University of Houston Athletics
Football Press Conference Quotes
9/11/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 11, 2007
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HEAD COACH Art Briles
On the Tulane game
"We are glad to be back in the hunt. Missing last week was not fun but it was a chance for us to work on some things that we needed to work on, physically and mentally. We are just glad to be back in the drive through the season. Opening with a conference game at Tulane is a good opportunity for us to defend our conference championship. Beside the purpose of winning the football game and taking care of business from that standpoint is a little extra motivation to do a good job and defend our conference championship. There are only about eight universities that are undisputed conference champions and we are one of them so we are going to go in there with all we have and try and get a big win."
It was hard for us to judge them because they didn't play the first week. We didn't really get to work on Tulane, last week. We just worked on ourselves, which wasn't a bad thing. Then we got the video from Saturday night and they only ran 49 offensive plays. Can you evaluate a team on 49 offensive plays? No. So we are still going into the game a little green as to where they are going to hang their hat. It's not a great feel for us to evaluate them schematically. From a personnel standpoint we can do that, but schematically it's a hard video for us. We are just going to go in there and just be us. That's all we can be. We are going to practice hard and go in there physically intent on taking care of business. We are going to be an aggressive football team and we are going to go in there and get the win and get home and get ready for another week."
On the quarterbacks
"I casually look on the internet some of places that have more than one quarterback involved and see what some people say and then I think what does it matter what they say. The only thing that matters is what we do in our situation. That's all I am concerned with. We have two guys that can play so as lame as it might sound I am just as concerned with who starts at our right tackle position because everyone has a job to do."
On whether or not he will name a starting quarterback prior to the Tulane game
"I don't think so right now. We will see how the week goes. Right now, both guys have done well. I thought they played with a lot of heart the first week, which is what I want to see. Stats are kind of important but I would rather see a guy play with courage and heart and I thought they played hard to win and they sacrificed themselves. They didn't play intimidated. They played tough and tough minded and I feel good about both of them. This is my 29th season and I have never dealt with this before. I don't lay around at night thinking about who is going to start because it isn't a concern with me because both of these guys are ready, both can play and those other 10 guys around them are going to do their job. It's not that critical of an issue but I might be wrong."
On whether or not one or two quarterbacks will play against Tulane
"You don't shoot dice but if you shoot dice and you are hitting your numbers than you are going to hold your dice a little bit. So if the guy is hot you stay with him. To me that is common sense. If you are hot you keep going with it."
On finding a backup for Anthony Alridge
"In Anthony's situation we shouldn't have to lean on him as much as we did against Oregon. I don't want to do that every week. He is a great football player and he brings a lot to the table for us, and this football team but there are 10 other guys on that offense besides him. We all, myself included, need to pick up the slack from where we can be a more balanced football team. That's the first thing we have to address and take care of. I have to do a great job of monitoring Anthony's wind and health during the course of the game. We got in a couple situations the other day where we had the play called before half and we had to back off of it because I thought Anthony was a little tired and I didn't want to show that play at that time if I didn't think we could go the distance."
"As far as Randall Antoine going down, it was very unfortunate and very thankful at the same time because we got it taken care of. Andre Kohn was out and he is back. He is a good back and very intelligent. He is very heady runner and he understands the game and what is going on. (Terrance) Ganaway can fill in there and do some things. We are ok from that standpoint. It's not a crisis for us."
NOTE:
Tuesday's practice will be open to the public. All UH student are encouraged to attend and support the Cougars. Practice begins at 3:20.
