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Tulsa Hosts Tulane on Saturday in Regular Season Home Finale
11/17/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 17, 2008
Tulsa, Oklahoma -
Todd Graham PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES:
OPENING STATEMENT:
Naturally, it was not a great night for us last Saturday. Give Houston a lot of credit. I went back and looked at the film. Their quarterback played unlike I've seen him play all year long. We knew they had some great speed. The thing that stuck out to me was they didn't do anything in the game that we hadn't seen on film. They got in a zone and did it with a passion and, naturally, I know that was their focus. We probably did a poor job of preparing our guys for the type of motivation that they had. You just have to give them a lot of credit. At the end of the day, it's a loss and we have to move on from it.
We don't apologize for daring great and daring to be great. Just like I told our staff this morning, we're 8-2. Are we happy with that? No, not at all, because that's what our program is all about. Our kids are going to respond with great character. We just simply walked into a buzz saw on Saturday and got beat. We contributed to it getting out of hand quite a bit. We were making some bad decisions. We were not prepared on certain things. We made mistakes that really hurt us. I've been impressed with our players and how they responded. We have a great group of guys. We have to press on. I think there are great things ahead of us. We have to press on. All we can control is the next game. We have a great group of seniors that have been unbelievable to this program. They are playing in their last regular-season game here at Chapman Stadium. Those guys have seen an awful lot. Tarrion Adams, Moton Hopkins, Courtney Tennial, Terrel Nemons, Roy Roberts ... you think about what all those guys have seen in the last five years. It's been pretty impressive. They've gone to four straight bowl games, at least two conference championship games and won an awful lot of football games. I think they're 36-14 in the last (four years). They're really an incredible group of young men that I'm really proud of. I've met with a lot of them.
Our senior leadership, I'm just impressed with how our guys have handled this. I always tell our kids - I'm a big Teddy Roosevelt fan - that it isn't the critic that counts. It's the people that are out here busting their tail every day and dare to be great. They are in the arena, and know what it is to experience victory and defeat. That's the ones that count. I'm really proud of our guys and how they responded. I looked out the window after practice last night and see our seniors huddled at midfield, holding hands and praying and talking about their leadership. I'm really proud of our guys. Make no bones about it, we're really disappointed with how things turned out last week. We surely didn't want to be 8-2, We wanted to be 10-0. We don't apologize for that. We're going to press on. We've got to go and figure out a way to send these seniors out on their last regular-season home game as a winner and go to the next one and see what happens. I think there are still great things in store for us.
IN 2005, YOU WON THE CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP WITH A LITTLE BIT OF OUTSIDE HELP INVOLVED. THERE WILL PROBABLY BE SCOREBOARD WATCHING THIS SEASON, RIGHT?
That's been the story in this conference since we've been in it. There's never been a team be 7-1 and not represent (a division) on either side. There's never been a team go undefeated in this conference since we've been in it. I can tell you that, just like any conference, I think our conference has a lot of parity. There are a lot of rivalries.
I think the key for us is you can't worry about all that. I remember in 2005, we went out to UTEP and we lost a heartbreaker out there. We had to have them lose the next two games in a row. And we had to win the next two. That's exactly what happened. You just have to have faith in that. You can't worry about all that. I don't speculate on all that kind of stuff. It doesn't do you any good. Our deal is that our kids are expected to win every game. We've dropped two. That's two more than we wanted to drop. We have to go make sure that we win the next two. We have three games guaranteed us - the next two and the bowl game. We have to make sure we take care of the next one.
ANYTHING STAND OUT FROM THE LAST TWO GAMES, WHERE YOU WERE UNCHARATERISTIC IN A LOT OF AREAS?
In the last game, the fake punt, we ran the same exact fake punt against Central Florida because they lined up exactly the same way. We had our left bullet who didn't know it was fake. If he runs and executes the play, we're going to score a touchdown on that play with the way they were lined up. Hindsight is 20/20 and it looks like a stupid call on fourth and 18. It's a stupid call because it didn't work. We felt like we had 100 percent tendency and had a good thing going. I think, when I look back on it there, they were just pressing a little bit. But on the same hand, we thought it would work. We thought there was a little risk because we had 100 percent tendency with how they lined up.
We haven't scored when we had the ball in the red zone. I look back at the game and it was just ... Carrier just ran by us. We knew the play. We knew who was supposed to cover him. He just ran right by us. Then, they were in a zone. They hit every one of their long passes on us. They're the No. 1 pass offense in the country. That's something we've struggled at and we definitely struggled to cover them. They got in a zone, there. Their quarterback is very good. To be honest, it's the best offense that we faced. Arkansas was definitely the best running team that we faced. College football is about match-ups and they really ... the Carrier kid was a tall order for us as well as the big wideout, No. 10. He just made plays and we didn't. We missed the quarterback seven times. Seven times he got away from us. We're pretty good at sacking the quarterback. Seven times we had opportunities to do that.
You have to give a lot of credit to them. They had a mission. I know from the time that last year's game transpired that it was something that was on their mind. We were at their place. I think if we've done anything, we didn't prepare our guys very well for that. I tried to and tried to make them understand that. That's what is hard about staying on top. Everyone is shooting at you. You have to give them a lot of credit. Their quarterback played flawlessly. We had chances to get to him, but he got away from us and made plays. The Means kid, No. 22, that guy hadn't been starting. He replaced a guy. He really stepped up and played big-time.
You can't really, like I told our kids, you can't point at one thing or another when you get beat like that. It snowballed on us, naturally. When you get beat like that, everybody had a hand in it. You always have things that you probably want to do differently. The No. 1 thing is you have to give them a lot of credit. They were the better team on Saturday.
WHAT DO YOU GUYS DO ... ABOUT CONFIDENCE?
I don't think it was confidence. If there's anything, maybe we were overconfident and didn't realize how good they were going to play. Each week is a mindset. It's one of the things you see ...Everybody experiences it. Hopefully you overcome those games. We experienced it at SMU and overcame it. We have to get back and do what we do. You have to remember ... it's just like anything. I told our kids that our faith was being tested. You're faith in each other, the program and what you're doing. In the last six-year period, we've never been 8-2. There are lots of positive things about it. You have to set your mark high and being where we are now is a good thing.
Football is a mental deal. We have to get back to the same approach we were at three weeks ago and understand our preparation and how we go about doing those things. Winning breeds winning and losing breeds losing. We have to get back to fundamentals and doing the things that we do. The bottom line is turning the ball over. If you turn the ball over five times, you're not going to win. How many times have you guys heard me say that? This is what I'd tell you - it's important that you reap what you sow and you have to have great leadership.
I told our guys that it's like you're down to the last hole on a championship golf match. You have to finish that hole. You get all tight and tense and start analyzing everything. We went down and they whipped our tails. That's what happened. We played poorly and they played their best game all year long. Put it behind you, move forward and let's get better. We have to take care of the football and get better at what we're doing.
As the year goes on, you get more and more film on each team. There are some things that people are doing. They're sitting back offensively on us. We ran the ball real effectively and then we get down there and throw the ball and we have a second-and-10. Those type things, we've got to make sure that we are scoring when we get down there. Going for it on fourth-and-1? I'm going to go for it 100 percent of the time right there. You're on the road, you have to come there to win. You have to be able to make that.
The sequence of what we did? We're looking at that. When you don't score, you need to look at that. The bottom line is we turned the football over and we gave up big, big plays. We went through the keys to winning and that was the keys. We needed to play better in the special teams ... Coach, why didn't you squib kick that? We don't squib kick. That's something we haven't done and we haven't practiced it. Bill Blankenship asked me if we wanted to try to squib kick it, and we hadn't practiced it this week. They put (Carrier) back there and he's been back there for two weeks. We didn't have a lot of film on him. He's a pretty good kick returner and I probably wouldn't kick to him again.
We're going to be fine. We just have to keep the faith and answer the call. Our guys will respond well. I believe that. I said that last week and people will say, he said that last week and they didn't respond well. I have faith that we will. We just fell on our face last week. We have to get back up, dust off and move forward. We have a good football team and we have to get out here and win the next two and see what happens.
YOU'VE REFERRED TO THE RED ZONE PROBLEMS. IS THERE SOMETHING YOU'VE BEEN ABLE TO PINPOINT?
There's two things. One, Arkansas' defense and Houston's defense is better in the red zone than who we've played. That was the No. 1 reason why we struggled there. One of the thing about our offense early in the year is we scored from way out. Last year, we had 42 touchdowns from outside the 40-yard line. It was the same thing last year. I thought this game was different. I thought the Arkansas game, we did some things that we just ran too many trick plays. We didn't do that in this game. We didn't get in the Wildcat inside the 10 or run reverse passes in certain situations. I thought we made good, solid calls. I think those guys played inspired. They knocked balls out, they made plays, they played inspired. We just didn't execute.
It's not about the plays and all that type of stuff. That's when you lose it. That's what I told Gus. The thing is you can't start trying to call the plays like Coach Graham wants you to call them. That's why I hired you. He's one of the best in the country. You have to keep your confidence and understand that sometimes the other team makes plays, too. I did think that some of the things we did in the Arkansas game ... we tried to trick them when we didn't need to trick them. One of the things we do in every game is we chart what's working. You continue to do things that are working. I thought we held true to that. I don't think we made bad calls in the red zone this week. They made plays.
On offense, we turned the football over. We had penalties that backed us up. We didn't get any favors. We had a safety that was a safety. On film, it was a safety, but in the game is wasn't a safety. It could have been a big impact for us. That was early. That could have got us two points on the board and then they would have kicked the ball back to us. We would have gained a possession there.
We have to keep our confidence in what we're doing. I think our guys know to do that. I just think the reason we haven't scored when we gotten down there because it was different from Arkansas to this past week. To be honest with you, those guys are a lot harder to score on than some of the other teams we played. That's how it falls sometimes.
HOW GOOD OF A PLAY WAS IT WHEN BRINKLEY HIT Courtney Tennial AND DROVE HIM BACK? YOU TIE THE GAME THERE?
It was a pretty good play. It was the first time he's been stopped right there. Those guys put that score up in their locker room and they shot for it all year long. We told our kids that. We went down there and walked into a buzz saw. They were fired up and ready to go. This game has a lot to do with the mental side of it. But you have to give them a lot of credit.
But also, too, they have great athletes. Their athletes really played and they made great plays. It was basically a game of we turn the ball over and they made big plays. We get some momentum and score. They run back a 93-yard kickoff for a touchdown. That was an impressive runback. That guy has some big-time speed. We had guys there. He made a play. If I had to do it over again, I probably wouldn't have kicked it there.
They had some great plans, too. They knew they had a pretty good returner and we'd try to kick away from him. They'd switch some guys. But they did nothing on offense or defense that they have not done all year long. They just played at a different level and I have to give Coach Sumlin credit for that. Saturday, they outplayed us.
ON SATURDAY, YOU HAVE AN AFTERNOON GAME. TALK ABOUT A AFTERNOON HOME GAME:
We're looking forward to it. This week, it's all about our seniors and the guys having an unbelievable investment in this program and us getting back on track and our ninth win. I like playing day games. It's neat for our crowd and our kids. This will be a special week. It will be an emotional week for me and Coach Patterson and some of the coaches that have been with these guys for a long time. These guys are a special group of guys. It's going to be a great Saturday and we're looking forward to it.
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT TO SEE FROM TULANE?
I watched film of them today. They play very good defense. Up until the Houston game, they played really good defense and were at the top of the league in defense. Houston had their way with them. They have played very good defense and have very good interior lineman and good pressure on the quarterback. Offensively, they really run the ball. They're very conventional. They've ran the ball extremely effectively. The King kid is the guy that beat us deep last year. They have good speed. They have a couple of wideouts that can run. They're a run, play-action pass team. They've had a lot of injuries and are starting to get those guys back from injury. The strength of their team is their defense. They're going to pound it and try to control the time of possession and keep our offense off the field. They beat SMU. In this conference, you better get ready to play. Our guys, hopefully, understand that.
I REALIZE HE HADN'T PLAYED A LOT, BUT CAN YOU TALK ABOUT Aaron Johnson's CONTRIBUTIONS?
A.J. has made a big contribution to our program. We call him the preacher. I think one of the greatest achievements that you can have is go and be a Division I college football player and complete all five years. To be a walk-on and only have an opportunity to play a handful of plays on special teams ... he has an unbelievable spirit and commitment to this program. A.J. is the first guy that's out here going to hospitals and involved in the Big Brothers and different organizations that we try to get our guys to go ... he's a guy that leads us in prayer when we go to pre-game meals. He always stands up with a positive attitude. He's not getting any accolades, breaking rushing records or scoring a lot of touchdowns. To be honest, he's a darn good running back. He could have played at some other places. But being a Golden Hurricane has meant a lot to him. He suffered a big-time injury and had a great spring and was positioned to be a contributor for us. He had a knee injury that most wouldn't come back from. He practices every day and busts his tail out there with a great spirit and attitude.
I'm proud of guys like him. I think of Alex Detwiler from last year. Most guys don't do it. They walk-on and want to play for a college scholarship. They want it to be instant gratification and want to earn a scholarship midway through their first semester. These guys that stick with it -- I would hire guys like A.J. and Alex Detwiler. Those guys are going to be unbelievable success stories.
I was an All-American at East Central. When I went to play pro football, I was humbled to say the least. I was a guy trying to get on special teams trying to return punts. It really is a different deal whenever you see the guys that are willing to come out here and work hard. Guys like Kyle Grooms, that stayed five years and finally, in that last year, gets a chance to play. I'm really proud of him. We have a bunch of quality guys like that that come through this program and we're blessed to have.
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT Damaris Johnson PLAYING HIS HOMETOWN SCHOOL?
Damaris, to me, has been unbelievable. When I watch him, I'm so impressed with his courage. We didn't do a good job of blocking on kickoff return and that guy is an absolute warrior. I think he's one of the best kick returners in the country. He's just phenomenal in what he's able to do, coming into our offense and doing the things that he's done there is tremendous. In my opinion, he's the newcomer of the year in the conference. He's been absolutely incredible. We knew that when we got him.
He was a highly recruited kid. He had a lot of other places he could have gone. I'm very proud of him. I know his mom's proud of him. He works every day to honor his mom and wants to get his degree to honor his mom as well. He's just a special young man. I don't know what they list him as to how tall he is. He may be 5-7, but he plays 11-foot tall. He has unbelievable courage. I tell him on kickoff return sometimes, you have eight guys there, try to protect yourself a little bit. He refuses and wants to get every yard he can get.
We've done a good job of recruiting. We're well on our way to doing even better. The future is bright for us.
AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEASON, YOU SAID YOU WANTED TO WIN THE TURNOVER BATTLE AND GET BETTER SPECIAL TEAMS. YOU STARTED THAT WAY, BUT IT'S FADED IN THE LAST FEW WEEKS. HOW COME?
I think it goes back to what I said earlier. We played probably the two best teams we've played all year. It's about match-ups. We had some opportunities. We had a great return set and felt like we could get a good return and the guy kicked it 70 yards. The kickoff return ... we were doing a good job early and as the year has gone on, our personnel has changed a little on that through wear-and-tear on the starters and guys getting beat up. That's affected us a little bit.
We are better on special teams than we were last year, no question, statistically and in every category. The turnover deal has been one that has really killed us in the last two games. It starts with who has the ball in his hands. Dave works real hard to take care of the football and just made some mistakes. The No. 1 reason we've turned the ball over in the last two games is pressing.
The one turnover for a touchdown, that happens and it's third-and-6. We have a progression. We read the corner. He's going to sit on the sticks. That's what everybody is going to do. You have to read him. We have a cut route behind him and a hitch route. We just raise up and throw the ball. That's pressing. You're making your decision before you ever snap the ball. I think that's been ... The Arkansas environment caused that. They jumped on us. It was pretty hectic. And I think we started pressing. This past week, we did the same thing when we got behind. When we play from behind, that's when we turn the ball over a lot. We just can't do that.
Nobody can coach it harder than what we're coaching it and that's the key to winning. On the same hand, you have to give the other team credit. I think the matchups that we've had in the past couple of weeks, they've won the matchups. We've pressed and made bad decisions and turned the football over.
There's two things (Dave) did in the game. One was that game and the other play was, when he runs with the football, we tell him to do not dive forward, period. When he slides down, he doesn't turn the ball over. When you dive forward, he turns the ball over. With all the right intentions, guys sometimes operate outside the system. I think early in the year, we blew everybody out. We weren't in a lot of close games. We're making some corrections now ... every good team has to be really tested. We played so well. We weren't tested until we played poorly against SMU and we were able to get out of that thing unscathed. We weren't playing an opponent that had the kind of athleticism that the last two had had.
I felt like we had played good enough to win the Arkansas game. We made some mistakes and would like to have them back. This last game, we flat got out-played. I would tell you that what has contributed to those takeaways is making bad decisions and pressing. And the fact that you have to give the other team credit. We're going against some really good people.
When a quarterback is pressured, he's going to be more likely to turn the football over. But that's not how we threw the interception that other night. There was no pressure on the quarterback. We were kind of pressing. That comes with experience. When you look at last year in the championship game, one of the best quarterbacks to ever play here got pressured and made bad decisions. That's from pressing. We've got to do a better job of preparing our guys. It's all about preparation. The thing that hurt us the most last week and the reason we lost was because we didn't get it done from a preparation standpoint. We have to get better there.
