University of Houston Athletics
Houston vs. Tulsa Press Conference
11/18/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
HOUSTON HEAD COACH Tony Levine
"Much like we had going into the South Florida (USF) game, I think our bye week last week was very productive. In terms of our student athletes being two weeks from beginning their finals, every football program in the country is a little bit beat up, as we are as well. We're getting our guys as fresh and as healthy as they possibly can be at this time of the year, and beginning preparation for Tulsa this week.
Our coaches were out recruiting last Friday and Saturday, and we're certainly looking forward to the game this weekend."
On if Tulane reaffirms to him and players not to look past any opponent...
"It does, unfortunately. I don't want to show a lack of respect to Tulane, either - they played a tremendous football game.
But you take them one at a time. A lot was being made that week, being a 5-way tie for first place, but I don't think that became a distraction for our young men. At the end of the day, I'm sure no one likes to hear it, even nationally, the biggest thing that correlates to winning or losing football games, regardless of opponent, is turnovers. As I stand here, two games this season come to mind where we threw four interceptions in each game: the opener (UTSA) and Tulane.
Now, was that because of reading any press clippings about being in a tie for first place or overlooking an opponent? I don't necessarily think so, but it's a great reminder of what can make the difference in the outcome of a football game. We were playing very good football, winning the turnover margin by a long shot in those three games (Leading up to Tulane)."
On the team's health...
"When you talk about our health right now, we went through about a 10-day period at about the halfway point in the season where we lost three starters. Daniel Spencer was injured in practice prior to the Memphis game, and Derrick Matthews and Lee Hightower during the Memphis game. That was the halfway point of the year, and it goes without saying how impactful those losses were for us from both a leadership standpoint, and a production standpoint.
When a young man has a season-ending injury that requires surgery, his routine within your program does a complete 180. He's constantly in the training room, rehabbing leading up to the surgery. When the surgery takes place they have family come in town, and he's got to miss class periods immediately following the surgery.
Young men like that aren't in meetings, they're not standing out there during practice encouraging their teammates. For a few weeks, they're certainly a part of the program, and those young men have been traveling with us to away games when they can, medically, but in terms of their involvement, it gets diminished significantly.
The guys that are still playing this season are as healthy as they can be. I mention Trevon Stewart, because he was banged up a few weeks ago. He's back at full strength and practiced all last week. We had three young men that suffered head injuries that did not practice last week, but were medically cleared this morning and will resume practicing with us this afternoon.
So, our health is good for the young men that haven't suffered injuries where they'll be out for the remainder of the season."
On people who have stepped up to fill in the leadership roles of the injured...
"We've got great leadership from within. Losing Daniel Spencer and Derrick Matthews for the season and talking about how they're not around as much due to the injury, surgery and rehab those are two senior captains for us. Lee Hightower, even though this is his first year competing in games for us, was a defensive leader for us, but we've still got great leadership from within our program.
I'll mention a couple guys like Gavin Stansbury and Ben Dew: young men who have only been in our program a few months, but have become leaders for us in the short time that they've been a part of our program. Then we have the Kenneth Farrow's and the Joey Mbu's. Efrem Oliphant has been a leader for us. Although not a captain, now with the loss of Derrick Matthews he's really taken on more of a leadership role within the linebacking group. Trevon Stewart is a junior captain for us, and Bryce Redman on the offensive side of the ball.
So, we've got leaders. There are probably another dozen I could mention that are not necessarily seniors, but our leadership has been good. Bouncing back from our last performance, leadership is going to have a lot to do with how we play the next three games."
On this year's group of seniors...
"When you talk about the senior class, and it's true every year, we've got some young men like Gavin Stansbury who have been here three months, and you've got some guys like Shane Ros who's been here almost as long as I've been here, and everything in between. We've got young men that we recruited right out of high school that have been here four or five years. We've got transfers, Shane Ros was actually a transfer, a lot of people don't know or remember that; and Gavin Stansbury who was a transfer.
They've all taken different paths to get here. They've all got different stories, and as an assistant for some of the young men that came here out of high school I was able to recruit a number of these young men, sit in their homes a number of times and go through that process. Joey Mbu comes to mind and I sat in his home five or six times throughout the recruiting process his senior year in high school.
I tell our guys all the time that time flies by. It feels like you just got here and all of a sudden you're a senior.
A couple weeks ago, we had a meeting with our seniors. Right now, we're probably guaranteed about 17 or 18 days left of this football season. As the second all-time winning class, the things they've done, and what they meant to our school, our football program and our athletic department, and the memories, friendships and growth that they've made individually are things that I know we are all very proud of."
On seeing your players transform from boys in high school to men.
"Well everyone gets into coaching for different reasons. The vast majority of coaches, regardless of the sport, would say they get into it to get around young people and see them grow. Everyone has a reason on what level they would like to coach whether it's a junior high, high school, college, or national football league.
So for me personally, its great satisfaction when you're able to see young men build relationships when they're sixteen or seventeen, coming into the program and grow. We've talked that this is a chapter in their lives where they leave their families, leave their parents and come to our program. As coaches we end up being father figures for a lot of our student athletes. They'll come to us and ask to teach them how to throw or catch at times. They'll come to us just as often about things they have going on in their lives and how to handle situations like things with family, friends, and school.
It's a period of their lives at eighteen to twenty-two years old that certainly a lot of us have gone through already where they are still developing. You get satisfaction as a coach. I was fortunate at my first college job at Texas State, which used to be southwest Texas State. I was 23-25 coaching 21 year olds. Now being back in the state of Texas for the past seven years and being 42 years old, I've got the chance to get reacquainted with a lot of young men I coached when I was 24-25 years old. Now they are in their late 30s or even 40, are fathers, husbands, successful businessmen, and coaches themselves. That's a big part of the reason you get into coaching: to hope you have an influence on their lives, and maybe you've effected them down the road to be a better father, better husband, or successful in the real world at some point along the way."
On Bryce Redman and Rowdy Harper building a relationship outside of football.
"In the building relationship part of our recruiting process, we talk to young men all the time individually or as groups, or even their families. As good of high school friends as they have right now as they're in high school, their lifelong friends, or the men that are going to be standing next to them in their weddings, are going to be three or four men that they haven't even met yet. They don't even know their names at that point and they are going to be their college teammates.
When you talk about Rowdy and Bryce, that's a great example. One is from east Texas, the other is from Oklahoma, and they both came here and were recruited here. They had opportunities to go to other programs and made the decision to come to Houston. They had great careers. Bryce s going to be a three-year starter and Rowdy is a four-year starter on the offensive line. I can give you the word inseparable. Rowdy is married and has a family. Those two around the program, well they sit by each other in team meetings, and certainly sit next to each other in position meetings, and they line up next to each other out on the field. So, that is a lifelong friendship that has been made here in our program and that is special to see as coaches."
On some players trusting you to get them where they want to be after the coaching change.
"That's an interesting question. We had young men that were seniors and went through the transition in the coaching change and position coaching changes. Then you have young men naturally that have been recruited since I became head coach, which are freshman, sophomores, and some juniors. So, the relationships are all special and there is not a senior in our program, whether he's been here three months or six years, that hasn't been up in my office with the door closed talking to me one on one about something not related to football.
Life to me is about relationships, and it is important in our program, and something we talk about in our program all the time, and we talk about the word family. I've told this story to anyone that will listen and I'm just referencing Joey Mbu because it seems like yesterday when I started recruiting him as a junior in high school and visiting with him one-on-one prior to him coming to our camp. We talked about our program and our expectations of him, his family, and where he was on our recruiting board. Some things he did extremely well, and some things we were looking for him to improve on prior to coming to camp. Next thing you know, he's going to leave here as a captain and a young man that is going to graduate in three and a half years. Time flies because it seems like we were just starting that recruiting process. He has a month and a half left in our program."
On Keevan Lucas leading the conference in receiving yards and how to defend that.
"We've played some teams this year that have had some very talented receivers. I put Lucas right there at the top. He's from Texas, and I remember him in high school. Then you have the Garrett kid who is a 6'3" target. In the past we've played dynamic receivers, and we have to know where Lucas is. He has 11 receiving touchdowns and is averaging over 100 yards receiving per game.
(Dane) Evans throws the ball over the field. He's thrown 20 touchdowns, and is averaging 265 yards passing per game. As you mentioned in the question they run effectively also."
