University of Houston Athletics
Houston Football Weekly Press Conference Quotes
9/3/2013 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sep 3, 2013
 | HOUSTON HEAD COACH Tony Levine |
Opening Statement
"Every week we'll have players of the week. We released it a day or two ago but in case anyone missed it, offensively we had co-players of the week in receiver Daniel Spencer and running back Ryan Jackson. Defensively our player of the week was George Bamfo and on special teams the player of the week was Richie Leone. He was also the American Athletic Conference Special Teams Player of the Week. Scout team player of the week on defense was Tyler White, a defensive back for us. Offense was Derek McLemore, a freshman receiver and on special teams was Cameron Doubenmier.
A couple of injury updates; Ralph Oragwu suffered an ACL injury and will miss the remainder of the season. Eric Eiland suffered a groin injury and he'll be out this week as well.
It's good to the get the first game under our belt, if you will, behind us. We had a chance to play a lot of young men in our program and we got a lot of great teaching off this video. A lot of learning can be done and a lot of coaching can be done off the film. I thought our guys played extremely hard. I thought that on the field and that was reinforced to me after watching the video. One thing that we did talk about as a team in the team meeting the next day was a lot of our starters played anywhere from 40-50 snaps with the exception really being our offensive line. Traditionally they're not going to get that many snaps, they could be in the 70s, 80s and sometimes 90s. I liked their effort but it's a little more than half a game in terms of repetitions they played.
Penalties we talked about going into the game, we had 14 for 126 yards. Offensively we had an additional 100 yards negated from the plays that occurred in those being called back. Really in my mind it was 226 yards we lost due to those 14 penalties. It's something we're going to continue to work on, coach off the video and continue to emphasize. That's something that's important to winning football games. I look to see not only improvement but a vast improvement in that this week.
I mentioned this after the game, the thing that relates most to winning football games and that's turnovers. We were able to get four turnovers and offensively we were able to take care of the ball and not turn it over. Being plus-four in the turnover ratio is ultimately why we won that football game."
On focusing on the defensive backs in practice this week
"It will and again I give Southern credit. Certainly their game plan offensively was to throw short passes. They were doing a nice job of spreading out. Zach McMillian as we mentioned after the game was one of our leading tacklers with nine; he was playing on slot quite a bit. There were short passes quite a bit and he was coming up and tackling. We're facing a team in Temple that's going to throw the ball all over the field as well. We've got to shore up our pass defense and that's going to be critical in Saturday's game."
On what the coaching staff has seen in film from Temple
"Offensively they're going to be no huddle. (Head) Coach (Matt) Rhule came out I believe it was yesterday and said they have to be able to run the football. They didn't run it as much in terms of called runs against Notre Dame. Their quarterback Connor Reilly does a nice job, a tremendous arm, one of the best I've seen. He rushed 12 times against Notre Dame, some of those were designed, quite a few were scrambles where he broke contained and moved the chains to get the first down. He's kind of a dual threat guy in that respect. They have a very physical offensive line and they have talented receivers. It's quite different than what they did last year with the previous coaching staff. They're going to be up-tempo. They really utilize the tight end much more than we do and much more than you usually see a lot of hurry-up, no-huddle teams utilize. Defensively they're aggressive; they certainly will blitz and we expect to see that quite a bit. It starts for them with their defensive line and their linebackers. They'll disguise some things. They're physical and aggressive but they're going to make you earn every yard you get. You have to do a good job up front on both sides of the football. This game is one where you look at how physical they are and the size of their lines on both sides of the ball. I've talked about it before games among other things in the trenches there, this will be one of them."
On the linebacker's performance in the first week
"Our linebackers did a great job. Derrick Matthews is as steady as they get. We'll look back at the end of the season and Derrick will be one of the top tacklers in the nation. Again I just mentioned that George Bamfo was our defensive player of the game. He graded out the highest defensively for us. We actually had him with nine tackles; I believe the stats had him with eight and a fumble recovery. One of the things that has been a stereotype of George, if you will, has been his effort. His effort was phenomenal Friday night and I was proud of him for that. He's a young man who's been in our program, came in, red-shirted, played special teams and kind of waited his turn and continued to improve. Now he's got his opportunity and he's making the most of it. The other linebacker position is Efrem Oliphant. That's a guy who has had an interesting career. He came in and played as a true freshman, then he was injured and missed a season. He gained some weight and we put him at defensive end. In the spring I want to say he might have been third string, and between spring practice what he did on his own over the summer and his playmaking in scrimmages really in August he moved up to become the starter at sam linebacker. He had an excellent game. He's been very productive which is obviously what you look for, guys who make tackles and assist on tackles. When he came out we brought in Steven Taylor who did a great job. He was always around the football. I was happy with how they played. (Linebackers) Coach (Vernon) Hargreaves is doing an excellent job of coaching that group right now. There are some techniques that he's really emphasizing that as a staff we noticed on Friday night."
On if Coach Levine would be comfortable running a two-quarterback system the rest of the year
"It's a good question. I don't know if I'd be comfortable with it or not. I'll let you know at the end of the year."
On the production of the running backs Friday night and division of snaps
"I came off the field Friday night and if somebody would have asked me before I saw the stats how many carries Ryan (Jackson) had and how many (Kenneth) Farrow had, I would have thought they were equal. If my memory serves me exactly on this, I know Ryan had 10 or 12 carries and (Kenneth) Farrow had closer to 20. Ryan had 120 yards and Farrow came up three yards short of a hundred yard game; he had 97. It's a little bit situational in terms of if we're trying to get Ryan out in space, if it's third-and-short, second-and-short, who can get us three yards. We feel like those two are both starters for us and we're going to have packages where it's one running back in the game and most times we don't care who it is unless it's a designed play for one of the two. We've got packages where there's one of those two in the game and then it's Luke Stice or Tyler McCloskey at fullback and then there will be some packages where both backs will be in the game. They're both starters; we don't flinch or hesitate at which one is getting the football. I think plays, at times, are overrated. I think players make plays so if one of them is getting a hot hand we'll continue to feed him the football. Justin Hicks came in and did a great job as did Randall Hollimon. So we'll continue to bring those guys along. It's a long season but again we've got the upmost confidence in our running backs right now."
On the status of senior offensive lineman Ty Cloud
"Hopefully he practices today. I'll know more in the next day or two."
On the status of sophomore defensive end Eric Eiland and depth at his position "It's certainly not nice that Eric (Eiland) got injured but we've got depth at that position with the emergence of Tyus Bowser, who is a true freshman, and Trevor Harris being here since January. He has put on weight and he's night-and-day from when we got here. This is his third year playing football and he was a receiver in high school as a senior in his only year of playing. He's getting better and better every week. He forced a fumble in the game and he blocked an extra point. That production there; those are two big plays that probably went unnoticed publicly from the guy who hasn't played football for a thousand days. We still have some depth in terms of Trevor and Tyus. They still got plenty of reps in the game Friday night. Those two will really man that position going forward until Eric returns from the injury."
On if sophomore defensive end Eric Eiland will be week-to-week
"I'm going to say week-to-week at this point only because probably best case scenario he comes back for the Rice game. I say week-to-week because next week we have the bye week."
On the first game in the new conference and it being the conference's first game
"I had a couple of people pull me aside and say `you should mention that to the team'. I don't want to say that's not a big deal because it certainly is a big deal, it's an extraordinarily big deal for our program. But it's not something I'm going to get up in front of the team and say `remember guys, we're playing in the first ever American Athletic Conference football game'. It's the next game as far as our preparation is concerned. We're excited to get on a big plane on Friday and fly up to Philadelphia and play in Lincoln Financial. It's going to be a great venue, a great atmosphere there. I certainly don't want to downplay it either. It's a major game for our program, but within our program right now we're talking about what we have to do to beat Temple and that's kind of the approach we're taking."
On differences in style between Conference USA and the Athletic American Conference
"I'm glad you asked that, actually, because there is a major difference in style from The American to Conference USA. Not only in the offenses that we're seeing, but the defenses that we're seeing. Even in the kicking game, which probably some people would take for granted. There's a different style in all three phases. The other thing, from top to bottom in this league, there's not a whole lot of difference. The teams that make mistakes and beat themselves on Saturdays are probably the ones that are going to end up losing the football game. Again, the style of play is quite different than what we've seen, but it's something that we've been preparing for."
On having an advantage with spread style offense in The American
"When you talk about it, I don't disagree with you that the defenses are different, but the offenses are different too. I mentioned this a month ago at media day, where teams traditionally in this conference have been two-back, one tight end, run power, run the football, huddle up, and bring our brand in and a couple of other schools now, as you mentioned, who have either entered the league or have changed philosophies, like what Temple is doing offensively. You're seeing a little bit of that new, but it's completely different from where the last few years at Conference USA it seemed like week in and week out we're playing a team that puts up extraordinary numbers on offense, doesn't huddle, and throws the ball all over the field."
On plan to get sophomore wide receiver Larry McDuffey more involved in game vs. Temple
"I said this early in the post-game press conference. We'll kind of take what the defense gives us. We had the running game going, so we fed Ryan Jackson and (Kenneth) Farrow. (Deontay) Greenberry and Daniel Spencer certainly got their catches. Xavier Maxwell had some opportunities. For whatever reason, Larry had two short catches, but that can change. We may go into this game, I can't say for certain what Temple's game plan is, but they may come in and say, `Hey, we're going to take away the two inside receivers to beat Houston,' and then Larry and Xavier Maxwell become more open and they get more balls thrown to them. Maybe they'll take away the running game. We have a game plan going in every week."
On junior wide receiver Markeith Ambles
"We anticipate Markeith practicing today."
On changes defensively with new conference in mind
"I think we're plenty fast, and certainly we will always try to recruit speed, but we needed some strength and some size. We addressed that in our strength and conditioning program and in recruiting. When you look out there, I use Joey Mbu as an example even though he came to our program prior to this move in conferences, but 6'3", 310-315 pound nose guard, Tomme Mark improved in size, B.J. Singleton is 6'4" and 285-290. We're trying to get bigger guys. Derrick Mathews has moved to middle linebacker position. Going from 197 pounds to 216 was a must as well for us to enter this league and compete defensively."
| | HOUSTON WIDE RECEIVER Daniel Spencer |
On your performance last Saturday
"It was pretty good, but I had some mistakes. I know I can go back and learn from those mistakes. I had big plays, so it was a good game. There is still a lot of room to improve."
On what you learned from this past week
"My blocking could get better, as well as my routes. Overall though it was a pretty good week."
On being a go-to player in week one
"Well we've been working really hard in camp. I had the injury awhile back so I knew I had to get right in order to get back. That's all I was trying to do was have success. I had the surgery on my left ankle last November, and I didn't go through spring workouts. I overcame it, and it was just like any other obstacle."
On the public response from the big week
"I had a lot of people reaching out to me from back home. People were watching on tv sending me texts telling me what a great game I had. It felt great to get the positive support."
On traveling to Philadelphia
"There really hasn't been a sense of normalcy. We know we're going to get on this big plane up to Philly. When we get there it's all the same; we'll go to the stadium and stretch just like we have in the past."
| | SENIOR OFFENSIVE LINEMAN Kevin Forsch |
On the positives he saw with the offensive line in week one
"There was definitely a lot of good that came out of it, but we know there is a lot that we have to clean up and a lot that we have to work on. We can definitely get better every week, so we know there is a lot this week we can work on, Especially with those penalties. We have to work on cleaning those up. There is a lot of stuff that we can get better at week to week so that's what we're going to be focused on."
On what led to the excessive amount of penalties
"I'm not sure if there is really one specific reason that I can think of, but it's just something that you learn and get better at as you go."
On the depth of the line dealing with the injuries in week one
"It helps to have depth. During fall camp there were a lot of different fronts we had up there with the five, so we're used to seeing different people at different positions. A lot of people have gotten used to playing different positions and they're comfortable at different positions. It doesn't really affect us as much moving from one to the other. We've had experience at it so we know what to do and we're comfortable playing next to different people."
On the importance of opening conference this week
"Yeah, it's important. This is our first American Athletic Conference game so we're excited to get up there and play. It's a good opponent and we're excited to get out there on the field and play some football against them."
On the importance of the running game opening up the offense
"It's really important. We have some great running backs back there and we can get them out in open space and kind of open some holes for them to make huge plays. That's our goal as an offensive line. Just get them out and they do the rest. They do a really good job. We know if we can open holes for them they'll take care of the rest."
On how the running game helps with the play action
"It definitely opens everything up for us, and helps our quarterbacks out with the play action. They can really find some holes if we can open up the run game for them."
On what to expect from the Temple defense
"We're preparing for a lot of stuff. They're a good team and we know we need to come to play. They're going to bring everything they have and so are we. We're excited to get up there and play against them."
On the difference in this week and last week in terms of having film to watch
"It's just that we'll both be prepared. Both teams will be watching tape and know what to expect, but we'll be prepared for anything. We're going to go up there and be excited to play."
On the play of quarterbacks David Piland and John O'Korn in week one
"They both played really well. They both took care of the ball really well and we played fast and played well with them back there. It was exciting to see both of them do really well."
| | SENIOR LINEBACKER George Bamfo |
On how the defense was able to play so well
"For the most part we had fun. That's what most people lose sight of. It's a game at the end of the day. On that day we were having fun playing. We were having fun playing as a team. All that energy helped us play great."
On if they have an advantage this week since Temple runs an offense similar to Houston's
"Definitely. When you go against an offense like ours that goes fast tempo every day, we kind of have the advantage. I don't think they're going to have any type of speed that we haven't seen before with practicing against our offense every day."
On the importance of starting conference play
"It's important because we've been eager for the season to start and we knew the type of challenge this schedule was going to be. We're ready and we trained for this. We're just happy that it has started."
On having game film against Temple this weekend
"It makes a big difference because you never want to go into a game not knowing what to expect. Having game tape on them is going to have us mentally and physically ready to go up against Temple."
On if playing in an unfamiliar home stadium was awkward
"Actually it was exciting. As a kid you watch the NFL guys on TV and in my mind I'm like, `Wow, J.J. Watt was on this field' and all these big named guys play on this field. It kind of motivated me. I want to be there one day. So when I got out there and saw all the bright lights it motivated me to want to play great, because that's the type of setting I want to be in, in the future."
On how many reps it took for them to feel like a team
"We practice that. We practice playing as a team and doing everything as a team. When we got out there it was just like second nature, because that's what we have been practicing. We practice as a team; we do everything as a team. When I make a play we celebrate as a team. That's what we practice so when we get out there its just second nature."
