.png)
.png)
Steve Kragthorpe Weekly Press Conference Quotes
10/9/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 9, 2006
Tulsa, Oklahoma -
Steve Kragthorpe Weekly Press Conference Quotes
Opening Statement...
"It'll be good to get back on the practice field. It was good to have some time off and kind of reflect again on where we are as a team. Like I said last week, the two mini-open dates have been good for us. I think its given us an opportunity to heal up a little bit and take a reflective look at the things we've done well and continue to do those, and some things we need to get corrected.
It was great to get the win against Southern Miss. It was a big game for us here at home. I thought the crowd was very active in the game, like I said in the post-game, they were an instrumental part in us winning the game. In the third and fourth quarter, I know it got pretty loud and it was hard to execute much in terms of their snap count. And so my hat's off to the people of Tulsa for coming out. Like I said, those that didn't make it missed a lot of fun, because it was a crowd with a lot of energy. I was pleased with the way people stepped up and came to watch us play.
East Carolina is a very good football team. I had a chance to watch them the other night on television. I was very impressed with them. I think Al Groh put it best, they beat them in every phase of the game, talking about Virginia. They physically dominated that football game and that was very impressive because I think Virginia is a very good football team. They have some very talented players though their record doesn't reflect it. If you look back at the recruiting classes at Virginia over the last three to four years, they're top-20 in the country so you know that they have good athletes.
I thought East Carolina physically dominated the game in all phases. The score is not indicative of the way the game went, 31-21. I thought the score disparity would be much greater if you looked at the way the game was played. They ran the football well, they threw the football well, Pinkney is playing well for them right now. They had some guys step up, they had some guys that were out of the game because of injuries and they had some guys that stepped up and made big plays.
Their defense was very impressive. Virginia scored after a blocked punt and got the ball inside the twenty-yard line and then they scored on a little double reverse pass. Other than that, they didn't do much against them at all and East Carolina pounded the ball right down Virginia's throat. Virginia was a top-20 team in the country on defense going into the game and they pounded it down their throats. They physically dominated them in every phase of the game. It was very impressive. Go back one week earlier against West Virginia, who's a top-5 team in the country, and they played extremely well and again that game was a lot closer than what the scored indicated. The play good football, They're 2-3, but they lost at Navy, 28-23, which was a rock'em, sock'em game. I watched that on TV and I watched it again before we played Navy two weeks later. Then they lost to UAB who is playing very good football right now, 17-12, at UAB. They have a good football team and we know that we have a big challenge on our hands to go to Greenville and play against a team that I think is playing extremely well right now."
Have you played at East Carolina before?
"I have never been there, but talking to people they say it's an extremely difficult place to play. It's loud, it looks like they're drawing well, and looked like they were into the game from what I could tell, just watching the TV. Obviously, you don't get that feel when you watch the exchange tape copies, but having watched the game on TV the other night it looked like the crowd was really into it. I've heard it's a difficult place to play."
It will be a matchup of two of the best quarterbacks in the country?
"I think James Pinkney is playing extremely well right now, again very efficient. They're doing a good job of utilizing his abilities to throw the football down the field off play action. I thought the other night they did a great job of pounding the ball into the middle, with I-formation runs and then a couple that with some play action passes where he was putting the ball down the field. He is throwing the ball extremely well right now. He is also a big physical guy that can run. They are doing a lot of things in terms of emptying the backfield. They really have split personality, but again the "I" formation to pound the ball and their also good enough to get into the no back sets and the one-back sets and to utilize his ability to run. They will run quarterback counter, quarterback power, quarterback draw. He made a heck of a play the other night, they snapped the ball over his head, he picks it up and runs it into the end zone. He's a very, very good football player. A big, strong, physical passer, and they've had a history of that. David Gerrard is now the back up quarterback at Jacksonville. I evaluated him while I was at Buffalo. They've had guys like that, Jeff Blake, they've had guys that could play that position and he's no different. He's a very good football player."
"Paul is playing well for us right now. I don't think there is any doubt about it. He's playing very efficiently for us, and he needs to continue to do that for us to continue to be successful. I think you make a good observation. I think they'll be two very good quarterbacks on the field at the same time this weekend."
Talk about the relationship you see between James Pinkney and Aundrae Allison?
Aundrae is a very good football player. If you go back to the Virginia game, what's even more impressive than just winning the football game Aundrae was out and their starting running back was out. There's no doubt that Aundrae is a great football player and I think he and James kind of have that wave-length relationship where they're on the same page all the time. James will put the ball up knowing Aundrae will go get it. Aundrae's a very good football player, there's no doubt about it, and James and he seem to be on the same page in terms of making pays.
Talk about the health at the running back position...
"We have no season ending injuries. Guys are going to be out practicing, getting better. I think one of the things that helps us, without question, is that we have depth in our backfield and that was one of the deeper parts of our football team heading into the season. That depth has certainly helped us when some guys haven't been able to play in certain situations. Again, we have no season ending injuries, and we're hopeful that as the guys continue to practice and play, that they'll be able to contribute in games. If they don't, I'm real happy with the way Courtney Tennial played the other night. We have some flexibility with Cauvey [Jackson] playing both wide receiver and tailback. He's kind of a multiple guy that can play either position. And then Dexter Taylor can do some things for us too. Again, I felt like going into the season that was one of the deeper parts of our team, and I think that's an area where you have to be deep. It looks like East Carolina is very deep there too, with the way the two guys played the other night when their starter was out."
Talk about the offensive line performance...
"I thought our offensive line was much more consistent last week against a pretty good front. Southern Miss has got a good defensive front. They do some things that are kind of unorthodox in terms of their schemes. They're going to mix up their defensive packages, but I thought our offensive line did a good job of getting off the ball and creating seams for us to run the ball. Not just holes, but seams. We not only want the horizontal holes that you run through, but you also want to create some vertical seams by getting on the linebackers down the field, and giving the opportunity for the back to not just get the play started, but then make significant yardage after. I thought we did a good job of that. I think one thing that we've done a good job this year of is utilizing our screen game. Our guys are doing a good job of getting down the field and getting on linebackers and safeties, creating some space for our guys to run the ball. That's kind of how we look at the screen game, it's just an extended hand off for us. That's one of the advantages in college football versus pro football, is your offensive lineman can go down the field and block before the ball is actually caught. That's a huge advantage for us and it's something we're utilizing with the athleticism and speed that some of our guys have."
Are you disappointed that your team hasn't made any headway getting into the Top-25?
"We don't care about that stuff. We're just trying to get better every week and we're just trying to find a way to win one game, one game at a time. That's certainly the case that we are going into right now. We don't play to get accolades, we play to go out there and get better every day in practice and hopefully put ourselves in a position to win. I vote on the USA Today Coach's Poll. This year is my first year I've ever done it, but we don't care about any of that stuff. We view ourselves, and however people want to view us, that's fine. You know on the outside, those polls, it's kind of tough to determine who's really good. I've talked to my brother (sports columnist for the Salt Lacy City Tribune) about it before. Talking to my brother I'd say this to him, 'how much film have you watched on the top 25 teams?' 'I haven't watched very much film.' 'Then how the heck do you vote?'"
Can you talk about the pros and cons on Tulsa being a small school?
"I think there are a lot of pros to being a private institution like we have here at The University of Tulsa. Like I've said before, the great part about it is, our players sit in classes of 15 to 20 students. They know the professors by name. Certainly, in college football, we want to win football games, there's no question about it. What's more important is how these guys are preparing for the game of life, because very few of our players on our team are going to make a living playing football. We'll have some guys that are doing it, we have some guys that are doing it right now. How long? I don't know. It's a very physical game at that level. It's also a game where if you get hurt, there's another 15 guys waiting at the door for your job. We want to prepare our guys to play in the ultimate game and that's the game of life. That's one of the great things about The University of Tulsa is that we have a great educational environment. We also have an environment in that our guys have an opportunity to be around first-class people. This is a great place and one of the things I've always said when you step on this campus at The University of Tulsa there's a special feeling about it. There's a real synergy on this campus. I think people care about each other as people, not just as a number who sits in a classroom. We have professors that want to see, not only our football players and athletes, but our students continue to progress and actually be educated instead of passed through an assembly line. There's no doubt that's an advantage. For me it's a tremendous advantage because I have a great feel for the campus culture.
The only drawback is that we don't have 40,000 students who can come to a game, but if you look at our students we may be small in numbers but we're big in terms of presence. Our students do a great job at ball games.
What lessons have you learned defensively from the BYU game?
"I think there are lessons we've learned from each and every game. Obviously, when you lose a football game on the outside people go 'OK here's what we've got to fix.' Those are the easy ones to fix. Those are the ones that jump out. My son Nick, who's 12 years old, when I get home can tell me what we need to fix. The problems that you really need to fix or the challenges you have are the ones that are really minute that make a big difference in a football game. Each week, whether we win or whether we lose, we look at the film exactly the same way. We're going to diagnose where we're at, we're going to say these are the things, like I said before, that need to continue to improve upon, these are the things that we're doing well and then we're going to set our nose to the grindstone. That's one of the things we did in this open date. I had our coaches and our players define three to five different things that we felt like we needed to improve upon, either as individuals or as units, and then we focused on those things. It gives you a little bit more time when you're in the open date situation, but we do it every week. If we go out and we win a game 55-0, we're going to prepare for the next week just like we did if we lose 55-0. We're going to continue to look at that film, we're going to be very objective. Steve Young is a guy I talk about, Michael Jordan is a guy I talk about. Michael Jordan said 'I'll quit playing when I quit improving.' Steve Young said 'I've yet to play my perfect game, when I play my perfect game I'll retire.' We have yet to play a perfect game since I've been here. There's a lot of things we need to continue to improve upon and I like the mindset of our guys. Coming off the field the other night, last Tuesday night against Southern Miss, we were excited about the win. It was a big win for us, no question on national television, but our guys you could tell right away said 'hey, we've got to get better, there are some things we need to get fixed.' To me that's important that the players have that mindset, and I think that's when you can start to make a little bit of progress when the players say to themselves, and amongst each other, hey, these are the thing we've got to do versus a coach pointing them out to the players. I think there's a lot of ownership, a lot of vested interest on the part of our players, and they see as quickly as we do as coaches that there is a lot of room for improvement. We need to continue to improve to be the team we want to be in Conference USA. Like I said, going into the season, the league was going to be very competitive. I think its playing itself out in that way and this is going to be a race that going to go down to the bitter end, probably November 25th maybe 18th at the earliest. We have to continue to improve to be the team we want to be.
East Carolina has proven that they can score early, is that something you can prepare for?
"The thing we talk about is getting off to a fast start. It's important for us to get off to a fast start. In the event that you don't, you've got to finish. It's like the Boston Marathon, everybody wants to get off and get in a good position to run, but there are 26.2 miles to run. So it's kind of the same thing in a football game. Obviously, you'd like to seize as much momentum as you possibly can to start the football game, and yet we understand that there's going to be ebbs and flows and tides in the game where that could change. You've got to do a great job of sustaining some of the shots that you take, and then you've got to do a good job of staying even keel when things are going the way that you want them to go, and continue to make adjustments. That's one of the real challenges on college football is when things are going well and you get a lead that you don't relax, cause you're going to play against teams that have the ability to strike back very quickly and you're going to play teams that are very talented. So there's no doubt that even though you may get off to a good start, you've got the momentum on your side, you need to continue to keep it on your side. In the event that you don't, you've got to find a way to stem the tide and get back on top and continue to battle. And that's probably particularly important on the road, because you're going to play a team that is playing good football right now. You're playing a team that is going to challenge you in a lot of different phases, offensively, defensively and on special teams. And you're going to play in an environment where their fans are going to be into the game and are going to be loud. Obviously, we like to start fast and play well early in the game, but really when it comes down to it, it's what you do throughout the course of the game and how consistent you can be throughout the course of the game."
What do you tell a kicker when he misses a short FG or a PAT?
"I tell him we need to make those. I think the biggest thing is to stay confident and trust your stroke. Kicking is a lot like golf. I think if you get up there with the mindset of don't slice, don't slice, inevitably you'll slice, at least that's what I do. You've just got to stay confident and trust your stroke, a lot like shooting foul shots. You've just got to trust your fundamentals, trust your technique and trust your stroke and not aim. I think that's the biggest thing, you've got to grip it and rip it, and you've got to kick the ball each time, I think you ought to kick the ball each time like it's a 40-yard field goal, whether it's a PAT or a 40-yard field goal. I think if you relax or if you aim the ball, you've got a chance of not making it. The other thing I think that you've got to look at is how each guy responds. Each guy responds differently. I know Jarod [Tracy] felt really bad after missing that PAT the other night, so it wasn't my job at that point to make him feel worse, I don't think I could have done that. There's nothing I could have said to make him feel worse. It's my job then as a coach to get him back and say hey, we're going to maybe kick a field goal here of kick a PAT here to where we can get back on schedule and that's one of the things I talked about even before we scored the touchdown. I said hey Jarod, if we've got to kick a field goal, just go out there and bang it. Just bang it down the middle, just kick it hard and bang it. Don't place it, don't try to ease it through the pipes, cause when you do that's usually what happens, you miss it."
On being ranked third in the nation in fewest sacks allowed...
"I think lack of sacks from an offensive standpoint are indicative of what you're doing offensively with running the ball, staying out of long down and distance situations, first down production, quarterback getting the ball out of his hands, running backs protecting well, wide receivers getting open and obviously the offensive line protecting. It's going to get progressively tougher each week, because again East Carolina I think is a front that can rush the passer. They're not a big pressure team as far as bringing six or seven guys. They are more of a four man rush, pop a backer here or there, but they've shown the ability to pressure the passer against a team like Virginia who again I think is pretty good without having to do that. We're going to have to continue to play well on the offensive line, but again its more a function of what everybody is doing. Its easy to look at the offensive line and say, particularly when you're getting sacked that 'Oh the offensive line isn't playing well, we're getting sacked.' Well, is the quarterback getting the ball out, is the receiver at the right depth, is the running back involved in the protection scheme where he needed to make a blitz pickup or help on a particular guy, chip on a particular guy. I think it's a function of everybody, not just the offensive line."
Are you a second-half team?
"I don't know if we are necessarily a second-half team. We want to play well early in the game, and I think we've done that. The thing that we need to improve upon is when we move the ball down the field we've got to put it in the end zone, or if we do choose to kick a field goal, we've got to get points. I think we've moved the ball well early in games this year, probably better than we have in some previous years. I do think that adjustments at half time are big. It's a lot like evaluating the whole game, but you have to do it in a time situation that is now crunched. You've got 20 minutes, and really by the time you get in there, there is about 18 on the clock. We try to get to the players by 11 or 10, so you've got about six minutes to make your adjustments and, obviously, you're looking at things you're doing well, let's continue to do them. Here are the things we're not doing well, let's get these fixed. What are the best plays, what are they doing? It's pretty intense, those six minutes are pretty intense when you're in the locker room trying to get adjustments made, then communicate them to the players, then get out to the field and make those adjustments come to fruition on the grass. It's much like a Sunday afternoon in terms of looking at the film, but it's very condensed in the amount of time and its very intense because you're going back out on the field and trying to do those things to help you be successful in the second half."
