Nov. 24, 2008

Full Press Conference Video Feed

Opening statement "I'm disappointed in the way that we lost the game. Going into the game, I knew that this would be a hard fought game. Really after the first 14 points in the game, the game was exactly the way I thought it would be. I'm really disappointed that we made the errors to lose the game because we don't do that in November. Our teams have not done those things to lose games in November. By now we should be playing pretty much error free football. That's how we've always won at the end of the year and that's how we've been really good in four out of the last five years."

"We've won three of the last four games in four out of the last five years because we usually don't make the errors at the end of the season. I'm just really disappointed to spot a team 14 points and I knew from that point it would be hard. From there the game went like I thought it would. Offensively, we didn't get into a rhythm and I didn't anticipate that we would. They are that kind of defense that you are just going to have to fight and bite and claw to try to score every first down and every point that you can get and then we came out of it with 21 points in the three quarters which, going in, should have been enough to win the game."

"I thought our defense matched up well against their offense. We played good defense from a numbers standpoint, but the touchdown before the half ended up being the ruin of us outside of the 14 points that we gave away. I thought the team that really played well was our punt team. I bragged on them yesterday to our guys. I thought Garett Chachere had a great scheme with a way to take probably the nation's number one punt returner out of the game. We were able to kind of miss the first two, but overall netted 38 yards a punt. They (UCF) have the only guy (Joe Burnett) in the country, who is in the top 10 in both punt returns and kickoff returns. We took him out of the game. He had minus two yards returning punts. After the first two when Brent Sutherland got going then we averaged 44 yards and had four of them inside the 20 and one of them at the one. I thought Brent did a great job and I thought our coverage guys did a great job on that team. They gave us a chance to win the game. They can win games with Burnett and we were able to take him out of the game. I thought that team did well."

" I thought Arkelon (Hall) was not consistent. He threw some good balls and some that were really poor. I think it's a little combination that we hadn't played, but maybe more so because they are really good defensively. I don't think everybody believed what I had said going in that they were the best defense that we have played against. Their secondary is tremendous. You saw that they can cover. They are great run support guys. That's why they're leading our league in defense because they are really good. I thought it was the kind of offensive game that I thought it would be. They're just not a defense that you're going to get in a rhythm and be handing it off and then hitting the pass. It just wasn't going to be that kind of a day. Nobody else has had that kind of a day against them. You have to work and fight for everything that you're going to get against them and I thought it was that kind of day. I thought that we would win the game, but it won't be a pretty game. I knew this was going to be an ugly game, but we're going to have to fight for everything that we get and that's what it ended up. Again, I was just disappointed in the 14 points that we gave away."

Any thoughts on Tulane?
"Statistically, they're leading the league in pass defense. They've been really good as far as the throwing game has gone. Now, Tulsa put up big numbers running the ball against them. We're going to run the ball because that's what we've been doing. We have to run it better than we did on Saturday to take some pressure off the pass game. I'd like to go into this game and try to be balanced. If there is a weakness there and we find it once we get into the game, I'd sure like to take advantage of it. When we went to SMU we didn't think that we would run it quite as well as we did, but once it started hitting we stuck with it. I'm really disappointed because our teams don't make mistakes at this time of year. We made errors against Louisville and against Central Florida that took us out of the game. I told you last week and we preached all week about the physical part of the game and this is what we've worked for and this is our chance to physically match up with a team that we haven't been able to. Physically after watching the tape, I was very pleased with the way we matched up. The other part of it was that we can't help these guys. We can't give these guys any points because points are hard to come by. "

Is Curtis Steele going to be 100% this week?
"I think he will be. He didn't hurt himself any worse in the game. We're really starting at a good place to be healthy. I really anticipate that he'll be healthy for this game. With him on Saturday, it was really more the sickness than the hamstring. He didn't practice a snap from the SMU game until that game. Then he tried to play in that game because running backs can do that. The sickness is what got him. I think he'll be full go."

How do play a team that will be playing loose and free against your team that has bowl game chances on the line?
UTEP was playing for a bowl two years ago and all they had to do was beat us and we went in with one win. We didn't just win the game, we solidly won the game. This is what we will be telling our guys this week. You better not take anything for granted. They're all hard fought now. In our division, it looks like UAB will finish at the bottom of our division and East Carolina will finish at the top and those two teams fought for 60 minutes to determine the game on Saturday night. They're just about the same, and it just depends on who gets people hurt and who doesn't. Now, it's about who can finish it out. I think you're really seeing the scholarship limitations take effect. The injuries are affecting teams more than they used to. "

"There's just not enough separation in us right now. We have to put all our focus into this game. We've always finished pretty strong at the end of the year and I expect this team to do the same thing."

What is the great thing about this group of seniors?
"The great thing about this senior class is that the majority of them play. That's when you get great leadership out of the seniors. One, they're made out of the right stuff, and two, they're playing. I think in senior classes it's hard when you have a majority not playing because it can turn negative. This group of seniors has been outstanding and not just the redshirted guys, but we have a bunch of good guys and they have been good players for us. Next year our complexion and personality will change a little bit because these guys have been around here forever. It seems like a lot of them have been around for a long time. I think this has been a great senior class. It's been a great class when there has been some adversity and these guys have been really good at righting the ship."

What have you seen out of Tulane offensively?
"Tulane has been throwing the ball more. They must believe in this quarterback and they're throwing the ball more. They're a different team than they started out the year with. They're doing a lot more motions, movement, and shifts, and they're throwing the ball more. They are by nature, a run the ball first and that's what their teams have always done. Now they are throwing it. They lost a back. He was putting up pretty good numbers and was one of the top rushers in our league. "