University of Houston Athletics
Houston vs. Cincinnati: Press Conference
10/7/2019 5:56:00 PM | Football
HOUSTON FOOTBALL
Monday, Oct. 7, 2019 • Houston
Carl Lewis Auditorium • Athletics/Alumni Center
HEAD COACH DANA HOLGORSEN
On bye week's impact on health…
“Health is something that matters every week, but the time off certainly came at an opportune time. With the start of the season that we had, we'll take every bit of rest that we can. It's nice to play a home game though, especially a conference home game. I don't know if anyone in the country hasn't played a conference home game yet. So here it is in mid-October and we're playing our second home came and first conference game—that's nice.
“Now we have Cincinnati and they're pretty good, and they're ranked. They're probably the best defensive team that we've played all year. They're well coached, they have great players and they play hard. They shut down Central Florida, which no one has done in the past couple of years, and their only loss has been Ohio State. We've got a lot on our plate, and the health of our football team is just one of them.”
On using the bye week to spend time on recruiting…
“You can't work the guys too hard every day, so we worked hard Monday through Thursday and got the guys out of here on Thursday. We recruited on Thursday night, Friday night and even a couple of them were out on Saturday as well. There's a certain amount of days that we can be out in the fall, and we'll make sure to be out the appropriate amount of times. Just being visible out there is important, especially in a city that has such great high school football.
“We had presence not only across the city, but across the state as well. I can't get too specific about all of that, but it was good to get out for a few days and give the guys a couple days off. We expect them to come back ready to work hard to prepare for Cincinnati.”
On players stepping up…
“I kind of felt a little guilty last week because we had nine days to prepare, we are used to doing it in six and we had nine. There were points throughout the week where we got all of our work done so we could actually go home and this week was obviously the same way. I thought those young guys played really well, I really do. Jack Freeman stepped in and played well. Dennis Bardwell, who should be younger than he is, is another one of these old linemen that didn't redshirt, which is just mind boggling to me, but he played really well. I thought Dennis stepped in and did a great job. Clayton Tune, the same thing, I mean the conversation is the same with him. I thought he stepped in a played really well which I knew all three of those guys would.
We have talked about this in length but it is always got to be the 'next-guy-up' mentality. It doesn't matter why, nobody cares why whether its guys are retiring because they're sore or because guys don't want to play football anymore, guys need a redshirt, guys get suspended, guys have academics. There have been times where I have told guys 'You aren't playing football because your academics aren't good enough.' So there is a whole bunch of reasons why, nobody cares why but you better have guys step in and play at a high level and that's what we did. Those three guys stepped in and played well. Courtney Lark stepped in and played really well and he needs to continue to embrace having a bigger role. So far so good when it comes to that. We have had linebackers go down and guys like Zamar Kirven get in there and smack the quarterback two or three times, that was pretty impressive to me. That is another young kid, a sophomore, who didn't redshirt that hasn't played much but stepped in and did a good job. That has got to be the mindset each and every week, regardless of the position or reason people aren't playing”
On Clayton Tune's health…
“Yeah, he's fine. Stuff like that is going to happen. Nobody cares why. Just get ready, get healthy and get out there and play, or somebody else needs to. I'm expecting him to continue to get better. I thought that was a really good opening start for him. His mindset has been really good, and I think he's going to be pretty fired up to play the home game here this Saturday.”
On challenges of road games…
“I don't view them as challenges. Regardless of what their atmosphere, stadium or team is like, it's all about our team. Our routine, when it comes to a road game, is the same thing as our home game. We're going to go to a hotel and have a routine. We go to sleep, get on a bus, and go to the stadium and play. We ignore road games and we embrace home games.”
On the running game so far…
“I've been very happy with our running game. Whether it's what D'Eriq King brought to the table, from a quarterback run game, Clayton Tune brings the same stuff. That's one element to it. Our backs have been solid. It's the same conversation, Patrick Carr couldn't go a couple games early and then Kyle Porter was the main guy. Kyle Porter then went out with his back and he's going to be fine, then Patrick Carr stepped up and played really well. We've had Mulbah Car give us a boost, we've had Chandler Smith give us a boost, we still have Terrell Brown in the wings, he's going to be able to play for four games, Kelan Walker, whose earned his scholarship at some point, has to get out there and play as well.
Everything starts up front too. Our offensive line up front played their best game from a continuity perspective, which is accredited to (offensive line) coach Brandon Jones. We had moving parts everywhere, Dixie Wooten III played his first snap ever, Dennis Bardwell had a big role, Jack Freeman played his first meaningful snap ever and Josh Jones is doing a great job leading that group. I think those guys just keep getting better.”
On making steps as the season goes on…
“This has been our motto since day one. Year ones are tough for everybody so that's what your mind set has to be. There's no excuses. Practice hard, prepare hard, if you go out there and play hard you have a chance to win. If you do that the wins will come, a lot of wins will come. It's going to happen here. Defensively, it's a work in progress, but we took another step forward. We were physical, we got to the quarterback, we knocked him around a little bit. Which I think affected him. We tackled well, but there's still a lot of things that need correcting. But, we took a step in the right direction. Same thing in our passing game, we completed passes. Eighty percent of our passes were completed, we did get better at a few specific things. There's still a couple that we missed that are pretty easy to complete if we just keep working at it to get better.”
On the offensive line…
“It is based on how they practice this week. Both those guys [Jarrid Williams and Justin Murphy] practiced throughout the week. One got worse and didn't play, and one tried to go and got re-injured. We'll see how they do this week, we're not playing tomorrow. We've had a good week last week, and those guys got better that needed to get better. Hopefully the other guys get healthy and get out there, and we play good on Saturday.”
