Postgame Quotes: Houston vs UCF
10/2/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
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HOUSTON HEAD COACH Tony Levine
Opening Statement
"Certainly a disappointing loss. I'm proud of our kids for the way they battled back and made some plays. They gave us a chance. We were within a yard or so of winning the football game. We talked about being important going into this game was turnovers. We lost the turnover battle three to one. Not only did we have just three turnovers on paper they were critical turnovers. The two interceptions in scoring range gave them 10 points and obviously the one at the end of the game."
"Our defense played well in terms of yardage and getting off the field. I think we gave up 220 or something yards. I think a little over 100 yards passing and I think half of that, 50 or so, on one play on the touchdown. It's been a trademark defensively for us to get more than one turnover. We had opportunities. We had tipped balls, balls to the ground and we didn't get to them. But again, our defense had a chance to win. Greg Ward going in at quarterback had hot hands, so I made the decision to keep him in there. He's getting points within the quarterback position and keeps making some plays not only with his feet, but he was throwing the ball on the field as well. Again, we had the chance to win at the end."
"Penalties won't appear as something we talked about for the last 12 days. We had two at halftime. We lit up with 11. Some were very selfish. Some personal fouls and taunting calls. Uncharacteristic of not only our program, but the student-athletes in general had the penalties. Nonetheless, they were the correct call, and we need to learn from them and move on. We have a tough game ahead in Memphis against the very talented Memphis football team playing extremely well this season. We have to learn from our mistakes, come back in practice, and put in the game plan Sunday evening, and get ready to go against Memphis next week."
On the last play and what to tell the player in a situation like that "It's a fine line, and it was definitely the right call. It's a fine line, because if he doesn't lose the football for another 18 inches we score a touchdown, and we win the football game. Greg is trying to make the play and it's something we practice; something we talk about. We've had that happen before. It happened to one of our receivers against East Carolina in 2012 trying to do the same thing. I can name 20 times where we've had a young man do the same thing and it's a touchdown. I certainly don't fault Greg. No one in our program does. He was trying to make a play, and that specific play was a pass play, and they had good coverage and tried to make something happen. (He) made a couple of defenders miss and tried to win the game for us."
On if he's going to start John O'Korn or Greg Ward next week
"We'll see. I don't know yet."
On the interception that went through Greenberry's hands and what is going on between O'Korn and Greenberry
"Well you mentioned one of them. They had 2 interceptions tonight. One of them, to Deontay, the pass was a little low. I've seen him catch that in the last 2 and a half years a thousand times. It goes off his hands, deflected into the air and we get one of the interceptions. On the other one, it was a combination of timing by John and the route by Deontay. Everything works hand-in-hand and John came out tonight to compete. His competiveness maybe got the better of him early on with the taunting penalty, which is, as I mentioned, uncharacteristic of his character; uncharacteristic of him. We've played Greg at quarterback in four games now. We went into this game with a plan for him to go in and take some snaps. Again, he gave us, the opportunity to score there in the second half. We made the decision, as a staff, to leave him in."
On John O'Korn starting next week
"Any position will look at the video as a staff; Offense, defense, special teams. I haven't coached a game in twenty years where a young man has yet to lobby to go into a game at any position. Kids by nature are competitors. There are probably a lot of young men who wanted to play more tonight than they did. We'll evaluate the film and make a decision on all personnel in terms of whose going to be starting and who'll be back ups going to Memphis."
On decision to go for it on fourth down
"It was the play we wanted but not the way we wanted it. We've seen a lot of 1-yard touchdown fades to Deontay (Greenberry) from John O'Korn in the last year. We work on it in practice. We had the match up and coverage we wanted. It never comes down to that fourth down play if we get two yards on first down, second down and third down we don't have to call the fourth down play.
The way our defense had been playing, rather than taking three points we tried to be aggressive. We went for it on fourth down early and converted and got us a field goal. So, wanted to try and be aggressive there. If we could convert, we had a chance to go up 10-0 early in the game and get some momentum. If not we felt like we'd have them pinned back deep. Give our defense a chance to create a turnover or if we hold they punt it and we'd get it back at mid-field in good field position. But ultimately, you'd like to score a touchdown on first, second or third down. I'm not second guessing our decision to go for it on forth nor the play called."
On the offensive line
"Anytime I think we struggled, in terms of pass protection, a lot of the credit has to go to UCF. They have a talented defensive front. They did bring a three down and four down, they brought pressure at times. Sometimes, we had good protection and I agree it broke down at times. I'll look at the film and see exactly why, but they have talented men up front as well."
On Kyle Bullard
"Kyle is doing a nice job. He's a kid I don't talk about enough, probably intentionally. I don't have any hesitations or reservations sending him into a game. He and I talk before every game on what his distance is going both directions based on the wind. I thought our field goal protection so far this season has been outstanding. Kyle's got a lot of confidence right now. A couple times we made some poor decisions when we were in better field goal range on third down taking a sack and losing yards. Based on where the ball was, we were still in his range and didn't hesitate to send him out there. Protection was good and right now he's a confident man kicking field goals."
On dropped balls
"I did see more drops tonight. There were some key drops, they're all key. I'm afraid when I look at the video they are going to be in the 6 to 8 range. There were somewhere our quarterback was scrambling to make a play and the coverage came off and left receivers. We would dish the ball out there to give us a chance to get at least some positive yards and get us in the second medium or possibly break a tackle. But we dropped some of those balls. Deontay (Greenberry) had couples that were uncharacteristic of him, he came back and made some good catches at the end of the game."
The flip side we did have some play where our quarterback scrabbled and we did throw the ball down field and gave us a chance. We're going to look at the film and see we left 6 to 8 balls that could have been caught dropped. There are 11 young men out there and I wouldn't say it's hard to evaluate receivers positions if we don't throw it too much to certain individuals much We'll evaluate all positions, regardless of our teammates around to play."
HOUSTON JUNIOR RUNNING BACK Kenneth Farrow
On close game against UCF
"It's just like last year. It sucks just as bad as last year. We just have to watch film and learn how to finish at the end of the game. We had opportunities throughout the game where we could've made plays, and we need to start taking advantage of the opportunities we have throughout the game so that we don't get in positions like that at the end."
On Greg Ward's last play
"He went out there and tried his all to win the game, so if anything everyone was proud to see that. To see him go out there and give everything to win. There's no negativity in that at all. Everyone was uplifting him and trying to get his spirits up for the rest of the weekend because we have a game next weekend."
On offensive problems
"Really everyone just needs to go after practice and lock into what they're doing and do their job and as a team. We'll show up. That's just practice. Going out and being more focused. Like I said, we missed opportunities, a good throw and a drive or a good block and a missed run or a good run and a missed block so we have to put it together. There were a lot of times that we did put together tonight, but we have to be more consistent with it."
On improvements in the offense
"We have to cut out penalties which hurt us tonight. We had a lot of downs that were more than 10-yards so. We can't have that. We have to do better on first downs. Just being more consistent with going out and trying to execute the plays from the jump, so that we don't get down in drives, and get behind the sticks, so we don't have to do something that we don't necessarily need to do or want to do."
On shortcomings in the running game
"We just have to punch it in, that's the bottom line. When you're at the two-yard line there's not much you can do. That was on me, I just have to punch it in. There were a couple guys there, and I probably could've made a better read but that's all that is."
HOUSTON SENIOR LINEBACKER Efrem Oliphant
On defensive performance
"Our focus was just to go out there and play ball. Everyone on defense is doing their jobs to the best of their abilities, and we have been able to create turnovers and get off the field. We only had one turn over this game, so obviously we feel like we didn't do our job as we should have. Just being able to go out there and continue to compete is what we look forward to."
On similar outcomes facing UCF the past 2 years
"It's a heartbreaker I guess you can say, but like Kenneth (Farrow) said, throughout the game we had opportunities to capitalize on, and we left them out there. Especially with the penalties, we had way too many penalties, and to be successful, you can't do that. When creating turnovers, we gave up the ball too many times, and we didn't get the ball back as many times. There are a lot of things that play into it. "
On beating themselves with penalties
"They're a great team of course. You have to give them their props, but at the end of the day I feel like the only team that can beat us is us, and we did that."
On thoughts that Houston is the better team
"We don't really speak on it. We're just going to take it one day at a time and we're looking forward to next week."
UCF HEAD COACH GEORGE O'LEARY
Opening Statement
"Any win is a good win, and obviously it was tough loss for Houston the way it happened at the end, but defensively we played a good game except for the last two series of the game. We were tackling well. We had a couple interceptions there and were getting some pressure on the quarterback, and we lost some areas of contain in the back end of that game, but over all defensively, except for some displays in the back end, we played well."
"Offensively we have to be more consistent in the plays that we're running and the pass plays. There would be guys out there running free, and the quarterback has got to hit them. We have to continue to work on that. As I told the players, any win is a good win, and we need to get better from the mistakes we made and go from there."
On the ending of the game
"Yeah we won, but I feel bad for the kid. I don't know if he had to dive to score, but if that ball would have been on the pylon that is basically a fumble right at the one-yard line, and they probably end up winning that game, but it was before the pylon, and it went through the end zone so it's a touchback, so we're very fortunate the good Lord was looking after us."
On Brandon Alexander's play
"He is a tough guy. Houston played well and I told Coach (Levine) tough loss."
On QB Justin Holman's play
"He was streaky. Obviously he has a strong arm, but you have to throw to the right people. There were some mix ups in routes tonight where they (receivers) would run one route and I thought he was throwing to me. We have to get better at that position. People are crowding the line of scrimmage, and we have to throw it, and there are people we have to be hitting, but he was streaky. He did some good things but not enough good things."
On giving the ball back to Houston late in the fourth quarter
"Well there were four minutes left, and I said let's not give the ball back. The line of scrimmage has to move and then sustain the blocks two to three yards downfield. We were hit and miss there in some situations. Too many guys were standing around a little bit. They are playing with eight guys in the box, so when we throw it we have to make the throws too. Overall it's a good win and we'll move from there. Offensively we have to continue to get better in a lot of areas, because there are going to be a lot of games this season that are going to be like this with this team."
On line of scrimmage and stacking the box
"We did some good things, but not enough of them. Basically we made four or five yards and then we had a one-yard gain. You have to be a lot more consistent than that as far as getting things done, and the big thing is just continuing working on these kids getting some confidence in themselves. Again it all goes back to the quarterback play and the ability to throw the ball downfield so he can keep people's eye off that line of scrimmage."
UCF SENIOR DEFENSIVE LINEMAN JARYL MAMEA
On what he was thinking on the final play
"It was more of a team effort from my other defensive linemen like Demetris Anderson and Thomas Niles. They pushed the quarterback towards me, so all thanks goes to them, too."
On the conference win
"It's great. Our mentality coming into the game was to try to defend the trophy, as conference champs from last year."
On the quarterback change
"It wasn't an easy task when they changed the quarterback. No. 1 (Greg Ward Jr.) was really good. He had an allusiveness to him. He got away from me a couple times."
UCF SENIOR DEFENSIVE BACK BRANDON ALEXANDER
On the advantage at the end of the game
"Honestly, I noticed the quarterback broke, and I knew that his technique was not to pass, but to run it. He dove, and when he dove I dove. Everything happens for a reason, and I'm just glad I was able to make that play."
On what he thought happened when Ward came down
"When I dove, I just laid on the ground and I saw everybody freeze real quick. Then I saw Clayton come from out of nowhere and say "Good job. Good job. Touchback,' and instantly I thought "Oh, man. Again?" and everybody was celebrating. When the ref came out and said it was a touchback, it was a wonderful feeling. A lot of emotions just ran through."
On this being the second year to make the play to save the game against Houston "I didn't even realize. You know, it's not about the last play it's about every play before. Our defense played a wonderful game. We didn't allow them to score at all. Kudos to the defensive line, linebackers and secondary. We played a heck of a game."
On the change of quarterback
"Ward is a very good quarterback, and he can run the ball really well. That's what we had to adjust on. You have basically another running back at quarterback. His running ability gave us a lot of problems, but we didn't break. Thank God for the win."
UCF SOPHOMORE QUARTERBACK JUSTIN HOLMAN
On his performance tonight
"I should think of my execution way more. As a quarterback I have to be way better than I was tonight. It's a team game. We got away with a `W,' but I've definitely got to pick it up on my side."
On if Houston did anything he wasn't expecting
"No. It was everything we prepared for. It was just going out and executing."
On the emotions on the final drive
"Right before that play, I just looked up and said "I have faith in you." I just let it be. I didn't really want to watch the play. I let the defense take care of it."
On leaving Houston with a conference win
"It's exciting because conference play is very big to us. I've always wanted to win a conference championship. This is the first one down, and now it's on to next week."
UCF SENIOR WIDE RECEIVER J.J. WORTON
On the game "It was too close. We don't want to leave it to something like that, or leave our defense on the field in a spot like that. We came out, did what we had to do, and we came out with a `W.'"
On what was going through his mind on the final play
"We were just looking for the signal. When we saw the ref put his hand over his head, we knew that it was a touchback. When they put the replay up on the board, everyone just rejoiced. It was a close call, but we're lucky it worked in our favor. I feel bad for the guy, losing like that, but a win's a win no matter how you get it."
