Houston Football Weekly Press Conference Quotes - Cincinnati
11/19/2013 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 19, 2013
Head Coach Tony Levine
Opening Statement
"We'll go ahead and get started. I'll talk briefly about this last game. I'm proud of our student- athletes, for two weeks in a row now we've gone on the road and played two programs in the top 20, 50-55,000 fans, on national TV and had a chance with the ball at the end of the game, to tie or win both games. I like certainly the effort and the confidence of our young men right now. These are games that over the course of the week and during the game, we felt like we were going to be successful in. I see our program improving; I see individuals improving, and I see position groups getting better on a daily and certainly a weekly basis. That's encouraging.
"We've got another challenge ahead of us this week in Cincinnati. Like we have, win or lose we have to put this last event behind us and look towards a very well coached and veteran staff, athletic and confident group coming to town this weekend. When you look at Cincinnati, again I worked for Coach Tuberville for two years when he was the head football coach at Auburn, he's as good a football coach as I've been around and certainly one of the premier coaches in the country. His track record speaks for itself, he's got a tremendous staff as well. Art Kaufman is the defensive coordinator and Eddie Gran is the offensive coordinator, they've done a fantastic job with their respective units. I said this yesterday in an interview, right now to me they're playing as confident as any program in our conference. You see that on video, it's very evident in all three phases, offense, defense and special teams.
"We've got talented young men in our program and this is a team that you see over the course of the season is improving and to me they're playing their best football right now. This will be a great challenge. Brendon Kay, their quarterback, did not start the season as the starter, certainly he's got a wealth of experience and he's very accurate. Their receiving core catches the ball as good as any group of receivers we've seen all season. It'll be a great challenge for us. We'll get back out on the practice field this afternoon and continue to install and work at our game plan. We look forward to the game this Saturday.
"A couple of things just to add, our student athletes have enjoyed the last few weeks, and they've enjoyed competing against established programs from our conference. When you look at a Rutgers, a Louisville, a South Florida and this week Cincinnati, teams that have been in this conference for a long time, going on the road and playing in front of 50-55,000 fans on national TV and certainly getting that exposure. It's been fun watching these student-athletes really enjoy the moment and enjoy these opportunities, but we certainly look forward to being in front of our fans on Saturday at BBVA Compass Stadium and being back home with the home field advantage.
"Second thing just as a side and a note, we've had ESPN here on campus all day and all evening today with us. They're doing a special on our program that will air next week. It's an all access, kind of behind the scenes of our program. They were in a staff meeting this morning, went to a couple of classes with a number of our student athletes this morning, we've got some guys doing a community service project with them over lunchtime, they'll be at lunch with a couple of our guys and with Tara Boening our nutritionist and they'll be at position meetings this afternoon and at practice. It's great exposure for our program and a tribute to the job our student athletes have done, not only on the football field but certainly in the job they've done in the classroom and representing our program socially as well. Having said all that, I'll open it up for questions."
On what the team has learned from the last two games
"The first thing that comes to mind when you ask me what I've learned about our team the last two games is something that quite frankly I and we didn't have answers to and didn't know three months ago, and that is the state of our program right now, how would these young men respond to what I mentioned five minutes ago, nationally televised games, 55-60,000 fans in the stadium, and playing teams that are ranked in the top 25 in the nation, would the stage be too big, how would they compete and we've got answers to that. In a very short amount of time, when you look back, and this isn't a reflection of our conference, this isn't a reflection of programs, when you look back on last season and think about last season with the teams we played and the teams we played on the road, and the opportunities we had for nationally televised games and that type of exposure, in my opinion it's quite different this season. In one year's time, we obviously knew that was all coming. To answer your specific question, when you've got a freshman quarterback out there, and your leading rusher is a 19-year-old true sophomore Ryan Jackson, the leading receiver is a 19-year-old true sophomore, Deontay Greenberry, the top defenders are Trevon Stewart and Adrian McDonald, two true sophomores, How are they going to respond when they're on the road and in that environment playing against 21-year-olds, they've done an outstanding job in all aspects. When you ask me what I've learned, our team right now is confident, I see individual student-athletes that are confident, I see position units that are confident, I see three sides of the ball that believe in their abilities and I see our team right now, regardless of who we're playing, feeling through the course of the week and certainly during the game all the way through that they're going to be successful."
On if the goals have changed with two weeks left during the regular season
"We really don't, and that's a fair question but again we talk about our season goals prior to the season. Once the season begins, they end up being really weekly goals. Two weeks ago, we really had no control, if you will, over who's going to offer us bowl bids. We were just trying to beat the University of Central Florida. Last week we were trying to win a game against the University of Louisville. This week will be no different. We're going to try our best to be 1-0 at the end of this week. Come Saturday evening, we're going to try to find ways to beat a very talented Cincinnati team and then we'll have to look down the schedule and see who we play the following week. That's what we can control, that has been our control, regardless of opponent each week. We've got our expectations and our season goals that we discussed in the offseason, in the summer, in August, but once the season begins, we've talked about it and been consistent with the message. We've talked about regardless of what's taken place in the past, win or lose, and regardless of what's beyond our next opponent, none of that matters. We're trying our best to win a football game this week, then we'll do the same next week and see where we're at after that."
On how impressed he is with the defense's performance against Teddy Bridgewater
"I was very impressed with the defense. You show things as a program offensively, defensively, special teams, over the course of the season. I don't think it's ever fair to judge based on one game, good or bad. We've played 10 games and I think our defense has played well this season. Certainly people could dispute that and look at specific statistics. We're leading the nation in turnovers defensively. We're leading the nation in turnover margin, which is a two-way street, it's offense and defense, defense taking the ball away and offense taking care of the football. When you look at our scoring defense, which to me is what matters as much as anything, how much are you letting the opponent score, this year compared to last season, I know it's down. And if a fan is watching this and doesn't know what down means, down is good. We're giving up much less points defensively than we were a year ago. We played a team in Louisville that's got quarterback that's going to be a first round pick, he's been mentioned in every Heisman talk and had 21 consecutive games throwing at least one touchdown pass, that streak came to an end against our defense. They were averaging almost 40 points and they scored 20 (against us). We're never going to play perfect, we certainly didn't against them, we missed more tackles that we would have liked to but to hold that offense to 20 points is a winning effort by our defense. I was certainly proud of their performance. "
On facing a top 20 scoring defense for the third time this season
"It's a number of things. In no particular order, we've played Central Florida and Louisville. Louisville is giving up ten points a game going in at number two in the nation. Two talented defenses, two talented programs so I certainly give them credit. When we execute, the team that can stop us is Houston. There were some things we needed to clean up execution wise from those two games. Again, I'm not putting anything, ever in excuse category. It did affect us offensively losing (WR) Deontay Greenberry in the first quarter. He's one of the best wide receivers in the country. Obviously, we know the production he's had this season. He went through nine games and had over a thousand yards receiving. We missed him, not to say that anyone who came in didn't play well. He's a guy that has been productive for us and as you've got an 18-year-old quarterback out there, sometimes he's going to lean on that guy that he trusts. He didn't have him for three quarters. It's a combination of a number of things and we'll look forward to another opportunity this week and again. Art Kaufman is their (Cincinnati) defensive coordinator has done a great job. He's a veteran coordinator. He's done a great job defending our style of offense, so it'll be a great challenge. They're very big and physical, especially at linebacker and they're talented in their secondary, so we have to take care of the football like we have been offensively. When you look at this last game in particular it felt like on first down, we had a lot of non-positive plays. I don't know if that's word, but we had plays where we either threw an incomplete pass to make it second and ten or we were running the football and losing yards and putting ourselves in second and long. That is not a favorable down offensively, regardless of program. When you looked at us sustaining drives, it was being efficient on first down, getting to second and five or six, to where if we get three more yards and we're in the third and it's manageable. We're just trying to move the chains when we're efficient at first down, so that's something we're going to focus more on this week because I thought that was a big negative for us against Louisville."
On challenges Cincinnati QB Brendon Kay will face
"I did an interview yesterday and someone asked me is this going be a unique game because both quarterbacks starting for both programs are backup quarterbacks and by now (QB) John O'Korn is obviously our starter. Brendon Kay was the backup, but he has a wealth of experience. He's not a true freshman and he has gotten noticeably better as the season has gone on. Not to say when the season began he was not playing well, but he's as confident and comfortable right now with the timing of the receivers. I'm going to point out (WR) Mekale McKay, who's a 6'6" transfer from Arkansas, we actually recruited him here, and he got cleared when the season began and he's averaging 40 yards a reception and seven touchdowns. You see the comfort level right now with the receivers and Kay. He makes great decisions and he's very accurate. I can't say enough great things about him. Again, when you look at this conference, and you talk about great quarterbacks week in and week out, there's a number of reasons why Cincinnati is 8-2 right now and certainly Brendon Kay is one of them."
On getting a start at Auburn with Cincinnati Head Coach Tommy Tuberville
"I've said this before. I've always wanted to be a head football coach. When I was fortunate enough in the early stages of my career to work for a Tommy Tuberville, to work for a John Fox, to come here six years ago and work for Kevin Sumlin. When I was at Auburn Bobby Petrino was the offensive coordinator, Gene Chizik had just gotten there as the defensive coordinator. So again, wanting to be the head coach one day, I've always taken things from the head coaches I've been with, which certainly there's no argument that they've all been successful and guys as coordinators. Again, Coach Bailiff was the coordinator when I was at Southwest Texas. Guys like that I felt like were on that path to come head coaches and certainly very evident with Coach Chizik and Petrino. When you're in that position and feel like this is what you want to have the opportunity to do one day, you really study these individuals, things that they do that you were thinking that one day if you had that chance, then things that they do that you say 'That's just not my personality. That's not what I would do.' I had a great experience in my two plus years at Auburn in their program. It was really first chance for me in my coaching career to see a program at the highest level, like we are here, operate. Including behind the scenes, how they monitor players in terms of their academics, study halls, the tutoring, and certainly the traveling at this level and just the things that go into running the program of this caliber. I'll say it was an eye-opening experience. When you look back at my coaching career up to that point (working for coach Tuberville), it was playing at the University of Minnesota and coaching high school for one year as an assistant, moving down to San Marcos and coaching at Texas State. Then when I moved to Auburn, we were playing the LSU's, Alabama's. It was a great experience for me and certainly I took a lot of things from my time there and have implemented those things within our program as well. "
On update with WR Deontay Greenberry and any other injured players
"We'll know more today on Deontay. He's feeling very well. The concussion management plan and process we go through, I don't know that there any uniform process nationally, it's different by school and by program, we're obviously very thorough. He's feeling very well. We'll know more this afternoon if he can come out there and do some conditioning things and be symptom-free, we'll know more in terms of him playing for us this Saturday. Other than Deontay, I'm not sure if we have any other injuries from that game."
On WR Deontay Greenberry's back up
"Andrew Rodriguez came in and played in place of Deontay."
Sophomore Offensive Lineman Zach Johnson
On the frustrations of losing back-to-back tough games
"It's always frustrating when you lose by a little bit, but we put good effort into it. It's just a loss. We're going to have to move on and work on being 1-0 this week."
On being able to stay close to two ranked opponents
"Being real close to a ranked opponent two weeks in a row says a lot about our team and how far we've come and how much better we've become. We're just going to treat this week like we've been treating every other week."
On how the team stays fresh this late in the year
"We keep fresh because Coach (Levine) has been cutting down on practice with reps and everything. We've been taking the pads off every other day. That keeps us fresh."
On what he has seen from Cincinnati so far
"I'm expecting them to play really hard. We compare them a lot to UCF. They play with really good technique. They're very well coached, and they do a good job of getting to the ball. It's going to be a good challenge."
On how their confidence has change throughout the year
"Our confidence is just like it has been all year long. We're working on being 1-0 this week and improving every week and getting better."
On what they have learned from the two close losses
"We've pretty much expected to be up there with them, so I wouldn't say it's a big surprise. In terms of our teams we learned a lot of about us. We don't get really down whenever we lose. We're just ready to come back the next week and improve and get better and work on winning."
