University of Houston Athletics
Houston at Temple: Weekly Press Conference
9/25/2017 12:00:00 AM | Football
2017 HOUSTON FOOTBALL QUOTES FOR THE TEMPLE GAME
Lincoln Financial Field • Philadelphia, Pa. • Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017
HEAD COACH Major Applewhite
On the inconsistencies in the offense…
"You look back and can see the inconsistency. We were in way to many third and longs to be successful. Your percentage of conversions on third and seven is realistically around 25 to 30 percent. You're not going to convert that as much as a third and medium. We were not efficient on first and second down. Obviously we didn't take care of the football. We had some issues with our snaps and the timing of our offense in general. We had some drops and some missed assignments. It was lack of consistency across the board. We didn't take care of the football and convert touchdowns in the red zone."
On if the play from the offense came as a surprise…
"In regards to snaps, we have not had that issue. We've had a few, but not to the extent shown on Saturday. It's disruptive to the timing of the run game. It's disruptive to the quarterbacks' eyes. It's disruptive to where you set your quarterback in the pocket, because he's late in his drop. It's the most important exchange in football. I hate to sound cliché, but it starts the entire play off. If we can't get off the launch pad the right way it doesn't matter what offense we're running were going to have difficulty.
"I don't care who you are some, there will be dropped balls, errant throws in the passing game and times when the running back doesn't quite see the hole right. That's understandable, but there were some execution errors as well in terms of just not blocking the right person in certain schemes. There was some inconsistencies in our performance. It surprises you as a coach, sometimes it doesn't, but the main thing is not worry about fixing the blame so much and fixing the problem."
On how he plans on helping the team move forward after the loss…
"I told them yesterday that I was really proud of them. There's a lot of ways that game could have gone. There were some frustration at times, certainly in the fourth quarter when you're down three scores. They kept fighting as a football team. They kept fighting, they kept competing and they found themselves with 20 seconds left. Had we not had a turnover late on special teams there might have even been more time on the clock, but they found themselves with 20 seconds left to get an onside, kick down by three. We should have never been in that situation to begin with.
"They kept fighting as a team and I told them I was very proud of them. Sometimes people take for granted that they can come out there and compete. I'm very grateful that we have a team that doesn't have that type of character. We've just got to play better. We've got to coach better and put our team in a better position to win the game. Practice yesterday showed me that they were irritated, pissed off and wanted to go out there to correct some mistakes. Same thing with the coaching staff, we had a good practice yesterday and are looking forward to getting back on the field tomorrow."
On if there has been a point of emphasis on scoring in the second half…
"Every time you step on the field you have to score points. It doesn't matter, second quarter, third quarter, fourth quarter, or first quarter, go out on the field and score points. I thought our kickoff coverage team went down there and tackled them at the 21 or 22 yard line. Terry Mark made a great play. The defense held them to a three and out and we didn't move the football."
On handling priority of quarterback position and if it is a competition…
"We're going to evaluate the quarterback position like every other position. Every position is always wide open. The moment you tell your football team that this position is locked and shut, you're discouraging people from committing themselves and practicing hard. All positions are going to be open, kickers open, everything is wide open in this program always."
On concerns for Temple, both sides of the ball…
"From a defensive standpoint, they're going to line up and run the football. They can still throw the football. They have great wide receivers, great speed and a quarterback that can deliver the ball. They are going to do some things differently then you typically see in this league, in terms of spread formations. They line up and hammer the ball at you. So you have to switch gears from last week against Texas Tech. We are going to get into heavier sets and being able to play those in terms of the run game.
"From a defensive standpoint, it's a really good defense. They play with great technique. They've got a great defensive line, they have experience in the secondary, and they continue to play great defense. I know there are some yards and some stats out there that aren't as flattering, but I can tell you sometimes those stats aren't necessarily what they seem. They're a great defense and are going to be a great challenge."
On addressing the quarterback position…
"The production at that position was not what it needed to be Saturday. We're going to always continue to evaluate that position the same way we will wide receiver, defensive line, and corners. Whoever it is, we're going to evaluate those positions and see how they practice and earn the right to go play."
On D'Eriq King's performance and how he will be used…
"He's everything I've advertised him as. In terms of disciplined, explosiveness, smarts and taking great care of the football. His role will continue to be expanded and he will continue to have the opportunity to play quarterback position. We had a package for him Saturday and we need to expand on that and use it."
On how the offense will learn from the Texas Tech game…
"Yes, they have to. That's what people are going to do. When you've got an offense that's going to throw the football you've got to put people into coverage. You've got to create something to disrupt the offensive line from just setting back on you. They're going to run games and stunts. We've got to get better, we've got to develop as an offensive line and get better at the types of things the defense is going to do. We've got to understand that we're going to continue to play great football teams because this is a great conference. The competition level is going to continue to rise. We've got to get better, we've got to focus on those things. We've got to be mindful of them, deliver it in our practice, know what we're doing and understand that that's what people are going to do."
On how satisfying the special teams were and if improvement is the goal for the defense…
"In terms of our kick coverage, other than having an off sides penalty there wasn't really anything taken out on us. We hit a field goal and then we kicked the ball out of bounds. We gave them 5 yards and then we had an off sides penalty. Those were things that were due to the nerves of the kickers and being really aggressive to go down there. We've got to slow our roll out of our stance from the kickoff return standpoint. We gave our offense great field position and an opportunity to go score.
"As for our punt return team, we can't turn the ball over and that was a critical part in the game where there was a possession lost. You can't turn the football over in that situation. We've got to that possession is goal number one. The battle of the penalties is goal number two. Anything on top of that is gravy and the reality of special teams is that if you don't have a disaster, you're usually going to tie or win the special team battle. It's the disasters that you want to prevent: the turnovers and the game-changing plays where field position completely flops.
"Then from a punt team standpoint, there's some details that we have to fix. There were some substitution issues with our punt team, but our punt team did a good job of going down and covering. Dane (Roy) did a good job of punting the football. We've got to continue to improve on that and clean up some small things.
Defensively, they really fought their guts out. There's some guys that really played hard and I'm really proud of them. What we do defensively is that there's some high risk to it, but there's some high award to it. With that, there has to be tremendous effort to the football because sometimes you're living on the edge and you need people to get there. When you're betting the bunch, you've got to make sure that it's backed by great effort and that people are flying to the football. If someone misses, somebody is there to clean it up.
"I'm really proud of the way they competed, but at the same time you can't wipe away four plays. You can't say, 'We played great, but these three plays.' Those three plays count too. There were some times when we weren't in the right place, didn't use the right technique, weren't lined up correctly, and didn't give ourselves the best opportunity to get ourselves down. We missed some tackles and allowed some explosive plays to happen."
On any takeaways between Kyle Allen and Kyle Postma's performances…
"I don't want to take anything from Kyle Postma, because I love Kyle and he's done a lot for our football program and he's going to continue to do a lot for our program. When you're down three scores the complexion of the game changes: you change what you're calling on defense, you're not as aggressive, you're playing a two-man, which means you have two safeties deep and everybody else is playing man coverage. As soon as those receivers start running routes, everyone turns their head away from the quarterback and the quarterback can now start to run. That's indicative of a three score ball game. You didn't see that coverage in the first and second quarters. He made use of that coverage, tucked the ball, ran and did some great things in terms of helping our offense move in that situation.
"They were more patient as a defense saying, 'We've got a three score lead with seven and a half minutes left, let's not lock up and play man to man with one safety in the middle of the field and give up a cheap one. Let's sit back a little bit and let them have to drive the ball down the field.' Kyle did what he was supposed to do. He drove the ball down the field and gave us an opportunity to get back in the game. It's really goes hand in hand: the defense being in a prevent type mode and the quarterback taking advantage of that. All I can ask him to do is take whatever the defense gives him at a certain point in time. The defense gave him some quarterback runs and he made some good decisions with the football as well. Even though we scored on two drives, there were still some times in there where there were some balls thrown that could've been interceptions. We're going to put a priority at the quarterback position of taking care of the football."
