Football Postgame Quotes

Sept. 1, 2012

Houston Head Coach Tony Levine
Opening Statement
"We know where we are. We said that going into this game that tonight around 11 o'clock we would know where we are.

The 2012 football team as a whole has a lot of work to do. I just got done telling the kids and everybody in the locker room that we are better than what we just showed. We are going to come back to work tomorrow.

We have a game here Saturday night against Louisiana Tech and we've got some things to fix, which include things across the board, on all three sides of the ball and including staff. We will get back to work first thing tomorrow morning and make some decisions.

I'm disappointed for our fans, our program, our seniors. Everybody deserves better than what we did tonight.

Again, it is a long season, you can't judge a 12, 13, or 14 game season by one game. It's unfortunate that we have this taste in our mouth after the first game, but we will look back in December or January and recognize the entire body of work from the 2012 season."

On Texas State's offense
"We made a number of adjustments. We showed our players what Texas State was doing and the problems we were having. Against that type of offense if one guy makes an assignment error and hits the wrong gap you see the result, and that happened in the first half. We cleaned it up at halftime and our defense played a lot better in the second half. Nobody on our side played good enough to win, but our defense gave our offense a lot of opportunities and field position to where we could have scored more than 13 points. When you have the ball offensively with what we do, and you continue to go three-and-out in the course of a 60-minute game. It's hard for the defense to be on the field for that long. We turned it over more than we took it away from them, which are disappointing; that's football. If you turn the ball over more than your opponent then you are going to lose most of those games. I thought our staff defensively did a great job at half time, and it showed with our defensive play in the second half."

On whether Coach Levine saw the lack of poise from the offense in practice
"I did see a lack of poise in the sense that when you look young men in the eye who have never been out on the field, on television, or experienced the people in the stands, you really don't know yet what they are going to do when it's on the line. Some inexperience may have shown up tonight.

We have been in a lot of games like tonight over the coarse of my career here, and we've come back and won plenty of them. There are some 18-year olds playing and some inexperience across the board, and it takes time for them to learn how to win a game like this. We are going to face a team next week that started off last season with a rough record the first couple of games, and they ended up winning their conference championship. When I got here in 2008 we started off the season pretty rough, but went on to win 7 or 8 of our last games in the regular season. We have work to do. Tonight we were playing some true freshmen from the very first snap of the game. The only way to give those guys experience is to put them in the game."

On quarterback David Piland's performance tonight
"I will know more once I see the video. Nobody plays exceptionally well offensively when you have the ball for 16 minutes and score 13 points. We have to distribute the ball into the hands of our play makers better. We have to get Charles Sims going better than we did. I'm not saying he didn't play well, but I would hesitate to say anybody on offense played an outstanding game based on sheer number of points."

On Texas State's defense
"They did a number of things to limit us. Their scheme was good, their kids played well, they tackled hard, they kept everything in front of them, and when we did try to take some shots downfield we weren't successful with them. We didn't throw and catch the deep ball well at all tonight. I give them credit. They made plays, were well coached, and did a great job tonight."

On nerves being a factor for David Piland tonight
"There were nerves on the field. David Piland didn't necessarily have any anxiousness or anxiety that affected his play tonight. I didn't see that with him. He wasn't able to get into a rhythm. We weren't able to convert third downs, and that was essentially what happened offensively."

On second half adjustments to the Cougar defense
"We told our defense at halftime to settle down. We drew up on the board exactly what Texas State was doing and it was no surprise what we had practiced against. What they run with quarterback reads and the option, if you get one guy who makes a mistake and overruns the play, the ball goes a long way. In the first half, there was a big play here and there which we eliminated for the most part in the second half defensively."

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Houston Sophomore Quarterback David Piland
On the game
"We can't turn the ball over. We didn't win the turnover battle and we lost in the end. Our defense, I thought, played well enough. We're going to come back out next week and work hard."

On passes
"We had chances and didn't exploit them how we should've. We should've made more easy throws. We needed to move the ball down the field and over the middle."

Houston Senior Linebacker Phillip Steward
On the game
"In the first half we were waiting on the offense to do something, and the offense did, and they kept scoring on us. We needed to do a better job in the first half."

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TEXAS STATE HEAD COACH DENNIS FRANCHIONE
Opening Statement
"Really proud of our athletes, coaches, fans and administration. Our coaches put together an excellent game plan, holding a team to just over 300 yards who averaged over 600 the previous year. In the first half, our offense played great, and in the second half our defense stepped up."

On if the interception in the end zone was the play of the game
"If it's not the play of the game, it's a close second. It came at a point in time where if they score it changes the entire complexion of the game."

On moving forward this season
"It was a great start tonight, but we still have a long way to go especially because we have a lot of good teams still on our schedule. We are going to enjoy this win for now."

On getting out ahead early
"It gave us confidence and gave them concern, but our players were confident and when we jumped out ahead, we were able to carry momentum."

On what was said at halftime
"We played a great first half, but we still have 30 minutes to play."

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David Piland

David Piland

Charles Sims

Phillip Steward

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