident at halftime, the locker room was very upbeat. We came out in the second half and played our kind of football. It was like it was three or four weeks ago. The win is a tribute to our coaches and the attitude on this team. To keep that winning attitude after three-straight losses is tough to do."
On the fourth-and-inches play.
"Coach Briles has belief in us and what we do. It's hard to stop a team with fourth-and-inches when they have momentum on their side."
On the emergence running game tonight
"I give it all to the offensive line. They took it upon their back to make a stand and put Jackie (Battle) and Quick (Anthony Alridge) on their back. I think we did a good job of keeping them off balance tonight. The play calling was exceptional and I don't think they knew what was coming all the time. That's what you need to do and it worked out tonight."
On breaking the losing streak tonight
"Forget the stat sheet, forget everything else, winning is the best thing about it. It's so sickening to go through the week with a loss on your mind and have that bad taste in your mouth. This week's going to be exciting and fun. We can get that energy back that we've been fighting for. It's there and it will be there because of what we did this weekend."
On beating UTEP after a tough loss last year in El Paso
"It's very satisfying. I didn't feel like I had my rhythm in the first half. The ball was coming off my hand a little weird. I had to calm myself down, and tell myself to play within the system and within myself. We did that and everybody made good plays. I probably wanted it a little too much in the first half. I am guilty of that a lot of times, and you can't do that as a quarterback. I think that's where maturity comes along. I was able to calm myself down and we got the win."
HOUSTON RUNNING BACK Anthony Alridge
"I try to bring energy to the team, our line blocked, our fullbacks blocked and coach trusted me to get it done. I was thinking just to stay in bounds on that last TD run. I saw Donnie Avery take his cornerback all the way to the back of the end zone and I just tried to turn on the jets. When we balance the offense, we can very explosive. We have Jackie (Battle) as a bruising runner, (Roshawn) Pope who is physical and then you put little old me in there and I just try to do what I do."
HOUSTON DEFENSE TACKLE Marquay Love
"Both lines dominated up front. We handled our business. Our secondary played their butts off. We had three down linemen that had sacks. We changed the defense, played our butts off in the second half and brought out the Mad Dogs. We mixed in three down linemen with Wade (Koehl). It worked. UTEP has a good offense. We put pressure on them and we played with attitude and heart. It feels good to break the losing streak. We're going to go to work tomorrow and get ready for UCF."
HOUSTON DEFENSIVE BACK Will Gulley
"It feels good. We had to contain them, did a better job in the second half. We played with heart tonight. We were in pass defense, Palmer never looked off the receiver and I was able to make the play. It was a big win for us. We needed to have it period to pick our spirits up. It's the best thing. We covered everything up. We took advantage of Palmer's lack of mobility."
HOUSTON DEFENSIVE LINEMAN Cody Pree
"I have been pushing myself in the weight room with coach (Chad) Dennis. He's been pushing me, helping me get stronger in my upper body. I took the rehab process real slow. It felt really good one day outside and I just went with it. We could tell our pressure was getting to them. Their heads were down. It was horrible to see us lose the last three games. It was a bad taste really. I was ready to get back and help out any way I could."
UTEP HEAD COACH MIKE PRICE
Opening Statement
"We kind of fell apart in the second half. We had two big penalties in our own backyard. It backed us up and we couldn't get a first down. Four three-and-outs in the second half. Jordan (Palmer) probably should've thrown away one and he got sacked and that put us in bad field position. In the meantime, Houston was getting good field position and they were executing their offense with difficulty because we played hard on defense. I think putting the defense in such bad position and giving them good field position is what drove the nail in the coffin."
"I was very disappointed in our offense. It wasn't like they did anything different; they just took the punch to us. When they did blitz us a few times, we hit them with some plays. They haven't been a blitzing team and they didn't blitz a whole lot either, although they did blitz more than before. We just got beat soundly in the second half. We give them credit. They are a good team and they got back on the winning track."
On intensity in the second half
"I think the defense had pretty good intensity. I don't know about the offense. They were not giving us any problem alignment wise on defense. They were just getting underneath us and we were not blocking very well. They were in a 4-1 box against five and we had five against five and they were beating us with their five. We they do that that makes it difficult."
On the amount of time the UTEP was on the field in the second half:
"Defense played hard. We made a few mistakes on defense too, but you have to give Houston credit. They are good on offense, we knew that going into it, but our defense spent way too much time on the field."
On recovering from loss:
"I know what's wrong, we're just not doing a good job blocking the run. You can't get 30 yards rushing against a team that didn't put eight in the box. They put five in the box and we couldn't block them. Yikes! So either they're just great and a lot better then us or we didn't play good. I get the feeling we just didn't rise to the occasion."
UTEP QUARTERBACK JORDAN PALMER
"We were starting to click. I didn't think they did anything scheme-wise that we shouldn't be able to handle. I think we've seen everything by now, its game 7 (of the season), but we didn't execute. A couple of penalties put us in our own end zone. You've got to give credit to Houston and Kevin Kolb. You know I don't think either of us played as well as we wanted to. I missed some throws and I think he missed some throws. Going into this game the story was all offense, but coming out it was defense."
