Tulsa vs. Southern Miss
10/4/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery
Tulsa Head Coach Steve Kragthorpe
What a defensive effort by your guys?
A great defensive effort on the part of all of our guys, we really flew to the ball and made some big plays obviously in the fourth quarter to snuff out that drive, where they can get it back into a position now and maybe attempt an onside kick. I thought our defense really stepped up and played good football all night long, again flying around, making plays, almost got a couple of picks with the ball flying up in the air. We kept # 1 out of the game, Shawn Nelson, I thought he was an excellent player coming into the game; he had made a lot of big plays throughout the course of the season. So, I thought our defense really stepped up and did some really great things. Offensively, we shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times, we did move the ball, and we had 450 yards of total offense. We only 27 offensive snaps in the first half, so it was really kind of hard to get into a rhythm. But, I thought as we snapped the ball more and had a better idea of how they we going to defend us, we did a good job. Charlie Stubbs, our offensive coordinator did a great job of adjusting throughout the course of the second half.
Zone read by the quarterback seemed to be the key play tonight?
It was a big play for us, again Paul Smith did a nice job of reading it, we felt like with some formations and things we had done earlier in the game, throwing the football, we forced them to play a little bit more two deep coverage, which was minimizing the impact the safeties could have in the run force unit, again Paul did a nice job of distributing the ball and getting the ball up field when he needed to, and handing it off when he needed to make that decision.
What did you think of Courtney Tennial tonight as the feature back?
Courtney did a great job for us, and again that is an area that where we feel like we have depth on our football team, when guys can't play, it gives the opportunity for somebody else to step up and Courtney really stepped up tonight and did some great things. Cauvey Jackson, we moved him back from wide receiver, he is a guy that is versatile and we can utilize his talents in a lot of different ways, and obvious a big play in the first quarter on his touchdown, a 59 yard touchdown run on the option, the zone read option, but again those guys really stepped up and made plays when we really needed them.
Quarterback Paul Smith
Is this the kind of game you keep chipping away?
"We were pretty efficient. There were times we stopped ourselves or they played well. For the most part we didn't turn the ball over a lot. We felt like if we took care of the ball, it would be good and we could just move the bal methodically."
What about Idris' catch?
"That was unbelievable. I came out and Southern Miss kept saying zone, zone. They thought we were going to run down the clock a little bit. Coach Stubbs does a great job of hitting them when they're not ready. Idris made an incredible catch."
Talk about sticking with it when the points weren't coming and making sure you don't make a mistake to change the complexion of a game?
"It's tough because as a quarterback, especially after last year and the success we had, you want to put a lot on your shoulders and you want to try to force something in there. Our coaches are firm believers in don't lose the game, you're not always going to win it, just don't lose it. That's tough for me coming from an offense growing up, where I always had to do something to be successful. But I'm getting better. I'm learning to take care of the football, and the defense does a good job of helping us out."
Running Back Courtney Tennial
After the fumble, you came back with a big run:
"I just got a little too exited and tried to jump in there too fast and then they punched it out. But you just have to look forward to the next play. You just have to put it behind you and go to the next one and don't let it get you down."
What about your chance after transferring from Oklahoma? And what did it feel like.
"I came here and wanted a chance to play. I got that today. I'm just going out there trying to win, and help us win a conference championship. It felt great, just going out there and getting several carries, and getting carries in a row. I started feeling at home. The crowd started cheering and getting into the game. It felt real good out there."
Linebacker Nick Bunting
In the second half the defense took control of the game?
"We made a few adjustments in the second half. They ran the zone a little more than we wanted them to, so we made some adjustments with the defensive ends, so we came out and played strong."
What was the key to stopping Fletcher?
"Anytime you play a game like this you want to stop the running game and be able to shut it down. I wouldn't say we shut it down, but we id a pretty good job against it tonight. That's something we can build on."
About the penalties:
"It's never good to have all those, especially on third down. Its something we are going to have look at and work on, but I thought we came back after those penalties and played hard."
Southern Miss Quotes
Head Coach Jeff Bower
Opening statement...
"We just didn't make plays. We didn't play well. They played good. They whipped our butts in the second half, looked a lot like last year. I thought we did some good things offensively in the first half. We did have opportunities to make plays and didn't make them."
On the turning point in the second half... "I'm not sure. I don't think we tackled well. We were in position sometimes to make plays on the option and everything and, you know, he made us look bad, the quarterback did. I'm not sure. We couldn't stop them on third down when we got them on third down. What did they punt, one time in the second half?"
On the quarterback change... "Jeremy wasn't throwing the ball well. You could see him and he certainly wasn't the Jeremy you've seen running the ball either. So we decided to make a change and Stephen looked good that last possession of the half. I think he was five-of-eight, and two of them were drops. We've got to get Jeremy healthy and we'll see."
On the drops in the second half... "We had a lot of them. Had a lot of them and some of them we had chances on. One of them was a touchdown play. That's a huge play in the game. I thought late in the game we had a chance to catch on in the endzone and he kind of slowed up and then tried to speed up and the ball went off his fingertips."
Did you play better tonight? "Oh yeah, I thought we played harder. They're a good football team. They do a lot of good things and they deserved to win the game."
On Paul Smith... "He's a good, heady quarterback that makes plays. A better runner than you think."
Stephen Reaves, Quarterback
On coming into the game... "I'm always ready when coach needs me in there. I thought we were moving the ball real well when I got in. They played good, they played a good defensive game and we just missed big opportunities that we could have turned into big plays."
What did they do differently defensively in the second half? "Well, first of all it seemed like they were playing harder. They tried to mix up their coverages. They tried to put a little more heat on me. It kind of threw us off offensively and we couldn't really find a rhythm in the second half, which is what we were trying to do late in the first half. Again, I think we just hurt ourselves on a lot of plays. We could have made a lot more plays today."
Damion Fletcher, Running Back
On the running game in the second half... "I don't know what they did. Maybe they took away the cutback. I think that was part of the problem."
On switching quarterbacks... "There's not much adjustment. They both play the same. One's right handed and one's left handed, I think that the only difference."
On the effort compared to last week... "I think we put out a better effort, but I don't think we executed like we did all week. We came out and I think we beat ourselves mentally tonight. I know I messed up on a couple plays. I didn't pick up the blitz right. I'll come back next week, work hard and try to kick those mental mistakes."
