University of Houston Athletics
Football Press Conference Quotes
10/9/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 9, 2007
Press Conference Quotes in PDF Format
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HEAD COACH Art Briles
On the Rice game: "This is a big week. It's a huge week for us, and Rice also. Anytime you are playing for the (Bayou) Bucket and a conference game, it's a big deal. We have the utmost respect for Rice and what they have done over the last year and a half. We understand they are 1-0 in conference play and they are coming into our house Saturday so we are excited about the opportunity. We know what we need to do."
On the progress of the team so far this season:
"Honestly, we are growing as a football team and we are getting better each week. That is the very encouraging part. We are continually becoming a more polished team in the way we played from within ourselves the other day in Tuscaloosa. I was proud of our guys. I like our guys. We have a bunch of good football players that are tough minded. I like where we are. We have a six-game stretch where we have to be good every week starting with Rice this Saturday."
On the quarterback's health:
"Blake (Joseph) is fine. He had a little concussion the other day and Case (Keenum) is healthy also. Both of them are fine. I anticipate both of them playing this weekend."
On Rice's play this season compared to last season:
"A year ago we didn't have much to go on prior to when we played them so really all we had to go on was our game because we didn't like to study them throughout the season. Schematically, there aren't a lot of differences. They are still a one back zone kind of option football team. They throw the ball. It's still (Chase) Clement (throwing) to (Joel) Armstrong. And Clement still throws to (Jarett) Dillard and that isn't going to change. That is going to continue to be what they hang their hat on. Defensively, of course, going from the 3-3 to the 4-2-5 is a little different schematic process for them. They play hard. David (Bailiff) has done a great job with them."
On Rice junior wide receiver Jarett Dillard:
"He is a complete player. He is a good route runner and he has strong hands. He jumps for the ball well and he is a conference player. He does a good job for them."
On Houston's strengths and weaknesses this season:
"What we are doing best is we are fighting our tail off. We have a bunch of guys that are fighting and believing. Anytime that you have that, you have the opportunity to win. Conversely, I don't spend a lot of time dwelling on what might not be right. What we are doing is taking the things that haven't worked out the way we feel like they could have and we are fine tuning those to get it better. We are still in the process of growing as a team to get as good as we are going to get. We are going to get there this Saturday. We are out of time to get there. We have to be polished and we have to be machines on both sides of the ball."
On what the team learned from the Alabama game:
"We didn't learn anything that we didn't already know. We knew going in how we were going to play and how we were going to sustain. We knew we were going to fight to the end. Every game we go into we expect to win so really we didn't learn anything new."
On playing large, physical teams:
"If you want to talk about strong, physical teams you can talk about the University of Houston Cougars. We are who we are and we play at our level. All we worry about is our football team.
"All we are concerned about is beating Rice this Saturday. I can't spend time analyzing different scenarios and taking away from what I need to be doing; that's giving these guys the best opportunity to win on Saturday. I don't have enough brain cells to figure out what going on besides what's right for our people. That's all I am concerned with."
On what he told the team after the Alabama game:
"We went over our mission and what we can do, what we need to do, and what we will do. Our guys fully understand. They know where we are coming from. They know where we are going. I have a lot of confidence in this team for a lot of reasons."
