University of Houston Athletics
Houston-Rice Football Postgame Quotes
10/13/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 13, 2007
2007 Houston Cougars Football Postgame Notes
Rice Owls (1-5, 1-1 C-USA) at Houston Cougars (3-3, 2-1 C-USA)
Saturday, Oct. 13, 2007 * John O'Quinn Field at Robertson Stadium * Houston, Texas
HOUSTON HEAD COACH Art Briles
Opening Statement
"First of all I'd like to say congratulations to our student section. They did an outstanding job for us this entire year. It makes a huge difference for our football team. When we first got here in 2003 we go out there and play in the game and there'd be 150 there, max. Now we go out there and there's seven or eight thousand of them. They do a great job getting us energy. It's just unbelievable, the way they jumped on and helped us win the game.
"I'd also like to say I was proud of the way Rice played. I thought their players did a great job. We know every time that we play them it's going to be a war. You can throw the records out. They made some changes in their off week and did a great job of executing it today.
"I am amazed by our players, the resiliency in them, the belief in them and the fight in them. What happened today is not anything unusual than what's happened every game this year with the exception of the Tulane game. The same thing happened at Oregon. We didn't finish but we played hard all the way through. Our guys are going to fight to the end and we finally fought to the end and won. That's the thing that is going to give them momentum from the standpoint of having a must-win football game, which is the way we viewed this game. You never want to use those words, people are afraid to use them but we used it with our team. From saying this was a must win game, they walked up to the plate, hit a home run and put ourselves in position. For that I am proud of them because a lot of people will back down from those but our guys didn't."
On the quarterback play
"Going into the game we were going to get their feet early and that has been our game plan all week. Blake (Joseph) walks out there and totals four touchdowns in the first quarter. I told him you make it hard on me getting Case (Keenum) in the game. It equaled out a little bit. They are both good. They both bring different things to the table. It's a luxury having two guys that can play like that because it makes if look harder on the defense and our players have a lot of confidence in both of them and so do we."
On the play of Anthony Alridge and Donnie Avery
"Those guys are phenomenal student-athletes. I have said it a hundred times and its true. The thing that makes them so good is the humility and their teamness that goes along with their athletic ability. That's what makes them special and that's what makes me more proud of them than 13 catches for 346 yards or Anthony being the fastest guy in America in a football uniform. It's the type of people they are."
On the team's ability to play from behind
"I got frustrated right at the half. I got frustrated when we worked the ball down to the half yard line and had a chance to go up 35-34 at the half and came away with nothing. It was very frustrating because I knew we were going to get the ball back in the second half. We could have gone up by one (point) and gone out and got the ball back and even got a field goal to go up by four changes the whole complexion of the game. I don't know if frustration is the right word but bad or just upset because that's not supposed to happen. That should not happen. We were forced to overcome it, we really were.
On next weekend's match-up with UAB
We got a little beat up. We have a big game next week against UAB on the road. We set ourselves up to get a little roll going. We've got to shake it off, heal our wounds and then we have to go to Birmingham, Alabama and win a big conference game."
HOUSTON SENIOR WIDE RECEIVER Donnie Avery
On the game plan going into today's game
"They (Rice) were singling me out and Coach (Briles) felt like if they single out one person they can't stop me and I feel like that too."
On the back and forth nature of the game
"It was kind of frustrating at the beginning but we had to correct our flaws and get out there and play hard and that's what we did. Once we get going like that no one can stop us."
On his success in the game
"I knew from the beginning we were going to have big numbers because looking at film from (Rice's) Sunday game they couldn't stop us. I thought that I had six yards (in the first half). I prepared on Tuesday and made sure I got the deep balls and every time I got them I finished up in the end zone and that is what I did today."
On the atmosphere at a rivalry game
"It was such a big game. We fed off our fans. We love our Cougar fans and Coach Briles loves them too. It was wonderful. It was good because it was a rivalry game and now we have bragging rights until next year."
On the playing success of himself and senior running back Anthony Alridge
"No one in the country has faster or more talented guys than we do. It's the two, 22 connection. I feel sorry for anyone that tries to play man-up because I am just going to use my 4.2 speed and separate myself from them."
On his Houston- and Conference USA-record 346 receiving yards
"I just have to keep getting better. I came with the mindset Tuesday that I was going to come out here and have a big day because I prepared Tuesday and Wednesday like it was gameday so I just went through the motions relaxed."
On the team's turnovers in the first half
"It was frustrating in the beginning but we knew we could come out and do our jobs and we just had to go out and eliminate our small flaws. We did and we came back."
HOUSTON REDSHIRT FRESHMAN QUARTERBACK Case Keenum
On the game plan to open the second half
"We had the ball first in the second half and we were just trying to go out there and score and then the defense was going to hold them but plans don't always work out like we plan so we had to adapt and change and we did a good job. We came out on top."
On the team's frustrating play early in the game
"It seemed like they (Rice) couldn't do anything wrong and we did everything wrong. But we fought hard and our fans stayed it in. Our student section did a great job. The defense fought hard. We put them into some tough situation and they fought their butts off. When we had a chance we put some drives together and the offensive line did a great job. The receivers did a great job as you can tell with Donnie Avery having 346 yards. I feel bad that I missed him on one of those posts because he could have broken the NCAA record."
On the team's mindset going into the game
"We were sitting in the locker room and we said that it's not time to talk about it, it's time to go out there and do it. Everybody just needs to go out there calm and do they job and get it done."
On if the game plan was to play each quarterback one half
"I don't think it was but that's the way it worked out. I think it may be harder to come out there and start the game. Blake (Joseph) did a great job and came out there and jumped on them with four touchdowns on the first four drives. I am just glad he got the job done. As far as it being hard watching the first half, I just want to win. It doesn't matter."
On the game
"Playing Rice is great. It's a great rivalry that we have together. It's a lot of fun. Every year, regardless of the team's records or the history coming in, it's going to be fight. It just turned out that it was another great game."
HOUSTON SENIOR RUNNING BACK Anthony Alridge
On his performance tonight, particularly in the fourth quarter
"It was great, especially to go up by one. I think that was probably the biggest one (touchdown) that brought their confidence down. We knew we could come back because we have a quick striking offense, like we've proven before. We were blessed, it was a great win."
On Houston's total yardage tonight (748)
"It's crazy, I didn't know we had that many yards. Donnie Avery acting like Kung Fu out there playing football, over 340 yards receiving. I talked so much noise during the week about him and Jarett Dillard about who has the best receiver in the conference and who has the best receiver between Houston and Rice and D.A. proved me right today. That's my boy, 2/22 all day."
On what the team was thinking when they were down two touchdowns
"We were only down by two touchdowns because it was my fault. I fumbled the ball on the kickoff return, I tried to make an outside move, I was just trying to do too much. I was just trying to make a play when we just needed to get the ball and put up a drive. You can't make constant turnovers like that, but we always new we could come back from anybody. We lost the game against Alabama but we came back on them and they're supposed to have a great defense. We've got confidence in our system and we believe that we can do anything."
On the turnover situation
"We definitely need to correct the situation but we don't know how to solve it if we keep doing it. It's been going on and on this whole year but it's a difficult process and we're going to work on it and we're going to get through."
On the frustrations of knowing that you can score almost every time you get the ball as long as you don't turn over the ball
"It's very frustrating because we need to score every time, if not get touchdowns, we need to get three points out of the situation. We need to take some pressure off the defense and not keep them on the field so long. We need to watch out as a whole collective unit, special teams, offense and defense. We can't put our defense in a bad situation like we did today with turnovers but we persevered and came through with a big victory."
On what Alridge does in his halftime adjustments to become so effective in the second half
"They kill on me and that's fun. If they kill on me then we're going to beat them deep and that's what we did today. I like the pressure, I like it when they have eight or nine people in the box because if I break through those front seven it's going down. I don't believe anybody in the country can catch me. I'm blessed with speed and I'm blessed with my teammates. They do a great job blocking for me. On one touchdown I had Donnie Avery was just running his cornerback down the field. We've worked on that all the time in practice, just run off. If you're man to man just run off, if they're covering too then block them. It was a collective win for the team. It was great."
On how he directed the band after the game in the celebration
"That's what we do baby, that's what we do. We direct the band. A big win like this, you have to go up there and show your fans some love. They came out and supported us, they were crazy the whole game, our student section is great. I just love performing in front of our home crowd. I just love performing in front of Coog fans period. Coming out with a big victory like this, you have to do something for them."
HOUSTON JUNIOR DEFENSIVE END Phillip Hunt
On coming back and pulling out the win over Rice
"We just played some inspired football. We just kept at it. We didn't want to lose."
On the team's preparation for the Rice game
"We studied the film right. Everything was the same as in practice, so there weren't any surprises."
On the importance of the defensive line
"The buck stops on the d-line and we have to put pressure on the quarterback and not leave the secondary on an island. We got to get a good rush."
On team's difference in performance between the first half and the second half this season
"I can't explain it, it seems like the opponents just come out with a greater will to win then we do. We were pretty lackadaisical in the beginning of the game."
HOUSTON SOPHOMORE QUARTERBACK Blake Joseph
On the offensive outburst in the first quarter
"It was the first time this season we actually came out fast. We were preaching all week about coming out fast, and this was actually the first game we got everything clicking in the first quarter, so it was good for us."
On finding Donnie Avery for three big plays in the first quarter
"We watched film all week. Their safeties were very flat footed. We got their safety to bite down and Donnie Avery would be one-on-one with the corner. We watched that in film all week and that's how we came up with the game plan. Coach came up with a good game plan this week. I liked it. We came out throwing the ball, so it was good."
RICE HEAD COACH DAVID BAILIFF
Opening Statement
"I thought we played really hard. There is so much we did today. I thought we gave a lot of effort. We kind of made it tough for us at times. We go to finish what we started and figure out ways to close out these close ones. We will continue to improve as a football team like we've done all season."
On coming back two different times trailing by 14 points and still loose
"Everybody on this football team put their heart and soul in it every week and when you lose like this it does hurt. But we are getting better and we are going to come back out here Monday with the intent to beat Memphis."
On how the UH defense made adjustments in the 4th Quarter
"Well I really want to look at the video. It look like we are shooting ourselves in the foot. If we want to win we can `t loose it (mentally). I don't know if they did anything different. I just think we didn't take advantage of our opportunities."
On the offensive performance today and building on it
"We knew every week we are getting better. We got Joel back today and he contributed a little bit and he'll contribute more next week. Next week we'll have C.J. back. We'll start getting more people on defense also."
RICE JUNIOR QUARTERBACK CHASE CLEMENT
On the loss
"It really hurts when you lose to the cross town rivals and one of the toughest teams in conference and you want to pull out a win. Its tough."
On losing a winnable game
"Putting up 48 points on the board and still loose. Its tough, but our defense picked up last week we just got to do it next week."
On the difference in the second half
"There was not really a difference. It was just in the end we just have those two turnovers which were tought those are the ones that really stuck out in my mind that really hurt our drives and kept us from scoring."
On UH defensive scheme in the 2nd half
"They didn't blitz at all in the first part of the game. When they were down by two scores that's when they started to bring in their corner blitzes and linebackers."
RICE JUNIOR WIDE RECEIVER JARETT DILLARD
"Nothing went too much wrong. UH just had the momentum and that's one thing that football is all about---momentum. As you can see we had the momentum in the 1st Quarter when they were up 14 points we came back and when up 14 ourselves. Third quarter came we still had the momentum just when it counted we didn't have it in us."
On the offensive adjustments
"Our adjustments were there, but you just have guys on the UH side that made plays. They did it when it counted."
