University of Houston Athletics
Houston Football Weekly Press Conference
8/27/2013 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug 27, 2013
HOUSTON - University of Houston football head coach Tony Levine and selected student-athletes met with the media on Tuesday in preparation for Friday's season opener against Southern.
HOUSTON HEAD COACH Tony Levine
Opening statement
"I've done more talking since the end of last season it seems like than I would have preferred to. I don't mind it, but we're close to being done talking at this point. Our guys are ready to go. Everybody within our program is. We're three days away now. We've had a great three weeks of preparation and practice. I've said this before and I'll say it again. The young men are ready to tackle somebody else, score touchdowns against somebody else, and go out and compete Friday night to show everybody what this 2013 University of Houston football team is going to look like. I'm excited for the game to get here. We have practice this afternoon. We'll do about an hour and forty-five minutes in helmets and shoulder pads then we'll go for about an hour just in helmets."
On how quickly junior college transfer Markeith Ambles will be ready to play
"We've got an extensive checklist of things he has to go through with compliance, getting the physical, and things academically. He certainly will not play Friday night and in my mind the Rice game, in week three after the bye-week, will be the target for him to get up-to-speed."
On differences in preparation this year from last year
"We've done things a lot differently than we did last year. In terms of hours worked and preparation, it's been the same. We've made some changes to practice and we have a new offensive and defensive coordinator. We've done some things in terms of modifying how we practice. To help our defense, we've changed some things within our August schedule to help our guys stay fresh and more injury-free. It's been a great three weeks of preparation."
On feelings going into the game
"It's a completely different team. Of the 105 men practicing with our team at this point, 43 are brand new to our program. There's a new team here and there's a bunch of new faces on the coaching staff. I definitely have a different feeling in terms of entering the season."
On veteran offensive line
"When you look at their résumé, if you will, we have five offensive linemen that have all started for us in the past. Ty Cloud is banged up and I don't anticipate him playing much if at all Friday evening. We have the emergence of Zach Johnson at the right tackle position, so he will start there. Rowdy (Harper) who has been a two-year starter for us; we're moving him into left guard in place of Ty. Ralph Oragwu we're going to move over to left tackle position. Kevin Forsch we're going to use on the inside. There's a number of ways to win football games. One of them, I believe, is to control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the football."
On freshman kicker Ty Cummings' playing time
"We anticipate playing Ty Cummings. He's extremely talented. I like his mental makeup, I think that's important for specialists and he's a young man we plan on playing this season as a true freshman."
On punt return and kick off return starters
"At punt return, we've narrowed it down to three guys right now. Starting at punt return Friday night will be Larry McDuffey and the two back-ups will be Damian Payne and William Jackson. At kick off return, you'll see Justin Hicks and true freshman Demarcus Ayers. There could be a couple of other guys back there - Daniel Spencer and Damian Payne as well."
On season-long plan for quarterbacks David Piland and John O'Korn
"We're going to go into this game with a specific plan at quarterback like we do all positions and then take it from there."
On the new season and new feeling of the program
"Someone asked me a while ago what our motto was last season and I said `I've forgotten everything from last season'. I certainly haven't but it's like that old saying, we're looking through the windshield, not the rear view mirror. We're looking ahead and I think our team, and some people might say this is coach speak but it's true, is a completely different team. We have four new full-time coaches on our staff. We have about 43, 44 guys now including Markeith Ambles, who weren't even here last year. It has a whole new feel to it. One of the biggest examples, at least as a coach and certainly in the program, is sitting in here as a team last week and having our student-athletes vote on six captains, and those captains being a sophomore, three juniors and two seniors. That tells me a lot. We're not allowed to be out there during the summertime but you can see that the attendance in the weight room is as good as it's ever been. The player-run practices, I know they were great because when the guys showed up for practice three weeks ago we could immediately see improvement. There's a lot of leadership right now in our program from our student-athletes from freshmen all the way to fifth-year seniors. That's why our guys and everybody in our program are just excited to get the first game underway and get going."
On the defensive mentality defensive coordinator David Gibbs has brought to the team
"When you talk about the mentality of a team, to me it's confidence. Historically and traditionally across the country, defensive coaches, and specifically defensive coordinators, can see problems more than anything and be negative by nature. David Gibbs is not that at all. He's very confident and he's very positive. We've seen a change in our demeanor defensively from our student-athletes and I think we're going to see that starting Friday night. Defensively we believe in a couple things. Notably, they have to know what to do. I've said this a couple times that we have simplified things defensively. We're going to be aggressive but we've simplified our package and allow them to play fast. Our kids have had a great camp. They have made major strides from when you saw them at spring practice. It's a confident bunch right now. Success breeds success and certainly more confidence. We're excited about that right now and about Friday night, and showing everyone what this year's defense will look like. I anticipate a vast improvement defensively."
On how the team has been preparing for Southern
"They've got a new staff as well. Because of them being number one (on our schedule), because of their new coaching staff and because of lack of film on them it's been about Houston. Our plan is to go and execute offensively, execute defensively, execute in the kicking game and do the things that we have to do to win football games regardless of our opponent. There's a number of things that we're focused on that whether we're playing Southern, Temple, Louisville, Rutgers, it doesn't matter. We have to do those things. Because this is the first game, it's a new coaching staff and not much film, the emphasis has been on Houston."
On young leadership on the team
"We're looking towards both (long term and short term success). We have young leaders and some guys who are maybe not captains but will be key contributors for the program that may be freshmen, sophomores or even some juniors. I think a lot of that is coaching, and we have to continue as coaches to bring them along and to cultivate their leadership and growth and maturity levels, because it begins to be an intense fall semester when everything starts. I'm excited about the fact that not only do we have the six captains, but that three are juniors and one is a sophomore. That speaks volumes of the type of young men that we have in our program. As coaches we have to continue to bring them along."
On what sophomore defensive back Adrian McDonald did to earn a starting spot
"Adrian McDonald is a classic example, and I made him an example to our team a week a half ago when we started having individual meetings over the two-a-day period with our young men. He was a quarterback in high school and ran the football quite a bit but a great athlete and we offered him a scholarship and said `you're going to go play defense' which was something he'd never done before. He got here, did a great job in camp and initially we thought we'd redshirt him. We knew he had great ability but again playing a position that was really foreign to him. He developed over the course of the season on scout team defense and scout special teams. By about two-thirds of the way into the season we knew this young man could help us. Before you know it, he was out there starting for us defensively. For me, if you'll recall, Trevon Stewart last fall at every practice created a turnover, primarily with interceptions. Adrian McDonald is now in that role. I mentioned him going into our first scrimmage, and he comes up with an interception on the opening play and two plays later forces a fumble and recovers it. He loves to play the game, is very instinctive and loves to come up and tackle. He is one of our most sure tacklers."
HOUSTON SENIOR DEFENSIVE BACK Zach McMillian
On last year's effort
"You don't want to look back on last year as far as living in the past. We didn't end last year very well. We want to increase on past success, and we want to work on getting better every day. We know it's a new team with new dreams. We want to go out and win games."
On entering his senior season
"I remember being a freshman moving into Cullen Oaks. It goes very fast."
On the confidence going into this season
"My confidence level is very high just because I have put in the work and effort. I put in the hours this summer, and when you prepare you can prevent not performing at your best."
On playing against other teams
"We've had a couple fights in practice, and it just shows that we're tired of hitting each other. We want to go play against someone else. We are ready to compete, and show that our hard work has paid off."
On expectations for this season
"I want to continue to go out, and be a leader. Be able to keep working hard, and for the team it's about going out being excited for every game. Being a new team, and being in a new conference is exciting."
On starting a new conference
"It keeps you on your toes. Playing in a lot of games you know what type of game you'll be in for. When you play UTEP it's going to be a hard running game. When you play Rice you know they are going to try and spread you out. When you haven't played any of these teams it makes you prepare that much more for the task at hand."
On what the defense wants to prove this year
"We need to develop a chip on our shoulder as far as people not thinking Houston can't play defense. Houston plays good defense here. We want to show we are the backbone of this team."
HOUSTON SOPHOMORE RUNNING BACK Kenneth Farrow
On being back on the field
"We're just excited to be back. We've had one of the best summers since I've been here as far as the intensity of the workouts. Everybody did a good job of showing up ready to work each day. I'm excited because I know it's going to pay off, and I'm excited to show what we can do."
On sharing duties with sophomore running back Ryan Jackson
"It's exciting because we both know the game pretty well. We both can pick up the blitz, and it's going good being back there with him. We each have goals we set for each other, and it'll be fun to go out there and make big explosive plays."
On supporting Ryan Jackson through competition
"Absolutely I do. He's one of my good friends off the field, and we go out there and try to make each other better on the field each day. If the team feels tired or fatigued we try to go and get them going. We have a great relationship."
On feeling like a new era with the new conference
"Oh absolutely, with this being the first year in a new conference we have something to prove. We have new uniforms and new stuff all around we're just ready to play."
JUNIOR OFFENSIVE LINEMAN Bryce Redman
On the upcoming season
"We're very excited just be able to compete against someone other than our own teammates. We're looking forward to having a chance to get rid of the bad taste from last season and start taking steps to what we expect to be this season."
On the new conference
"It's a fresh start for us. We have a new offensive line coach, and it's a fresh start all around. This is the closest we have been as a team since I've been here. We have something to prove this year, and it'll be a good season for us."
On the talent at Houston
"If we go out and execute the way we're supposed to, we can be a tough team to beat."
On experience coming back on the offensive line
"A lot of times you aren't sure how a guy is going to react when the lights come on. You can practice, but when the game gets going it's different. Expectations are high, and having guys who can step up for us is huge. DeAnthony Sims can step up in a lot of roles. He can play guard, or switch over and play tackle which is huge for us."
On stepping up as a team leader
"I'm just really excited to have an opportunity to play this year. I didn't know about any of the preseason honors until my friends told me. I was excited more that my coaches believed in me, and that I was able to prove them right."
