University of Houston Athletics
Houston at Navy: Press Conference
10/15/2018 12:29:00 PM | Football
HOUSTON FOOTBALL
Monday, Oct. 15, 2018 • Houston
Carl Lewis Auditorium • Athletics/Alumni Center
HEAD COACH MAJOR APPLEWHITE
On playing Navy
"It's a lot of the same things that they've continually done, and then they'll fit their personnel groupings and their quarterbacks around their scheme. It's great execution. The effort in which they play with, their turnover margin is 13th in the country. That's something that is going to be extremely important in this game on Saturday. Their time of possession, is top-five in the country. When they do get the ball in the red zone they are first in the country in terms of scoring. Those are the things that we need to focus on. Those are the things that win and lose games. Obviously, the packages of who is playing quarterback, or who's at fullback, or who's at slot. All of those things will differ as they will with any offense or personnel. Those are the big battles, in terms of getting off the field and creating opportunities for our offense because the game is going to be short with fewer possessions, and securing the football from an offensive standpoint."
On Bo Alexander
"We've taken Bo and he's tight end now. He's moved to the tight end room and tight end position. Dennis Bardwell played well for us at tackle. With him playing that position allows, it us to have two tight end packages and some different things out of that set. He can catch the ball, we'd rather throw it to Marquez Stevenson and some of those other guys, but he can catch the ball."
On uncertainty of Navy's quarterback lineup
"It is certainly what we have dealt with the last three weeks in terms of Tulsa and preparing for them. Preparing for East Carolina with different quarterbacks, and then obviously kind of add in the triple option effect in terms of the quarterback taking more hits. You're going to see that, but you start to get to this point in the season where health is at a premium. It's hard to always have that, especially at the quarterback position."
On freshmen playing time for rest of season
"That is one of those things you don't say as a coach. You say that and the ceiling caves in. Everybody needs to stay alert. Everybody needs to stay ready to play. We are going to stand by exactly with what we said back in June before we started off season training. We are going to need every single person on this team to make a run through the conference. As tough as this conference is, you are going to need every single person to play every week."
On appealing Gleson Sprewell's play
"I have been told it was final. It is just like anything else in sports; good news or bad news, it is news, you move on. That is where our minds are for football teams, we move on."
On this week's defensive lineup
"We will have multiple guys. Obviously the offense we are facing will have different personnel groups out there, but Joeal Williams, Grant Stuard, Darius Gilbert, Deontay Anderson, all those guys will have to play back there. I am sure Coach D'Onofrio has some different things in terms of personnel for triple option, but that is what it is so we move on and get ready to go."
On the penalties in Saturday's game
"If you break them all down, 20 penalties in a game between both teams is a lot, but it is what it is. When you watch the tape it's hard to argue as a coach because you look at it and see that it is in fact holding or pass interference. You see that we did cover up our tight end and we ran a route, and we did in fact jump off sides twice. There are things that when you go back and look, you'll say 'hey why did he align this way'. You have two motion penalties on offense and one on special teams.
When you're on the road some of those things, like snap counts or holding, are normal. Pass interference is normal, but it was abnormally high for us. You have to go back and coach the techniques. You get to the point of reckoning when you think about why that pass interference happened, why your hands went outside, or why you held. We had two holding calls on punt, so we've got to go back and work on our technique in order to get our hands inside. We need to better explain to the guys how you can use your technique without getting a holding call.
Those are all teachable moments and it's great to be able to give them after getting a win, but we have to clean those things up. Even more specifically, we've got to clean them up from an offensive standpoint because we're just not going to get as many series' this week. The game is going to slow down, so you can't waste those opportunities.
When you watch a Navy game on tape, there's times where it may be 10 minutes left in the first quarter and they punt the ball. Then all of a sudden you get the ball back and there's only 30 seconds left in the first quarter because Navy just had a nine-minute offensive drive.
We've got to capitalize on those things, stay out of our own way and play cleaner from an administrative standpoint before the ball is snapped. We're going to have some aggressive penalties, some holding and things like that, but we've got to get out of our own way before the ball is snapped."
On the recent statistical strides and what has changed since the Texas Tech game
"It's been a concentrated effort to get better. We've come a long way, but we've got a million miles to go. We have several takeaways from the past weeks, but it's either a pat on the pack or it turns into a message. We've got to keep going. We've got to keep striving to be better because our best ball is still out there.
We're addressing those things, and our defensive staff is doing an excellent job at getting better. The last two weeks we've sputtered offensively, but our defense, through field position and takeaways, has kept our offense in there. It's good to see that your team can lean on either side of the ball at any point within the season. We just have to continue to do the right things correctly and continue to stress them.
You can never lose focus of the feeling you had when you lost. You've got to identify your problems and continue to attack those problems daily. When everybody is on the same page, as far as the sense of urgency and what we've got to do to fix those things, that's how we become a championship team every Saturday."
On the struggles on offense the last couple of games
"Just some execution. We had some turnovers against Tulsa and then there were some execution things that we did better to take better care of the ball and exploded in the second half. Last week it was getting behind the chains with some penalties. At the end of the day when you go on the road and you score 35 points offensively, but 42 points total team and go on the road at night and you're going to a conference game and win that game, it's important. It's also important to realize that we didn't turn the ball over. To some people, they say, 'Well great you didn't turn the ball over, but how many points did you get off rushing yards?', that's important in winning and losing games. When you can take your offense on the road and not give up the ball. Granted we had penalties and we're going to correct those, but you don't give free ones up, you don't create short fields for your defense, you have a good decision maker back there, and you have ball carriers that understand the value of the football. That's important when you go on the road and play."
On updates on players
"Darrion Owens and Terence Williams are much closer to being able to play. Raelon Singleton is now able to play and Isaiah Chambers is having his surgery this week."
Monday, Oct. 15, 2018 • Houston
Carl Lewis Auditorium • Athletics/Alumni Center
HEAD COACH MAJOR APPLEWHITE
On playing Navy
"It's a lot of the same things that they've continually done, and then they'll fit their personnel groupings and their quarterbacks around their scheme. It's great execution. The effort in which they play with, their turnover margin is 13th in the country. That's something that is going to be extremely important in this game on Saturday. Their time of possession, is top-five in the country. When they do get the ball in the red zone they are first in the country in terms of scoring. Those are the things that we need to focus on. Those are the things that win and lose games. Obviously, the packages of who is playing quarterback, or who's at fullback, or who's at slot. All of those things will differ as they will with any offense or personnel. Those are the big battles, in terms of getting off the field and creating opportunities for our offense because the game is going to be short with fewer possessions, and securing the football from an offensive standpoint."
On Bo Alexander
"We've taken Bo and he's tight end now. He's moved to the tight end room and tight end position. Dennis Bardwell played well for us at tackle. With him playing that position allows, it us to have two tight end packages and some different things out of that set. He can catch the ball, we'd rather throw it to Marquez Stevenson and some of those other guys, but he can catch the ball."
On uncertainty of Navy's quarterback lineup
"It is certainly what we have dealt with the last three weeks in terms of Tulsa and preparing for them. Preparing for East Carolina with different quarterbacks, and then obviously kind of add in the triple option effect in terms of the quarterback taking more hits. You're going to see that, but you start to get to this point in the season where health is at a premium. It's hard to always have that, especially at the quarterback position."
On freshmen playing time for rest of season
"That is one of those things you don't say as a coach. You say that and the ceiling caves in. Everybody needs to stay alert. Everybody needs to stay ready to play. We are going to stand by exactly with what we said back in June before we started off season training. We are going to need every single person on this team to make a run through the conference. As tough as this conference is, you are going to need every single person to play every week."
On appealing Gleson Sprewell's play
"I have been told it was final. It is just like anything else in sports; good news or bad news, it is news, you move on. That is where our minds are for football teams, we move on."
On this week's defensive lineup
"We will have multiple guys. Obviously the offense we are facing will have different personnel groups out there, but Joeal Williams, Grant Stuard, Darius Gilbert, Deontay Anderson, all those guys will have to play back there. I am sure Coach D'Onofrio has some different things in terms of personnel for triple option, but that is what it is so we move on and get ready to go."
On the penalties in Saturday's game
"If you break them all down, 20 penalties in a game between both teams is a lot, but it is what it is. When you watch the tape it's hard to argue as a coach because you look at it and see that it is in fact holding or pass interference. You see that we did cover up our tight end and we ran a route, and we did in fact jump off sides twice. There are things that when you go back and look, you'll say 'hey why did he align this way'. You have two motion penalties on offense and one on special teams.
When you're on the road some of those things, like snap counts or holding, are normal. Pass interference is normal, but it was abnormally high for us. You have to go back and coach the techniques. You get to the point of reckoning when you think about why that pass interference happened, why your hands went outside, or why you held. We had two holding calls on punt, so we've got to go back and work on our technique in order to get our hands inside. We need to better explain to the guys how you can use your technique without getting a holding call.
Those are all teachable moments and it's great to be able to give them after getting a win, but we have to clean those things up. Even more specifically, we've got to clean them up from an offensive standpoint because we're just not going to get as many series' this week. The game is going to slow down, so you can't waste those opportunities.
When you watch a Navy game on tape, there's times where it may be 10 minutes left in the first quarter and they punt the ball. Then all of a sudden you get the ball back and there's only 30 seconds left in the first quarter because Navy just had a nine-minute offensive drive.
We've got to capitalize on those things, stay out of our own way and play cleaner from an administrative standpoint before the ball is snapped. We're going to have some aggressive penalties, some holding and things like that, but we've got to get out of our own way before the ball is snapped."
On the recent statistical strides and what has changed since the Texas Tech game
"It's been a concentrated effort to get better. We've come a long way, but we've got a million miles to go. We have several takeaways from the past weeks, but it's either a pat on the pack or it turns into a message. We've got to keep going. We've got to keep striving to be better because our best ball is still out there.
We're addressing those things, and our defensive staff is doing an excellent job at getting better. The last two weeks we've sputtered offensively, but our defense, through field position and takeaways, has kept our offense in there. It's good to see that your team can lean on either side of the ball at any point within the season. We just have to continue to do the right things correctly and continue to stress them.
You can never lose focus of the feeling you had when you lost. You've got to identify your problems and continue to attack those problems daily. When everybody is on the same page, as far as the sense of urgency and what we've got to do to fix those things, that's how we become a championship team every Saturday."
On the struggles on offense the last couple of games
"Just some execution. We had some turnovers against Tulsa and then there were some execution things that we did better to take better care of the ball and exploded in the second half. Last week it was getting behind the chains with some penalties. At the end of the day when you go on the road and you score 35 points offensively, but 42 points total team and go on the road at night and you're going to a conference game and win that game, it's important. It's also important to realize that we didn't turn the ball over. To some people, they say, 'Well great you didn't turn the ball over, but how many points did you get off rushing yards?', that's important in winning and losing games. When you can take your offense on the road and not give up the ball. Granted we had penalties and we're going to correct those, but you don't give free ones up, you don't create short fields for your defense, you have a good decision maker back there, and you have ball carriers that understand the value of the football. That's important when you go on the road and play."
On updates on players
"Darrion Owens and Terence Williams are much closer to being able to play. Raelon Singleton is now able to play and Isaiah Chambers is having his surgery this week."
Players Mentioned
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DB
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OL
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LB
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WR
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RB
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