University of Houston Athletics
Press Conference: Game 8 at SMU
10/17/2016 12:00:00 AM | Football
HOUSTON FOOTBALL WEEKLY PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES (PDF)
#11/11 HOUSTON (6-1, 3-1 American) at SMU (2-4, 0-2 American)
Gerald J. Ford Stadium • Dallas, Texas • Saturday, Oct. 22 | 6 pm CT
HOUSTON HEAD COACH Tom Herman
Opening Statement
"I'm proud of our guys for responding to adversity. They are a really good football team, and I give a lot of credit to Phillip (Montgomery). What he has been able to do with the development of the players, in comparison to this year's team, has been magnetic. He has his team playing more athletically, harder and with more aggression.
The message driven home to our team is that we're everybody's super bowl, so we're going to get everyone's 'A' game. Everybody is going to want to beat us because of the respect that we've earned in the last 21 months. That's a good thing, but in reference to the Navy game, we're not good enough to beat everybody when we make a bunch of turnovers.
We have to bring our 'A' game every game, rep and series. We did just that in the first half against Tulsa, but we let off the gas towards the end of the first half. When we fumbled the football and gave the ball back to Tulsa, they were able to tie the game. At that moment there was a big momentum change and it put us into battle.
We were extremely banged up due to being one of the only teams in the country that hasn't had a bye week. Soon we will have everyone at full strength. Duke Catalon met with a neurosurgeon today, so we are hoping to have more clarity on his situation. As far as the other guys, Matthew Adams, Jerard Carter, Chance Allen, and Steven Dunbar: those guys should be back. What their percentage level will be when they return is our concern now. We have to grind through these next two weeks, because we don't have a bye week until week ten. We're playing football for 12-and-half weeks straight, so it's going to take its toll on their bodies. We have to focus on getting healthy, because the scheduling has us playing a team that has just come off a bye week, which doesn't seem fair to me. I'm going to do my best at talking to our conference to figure out to make bye weeks more equitable.
We're banged up, but our guys are tough. I'm excited to see what they will produce on the field when we play SMU. SMU will be well rested and motivated. There is a little rivalry being that we are the only two teams in our conference in the state of Texas. They're going to give us their best shot, and their best shot is good enough to beat us if we're not hitting all our cylinders."
On which players that will step in on the defensive side and Chance (Allen)
"Mac Long needs to step up for Jerard (Carter). We feel good about our depth there, but those guys have to rotate against an up-tempo team, as you've seen. B.J. (Singleton) and Nick (Thurman) may be listed as backups, but they are not considered backups. We have five starting defensive tackles that just happen to rotate in three spots. So Nick has to pick up some load. Jerard can't play as many snaps.
Matthew (Adams), depending on his health if he's at the point where his injury is affecting the way we play defense negatively, we have to put D'Juan (Hines) in. He's got to go in and produce. I thought D'Juan did a decent job when asked to do that against Tulsa. We will have Chance (Allen). He will be sore. Isaiah (Johnson) has to be the guy that will take some of the reps off the two outside receivers. Isaiah is the utility guy, He played some inside receiver and outside receiver, along with the D'Eriq (King). Maybe those two young knuckleheads we have Keith (Corbin) and Courtney (Lark) can have really good practices this week and merit some time in the game that isn't mop up duty."
On motivating and establishing the brand Tom Herman made
"The motivation is easy because every week there is something about how we are overrated or not good enough. We were the underdogs, we were this and we were that. The chip on our shoulder never had to be manufactured. It was there organically from last year, which creates a toughness and edge about you.
This year our team is tough and physical, but our team is learning how to be the hunter, not the hunted. We are learning to be the overdog instead of the underdog. It is interesting, you are drawing on different senses to motivate yourself. It's all pride when you are the underdog that is disrespected. There is the pride of the, 'Hey, I'm going to prove all of you wrong.' Now it's the pride of, 'Hey, we have to prove everybody right.' I don't want to let anybody down. My pride is what we built past the continued week in and week out of what I built as an individual player (speaking for them). We have to maintain and play (my) A game every single week, because I'm going to get it from my opponent."
On his feelings the last play
"Not much has changed watching it on film versus watching it live. It was a tremendous play by Austin Robinson and Khalil Williams. For Austin, it was his first defensive snap all night, and his first meaningful snap of his entire career. There's a reason for competitive focus, it's one of the four pillars of our program. In essence it means that you train so hard that when your number is called you're ready. Austin certainly was. In the moments after, as a head coach, you're always calculating. I was yelling at Todd Orlando, because he was looking at the scoreboard. I said, 'Hey, stop looking at the scoreboard. That's not going to change whether they call the game or not. Get your guys ready to go block the point after touchdown if they overturn it.' It's the same with the offensive coaches, 'We need to get our overtime plan ready. Let's go.' It was more about managing the players and coaches, and preparing for the worst-case scenario. Had they overturned it, we needed to be ready to go block the PAT and the offense needed to be ready to score a touchdown."
On what he'd like Dillion Birden to improve on
"Hold onto the football, for one. That's about it. Dillion gives us everything he's got. He's a great kid, super smart and never makes a mistake. He's very reliable and very dependable. He's not the most dynamic, not the most explosive tailback. From a fundamental standpoint, we run the inside zone a lot. The cuts and the holes on the inside zone are usually different every time, and he has to have a better feel for 'if the defense does this, then the hole is usually here.' The great backs, to me, have always anticipated where the hole was going to be based on what the defense has given them. A lot of that is through experience. You can watch all the tape you want, but getting out there full speed is different. He's coming around, but I'd like to accelerate that process as best as possible."
On if Greg Ward Jr., is over used
"Yes and no. I think there was only three or four called quarterback runs. The rest come on reads or scrambles. So, we're not going to stop reading people in our offense. Why they would ever force Greg to carry the football is beyond me. When you're reading a run, like the option teams do, you do what the defense tells you to do. If the defense is telling Greg to keep it, he's going to keep it. We can help him a little more. I've had the conversation with the offensive staff about can we win with less read plays maybe. When its crunch time in a tie ballgame or a close ballgame like that, the way I know football is to think 'players not plays.' He's our best player. When the game is on the line, I want the ball in the hands of our best player. We're continuing to find ways to run the football without him having to read people or be the designed character. But if we need to win the game, we'll use him."
Playing with a chip after Navy loss
"Yes. We went back to what we do well and that's stop the run. Besides from the triple option team, this is now how many weeks in a row that we have held an opponent under 100 yards? That's phenomenal. We have to understand as players and coaches, our offense is going to get us points and our defense is going to stop the run. At some point theses teams, whether it be UConn or Tulsa, that don't really want to throw it every snap are going to say that in order to win the game they have to throw it every snap.
Our mindset needs to transition at whatever point of the game that is to be a little bit more focused on the pass. Lock in on how is this team going to beat us now that we that we have lead and we have completely shut down the run game. What's their next move going to be? Their next move is going to be to throw the football. I was disappointed in the way we played pass defense, especially on third down. 14-of-20 is what Tulsa was on third down, a 70 percent conversion rate, which is off the charts bad for a defense and off the charts good for an offense. I have no doubt that we will get all those problems cleaned up this week. Getting Terrell (Williams) kicked out of the game was a big blow to the secondary, a lot of pieces had to move around. I was proud of them for getting back into stopping the run and now we have to do a better job of continuing on people once we force them to throw the ball with their left hand. We have to be able to stop them. We did not do that well."
On interests in Big 12 meetings…
"Zero. None. Level of interest is zero. How much do I pay attention to it? None. How much do I think about it? Zilch. I don't know any other ways to say it. I don't. I'm dead serious when I tell you it consumes zero amount of my time, energy, effort or thought at all. Our academic center is in this building. Our training room is here. Our weight room and all of our film watching equipment is in this building. I told our players, 'if you are not in class and you are not in this building, what are you possibly doing that can help us beat SMU?' The same thought process goes into this. If I am spending an ounce of energy thinking about this, then that is an ounce of energy that I haven't given to beating SMU. That's not fair for me to ask our guys to give all of their time, effort and energy into beating SMU and yet I'm busy thinking about other things that I can't control."
On Terrell Williams' ejection and moving forward…
"The officials certainly better not have any sort of designation on us, which I can't imagine they would. The biggest thing is to get back on the horse. If you fall off the horse, you have to get back on. For him he thought he was doing the right thing, and in my opinion he was. He got called for it, but you have to trust that he will do that again 100 times and 100 times it's not going to get called targeting. That's an easy fix. Howard Wilson got thrown out of a game last year for targeting and he was fine. Elandon Roberts same thing against UConn last year and he was certainly fine. You just have to tell them to trust their training. He will continue to do that and it will not get called in the future."
On having 10 penalties…
"If we can stop kicking the ball out of bounds that will take away two of them and we would be down to eight. We had a holding on Alex Fontana that I am going to have the officials give me an interpretation on that. The targeting, I'm going to get the officials interpretation on that. We had a pass interference on Brandon Wilson on a jump ball that was a 50-50 ball that both guys were going for the ball on. We had a late hit out of bounds on Jordan Milburn on a kickoff return that was a millisecond too late. Those types of penalties happen.
We have to try to be as smart as we can. When you are running full speed, and again its much like targeting, the instant he makes the decision to uncoil, make the hit or make the tackle when the guy is inbound and the next nanosecond the guy is out of bounds, I don't know how Jordan Milburn is supposed to stop himself. What that's going to lead to if you reprimand it too much, you will have a lot of guys on defense being hesitant when the ball carrier gets next to the sideline and he's going to gain 10 more yards on you by tiptoeing and staying inbounds. The four that were most disappointing were the two too many man on the field. That's on coaching. We have to do a better job of substituting against up-tempo offenses.
The holding on the kickoff return and the personal foul against Will Noble, he was punished for that even though it was unlike him to go off on that. The coaches will clean up the substitution ones. Mike Ecke has to play with better technique on the holding on the kick off return and Will (Noble) is an engineering major. He's one of the smarter guys on this team, so he knows better than that. The rest of them I have to have the officials tell me what we are doing wrong in how we are coaching."
On the impact of a power five conference designation
"The financial (impact) is big. I like to win, and I said on the teleconference earlier, I like being one of the better teams in the American Conference a whole lot more than I like being the least funded, least recruited and having the worst facilities of the Big 12. I understand why the presidents, athletic directors and board of regents would want that, but it is a major transformation going from a 'have' to a 'have-not' in your conference. It is difficult and it will take years and years to reach that status. We're talking about a budget discrepancy between us and Iowa State, and Iowa State has the lowest operating budget of the Big 12. That's not going to be made up with a wave of a wand because you're in the Big 12. 'Here's $15 million more for your operating budget.' That is a major rebuild. The good news is, it will come. Revenue will be up, so I do understand the benefits of it, but for me it would be nice to be able to recruit kids and say 'five of your opponents are in-state and two more are in the bordering state of Oklahoma.' That's a major challenge in the short-term from a resource standpoint to compete week-in and week-out."
On SMU's growth
"It's very similar to Tulsa. Both of those universities hit home runs with those hires in Phillip Montgomery and Chad Morris. You're seeing a lot of the same people, by name, on the field, but their bodies have changed. Their speed, size and strength have changed for the better. You're seeing a team that has played much better defense than a year ago. They're second in the country for interceptions right now, so they're getting way more turnovers than they were before. They lost their quarterback, which hurt them a little bit from a dual threat standpoint, but Ben Hicks is playing well. He's throwing the ball and managing the game. He's definitely not the home-run threat running the football that Matt Davis was, but he's very capable and doing a good job as a freshman."
On losing recruits last January
"We lost two (to SMU) actually, including the tailback from Katy Seven Lakes, Braeden West. It's nothing you can control, especially because of the timing of it. Chad (Morris) was able to get on the road and recruit that first week of December, so he had a week to get into these kids' homes. I was playing in the Big Ten Championship, so by the time I got here it was the extended dead period as far as recruiting goes. From the second week of December to the second week of January, you can't go on the road recruiting. You're trying to build these relationships over the phone, and it's not the same. These kids can't even come on your campus, so it makes it really hard, especially with Ben (Hicks), because he was a January enrollee. At least with Braden (West) I got out there in January to try to talk to him, but he had already taken his visit here. It's not like you can say 'hey come back and take a visit.' You can't take those visits back. It's difficult. I wish those guys nothing but success, and if they're happy, then I'm happy. We're in the kid business. If that was the right decision for them and their future, then I'm happy for them."
Houston Football student-athletes Cameron Malveaux, Garrett Davis and Dillon Birden also met with the media on Monday.
SENIOR DEENSIVE END Cameron Malveaux
On the challenges this week with SMU
"Much like Tulsa, they are a balanced offense that runs the ball and throws the ball."
On the goal line stand Saturday night that sealed the game against Tulsa
"I thought the ball was coming to me, and I did what I could. Then I saw Khalil (Williams) run out there and stop the run at the line. It was exciting and I really didn't know if we did get it but I turned and saw everyone running on the field."
On what goes through his mind on a rushing goal line stop like that
"I had to back up to let Ed (Oliver) and Nick (Wildberger) run on the field. So I was already off the ball and then they hiked it when I was already standing up so I was like 'man they are about to score'. But then Ed (Oliver) came out of nowhere and made the play."
On how the defense is built to stop the run but has been adapting with teams passing more
"I wouldn't say we are built to stop the run, because we have a pretty athletic secondary. We just have to get more technically sound. They are going to try us and throw shots now that they have seen them, so we just have to prepare better."
On the "next man up" mentality and how does it come into play with so many injuries
"Coach Herman is big on mental reps, so the next man up just means the next man up is ready to go."
JUNIOR RUNNING BACK DILLION BIRDEN
On being named to Athletic American Conference weekly honor roll
"It feels good. I couldn't do it without my offensive line. The coaches put me in this positon, and I appreciate them for the opportunity. We have a good game against SMU this week, so that's what we are looking forward to."
On what he is working on to grow as a running back
"I have to run harder. Coach Pope talked about how I have to help my offensive line with their blocks more and read my cuts. It's going to come with more reps and more time."
On his fumble in Saturday's game
"That was bad. That's all me getting careless with the ball. I'm going to work on ball security every day. That was me being lazy one play, and that can't happen. We were up 17-3 and after that fumble they came out and scored. They scored again before halftime and it changed momentum."
On his road to the University of Houston
"It's a blessing. I give all the glory to God. Like I said earlier, I appreciate the coaches for this opportunity. I have a great team and teammates. I have a great offensive line in front of me, Tyler McCloskey too, as well as the other tight ends."
On if he learns from running back Duke Catalon
"Yes. I learn from Duke still to this day. Duke is an outstanding back. He can do everything. I'm glad I can learn from a guy like him."
SOPHOMORE SAFETY Garrett Davis
On the play where he forced a fumble
"Coach (Orlando) dialed me up for a blitz, and a (Tulsa) offensive linemen knocked me down on the play. I just got back up and saw the quarterback was still in the pocket and still had the ball. I had to get up and engage. I went for a tackle and ended up getting a strip. (Emek Egbule) was able to recover it and take it home for six."
On what is his next thought after he made the strip
"If I don't get it, if a teammate picks it up and it's still in play, then you just immediately look for the next opponent to go block."
On practicing fumble recovery
"Anytime there is a turn over, you don't stop until the whistle is blown. Coaches will hold the whistle, it's instinctive. In practice we go look to another jersey and put it body-to-body."
On if the Cougars are getting more looks in the secondary
"I think our offense is very fast and up tempo. They can get up on teams. When teams are down, they become one dimensional. They are going to start to throw the ball more and that just gives our defense a chance to get in and take some balls out of the air."
On what the team needed to do to come up with big plays
"We just kept preaching to remember our goals and what we have accomplished. We are a good defense, and we have good players. When we all band together it's pretty unbreakable. We just made an emphasis to all come together. There aren't individuals out there. We are all one. When you think about it like that, it's easier to go out there and make plays."
On the final play representing how intense the team trains every day
"Yeah, that was great. We weren't prepared. We knew that they would come out in that package. We were expecting a run, obviously. Coach (Todd) Orlando did say in practice that they might and try and throw the ball out of it. Credit to Austin (Robinson) he was able to see and react on it. It ties in on what we do at practice. We just train and don't stop until the whistle is blown. Clearly, Austin (Robinson) did that."
On giving Austin Robinson credit on making a big play
"We gave him a lot of credit and praise. Every day, day in and out, we come in and work hard. Everything you do out there isn't right. You will mess up. We are human. The effort level is always there. Everyone is trying their hardest. For him to come out and do that, it was patience. When his name and number was called, he was ready. That comes from mental reps at practice."
