University of Houston Athletics
Football Press Conference Quotes
9/26/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 26, 2006
HEAD COACH Art Briles
Opening Statement:
"The first comment I would like to make is that our thoughts and prayers go out to Rice University and the family of the young man, Dale Lloyd, that is no longer with us."
"The game the other night was a good win for us. The thing that really excited me, besides the play of our football team, was the crowd and the student section. It was a major transition to becoming a football team with a major following. That was very rewarding and it made a big difference in the football game. I know our guys feed off of it, I feed off of it and it was a whole lot of fun. We are really proud of our student section and really proud of the people for coming out and supporting us. Our whole offensive line has meshed together well all year long and that's why we won the other night because we played well up front on both sides of the ball. Defensively, we stopped them running the football and that's what they had been successful doing. We were good enough running the ball that it opened up some other things. We have complete confidence in the guys we put out there on the field."
On the Miami game:
"They are a good football team. Their record is a little false because they got beat by Louisville and Florida State; two really good football teams. They handled Florida A&M pretty well in their other non-conference game. They have a good football team. It will be a good opportunity and a good test for us again to see where we stack up with ourselves and others before we get back into conference play. Our goals, our mission and our focus has not changed."
"I don't know if they will make any changes. When you have been in a program like they have with so much success I don't see them changing too much. They have had two weeks to prepare for us so there might be a few tweaks on both sides of the ball. As far as overall changes, I know someone said a few weeks ago if it ain't broke don't fix it and I'm not sure anything is broken there."
On SirVincent Rogers:
"SirVincent (Rogers) had surgery last night. He had major ligament damage and the surgery was successful. It's probably going to be a 10-12 month process before he is back. Dr. (Walter) Lowe is one of the best in the world so we are fortunate to have him as a team doctor. The first thing I told SirVincent was lets get through this phase and then we will worry about the rehab phase. The surgery phase is over, now we will work on getting him back to where he can function normally and play again. As far as filling that position, I thought Jeff Akeroyd did a great job the other night. Mike Bloesch came in at guard and did a good job."
On Houston's offense against Miami: "Louisville had 380 yards of total offense on them and they average about 540 a game. They did put up 31 points throughout the process of the game. They had a couple short drives to help that but anytime you play anybody this day and age you're grateful for everything you get on the offensive side. Louisville is an outstanding football team on the offensive side and has been for a few years and they played well. I don't try to prepare what we do with what they do."
On the Miami offense:
"(Kyle) Wright is an outstanding quarterback. He was one of the top guys coming out nationally from California. He is a big time player. The guys they have around him are really outstanding football players. They put a lot of pressure on you. I think the running backs are pretty balanced. The have a couple guys averaging about 40 yards a game and then (Lance) Leggett, the receiver, is a really good player. He is a big tall kid that plays well. We are going to have to stop the run to be good in the secondary. None of that stuff really changes week-to-week. They are going to come out with a little fire and attitude after sitting two weeks but I like momentum so I like that part."
On Rice and the loss of freshman Dale Lloyd:
" Our thoughts and prayers are with Rice University and what they are going through right now. I don't think I could put myself in his (Coach Todd Graham) situation. I think that would be a situation where everything had to be handled properly. I don't know how they are coping with it but I have been involved with an opponent before where this happened on the week of a game and it's very devastating. It's certainly something that you don't every want to deal with. I know they will deal with it in the proper fashion with the support teams that they have."
