Postgame Quotes: Houston vs UNLV
9/21/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
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Opening Statement
"I was proud of the preparation this week. It was an interesting week with the weather. It was really difficult to practice Tuesday. I'd like to publicly thank the Houston Texans. To come over to use their indoor facilities on Wednesday and Thursday, we got good work done in there.
We started off slow, across the board. We were able to overcome that. UNLV came down their opening drive and put points on the board. The first half we hit some plays offensively, and we got ahead 13-7 and stalled a little bit. We missed some plays and really never got in a rhythm offensively in the first half. We made a few adjustments at half time that I would characterize as mentally and schematically. The way we came out in the second half with the long kickoff return, and a couple of plays we went down and got on the board with a touchdown."
On offense
"On offense we got momentum after not have creating a turnover defensively in the first 30 minutes. Eric Eiland's play on the interception was a tremendous play. We got points off of that as well. I felt the momentum, along with the point differential at that point really blew the game open, and we were able to keep that momentum through the entire second half.
We did a nice job in a number of areas offensively. Running the football the receivers blocked really well on the perimeter and down the field. Our offensive line did a nice job not only initiating our blocks, but also finishing them. Then our running backs, Kenneth Farrow, Ryan Jackson and I'm going to add Javin Webb in that in the fourth quarter, They ran the ball very hard, and we rushed just under 400 yards; 399 yards is what I was told, which if you study the game closely, the knee John O'Korn took before the first half was a two-yard loss, so we have a few offensive linemen a little disappointed in the locker room right now having only rushed 399 yards, and really again I place the blame on John. (Jokingly)"
On John O'Korn
"His second half, very accurate. He made some great decisions after throwing the two interceptions in the first half. He responded very well. He didn't rattle. He kept his composure very well. He made some great throws and extended some plays with his feet as well."
On defense
"We were plus one as a team. When you do that and put a couple of the other things together you've got a chance to be successful. The other thing we talked about this week was eliminating foolish mistakes that can be categorized as penalties. The guys gave great effort in terms of foolish penalties besides the late hit there we at least had something's corrected from the game prior."
On special teams
"Our guys responded coming off the disappointing performance in the kicking game against BYU. The glaring things in that game were the missed field goals and the two extra points. As a whole our coverage units were outstanding both in punt and kickoff. We had great pressure on our field goal block. Whether we caused a miss or not is debatable, but we did force a miss and gave pressure. Our kickoff return had some bright spots. We had a penalty or two in the return game that cost us there. Logan Piper did a really nice job in punting the football. There was improvement. We needed to see that. It certainty helps our confidence in that area moving forward."
On the slow start
"It's a number of things. I've said it in the past, we'd like to have a quick start, a fast start and a fast finish and play a complete game. Sometimes you anticipate certain schemes and different concepts from your opponents. We have coaches, and they have coaches. Sometimes as we throw curveballs at opponents, they throw them at us, and we have to adjust a little bit. We try to do it on the sidelines and not wait until half time to try to get that communicated and changed.
At times we need to settle down. In the first quarter UNLV had great field position, and that changed a little bit in the first quarter. From the first quarter they had an advantage in field position and individually we needed to settle down a little bit, relax and just play and execute. I go back to what I referenced a few minutes ago, at half time we had some personnel discussions with some young men we talked to candidly, and we certainly changed things up schematically. The young man who need to relax and play did that in the second half."
On the running game and how it was better tonight
"Well it was a combination of a number of things. I'm not going to try to put it directly on one thing. Our receivers really blocked well down the field. We had some runs where our backs broke tackles tonight, and it felt a little like déjàvu from previous games where they broke tackles, but it would be a 12-yard gain or a 15-yard gain in previous games, and tonight the blocking down field was excellent and they turned it into 15-yard runs and touchdowns.
"Our offensive line did a nice job. We tweaked some things schematically this week. Some of it was for us and some of it was specifically for UNLV and what they did defensively. We played four games, and we really have seen four different defenses both schematically and philosophically in terms of what they want to do, so we game planned for what UNLV did and, our offensive line really executed it well."
On the defensive line and how they performed and how he would assess the defense
"Our defense played well. We gave up seven points in the first half. The opening drive we settled down defensively and made plays. In the second half we gave up seven points. The difference being three turnovers in the second half. Our defensive line made some plays, and Eric Eiland is a defensive lineman, and he had that huge interception which was as big a play as any.
I'm going to point out two young men, one is Devante Davis, who I think is one of the premier elite receivers in the United States. I had a chance to visit with him after the game. Just a tremendous young man. Derrick Matthews and Devante are lifelong best friends, and I think the world of him. I told him I'm going to enjoy watching him play on Sundays for a long time.
The second is William Jackson. Our defense as a whole did a nice job, but we challenged William this week and matched him up on Devante, and he limited Devante to one catch for 0 yards. It's the first time since December of 2011 that he has been held to 0 yards receiving in a game. I'm really proud of William Jackson.
He can't do that alone. It's the ultimate team sport. We had great pressure on their quarterback. We were flying around in the back end"
On Adrian McDonald and his seven turnovers
"When you talk about Adrian McDonald, he wass a high school quarterback, when he came here, and initially we were going to redshirt him, and then ended up pulling the redshirt as a freshman three seasons ago, and he started the last couple of games. Between him and Trevon Stewart and the rest of the young men back there they think about taking the football away day and night.
I hope it's fun for the people in the stands like it is for our staff and our team. It's fun to watch (Adrian) play, because he just loves to play. He's energetic. He's on special teams. His teammates make great plays and he's fired up for offense and defense and special teams."
HOUSTON JUNIOR RUNNING BACK Kenneth Farrow
On the offensive running game
"We had a good week of practice, and we executed in the game. We were able to make plays and get a few runs which kept everything flowing for us."
On adjustments between halves
"When a running back gets more carries, then you get in a rhythm, and that's not something we've had in the past couple of weeks. I think we have to establish that. When you get more carries and get in a rhythm, you see more holes open up which is something me and Ryan (Jackson) were able to do tonight and the offensive line did great."
On conference games approaching
"Stay locked in everyday. Go out there and take it day-by-day and stay focused on what we have to get better at from this game."
On change in offensive approach
"It's different every week, because we have weapons all over the field. We have to take what the defense gives us. Some games it will be John (O'Korn) throwing it around, andwe have to make plays happen in the passing game, and some weeks it will be like this. We just have to be ready to step up and make that happen whenever it comes."
HOUSTON JUNIOR DEFENSIVE BACK Ryan Jackson
On facing Devante Davis
"I give a lot to the defensive line. They made the quarterback rush the ball so it was easy for me to cover him."
HOUSTON JUNIOR DEFENSIVE BACK Adrian McDonald
On his seventh consecutive game forcing a turnover
"The defensive line makes it happen. They put pressure on the quarterback, so he has to put the ball up in the air and make plays after that."
UNLV HEAD COACH BOBBY HAUCK
Opening statement
"Obviously we're disappointed. We came out of halftime down six, 13-7. I felt like we had a good chance to win the game coming out of the locker room at halftime, and we broke down. We didn't capitalize when we needed to, we didn't get stops when we needed to, and we find ourselves at 1-3."
"They rushed the ball for more than 250 yards in the second half. They committed to it, we didn't think they would, but they did, so it was a good job by them. We had the two big takeaways in the first half and didn't capitalize on them, I thought that was a major component in the game. The penalties were atrocious. We were the third least penalized team in the nation a year ago, and we look like a whole different outfit right now."
On play calling
"We have to get it in the end zone more. We have to do some things better. I don't think that panic in the middle of the season is a good course of action or a good quality in teams. It is rarely successful. We need to be better in all areas. From fundamentals, to how we are calling it to flat making plays, we have to make plays. We have to play better.
On putting QB Nick Sherry in the last few drives
"We gave Nick some plays in the fourth quarter. (Blake Decker) had taken some pretty good shots, and we just felt like it was time to give Nick a couple of series. It can be productive, in terms of down the road, having some game time."
On competitiveness and offense woes
"Half here, half against Northern Illinois and for the first twenty minutes against Arizona, we have yet to put together a complete game and that means I have to do a better job.
On coming out of the locker room giving up quick scores
"We gave up two sizable plays. One we were a little late getting down on a run and gave up a pretty good run, and then they ran a wheel route with the offside back that they protected with, out of a twenty look. They protected with a place side back and ran a wheel with the offside back, and our safety didn't see him, and that is where they hit us."
On the status of Peni Vea
"The word I got at halftime is that he is going to be ok."
On Davonte Davis
"Well he is a little banged up. He tried to go a little bit tonight, but you know we are pretty beat up, and he is one of them, so that never helps when he is down and he tried to go a little bit tonight. He just really couldn't do it. So it has to be the next man up, and our young guys have to go."
On QB Blake Decker's consistency
"Obviously we diagnose, dissect and digest every single play and every game in every practice. There is no play any day of the week that doesn't get analyzed, so we just have to keep going. With him I prefer to focus on the things he is doing well and try to emphasize that, and hopefully we can build off that."
UNLV JUNIOR QUARTERBACK BLAKE DECKER
On the offense tonight
"Obviously we have to move the ball better than that. We went up and scored on the first drive. We were up seven points and were kind of stagnant the rest of the first half. I credit a lot of that to me: mental mistakes on my part. That can't happen. It was not so much pressure as it was that we just had to play well for our defense who had a good first half."
On coming off of a successful second half vs. Northern Illinois, problems with the offense
"I can't really tell you. I've got to go watch the film and see what happened. It's hard from my perspective, because obviously it's one-dimensional. You don't get the whole picture, but I know that I left a lot on the field, I left a lot of plays on the field that I could've taken advantage of. A lot of that had to do with the score that we put up tonight."
On the feeling on the sideline after being down by only 6 points before halftime, and much more after halftime
"It's tough. I feel like last week against Northern Illinois the same thing happened. They came out and got the ball in the second half, went down and scored, and we came right back and punched it to them. I felt like our offense had the confidence that we could go out and do that again, and obviously we didn't execute or pull it off like we thought we would. We know we have that firepower it's just about going out there and executing."
On the issues with the offense
"I can take as much credit for issues with the offense as I can. It was just dumb mental mistakes and plays on my part that stalled drives, and caused penalties. It's just not going to get it in the end zone."
