Houston vs. Temple: Press Conference
11/5/2018 12:30:00 PM | Football
HOUSTON FOOTBALL
Monday, Nov. 5, 2018 • Houston
Carl Lewis Auditorium • Athletics/Alumni Center
HEAD COACH MAJOR APPLEWHITE
On watching the film on the offense
"Offensively, it was a situation where there was some things we could do better as coaches and obviously some things we could do better as players. Looking at how they played us, inviting the wrong, we have to be able to execute that better. We also have to do some things that we do well, trust what we do, and trust what we do best. That's when you go back and you're honest on your assessment with it. There were some certain positions that didn't play very well, and didn't see things the way they needed to be seen. There were some coaches, myself included, that didn't see things the way they needed to, and make adjustments when they needed to be made. Defensively, just looking at some of the things that happened through the air, we can't let people get behind us when we are playing zone. The whole purpose of playing zone is to prevent huge plays and stay behind everything. We need to change up some looks that were giving quarterbacks, especially experienced guys and guys playing well like Anthony Russo that we'll be playing Saturday. We need to change up our coverage looks and we need to create more pressure. There wasn't enough pressure, there was some pressure at times. We need to create more pressure if we want to affect the quarterback."
On making adjustments
"The game, the time you had in the game to be able to try and fix some of the things in the run game. Get eyes where they needed to be, in terms of the backs and stay on certain blocks. The time of the game early in the third quarter, you were still able to run the football. The game still allowed that, because of the amount of time. As you started getting late in the third quarter and early fourth quarter the point margin, where we were, how far behind versus how much time was left, you had no other choice then to throw the football, because we were down two or three scores. The clock dictated a lot of that, but as we went back and looked at it as a mentioned earlier, there were some things we should of done earlier as coaches and some execution we should've had as players. "
On D'Eriq King
"Sometimes sacks are on receivers running wrong routes. The quarterback has to hold the ball. Sometimes their on running backs, sometimes their on quarterbacks looking the wrong way. It's not always on the offensive line. We go back and we see all of that. The most important thing is not assigning blame, its fixing the problem. That's where we've been at and that's what we talked about yesterday as a team. The loss is only good if you learn from it and you change. There's always lessons to be learned, and everybody learns, but do you change? If you don't change you're going to repeat it again, and were at a situation where we have what we want in front of us to play for. Understanding that nothing else matters but Temple, so we need to make the necessary changes as a head coach, position coach, coordinators, senior leaders, and players that felt like they weren't prepared well enough to play. You learn from it, but you go and change your behavior and get back to the team that you were when you won five straight games. Create timely turnovers, score on defense, and score 45 points a game. You can eat a grenade over this deal, or you can realize you're still a good football team and fix some things."
On recovering from the tough loss
"You learn from this. You go, change your behavior and get back to being the team you were that won five straight games, created timely turnovers, scored on defense and scored 45 points a game. You can either grenade over this deal, or you can realize you're still a good football team that needs to fix some things."
On taking value out of SMU loss
"You have to. As a competitor and a team who's fighting for a championship that, more importantly, is getting ready for a really good football team coming in here Saturday night. You have to find value out of it. You're not trying to find silver linings, moral victories or anything like that. You're trying to find the hardcore facts that are going to allow you to be a better ball club Saturday at six. Sometimes those truths are ugly and you have to face them, but that is the only way you're going to get where you want to go.
On how injured and tired defensive players may have prevented a key stop at end of the game
"They took over at nine and a half (yards); up by seven. We didn't touch the ball again until I think about two minutes left, and we were down two scores. They were able to control the ball at the end of the game, and that's what you have to do to be able to close out games at home. That's what we did at home against South Florida the week before.
You're put in that situation, as a player and as a coach, without the depth you want for that situation. It's a great opportunity, as a competitor, to defy odds and to do something that no one else can do. That's why you play. That's why you coach. We can win with all the greatest players, as coaches. We can win with the perfect play call, as a player. That's the fun part of competing, whenever the odds are stacked against you and you don't have a great hand, but you go out and find a way to win anyway. That's what we have to do this Saturday against Temple and obviously the rest of the season."
On if the weather affected players
"It didn't. To me, we all dealt with the same elements. The same wind, the same rain, the same delay.
On if they expect Ed Oliver to play this Saturday, even though he did not play in SMU game
"We expect him. Being medically cleared and being able to play are sometimes two different things. It was still about trying to monitor him and go day-to-day. We still continue to trust the team doctors on Ed and what's best for him, ultimately. We're just going to continue to monitor him."
On what Ed Oliver has been doing to recover from injury and why he did not play in SMU game
"He did rehabilitation stuff and drills the first part of the week and joined the team the second part of the week, but he was not full-contact. Then he got there on game day and moved around. It didn't feel 100 percent. We're not going to put somebody out there who doesn't feel like they're in the best position to play and play safely. That's what I trust the doctors and trainers for. That's why he didn't play Saturday."
On injury update for Jerard Carter and Aymiel Fleming
"They went through some of the stuff with the trainers and doctors. There will be more medical treatment today, because it's our off day. We will have more information tomorrow. We don't want to get ahead of ourselves when we're not practicing today, but we will find out more stuff tomorrow morning."
On injury update for Mulbah Car and Terence Williams
"Same situation."
On what he has seen with Temple
"Their team has improved. They play with great effort. They are a very tough football team. Those are the things that you want to be described by. They are very athletic. They are very talented as well. They play a very tough and physical brand of football. On defense they are man-to-man. They believe in it. It's their way of doing things, and they are very successful at it. They have a great defensive front and good tacklers on the edge. From an offensive standpoint, since Russo has entered the game they have much more continuity in their passing game. They have been much more explosive. All their wide outs have returned. They have two great running backs and Jager Gardner is an outstanding back as well. They are coming alive as a football team. They are playing good football right now."
On if the defense is improving or not
"How many points do we allow? How many points are we giving up? What type of third down defense are we playing? What type of red zone defense are we playing? How many takeaways are we creating? Those are the key things that I am looking at. Yards can lie. If you get people off the field with field goals, if you're taking the ball away and creating short fields for your offense, and getting them off the field on third down, those are successful traits that you look for. I'm not always going to look at total rushing yards or total passing yards given up. Those aren't always great indicators on winning or losing, but ultimately holding the team to one less point than you score. That's what we talk about. That's the reality. When you get in games you may be able to dominate an opponent and hold them to zero points in the first half. We've done that. We've been in some other games where they were shootouts with explosive offenses. South Florida two weeks ago was an example of that. You know you're going to give up some yards. There's some skilled players there. We have to play good red zone defense, take the ball away a few times, and play great on third down. Those are the things we look at to evaluate our defense to see how successful we are. Obviously effort on ball security and tackling and the basic fundamentals of defensive football are important."
Monday, Nov. 5, 2018 • Houston
Carl Lewis Auditorium • Athletics/Alumni Center
HEAD COACH MAJOR APPLEWHITE
On watching the film on the offense
"Offensively, it was a situation where there was some things we could do better as coaches and obviously some things we could do better as players. Looking at how they played us, inviting the wrong, we have to be able to execute that better. We also have to do some things that we do well, trust what we do, and trust what we do best. That's when you go back and you're honest on your assessment with it. There were some certain positions that didn't play very well, and didn't see things the way they needed to be seen. There were some coaches, myself included, that didn't see things the way they needed to, and make adjustments when they needed to be made. Defensively, just looking at some of the things that happened through the air, we can't let people get behind us when we are playing zone. The whole purpose of playing zone is to prevent huge plays and stay behind everything. We need to change up some looks that were giving quarterbacks, especially experienced guys and guys playing well like Anthony Russo that we'll be playing Saturday. We need to change up our coverage looks and we need to create more pressure. There wasn't enough pressure, there was some pressure at times. We need to create more pressure if we want to affect the quarterback."
On making adjustments
"The game, the time you had in the game to be able to try and fix some of the things in the run game. Get eyes where they needed to be, in terms of the backs and stay on certain blocks. The time of the game early in the third quarter, you were still able to run the football. The game still allowed that, because of the amount of time. As you started getting late in the third quarter and early fourth quarter the point margin, where we were, how far behind versus how much time was left, you had no other choice then to throw the football, because we were down two or three scores. The clock dictated a lot of that, but as we went back and looked at it as a mentioned earlier, there were some things we should of done earlier as coaches and some execution we should've had as players. "
On D'Eriq King
"Sometimes sacks are on receivers running wrong routes. The quarterback has to hold the ball. Sometimes their on running backs, sometimes their on quarterbacks looking the wrong way. It's not always on the offensive line. We go back and we see all of that. The most important thing is not assigning blame, its fixing the problem. That's where we've been at and that's what we talked about yesterday as a team. The loss is only good if you learn from it and you change. There's always lessons to be learned, and everybody learns, but do you change? If you don't change you're going to repeat it again, and were at a situation where we have what we want in front of us to play for. Understanding that nothing else matters but Temple, so we need to make the necessary changes as a head coach, position coach, coordinators, senior leaders, and players that felt like they weren't prepared well enough to play. You learn from it, but you go and change your behavior and get back to the team that you were when you won five straight games. Create timely turnovers, score on defense, and score 45 points a game. You can eat a grenade over this deal, or you can realize you're still a good football team and fix some things."
On recovering from the tough loss
"You learn from this. You go, change your behavior and get back to being the team you were that won five straight games, created timely turnovers, scored on defense and scored 45 points a game. You can either grenade over this deal, or you can realize you're still a good football team that needs to fix some things."
On taking value out of SMU loss
"You have to. As a competitor and a team who's fighting for a championship that, more importantly, is getting ready for a really good football team coming in here Saturday night. You have to find value out of it. You're not trying to find silver linings, moral victories or anything like that. You're trying to find the hardcore facts that are going to allow you to be a better ball club Saturday at six. Sometimes those truths are ugly and you have to face them, but that is the only way you're going to get where you want to go.
On how injured and tired defensive players may have prevented a key stop at end of the game
"They took over at nine and a half (yards); up by seven. We didn't touch the ball again until I think about two minutes left, and we were down two scores. They were able to control the ball at the end of the game, and that's what you have to do to be able to close out games at home. That's what we did at home against South Florida the week before.
You're put in that situation, as a player and as a coach, without the depth you want for that situation. It's a great opportunity, as a competitor, to defy odds and to do something that no one else can do. That's why you play. That's why you coach. We can win with all the greatest players, as coaches. We can win with the perfect play call, as a player. That's the fun part of competing, whenever the odds are stacked against you and you don't have a great hand, but you go out and find a way to win anyway. That's what we have to do this Saturday against Temple and obviously the rest of the season."
On if the weather affected players
"It didn't. To me, we all dealt with the same elements. The same wind, the same rain, the same delay.
On if they expect Ed Oliver to play this Saturday, even though he did not play in SMU game
"We expect him. Being medically cleared and being able to play are sometimes two different things. It was still about trying to monitor him and go day-to-day. We still continue to trust the team doctors on Ed and what's best for him, ultimately. We're just going to continue to monitor him."
On what Ed Oliver has been doing to recover from injury and why he did not play in SMU game
"He did rehabilitation stuff and drills the first part of the week and joined the team the second part of the week, but he was not full-contact. Then he got there on game day and moved around. It didn't feel 100 percent. We're not going to put somebody out there who doesn't feel like they're in the best position to play and play safely. That's what I trust the doctors and trainers for. That's why he didn't play Saturday."
On injury update for Jerard Carter and Aymiel Fleming
"They went through some of the stuff with the trainers and doctors. There will be more medical treatment today, because it's our off day. We will have more information tomorrow. We don't want to get ahead of ourselves when we're not practicing today, but we will find out more stuff tomorrow morning."
On injury update for Mulbah Car and Terence Williams
"Same situation."
On what he has seen with Temple
"Their team has improved. They play with great effort. They are a very tough football team. Those are the things that you want to be described by. They are very athletic. They are very talented as well. They play a very tough and physical brand of football. On defense they are man-to-man. They believe in it. It's their way of doing things, and they are very successful at it. They have a great defensive front and good tacklers on the edge. From an offensive standpoint, since Russo has entered the game they have much more continuity in their passing game. They have been much more explosive. All their wide outs have returned. They have two great running backs and Jager Gardner is an outstanding back as well. They are coming alive as a football team. They are playing good football right now."
On if the defense is improving or not
"How many points do we allow? How many points are we giving up? What type of third down defense are we playing? What type of red zone defense are we playing? How many takeaways are we creating? Those are the key things that I am looking at. Yards can lie. If you get people off the field with field goals, if you're taking the ball away and creating short fields for your offense, and getting them off the field on third down, those are successful traits that you look for. I'm not always going to look at total rushing yards or total passing yards given up. Those aren't always great indicators on winning or losing, but ultimately holding the team to one less point than you score. That's what we talk about. That's the reality. When you get in games you may be able to dominate an opponent and hold them to zero points in the first half. We've done that. We've been in some other games where they were shootouts with explosive offenses. South Florida two weeks ago was an example of that. You know you're going to give up some yards. There's some skilled players there. We have to play good red zone defense, take the ball away a few times, and play great on third down. Those are the things we look at to evaluate our defense to see how successful we are. Obviously effort on ball security and tackling and the basic fundamentals of defensive football are important."
Players Mentioned
RB
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DT
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RB
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