University of Houston Athletics
Football Press Conference Quotes
12/19/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 19, 2007
Press Conference Quotes in PDF Format 
INTERIM HEAD COACH Chris Thurmond
Opening Statement:
"It's great to be here. We are excited about the game and we look forward to the game. We have had great meetings and great practices. We will reconvene on Sunday the 23rd and go to the bowl site. We are looking forward to the activities there. These guys have done an amazing job of embracing the change and going through the transitions. There have been a lot of distractions but they have stayed on task and had great practices. They have had a little more contact then maybe they are used to but the tempo of practice has been really good and we have gotten a lot of things done. We are prepared to go play well against TCU."
On who will be running to offense:
"We aren't going to change a lot (with the offense). Case (Keenum) and Blake (Joseph) know the offense inside and out. George (Pugh) and Rafe (Mata) can handle the play calling during the game. Jason Phillips and Anthony Evans are there and they know the offense. Hopefully it will go smoothly. So far in practice we haven't had any problems."
On who will call the offensive plays during the game:
"Rafe and George will call the plays. George was on the field this year and actively involved in the game plan and Rafe was our guy in the press box who always has a lot of input. We will move forward with them calling the plays."
On the short amount of time to prepare for the bowl game with a new staff:
"Sometimes people think football is more complicated than it is. We go out there and virtually practice for about an hour and a half (every day). You compress your periods into five 18-minute periods and you handle all your different situations. You make sure you can handle all those things and you make sure you are prepared for all those things. The staff met maybe a little bit more but that is just our nature as a staff, to meet a little bit more than we did when coach Briles was here. It really hasn't been that difficult. We pretty much are doing the same things on defense and the same things on offense, so it's been pretty smooth."
