University of Houston Athletics
Houston at UCF: Press Conference
10/28/2019 12:30:00 PM | Football
HOUSTON FOOTBALL
Monday, October 28, 2019 • Houston
Carl Lewis Auditorium • Athletics/Alumni Center
HEAD COACH DANA HOLGORSEN
On UCF's playing style…
"They're running more than they throw it. I've won against this type of offense for quite a while now. I know it pretty well. It's straight up Baylor, when Baylor was rolling there a few years ago. We kind of know what they're doing, but it all starts in a run game. They're handing the ball off 45 times in a game, and they're throwing it 35 times a game. They're going to play fast and make you defend the run. When you put too many people up there, they're going to push it downfield. It's hard to defend. They do a good job. Josh Heupel has done a good job, since he's been there the last couple of years. I went against him when he was at Missouri. That's when he started doing all this. We'll have an idea what to do, but you have to be sound in the run game, get in your gaps, get off blocks, make tackles, and then when they take shots you got to cover them. It'll be a pretty big challenge."
On facing UCF's offense…
"I was really proud of our front last week. I thought we played our best game up front, defensively, last week. We made [Shane] Buechele uncomfortable back there. We got to him early and we knocked him around a little bit, and I thought our guys really played hard and with pressure, so that's good. That's going to be a key. We've got to do a good job with our front, and if we can do it without adding linebackers then it just it helps everything else.
Hopefully we'll continue to get healthy at linebacker which should make a difference. I was really proud of the front four. Those guys were pretty active, and they played their best game. Nobody ever wants to play a true freshman, but [Dillon Gabriel] has been getting better. From having to play earlier in the year, to having to take a lot of the snaps, he's been getting better and better. It looks like they're set for quarterback for a while. It will be interesting to see how it goes."
On Dennis Bardwell…
"Nope, he's not done. He should be expected back this week. Blake Young is done for the year, he's got some blood clots or something going on there, and you have to take that stuff seriously. He's going to be on medication for a while and you can't play when you're on that kind of medication. Young is going to be done for the year, but everyone else is still week-to-week."
On Houston's roster management…
"Well, no one is done for the year. I'm going to stand my ground with Mulbah [Carr] though. He's shown where he can be a different kind of a guy. He needs the right to be able to stay in school and continue his progress toward his degree and continue to get better at football as well, so I think we've got enough backs to be able to do that. There are certain positions where we aren't able to do that.
There are a couple of linebackers I'd like to redshirt now too, but we just don't have the bodies, but we do at running back. Patrick [Carr] will be able to finish the year. Kyle Porter has been our most reliable guy in the backfield. Chandler Smith can still take snaps, and we have a couple of guys on scholarship that we can reach to if we need to. If the school is paying for their scholarship, then they need to step up and play. Guys like Kelan [Walker] need to step up and play if we need them to. Those guys need to help us when they can. I feel like we've got enough backs to be able to accomplish what we want to accomplish."
On linebacker Terrance Edgeston…
"He wasn't ready to play against UConn. We had to play him, we had nobody else. We played Amaud Willis-Dalton I think around 10 maybe 12 snaps against UConn, it looked okay. For SMU, we needed him for coverage. He is basically a safety that got moved to linebacker because we had no other bodies there. Zamar Kirvin is day-to-day hopefully we get him back, he wasn't ready to go. Terrance didn't make a whole lot of progress throughout the course of the week, so we didn't play him. Those are two guys who have started for us and didn't take any snaps in the game last week. We should get them back though which will give us more depth moving forward."
On Houston's run game…
"It is hard to do that when you have six different starting lineups on the offensive line. It all starts up front, but I think we have done a good job coaching wise of scheming some things up. We have committed to it and those guys are getting better upfront. Jack Freeman gets better every week and Keenan Murphy gets better every week. Dennis Bardwell had been getting better every week. Dixie Wooten is getting better every week. Then you have a couple of old guys like Josh Jones and Gio Pancotti that bring some stability up there but not nearly as much stability and continuity that you need to be dominant up there. Guys are running hard and I think we are scheming some things up pretty good. The more we can hit on plays like RPO's like we did with Marquez Stevenson and over the top stuff with Jeremy Singleton I think the easier that is going to be. We have got a plan we just have to keep our head down and keep improving."
On defensive performance…
"I think we are coaching them well defensively. Joe Cauthen is a defensive line guy, him and Brian Early speak the same language. Those guys have a plan of what we want to do defensively, they are going to coach those guys hard and I appreciate those guys effort. Payton Turner plays hard, he played a lot of snaps and was making some things happen. Him and David Anenih are both true juniors and they are both getting better. Aymiel Fleming is kind of the old guy that brings some stability and probably played his best game that he has played. I think we ended up playing 10 guys on that defensive front which is what they want to do. They want to play 10 or 12 guys every week. We are a little banged up to where we can't do that, but I am really happy with how they are coaching them and how our guys are playing with a lot of effort. They are playing with a lot of resiliency which is something our team is learning to do every week."
On the team's effort…
"I hope we can keep it up. I have been proud of them, we have been in every game. We just haven't made enough plays to win them and that gets frustrating. Our guys believe in what we are doing and out coached believe in what we are doing. I keep saying this, but it is true, we are just going to put our head down and keep moving forward with it and if our guys continue to play like that then this thing will turn. When it turns, I don't know, but when it does this is going to be a lot of fun. We are not going to waiver from that. That's just the way the way it is right now and it's what we believe. It's how we are going to continue to coach and continue to play."
On bowl games…
"No, I don't talk about it. We have our sights set on championships and that is where we are at. It is getting kind of tough to make that a reality here this year, but it doesn't mean that we can't continue to improve and get better which that is just the message. A lot of our guys are understanding that to the point where they can take valuable reps this year to make them better individually and become more comfortable in our systems that way when we carry this over in 2020 it is going to pay off for us."
