Houston-Grambling State Postgame Quotes
9/16/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 16, 2006
Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery
- Grambling State Tigers (0-3) at Houston Cougars (3-0)
Saturday, Sept. 16, 2006 * Robertson Stadium * Houston, Texas
HOUSTON HEAD COACH Art Briles
Opening Statement
"It feels good, it really does. I've got to be careful not to downplay the victory by coach analysis. It's pretty common in our business. I certainly felt like we could have done a lot of things better. I know we had very limited possessions in the first half. I think we scored on every possession. We only had two in the third quarter, scored on the first one, fumbled in the end zone on the other. We scored on our first six possessions, but never really got into an offensive flow or rhythm. It just didn't seem to happen as crisp or as quickly as I wanted it to on both sides of the ball. It was a good win, we did what we had to do. We had to win the game and we won it. Now we move on to the next one."
"We didn't give up a sack, that's the first time that's ever happened to us. Stuff like that ought to happen in games like this. The thing that is encouraging that I mentioned to the players was that we did play when we had to play. Exactly what didn't need to happen, what you can't let happen, happened on their opening possession. They switched up their quarterback, he's a really great player. He was 27-2 as a started in high school. Won a state championship but hadn't stepped on the field until this game. Makes them a dangerous offense. That's no excuse. We need to make plays on the defensive side of the ball. We gotta have possessions on offense and we gotta score. When we had the opportunity to jump on them and get away from them we did. We kind of relaxed in the second half, which I guess is human nature. It was something certainly we don't want to do, but it's nice to have the luxury to be able to do it."
On Adjustments Made To Stop GSU's Starting Quarterback Larry Kerlegan
"What you do with a guy like that is don't rush him. If you rush him, he dips, dives and goes. Best thing to do is float near the line of scrimmage and do like you do on a kickoff or punt return. Keep him inside of you and when he breaks, go tackle him. All the plays he makes were off his feet. He did a good job. He gave them a spark and if he had played the first two weeks, they would have probably been 2-0 heading into this game."
On Jackie Battle's Performance
"It's good to have Jackie back. He's strong, physical, tough, mean and he played with some passion tonight. He has to do that. When he gets that way, we need to feed him. When he gets hot, he gets mad and that's when I like him. He's hard to stop."
Thoughts On UH's Tackling
"I don't know how you could say he wouldn't be. Of course I was. I told the team that we were too porous defensively. We can't let teams have seven-and-a-half minute drives on us. We have to stop them and turn it over, get on offense, score and get it back. That's the way football work. It worked that way for a quarter-and-a-half tonight. It's a momentum deal. We played with desire and effort when we had to. We lost Rocky (Schwartz) tonight it looks like. That's a tough blow for him, I feel sorry for him. You give all your heart and soul into something and in two seconds, it could be gone. I feel bad for him. "
On Tonight's Crowd (27,032)
"It was beautiful. They were great. They were active. They helped us when we had to have them. We have to have them from here on out. That's what we need every time we step on the field. We need support and we need energy out at the stadium. It was a great crowd. Our student section was really unbelievable. There were a lot of students, probably the most I have seen since I've been here. We gave them a show, secured the win and went home. We'll kick the win behind us and go home."
HOUSTON QUARTERBACK Kevin Kolb
On The Offensive Line
"It all comes back to the offensive line. This is the first time we have not given up a sack since Coach (Art) Briles has been here and I have been here so that was the whole reason behind it. I think a big part of it has been I have been throwing out some throws causing some stuff to go behind some guys. So I worked on that this week. Coach went through a couple drills with me, so it helped me today."
On Balancing The Run And The Pass
"I think it is just our offense, honestly. We put ourselves in some pretty good situations a lot of the time. We had second and two and first and five with some penalties some of the time. We really didn't get into a bind offensively very much so that allows you to do what you want to do. Over the last couple of years we have been pretty balanced so I can go back and look at it and we have been pretty good. That's what I like about this team, there isn't that one guy that stands out and when you have that it seems like all the continuity just plays together. Everybody can make a play and that's what happens when you can feed it to everybody."
On Sitting Out The Last Quarter
"I like that. It's two in a row. That's the first time in three years. When you get two in a row it feel awkward but we have a battle next week and we'll be ready for it."
"When you have the that many play makers you would think it would be hard but we are so unselfish it doesn't matter. It keeps the defense on their heels every time and with two good backs, we have a good full back and offensive line. It's just solid right now. Let's hope we can keep it playing like that and keep everybody guessing who's going to get it next.
On Rodney Hannah, "Look at the guy he could go play tennis if he wanted to. He is a freak athlete. We knew over time he was going to get better. Honestly, in the last two weeks he has had the biggest improvement in the last six months that he has been here. Intesity is good and it shows on the field. We are anxious to give him the ball like that in the open field and watch him break some tackles and take it to the house like he did."
HOUSTON DEFENSIVE BACK Willie Gaston
On Adjusting To A Running Quarterback
"It was a hard adjustment to make at first because we didn't work on that in practice. We had to settle down and get everyone situated on who was going to handle each gap. He was a shifty guy who made a lot of good plays tonight. He was the reason why Grambling stayed in this game."
On Making Adjustments After The First Series
"The major adjustment that we made on defense was to tackle and do a better job of holding the gaps. It was more executing the fundamentals more than anything. If you hold your gap up front, then the linebackers and secondary can come in and make the tackles."
Goals For The Rest Of The Season
"We want to be a physical tough defense week in and week out. We want to be known as a unit that is not afraid to hit you hard. Our linebackers and secondary are big guys that can bring it. We want teams to see that on film and have that stick on their mine when we play."
HOUSTON RUNNING BACK Jackie Battle
On Why He Was Limited To Short Yardage
"I'm still not at full speed so I didn't want to go out there and try to do too much in the open field. It wasn't that bad to go back to what I've been known here for during my career as a short-yardage back. There's no shame in getting short yardage touchdowns. It doesn't matter to me if I score three touchdowns. My goal was for us to get a win. That's all that matters."
On The Offense Being Balanced
"We have the talent to be a balanced offense. Our flexibility allows us to be pass heavy and run heavy in certain situations. The offensive line is experienced. Everyone on the starting unit is either a junior or a senior. The line is doing a great job of opening holes and protecting the quarterback."
Adjustments For The Future
"We have to go out and play a full four quarters. It was tough to keep the intensity with the score where it was. We have some tough games coming up before we head into conference play and this is not the time to start letting up."
HOUSTON TIGHT END Rodney Hannah
On His First Career Touchdown
"I was looking at it and I saw that I was going to be open. The linebackers shifted and I noticed. You know when you see something and your eyes get big. We've run it at practice and coach kept telling me it was going to be there so when I saw it I already knew it was going to happen. It felt good. It felt real good."
On His Impact This Early In The Season
"Actually I thought it was up in the air. I knew it depended on my development. I knew I could get to this point where I am at right now by this time. I knew coach was going to give me the opportunity."
GRAMBLING STATE HEAD COACH MELVIN SPEARS
Opening Statement
"I thought our team fought hard against an outstanding football team, both teams were well coached. Certainly it was a dogfight to the end. I take my hat off to coach Briles in getting his team prepared."
On Larry Kerlegan's Performance/Where His Team Goes From Here
"Mainly for us we have 8 ball games left in our conference. We certainly played an outstanding four quarters against Houston. The way our guys came out and fought the things we did offensively with Larry Kerlegan at the helm Taking advantage of all his great skills certainly makes us a big-time contender in our conference. We are really going to get better and we got better tonight. Certainly I take my hat off to Houston they did a good job."
GRAMBLING STATE QUARTERBACK LARRY KERLEGAN
On Starting Tonight's Game
"I had a lot of doubters that said I wasn't ready and I didn't know the plays, but tonight I proved them wrong."
On What's Next For Him
"He (Coach Spears) will tell me by Sunday. Like I said, I want Brandon (Landers) to be behind me like I was behind him all the way. It's quarterback thing."
On The Possibility of Kerlegan and Landers Switching During The Season
"As long as we win ball games and championships I don't have any problem with it."
