Opening Statement)
“We're looking forward to getting back to work this week and picking the pieces back up after a tough loss.”
(On SMU)
“We have a really good opponent coming in. SMU’s been playing as good as anyone in the country. They have a really good offense and have settled on a really good quarterback who can run and throw. They have speed at the skill positions and scored a lot of points lately. Their defense plays aggressively, leading the nation in turnovers. We’ll have our hands full. We'll have to play really good football and be prepared to come out and execute better, but that's why you play the game. It’ll be a good test for us. I’m looking forward to having a good week in practice and putting it all together and having a good plan of going out there and trying to execute.”
(Concerns about looking sloppy)
“We’re always concerned that we need to get better. When you face good football teams you aren’t going to win every play. There's definitely some things that we’ve done better - we handled the crowd noise better until the end of the game when it got loud and messed some things up for us. We've had some penalties, but we've been pretty good at keeping the penalties down and we have to try to continue to have as few as we possibly can. There are all kinds of things to clean up, but you’re going to have that when you're facing really good football teams every week. We just have to find a way to be sharper with the turnover battle, try to limit big plays, execute in critical time situations, have a good plan for that, and be better. It's a lot of small things that add up when you're facing good teams that you can't have.
(On his fourth down philosophy)
“We've been aggressive on fourth down the first three games and converted a lot of them, this game obviously that didn't happen. I didn't love my option call on the first fourth and one. I thought we got the exact look that we had. I would take that one back, even though we got the look exactly that we wanted and we just weren't able to get the edge. We were a little aggressive around the 50 yard line, and had someone open over the middle but we couldn't protect long enough, so that one didn't work. At the end of the game (when we were) trying to get the first down, changing the personnel, and calling the play, the communication took longer and Tyler (Shough) couldn't hear and some things didn't go right there. We wanted to get the first down for sure. We had over a minute left to move the ball and had some things we could've done better there. We're making sure we’re analyzing that. We do want to air on being aggressive but you have to convert those. There are things we could've done better, especially me, and we’ll work hard to fix that
(On the cornerbacks and injuries)
“Well, unfortunately Quincy [Riley] wasn’t able to play, so we’re hopeful to get him back this week. We’ll see, I can’t tell right now. Taz [Tahveon Nicholson] was able to play with an injury; I give him a lot of credit; he hung in there and he played a long time. Corey Thornton had hand surgery two weeks ago and he plays with a cast; he hung in there and played the entire game. That position is a little thinner and a little banged up, but they played hard. For the most part, I thought we did a really good job at corner. There were one or two times that we could have maybe done a little bit better, but they did a pretty good job. We busted a couple man coverage deals - it wasn’t on our corner, it was on some other people - that we need to clean up, that hurt us. I really think that we can get them healthier this week. We’ll need every one of them because these guys [SMU] have speed at the skill position.”
(On Caulin Lacy’s first game)
“I give Caullin a lot of credit. He’s wanted to come back. He practiced before he was cleared, even though we had a special colored jersey on him. He was basically just cleared to go [on] game day. So, he hadn’t been hit or touched on it and he played hard. I just think that’s what we have gotten from him since he’s been here. He’s a tough young man, he’s a competitor. He wants to go out there and do great things. We’ve got to make sure we identify the things he’s really good at and make sure we do that with him because there are certain things he’s better at than others. He is a strong runner and he’s a competitor and we’ll need him out there.”
(On common denominators to winning close games)
“One I think is mindset. You’ve got to have tough young men that are going to compete to the end and play hard on every snap. We try to build that and enforce that and really ingrain that into our guys: ‘just keep playing as hard as you can, have a good attitude, and play to the end and good things will happen.’ I do think we will try to be aggressive and if we make mistakes, it might be by being overly aggressive. Hopefully that wins more than it loses, but it doesn’t always happen. I do think our guys know we’re going to be not be scared to adjust and adapt throughout the course of the game if we’ve got to do things to win. We had our chance in this game [against Notre Dame] even with everything that happened. To get the ball back with a chance to go down and at least tie the score with a touchdown. Unfortunately, the short yardage situation, we weren't able to convert. I like our makeup. I know that from here on we’ve got really good teams.”
(On SMU’s offense last two weeks)
“Right now they’re hot and they’ve got momentum. They’re trusting each other, they’re executing at a high level. Like I said, the quarterback [Kevin Jennings], settling on him - the offense has taken off. This is a young man who’s a six-foot quarterback; he can throw it, he’s got a great arm, he can run, he throws well on the move, he can escape the rush. You have to affect him or he’s going to get it to those playmakers. He’s got plenty of speed at the playmaking positions and I just think, the last two weeks, they have played as good as anybody in our conference by scoring points and being aggressive on defense, especially in the third down package. Right now, they’re gelling and playing at a high level.”
(On SMU’s defense creating turnovers)
“I think they’re very sound on first and second down; they don't give up a lot of big plays throughout that. On third down, they get very exotic, and they come after the quarterback. They affect the quarterback, so they made him get turnovers in those situations. They do some things that other teams aren’t as aggressive doing, so I give them credit. They’re well coached. Right now, they’re believing in what they’re doing. When your offense is having success, it gives you the flexibility to play more aggressive, which they have done and it’s definitely showing on video.”
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