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Tulsa Head Coach Steve Kragthorpe's Press Conference Quotes
10/17/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 17, 2006
Tulsa, Oklahoma -
Tulsa Head Coach Steve Kragthorpe Press Conference Quotes
Opening Statement...
Obviously, it's good to get a win on the road against East Carolina. I knew going into the game it was a dangerous game because they were playing very good football. Having come off a convincing win against Virginia. A game I felt like they dominated in all three phases -- offense, defense and special teams. I felt like we did a good job hanging in there throughout the course of the first half. We did some good things towards the end of the second quarter. We get the big drive at the end of the second quarter after they miss a field goal, and we take it right back down and score with just seconds left on the clock. That was big to go up 14-7 at that point in time. Then we started to get things on track in the third quarter both offensively and defensively. We were able to get a couple drives together. One, the 17 play drive that took over seven and a half minutes, which kept the ball out of their hands. I never felt like they got comfortable offensively. We started to be more comfortable offensively as the game wore on, but I never felt like they got comfortable offensively and that was something we wanted to do heading into the game. We wanted to make them as one dimensional as possible. We felt like going into the game that they would get in more two-back formations. They were 76-percent two-back against Virginia versus right around 20 or 30 percent in the previous games. We felt like they were going to come in and pound the ball at us, control the line of scrimmage, get themselves in favorable down and distance situations where they could throw play action passes. Our first down production on defense never facilitated them getting into that mode or into that rhythm. Our defense played exceptionally well throughout the course of the game. We made nice adjustments and put a lot of pressure on the quarterback. We weren't going to let James Pinkney stand back there and pat it a couple of times, or as Coach Patterson would say `let him comb his hair back there.' We wanted to get after him and force the issue and put him in a position where he was going to have to make quick decisions. We felt like if we did that it would put us in a more favorable position throughout the course of the game.
One down and one to go in terms of this road stretch, two games in a row. We are looking no further than Memphis. We're not interested in the BCS. We're not interested in Courtney Tennial who used to play at Oklahoma so would he be now the starting tailback since Adrian Peterson's out. All those questions, I'm not talking about it, the players won't talk about it, so don't ask them. We are focused on one thing and that's trying to beat Memphis on the road, which we know will be a challenge.
Memphis' record does not reflect what kind of football team they have. They've got an excellent quarterback in Martin Hankins. He is throwing the ball all over the place. He threw for 7,000-plus yards as a freshman and a sophomore at Southeastern Louisiana for Hal Mumme. He's a very good passer. He throws the ball real crisply underneath. He's a very accurate guy. He throws the ball down the field. Then you're going to see every trick play known to man. They could make a trick play reel of what they do. You're going to see speed sweeps, speed sweep reverse, speed sweep reverse pass, speed sweep reverse pass throw back to the quarterback screen, you're going to see it all. I can't even say them all that there are so many of them. It's going to be a game where we're going to have to be very assignment sound. We're going to have to do a great job of staying at home. We're going to have to try to tackle a lot of guys in open spaces. There are going to be a lot of empty backfield sets where they're going to try to spread us out and create seams. We've got a challenge on our hands, there's no doubt about it. We knew that coming into the season. I think the thing we're seeing is there are a lot of quality football teams in our league. Anybody can beat anybody on any given day. Again, you look at the quality of the non-conference schedule that Memphis has played. They had a chance to beat Ole Miss. I feel like they played really well for a half against Tennessee in a new defensive scheme and now Tommy is running the defense. They've totally changed. They've gone from a 3-man front to a 4-down front, and they're playing more zone coverage and not giving up big plays in the game. They got beat on a fluke play last week against Arkansas State where they throw a `hail mary' at the end of the game. We have our work cut out for us, there is no doubt about it. We're focused on the task at hand and that's trying to get a win at Memphis, which we know will be very difficult. There's nothing really more to say than that.
On your team's depth on the defensive line...
"I do think we have more depth on the defensive line, and I think that's something that has helped us. We're rotating groups of three players at a time. You will see not just one or two defensive lineman running into the game, but you will see sets of three. I think that has helped us particularly in the fourth quarter of some games, like last week against Southern Miss and this week against East Carolina were we had leads and so now we're putting them in a position to throw the ball in the fourth quarter in order to beat us. If the quarterback can stand back and pat the ball a couple of times he will probably have some success throwing it, but the fact that we have had such depth on the defensive line has helped us rush the passer in the fourth quarter and helped us keep the lead and ultimately get the victory."
Has anything changed defensively since BYU?
"I think BYU has a pretty good football team and that is evidenced by the way they've played throughout the course of the season. I knew going into the BYU game that they were a very good football team. They had a chance to beat Arizona at Arizona and a chance to beat Boston College at Boston College if they executed the snap-hold-and-kick better in a couple of situations. Boston College has also proven to be a good football team the way they beat Virginia Tech last week. I give BYU a lot of credit, their quarterback is a good player. They went on a very short week down to TCU and beat TCU. I think it was more of a function of them being good, instead of us playing real poorly. We didn't tackle well in that game but schematically we were sound. We did some very good things in that game, although we gave up a couple of big drives and a couple of big runs, but if you take those out of the game, then overall we played pretty well. The score doesn't indicate that but I never look at the score of the game, I look at the complexion of the game. There really haven't been any changes since training camp. We are doing the same things. Obviously, the game plans or schemes change, but our defense hasn't changed.
Are you a better defense since the BYU game?
Well I hope so because we've played more games. As a team you want to improve every time we go out there. We are a better offense, a better defense, and a better special teams, then we were at that point in time. If we're not then I am not doing my job.
There has been general improvement but BYU has a good offense. They are putting up points on everybody. A lot of credit has to go to BYU for the players they have and they are doing a good job schematically and the quarterback is playing extremely well right now with good receivers to throw the ball to, and their still running the ball well."
What about being in the top 25 in the BCS?
It doesn't matter to us. It's where you finish. It's not where you start or where you are at in the middle of the season, it's where you finish. You know how I am on the polls. I really don't take a lot of stock in those. No disrespect to the people that vote in the polls because I am one of the voters, but I'll be honest I haven't watched every team that I have voted for this year. A lot of it is speculation and hypothesizing at this point in time. With my job I don't have time to see all the teams in the top 25. It's all just conjecture, Did this team beat that team and how much did this team beat this team by. Let's just go play football.
Have you voted for your team in the coaches poll?
I haven't. I don't think we're a top-25 team yet.
You've been able to score on the last possession of the first half, is that a sign that Paul Smith is becoming something pretty special?
Every possession is unique and every possession builds on one from the previous possession in either a positive or a negative way. There are things that we learn and we made some adjustments throughout the course of the game based on what we were seeing defensively. They did some different things then what we were anticipating. We thought they would pressure us little more, but they didn't. Instead they sat back and played a lot more zone coverage and changed their fronts up a little bit in the second and third quarter and, we were able to adjust to that. We made some plays with the running game and I thought Paul stayed patient, for the most part, throughout the course of the game. They weren't going to let him drop back and lay balls down the field. They wanted to play more four deep secondary configurations, which forced us to throw the ball underneath a little more than we anticipated. We also ran the ball a little more and he did a good job in some situations where are receivers were covered he became the fourth option, where he can take off and run the ball. I thought he made good decisions. In terms of his development I think he is a work in progress, just like the rest of our team and I think he is continuing to benefit from taking a lot of snaps. One thing that did help us the other day was that we snapped the ball 75 times which is the most snaps we have had. The more snaps you have the greater body of evidence you have on the team you are playing. The closer you can be to making accurate adjustments because now you can have a better feel for the game. One of the things that was a little more difficult was that we only snapped the ball 27 times in the first half, which made it hard to get into a rhythm and a flow."
Talk about playing on the road...
"Our guys do a good job of assimilating themselves to any situation they are in and playing on the road is a challenge. It will be a challenge this week at Memphis. Its their homecoming game and I am sure they would like to beat us. We are going to have to play good football because we are going into a Tigers den (no pun intended). In terms of how we play, when we play, or where we play, we adjust. This is a normal game week for us and we haven't had a lot of those so we will have to see how we adjust."
Talk about the difference between now going to Memphis and going to Memphis last year for the Liberty Bowl game...
"Memphis is a great football city. They do a great job of supporting the Tigers and they were certainly supportive of us as the Conference USA representative in the Liberty Bowl last year. They came out and cheered for us and I was very appreciative of that but, we are certainly the enemy this week and we know that. I would expect nothing less. It's a great football town and I know it will be a great environment on national television. We know it will be a challenging environment to play in against a challenging team.
