University of Houston Athletics
VIDEO | Tom Herman Addresses Media
9/14/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
HOUSTON FOOTBALL WEEKLY PRESS CONFERENCE
After the Louisville Victory
Carl Lewis Auditorium • Houston, Texas • Monday, September 14, 2015
HOUSTON HEAD COACH Tom Herman
On what the Louisville win meant to the team
"Not a ton after week two. Maybe about eight or nine weeks in if you want to still talk about it might mean a little bit more but there is a whole lot of season left to play. I think the biggest thing that the win did was that, hopefully some of those fringe guys in the locker room will look at it and say 'hey this crazy guy and his staff might know a thing about what they're doing and it's time for me to jump all in.' We've got about 25 guys who are all in, in my opinion. We need about another 15 or 20 to go where we need to go at the end of the season. The only factor I think about is how this win and the way we won effects the locker room, and it should effect it positively."
On the team's bye week
"It is early to tell. Looking earlier in the year at the schedule, to see our bye week was the second week of the season, the initial reaction was negative, knowing you're going to have a 10-week straight stretch there of games to close it out. It comes at a good time for us. I'm choosing to find the silver lining in the fact that we had a grueling mentally and physically taxing training camp coupled with then the first two game then with the second one being a really physically, emotionally, mentally taxing game that it comes at a good time to take a deep breath. I see it with our four weeks of training camp and our two weeks into the season that we've been on for the past six straight weeks. We will have to go ten straight weeks on the back end, but to get our legs back and minds right, it's nice to have the bye week here."
On what the team will work on during the bye week
"We have a ton of improving to do. I just got done watching the offensive side of the ball with Coach Applewhite, and we made a ton of mistakes. It's encouraging to know that we overcame all those mistakes and still found a way to win against a top-10 in the country defense from the last year. On the road in a hostile environment, we found a way to overcome those mistakes. The encouraging thing is that I think we can get a whole lot better and we are going to need to, (in order) to make a run at the championship in December."
On center Colton Freeman's play
"Our center, Colton Freeman, played better. He's not a freshman anymore. He's got a game under his belt. I thought he managed the game well. He had a holding call on him, which was holding, but other than that I thought he got us in the right call up front for the most part and played a lot better than he did in week one."
On the team's improvement this week
"I think the offensive linemen played better, which was encouraging, but I still saw a lot of mistakes that I mentioned in that position group. They fired off the ball. They played physical, and they didn't play tentative. They opened up some holes for the running backs. I thought the running backs played better. Towards the end we gave up a few big passes, but I though our passing defense was much more improved. Our defense getting four turnovers on the road is a big deal."
On receiving votes in the national top-25 polls
"I don't think there is some residual effect that we might be on some people's radar. It's always good for them to know who we are and what we're doing. We've got a long road ahead of us. You can't win them all without winning the next one. All of our goals are still in front of us. We're going to focus in on getting better this week fundamentally and assignment wise, correcting the ton of mistakes that were made in the game, then focusing our attention on beating Texas State and being 1-0 next week. Being on the radar, I'd rather be there than not, but it's not something after week two that we care much about. Week 9, 10 or 11 we can have a more serious conversation."
On the team's health after the Louisville game
"Ben Dew (has) a little turf toe but should be okay. Everybody is full go for practice on Tuesday. We will have Hayden Daniels back Tuesday at practice. I would anticipate Emeke Ejekam being available. I don't know if he'll be full go for practice on Tuesday but should be available for the game next Saturday."
On in-game adjustments that his team made against Louisville
"Their quarterback hurt us a little bit early in the game taking off and running. Coach Orlando adjusted and made sure that we had a guy assigned to him on every call. On offense, the game plan was to spread them out a little bit in 10 personnel and not play with the tight end as much. That plan was pretty effective for the most part because we knew that we had to get out of the phone booth with them. As good a defensive line as that was, to say that we would run on a bunch of two-back runs with our tight end inserted in there, anytime that you have your tight end in the formation, you are just compacting the space. The week-long preparation in the aspect paid dividends."
"Our mantra all week was 'we were trained for this moment,' that we have been training nine months for this moment, and our coaches did a fantastic job reminding them to go back to their training. When adversity hits, don't try to be superhuman. Don't try to do anything outside yourselves. Don't freak out. Go back to your training, great fundamentals and fanatical effort and the results will come, and they did."
On quarterback Greg Ward, Jr.'s play
"He has still got a lot of improvement to do. You guys see all the good stuff there at the end of the game, but I see a lot of the mistakes that he made in the middle of the game. If we are going to win a championship, he's got to improve on those. The one thing that I take away from the game is that the dude (Greg Ward) is an unbelievable competitor. He wants to win, win not just for himself, but also for his teammates and for his university. He takes a tremendous amount of pride in being the quarterback at the University of Houston. When he is in the game, you get this feeling from the kids, the players, that 'hey we are never out of it as long as #1 is back there taking snaps,' and that is a good thing. We have to correct those mistakes that he made in the middle of the game so that if our defense or special teams are having an off night than we can rely on him.
"What gets lost with Greg sometimes is that he spent the first year and a half playing wide receiver and for the half of year that he played quarterback, it is just a mad dash to the finish line. There isn't really a whole lot of learning or improving you can do when you are thrown into the fire there in the middle of the season. For all intents and purposes, he is basically a freshman, mentally, when it comes to playing quarterback. He has come a long way in the nine months that we have been here. In reference to my quote, at times he surveys the defense before the ball is snapped and says 'okay, I've got a pretty good idea of what they're going to do and here is what I am going to do with the football whether it is run or pass,' and then the ball is snapped and things change as the ball is snapped and he has yet to react to that change. We are going to focus with him this week on playing what you see, not what you think they are going to do. Have an idea. That is great. You always want to have a plan at quarterback before the ball is snapped every single rep, but once the ball is snapped the defensive is allowed to do whatever the heck they want and he has got to be able to adjust once the ball is snapped."
On Greg Ward's check down on the final touchdown of the game
"That was great. We had talked about that as a sideline adjustment, and he got us into the right play, and it paid dividends for him. Hopefully that lends a little credence to us coaches that we know what we are talking about and if you do what we tell you and you play the way that you are coached to play then good things are going to happen."
On adjusting to Louisville's third-string quarterback Kyle Bolin
"I was not aware of him. Our defensive staff was a little bit. We knew he was a drop-back passer with a strong arm, but we really didn't have a book on him so to speak. You could tell that he stood in the pocket better than the previous guys and their route configuration got a little bit more complex and tougher to defend. He is a tremendous passer and gave us some problems there in the fourth quarter. That was an interesting surprise. We had to talk about who this guy was, who this third guy is. It was obvious that he was a good thrower and we had to make some adjustments on the fly."
On Brandon Wilson's kick return touchdown
"They scored points and went up 17-10, and the offense wasn't doing a whole lot at that point, and we needed a spark. We had a field return called, and the kid catches it three yards deep on the boundary side in the end zone. The book says don't take the ball out when the return is called all the way over there, and he won't make that mistake again, but as we tell our guys all the time: if you are going to make a mistake then make it at a hundred miles an hour and as hard as you can, and he did that.
"It was great individual effort because everybody was setting up their blocks assuming that the ball was going to be caught at a certain place and the timing of him getting where he has to be is going to be what we practice. When you take the ball from this corner and you run it all the way over here it is hard to fault the kids that were doing the blocking because they had anticipated the timing and distance of where that return was going to be. He made a bunch of guys miss and took off and out-ran a bunch of people too."
On his team's pace of play
"We don't have an ideal pace. The idea is whatever it takes to win. We do want to go fast when we are in rhythm and probably slow down when we are not in rhythm and kind of see the defense. Part of the game plan this week is to go fast to not allow that big, strong and physically defensive line to dig their cleats in the ground, catch their breath and come off the wall. That certainly was part of the game plan this week, to ramp up the tempo a little bit because of how good they were up front, and we wanted to wear those guys down.
"There is no ideal tempo, there really isn't. Some offenses subscribe to the idea that you want to run as many offensive plays as you can because it gives you the best chance to score the most points. Offense, defense and special teams are not mutually exclusive. They all tie in with each another. Part of calling an offensive game is managing the different situations and scenarios that come up in the game, and our defense was playing well enough where we felt we can continue to play at that pace."
On the mental toughness from the team
"I would grade them an A. They did a fantastic job of trusting their training. I told them right before we left the hotel that 'you are the best-trained team in America, now go out and trust your training and stick your foot in the ground and go really hard.'
"There are going to be ups and down and we have to respond with mindfulness, not with what we call primal instincts. We are all humans and your initial reaction when adversity hits is to freak out or panic a little bit, but we have trained these guys for nine months that the best way to overcome adversity is to take a deep breath, have some mindful self-talk, and go back to your fundamentals and I couldn't have asked for them to do a better job of that."
On the culture established by Director for Football Sports Performance Yancy McKnight
"I worked with him at Rice for two years and then at Iowa State for three. At Rice, I saw him take a bunch of doctors and lawyers and turn them into 10-game winners. At Iowa State, I saw him turn a bunch of two-star recruits into a team that could beat Texas at Texas, Nebraska at Nebraska and Oklahoma State when they were ranked second in the country. They had some monumental wins there with those teams. To be quite honest with you, the teams we were beating wouldn't have traded any of their players for our players, and he found a way to get them not just physically in the best shape - strong and fast - but those guys are around our team way more than the head coach, or the position coach. He has got to be in perfect alignment with what we believe in and has got to be that "culture" coach every day. It is a constant teaching and reminder of how to survive in this culture and survive under these expectations. I can't imagine standing here in front of you today without him. He is tremendous."
On how the team will use their bye week
"Yesterday was good. I got a chance to sleep in, spend some time with the kids and the wife. It is hard to watch the NFL; I recorded more college games than I did the NFL. I watched a movie last night and grilled some steak. We have all of our assistants, other than our two coordinators, on the road recruiting today. We will come back and take them off the road and we'll have really hard physical practices Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and then we'll send them back out on the road on Friday, and I'll go on the road myself and go visit some high schools and go to some games. We'll have Saturday off as a staff, and that will be nice to sit back and watch some college football from morning to night. It is coming at a good time."
On his team's run defense
"The defensive line played better. We put a lot on their shoulders this week, knowing how big and physical that offensive line was going to be. We knew that we had to get excellent defensive line play and without having watched the defensive side of the ball, it felt like we were getting that. We have to do a better job of containing mobile quarterbacks like the kid they had (Lamar Jackson) the first three quarters. In terms of the run game, to the running back, we defended that extremely well and the defensive line got great push and allowed our two really good linebackers, Steven Taylor and Elandon Roberts to run around a little bit."
On linebacker Steven Taylor's block on the final field goal attempt of the game
"Steven's block was great. We knew this kicker was pretty good, and he had the wind behind him, so we felt like he was going to get it up in the air. We called block left, from our left side, and Steven did a great job of getting skinny and just got a fingertip on it enough to change the trajectory and make it fall short. It was excellent individual effort on his part. Again, it goes back to the way he was trained. We teach them how to do that. They don't just line up and we say go run here; we teach them how to get skinny and rip through and stick their hand out at the last moment."
On how the Louisville win impacts recruiting
"It is fantastic. At some point you have to put your money where your mouth is. You are selling a vision. You are selling some history with myself and our staff and the success we have had at other places, but at some point you have to be able to sell success at Houston, and obviously we took a big step in doing that on Saturday."
HOUSTON SENIOR OFFENSIVE TACKLE Alex Cooper
On how the offensive linemen played a big role in the win
"Coach Herman charged us with the task of really putting the game on our backs. He told us from the beginning of the week that this game was going to be an offensive line and defensive line-driven game, so we wanted to go in and execute, so most importantly our team could trust us. When the game is on the line like in this big game, that they can put it on us. We got a great response. It was awesome to look those guys in the eyes and tell them that we love them and that we'll do it every single week for them."
On how the Louisville win compared to last season's Armed Forces Bowl victory
"The bowl win last year was a good win, but (the Louisville win) was huge. It was huge to go into someone's house and be able to deflate the crowd... many guys were talking and one of the best things to see is before the last snap of the game to see guys leaving and the crowd disappearing, which was a good time."
On the play of quarterback Greg Ward, Jr.
"We go through team video test before the game, and he has to say what all he has to do on every single play. It's mind-boggling as offensive linemen, because we just have one thing to read. He has 800 things to do every single play, and somehow he always gets it done. That last play, the touchdown before the last one, he could've run it in and we were all like 'just run Greg, just run!' But he stopped and waited and let his receivers run their route, and it became a touchdown."
On the mentality of the new coaching staff
"It's something new that Coach Herman brought, and it's just something to show all the teammates that the guys have a plan. They know what they're doing. So everybody is in their right space and mentally they're all there.
On how it felt after beating Louisville
"When we got up in front of the team at the end of the game it was so fulfilling to know that our coaches and our teammates are proud of us. They thought that we played a good game, and they said that was the number one thing. When you go on the road, you have to control the game by being able to run the ball, and the offensive line has to play like we had to play."
On the health of the team after the Louisville game
"A couple of guys are dinged up. It will be good to be able to still have really intense practices but this weekend be able to get these guys healthy and watch a little football, That's always fun. So it'll be good."
On the team's goals for the bye week
"The only thing it makes us want to do is go harder. The only thing that it makes us want to do is put the pads on. I think Tuesday is our first practice, and (we want to) have one of the best practices ever. We had a workout today, and I told some of the guys we could beat Texas State two weeks in a row. (We're) preparing this week and next week to actually win it. So that is the goal."
On the team's mentality when times get tough
"It is really revealing. You see who you really are when times get tough. They prepare us for chaos, and they say everything we do is supposed to be the hardest thing we do, so when we get to the game everything can be easy. It's really fun when we're running up and down the field and we look at the d-line and their hands are on their waste, bent over, and their tapping their helmets asking for a sub. That's rewarding for us."
On the ways difficult training has helped prepare the team for victory
"Coach told us before the game that we sink to the level of our training. When it gets tough in the fourth quarter, you're going to go to what you know. You're going to get tired, and you're not going to remember certain things, but you're going to go to how hard you've been training. That was evident in this game."
HOUSTON SENIOR LINEBACKER Tyus Bowser
On the team's confidence after a big win against Louisville
"It's a pretty big win for us. Just coming in, trying to make a statement for the school and everything. It was pretty big for us, especially against a great team like Louisville, who has been known for having great players and a great program. For us to go in there and come out with a win, it was real big."
What it means to trust in Coach Herman and his training
"Oh man, its big time. We've been through a lot. Especially for me, just coming from another coach to Coach Herman now. It's been a huge change, especially for the training and stuff, and really it's always been a mindset. Just having a tough mindset. That's always been one of our main pillars is just to have a strong physical and mental mentality coming in. For us to go through that training and then bring it out for the season is real big, especially for new guys coming in just to try and get used to it."
On the results the team has already seen from a hard training camp
"It's great to see the (results), especially going through winter training and during spring and summer. We've been through a lot, and Coach did a great job as far as getting us ready for the season with all the workouts. All the different practices and training that we've been doing just to get us ready for the season."
On the Louisville quarterback change during the game
"It was quite an adjustment going from a more athletic quarterback as we've seen on film to somebody that we haven't seen much film on. It was a little bit of an adjustment. But I felt it was a little easier on us. To keep him (Lamar Jackson) in the backfield so he wouldn't get out as much because I know how athletic he is, and how agile he is, and how he is able to make plays for his team outside of just passing it and running the ball. He's able to make plays for himself, so that was an adjustment. It kind of made it easy. But that quarterback (Kyle Bolin) was also a good quarterback. He was able to throw the ball and make some big plays for them."
On the adjustments the defense had to make for the new quarterback
"Well, they are Louisville. They're a great team. They're going to be a team that's going to go down and score, so there really wasn't much of a problem for us. We know that teams are going to have (scoring) drives. They're going to have their moments where they're going to have the momentum and go out there and make plays. So after they scored it, it was just a sign of (to make some) adjustments, especially with the new quarterback. So just making slight adjustments, (and to) keep the right mentality to go out there, and play ball. Stick to the system. Just go out there and have fun and do what we have to do to win."
